UNEMPLOYMENT REMEDIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 793, 14 October 1929, Page 8

UNEMPLOYMENT REMEDIES

Sir, — There are only two genuine and permanent remedies for unemployment: (1) producing sufficiently to meet the requirements of everyone in the community, and (2) providing sufficient money, and putting it into circulation in such a way that the nation will be able to consume annually a value equal to what it annually produces. He producing sufficiently: inis can only be done by diverting all labour possible to production. The class which in New Zealand, is more in need of labour and money in order

to increase production than any other comprises the farmers of this Dominion, and I ccfntend that if farmers were provided with all the money they need for reproductive purposes at 1 per cent, per annum interest, provided they repaid the principal sum advanced over a period of 20 or 25 years, it would be a paying proposition for the banks and community as a whole. The business of traders would thus receive such a great stimulus that employment would soon be found for everyone and the bar*.»% would make for larger profits that, now* by the extra bills they would be called upon to discount. Thus just as the farmer spends a large portion of his gross profits in buying manures which he scatters upon the land, expecting that his income will thereby be greatly increased, so should the banks (or if the banks are afraid to do it on their own, the State should guarantee the return in due course of those advances) make advances at a very low rate of interest to those who engage in the actual creation of wealth, both fixed and circulating, and make their main profits out of traders. With regard to the second matter, making the purchasing power of the people equal to the retail value of the annual produce of the nation, this cannot be done by raising wages, for in .proportion as wages are raised the price of commodities increases, and still there may be no money wherewith to secure the traders’ profits. Want of space however prevents my fully explaining this matter now. Another point which is entirely ignored by those who seek a remedy for unemployment is the need of educating the wage-earning classes to the necessity of limiting their families. ' c. P. w. longdill. Otuhi.