THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23055, 4 December 1936, Page 8

THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM

TO IHF BDITOR Sir,—Your criticism of our Labour Government's unemployment policy is both legitimate and justified. It is only excessively sensitive minds that object to criticism. In a British democracy the will of the majority must inevitably rule, not because a majority can claim to be right, but because a great majority of electors can clearly see that very serious defects exist in our industrial system which cannot be corrected by individual or private action alone, with the consequence that State action becomes necessary ft is perfectly safe to say that individualism in business, without co-opera-tion based on Christian ethics, will entirely fail to solve the unemployment problem That, however, docs not im-

ply that Socialism as interpreted by the Labour Party forms the high road to a solution. On the other hand, the public has no better or. more enlightening policy presented by the opponents of Labour than that formulated by the present Government, and until a new and more attractive plan is presented, opponents of Labour have small prospect of outvoting Labour. The unemployment problem has now reached a stage in which its dimensions and character affect every section in the community. Neither Acts of Parliament nor hectoring exhortations explain the defects that are to be corrected, and not until law-makers and moral reformers have correctly discovered and intelligibly explained them will it be possible to remove the hostility between Labour and private enterprise which now blocks progress. The first step in the direction of reform lies in explaining the moral purpo<-° for which our industrial system exists. This at once gives rise to the relation of Christian ethics as a fundamental factor in the solution, and must be explained by the leaders of the Christian Church. The remark so frequently hurled at the individual and the multitude by the pulpit, that the root cause is human selfishness, has not the slightest truth in it, for the simple reason that, whether we take humanity in the mass or individually, self-preservation Is the first law of Nature, implanted in man by God Himself and forms the natural—that is, the unalterable—elements upon which the kingdom of God has to be constructed. The word "selfishness" in the English language means the private opinions of individuals regarding their own good m disregard, or at the expense of, that of others, and such an accusation cannot be sustained against individuals or organisations that have no power to alter the defects arising from within a system which they have ho power to alter. Defects must first be explained to show how,they originate before sound plans can be constructed to correct them, and up to the present no individual or organisation has completely or correctly produced such a manifesto. The moral perception of the whole community recognises that the welfare of the individual depends in the first instance upon an opportunity to earn his or her own living, and that such opportunity for everybody can not be provided by private enterprise alone. But the faculties of the moral perception that recognises this fact do not in themselves, provide the intelligence that enables the community to understand how a practical solution is to be attained. .Here "egotism" becomes the correcVword, containing the explanation of'""all the obstruction responsible for blocking the path of moral reform in every division of society. But this does not Effect the argument that the solution of unemployment requires first the preparation of a Christian foundation. —I am, etc.. \V. Sivertsen. December 3.