UNEMPLOYMENT AND DESTITU TION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21366, 20 June 1931, Page 16

UNEMPLOYMENT AND DESTITU TION

TO THE EDITOR. ! Sir, — The Rev. W. W. -MaoArthur, in his recent letter, refers to the, poverty and virtual starvation of some of our unemployed, while at the same time thousands of bushels of wheat are going to waste in other parts of the world. Another correspondent remarks that most people are well aware of this failure of the modern economic machinery, but he asks how. it can be remedied. , I suggest ■there three possible'ways;—•: First. Another world war. While we realise that war is an immense consumer of goods and services, the implications of this are often overlooked. At present, it is said, we are suffering from a surplus of goods and a lack of employment, but a war would cure ;both During a war each nation keeps a large proportion of its manhood in steady employment, at a steady wage, firing off projectiles into the air and making long, excavations across the countryside. Some of these , pro-jectiles-fall amongst the men employed by the other party to the scheme, and in past wars many millions have been killed and wounded. But this is merely inci-. dental to the arrangement, and shows how badly former wars have been managed. In a well-organised war the firing lines would be kept a safe distance apart, and no one wohld be injured. The men could thus be housed in comfortable buildings, erected of course, at the State expense, for, as Air Forbes admitted the other day,' in the crisis of a war any quantities of money can be found, although apparently Governments cannot find, or the banka cannot provide, the necessary money for the much more important task of keeping a peape. In, this next war,, the people not employed as soldiers would be kept in constant employment, at even higher wages, in making the necessary mountains of ■munitions and other- war material. It has been found in the past that the old men and a few women can quite successfully carry on all civilian work, and prp'duce sufficient food and other supplies. .There is, therefore, no unemployment whatever; everyone receives good wages, and there is no problem of surplus goods remaining unsold on the manufacturers' •and farmers’ hands, as at present, through .lack of money to 'buy them, though people .are in dire need of them. A war can consume, and can apparently afford to consume,-, all that, modern science can possibly produce, and even if production ■increased, scientists could no doubt oblige by inventing machine .guns to fire’still more bullets per second. The second suggestion is a world-wide series of revolutions, Bolshevist riots, or similar anarchies or upheavals. Under this state of; affairs :everyone would simply seize whatever he wanted of the available supply of goods and property, and the shortage of money would be' no longer any hindrance. It might, of course, happen that a few lines would be lost in the enthusiasm and excitement of the moment, and a few factories and mansions might be burned or pillaged. I am afraid that. among the number might be the lives, factories, r and mansions of spmf of the world ? s millionaires and financial magnates. But these-very men have been instilling into the common, people for a long time now that we. .must all. be prepared to do with less and make sacrifices ,and suffer a few hardships, and that this will improve us and strengthen our character. They will no doubt, therefore, welcome the opportunity to make an outstanding sacrifice themselves,' and thus put the finishing touches on to their own characters.

Thirdly—and here I am in earnest, —by a rational ihethod of distributing, the surplus production' of manufacture and agriculture to the people who need it; but ■Tvlthou.fr. disturbing existing rights or endangering life or property.: The problem - df 'production has .been, solved by. science during' the Iqst 00.. years, or so, and there remains now the,problem.of distribution. It is in esseribe a matter Of exchange; farmers have surplus crops and want manufactured goods; manufacturers have surplus goods of one kind and want other kinds; the unemployed want all kinds, • and have their services to .offer in exchange. The essentials of a sound and lasting prosperity arc all at hand waiting to be put into action, • An age which has produced anaesthetics and the X-ray„ wiretess telephony and " the - aeroplane, should surely not have to own itself defeated by the problem of distributing the bounties of its own creation. ,

You may think, Sit, that I have not contributed anything to the solution.. For my first two suggestions are, of course, “ writ sarcastic,” and are " Unthinkable, and you may say I have really not made any third suggestion at all.' But if .people'.hate war and revolution as bit.terly’iis thpy .have been asserting they do these last 13''years, they should concentrate ..as much-effort on the discovery’, of the third method as_ they were prepared to devote to the winning of the Great War or they-may find themselves in a similar position again. I believe that each citizen can contribute something by analysing the facts and seeking for a cure, instead of regarding it as a matter for international financiers and bankers alone,-or falling back on the rather unconvincing reflection that “ things will come , right of their own before long—this'"depression can’t last for ever.” Things, do no|}Jgo wrong nor yet 'come right - of'their own accord. Since writing- the above I have read Mr MacArthur’s further letter, and I support’his . suggestion that anyone in-, terested in th'is'.questipn should read Hatitersley’s-' Age of Plenty.” Although air may not admit .that the book gives an actual solution, I am satisfied they will find in it many new and valuable viewpoints, and much that will help them to come to the conclusion that we can have an age of plenty without war or revolution.—l am, etc., * Warrington Taylor. ’ Dunedin,. June 18.