MACHINERY AND LABOUR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 7

MACHINERY AND LABOUR

MR. JORDAN SAYS HANDS AND MONEY ARE IDLE WORLD-WIDE PROBLEM displacement of labour by machinery has made the unemployed difficulty a world-wide question, and politicians will have to find a solution, as every year unemployment is becoming worse,” said Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P., at Te Papapa last evening. It was not a party question, he continued, because wherever he went during his recent trip abroad, unemployment was rife, irrespective of the particular party which happened to be in power. They could not improve things by telling the people they had turned the corner. They must get into such a position where they could face the problem and endeavour to find a solution. He had seen soup kitchens in Sydney, free-meai tickets in Adelaide, and hunger and distress everywhere. All over the world today machines were doing what human labour had always done, thereby causing the most terrible industrial dislocation in the history of the world. Side by side with unemployment, immense wealth was being accumulated. The new issues of capital in England last year broke all previous national records, and the figures for January and February of the current year went one better. In New Zealand there was more money than ever before, and the banks w r ere at their wit’s end to know what to do with it. There were 291 millions on fixed deposit, and upward of 25 millions in current accounts, making a total of 55 million sterling in the banks. There were nine millions in excess being held back which should be available for productive loans. This money did not belong to the bankers. It was the depositors’ money, the people’s money. When men were unable to find work they were asked to accept lower wages, and Mr. Jordan contended that when money was plentiful it should be lent at a cheaper rate. The Government, he suggested, should be able to borrow some of this excess money at a low rate of interest, and apply it toward the development of the farming lands of the Dominion.