THE CASE OF “BILL”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 9

THE CASE OF “BILL”

unemployment problem in NEW ZEALAND REPLIES TO “PETER SIMPLE” On January 27 a contributor to The Sun, signing himself “Peter Simple,” wrote on the subject of unemployment, Ol'jstrating his remarks with the life story, in brief, of one “Bill." A number of correspondents have written replies to “Peter Simple,” and three of the letters are printed below:— “BILL’S” GOOD POINTS Sir. —• Lack-wits can but hope that the gate-money, if any, which Bill (‘•Peter Simple’s” friend) wasted in return for opportunities for enthusiastic barracking: at football matches, found its way into the savings bank, via the pockets of self-denying sportsground officials. There are numbskulls who would maintain that portions of any moneys, at the trots, that Bill may have pushed through the window of the totalisator, were earmarked to help to mitigate tha.t squeezing pressure of taxation on those 'Peters” who are robbed by the tax-collectors in order to pay the "Pauls.” Though Bill appeared to blow away Ids money as carelessly as he blew froth off a pint, the wealth that he and his pals leave in the hotels is not. entirely lost to the community, any more than the air in the froth bubbles Is entirely lost to the atmosphere. The publicans may liavo put into old stockings all the money they received from Bill; yet t aere is a possibility that some of it went toward the payment of excise duty or even helped to pay the wages of barmen, bottlers, chambermaids, porters, waitresses, at least a very few of whom might liavo had steady jobs, because they had been taught that duty (such as pulling a pint) comes before pleasure (like drinking the beer), and were industrious and thrifty, also. All may not be lost even if Bill could not hold his own with the bookmakers Let us trust a protest will not be lodged if w o take comfort out of the declaration that Bill's bookies were a body of patriotic and sensible men, who spent on local manufactures the whole of tho money they won from Bui. "When Bill was fired, the fellow who Stepped into his job was nearly overcome with gratitude. "Jly crumbs!” ha exclaimed to his wife, "Bill is a real dinkum bloke. I have been out of work for months, and now Bill’s conduct has given to me a chance to avoid further hardship, not onlv for jnysc f, but for my dependents. Thanks to poor old Bill and the exercise of a little self-denial, I may yet better my position and, one day, hold down a decent job.”

Then tho worse comes to the worst and we find Bill herded into Public Works Department camps, or his wife applying to the Charitable Aid Board for assistance; yet we will still endeavour to look on the bright sido and see a kindly Peter Simple bossing and overseeing Bill, or, maybe, another Teter Simple, equally as kind, handing to Airs. Bill a dole. Pate grant that two such simple Peters may continua to use their brains and hold down the jobs of superintending Bill’s lor Paul’s) feeble attempts to work and ministering to the distress of Bill’s wife.

Nit-wlttery might argue that compensation demands tho counter-bal-ancing of everything by something else: that one cannot be a good, suc- • esstul creditor unless some bad, unsuccessful Bill is in tho position of being one’s debtor; that Peter Simple as a success merely as a consequence of Bill’s failure.

