UNEMPLOYMENT AND DESTITUTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21359, 12 June 1931, Page 8

UNEMPLOYMENT AND DESTITUTION

K) IHf. EDITOR Sir, —-Actuated, doubtless, by a kindly impulse, you sent a reporter to gather first-hand knowledge of the distressful conditions endured by those who are the victims of unemployment. Our thanks are due to you for so full and authentic a report of the discoveries of your agent. The whole article makes reading that is sad beyond the power of expression. We are told ‘ that there are more than a few people, resident within the city boundaries, who are face to face with the most complete destitution, and for whom the coming winter months hold nothing but gloom, mixed with a dread of worse to follow.” You are right in saying “ regarded in this light alone, the position of these people presents a very real problem, and one which can scarcely be ignored.” It is a problem which should certainly be faced by all. earnest people who desire to do what is right, for it involves moral principles. So much is being said and written regarding finance and its extremely intyi"ente mechanism, that, in the maze of its details, one finds it difficult in discussion to keep to the basic terms of the- problem raised by the painful incidence of unemployment. One noticeable feature in the writings of many is their assumption that this acute problem must be solved in such a manner that the retention of the present financial system - will be assured. There seems to be a conviction that this system takes its place, say, with the force of gravity as an inexorable law of Nature. We hear people say so often that the need of the time is for “thrift and economy,” for the “ Budget must be balanced.” It has become very apparent that if there is thrift and economy on the one hand, there is to be widespread suffering on the other. Personally, I have a passionate desire to see a kind of balance sheet issued for public information. All of us who are in touch with the public (and your article, “ Destitution in the City ” confirms our findings) can tell what is on one side of the balance sheet. There are innumerable entries of dire distress, despairing potential bread-winners, perplexed and pained housewives, ill-clad, malnourished children and infants yet to be born, “ for whom it has been absolutely impossible to make adequate provision.” These entries all go on the one side; what goes on the other? In all earnestness one asks, Where is the money that is being saved going to? Is it going to relieve the more acute distress of other people who have been suffering up till now in silence? If this be the case, then we must say to the poor whom, wo know, “ Doubtless you are needy, but bear patiently your lot, for there are others more needy still who demand immediate relief.” Only if this be the case, can we rest content with the vague solution of “ thrift and economy ” and “ balance the budget,” and other trite phrases which nobody has yet elucidated? Many well intentioned people think this problem - is insoluble because they are not conversant with the intricacies of finance and banking but, after all, the basic terms of the problem are simple and straightforward. If these be studied just as one would study an arithmetical sum—approaching it with no preconceived ideas or reservations—the solution will be found. Indeed, if I am right in my assumption that there is a greater supply of food, clothing, and means of housing than will meet the needs of evervone (will anyone correct me if I am wrong?), then the major problem of feeding, etc., disappears and only the incidental one remains of how much profit can be made from the sale of those necessities. If a housewife has sufficient in her larder to feed a family of six and the number of her household is five she has no problem whatever to solve. Of course, if her first consideration is a hank reserve, then, in her enthusiasm to “put some money by,” she has created a problem. She must now decide which members of the family will have food and which will do without. One can quite easily imagine an excessively thrifty woman showing with pride to her husband a fine big bank deposit and explaining that this happy result was effected by the simple little device of starving Tommy and Mary. I know that analogies are dangerous if driven too far, but this one seems to illustrate correctly what is taking place in the larger family of the Dominion and many other lands. In your article of June 2, quoted above, you tell us, with regard to a family where there is only one child, that “ the only food which they had for several days consisted of bread sops made from anything but fresh bread.” -hen in a sub-leader of your issue of 21st ult. you inform us “ in the face of the American estimate of a wheat surplus for export and carry-over of 730,000.000 bushels for the present year, it is impossible to dispute the need for international action in the direction of overcoming the difficulties that at present confront the wheatgrowing countries of the world.” These two facts —starvation on the one hand and a perplexing excess of wheat on the other —make one ask a question. Is wheat grown to feed the people or is this purely incidental to its main function of creating monetary wealth? One compensating feature of these sad times is that the sympathies of so many people are urging them, at the cost of persona! inconvenience and even sacrifice, to hasten in relief of distress. These men and women deserve our deepest respect and gratitude, but we must be careful to see that their kindly efforts will

not be rendered permanently necessary by a financial system which, being utterly obsolete, is proving ineffective to deal with the new conditions created by machinery. , „ Only to cite one instance of those new conditions one would refer to an article in a recent issue of your -paper, Ihe Service Goes Robot,” in which you us that in the Government Savings Bank “an electric machine has superseded manual book-keeping in ledger keeping, the balancing of accounts, the calculation of interest, and such matters. As a result, £13,000. a year will be saved in wages in this one department. Now, multiply this case by the number of offices, factories, ship yards, mines, etc., that are installing the latest labour-saving inventions, and one will see that wage earners, as such, will soon become a numerically insignificant part of the community. They are gradually beniS scrapped, and yet we have a financial system which admits their right to eat only when services have been rendered. This is an anomaly. What is a man to do when his services ate not required. If certainly is humiliating and demoralising if he and his dependents are to be fed on charity.—l am. etc., William W. MacArthdb. Portobello, June 10.