If all Bills were capable of becoming Peter Simples, would not the authority, comfort, prestige and security of the present Peter Simples be jeopardised? Of course, I refer to academic Peter Simples; I have no particular nor personal Peter in mind. I admired the assurance and cleverness of "The Sad Story of Bill,” and agree with the writer that, as society as at present constituted. Bill, even as quite a number of his smug detractors, is a parasite; ho produces nothing and must expect and take that which has come and is coming to him. In Bill’s defence:—l-lenry ■cord maintains that the majority of men are unable to obtain, and have not the capacity to plan profitable employment for themselves. Ford may have a best or better brain, or ju«t bo puffed up with naughty pride—zmyway, he claims thjLt ho can find jobs for the blind, th© crippled, and the feeble-minded, at which they can actually and economically earn sufficient money to support their lives in *°i n^or<: ‘ enr J r Ford were permitted, and could be persuaded, to buy up New Zealand, he might be able to Ximl a job even for Bill. WATTS WATT. “NOT TYPICAL” &ir, — It would be a sad thins for this country it Bill, as described by “Peter Simple," Mere the typical New Zealander. Fortunately, h© is not. The scrag© unemployed M’orking man in this country is of a much better type. The fact that he is otit of work is his misfortune, not his fault. And though unemployment is too truly an individual difficulty, 1 fail to see why “the persons chiefly concerned” must extricate themselves. They have not made the conditions, though some shallowminded persons d€.*claro that we are all suffering as a result of our former extravagance. What chance has the average worker had of being extravagant ? Can his detractors seriously believe that a man. even if in constant work, can pay rent( or its equivalent on a mortgage on his home), provide for the needs of himself, a wife and children, and save for a rainy d »y on th© basic wage? We are told that the present depression is a result uf the war and the consequent prosperity some enjoyed for a time during and after that cataclysm. As the Worker neither mad© the war nor shared in tho illgotten profits he can hardly be expected to view with equanimity th© present state of affairs, to see his wife anti children want for -ood. and himself on the May to become a social outcast because some People enjoyed the Mar and did well ° ut of it- The causes of unemployment are many and various, but are Pot so hopelessly ineradicable that men of foresight and ability cannot find a solution. I agree with “Peter Simple” that a further conference on the subject M'ould be of no avail. Too much time has already been spent on talk as to causes and effects ivithout a real solution being offered. A Government which can do nothing more than institute relief works as a palliative and tu.ke men on at temporary M'ork merely as a Pretence of keeping to a promise not M-orth advising. The least worthy of all the numerous crowd of men whose plea is “Give us work’ deserves better of his country than to be used as a pawn in a game M’hich is Played to keep a party in power at ail costs. Now to return to Bill. In considering him I am led to think of “The Man ith the Hoe,” in the poem inspired by Millais’s picture, and I ask, “Who mad© Bill?” He is the heir of all the figes of oppression and injustice. Helpless and inarticulate he gropes blandly for escape from the forces which bind him. but till he is shown how to help himself his case is hopeless. w e read that Bill “left school at and got a job in a butcher’s shop. ‘ Nu secondary school or vocational

training for Bill; hia father, you was only a labourer, and his offspring mVfr* dei ?* ed Proper means of fitting himself for life’s struggle. Later be became a “barracker” at football fixtures, and a devotee of the turf It may be presumed that, like many* of nis prototypes, he lounged round street corners; an eyesore to the respectable citizen and a source of worry to the police. But did any one ever attempt to introduce Bill to better ways? Was there any organisation for dealing M’ith | him and his companions, and putting him in the way of becoming a useful. ! reputable citizen? No, he was allowed l to grow into manhood all unfitted to j a man’s part in the great drama of ! life. Not quite honest, not quite moral, i in short, not quite anything worth ; Mhile. His year at the war probably I completed his education as a down- i right young waster. Yes, Bill is a! problem and it is disconcerting to think | there are thousands like him. But i neither his parents nor he is responsi- ; Me for his grievous shortcomings. Ctiant Circumstance has been the cause ol his undoing. While we deplore Bill’s !, et us not lose sight of the fact that the same set of conditions M’hich spoiled liis chances of becoming an asset to his country exists todav. Another generation is growing up to take a place in the long queue of those waiting lor something to turn up. And M’hat is being done to meet their case? Commissions and conferences are set up. elderly Mould-be-goods prate of cooperation, and the lamb is asked to lie down M’ith the lion while we know full M T ell that such a happy consummation can only be attained when the lamb is in th© lion’s mouth. PATIENT PENELOPE.

THE UNEMPLOYMENT CONUNDRUM Sir, — iour contributor, “Peter Simple” in your issue of th© 27th inst, paints a faithful picture of “Bill, the Master,” a type ever present in the ranks of the unemployed, but no more representative of the unemployed as a mass than Bairnsfather’s “Ol© Bill” was representative of the British Army during th© war. He was just a type represented more or less fittingly in almost every unit of the army but he could not b© considered representative of th© army as a whole. “Peter Simple” says in effect that unemployment is an individual malady for which the majority of the sufferers are themselves to blame and should find their own remedy. On© might just as logically blame the victims of tuberculosis, rheumatism, cancer and other diseases for their condition instead of blaming tho prevailing ignorance of mankind. All of us, from the highest to the lowest, must accept our share of responsibility for the economic ills which afflict us today and must do what we can to set things right.

And what is the remedy? “Produce more and consume less!” says one section of the community. What would our orchardists say to this when there is a glut of all kinds of fruit on the market. "What are potato and onion growers saying today when there is such a plethora of supplies that returns are barely sufficient to cover expenses? What do the dairy farmers think when they read the cabled announcement that “butter supplies exceed th© demand, hence low prices.” Last year the wheat market was glutted. This year the wool buyers would have us believe that there is a surplus of wool! It seems that in such circumstances a policy of “greater production and less consumption” would be more likely to accentuate the existing trouble than to remedy it.

Every close student of the situation agrees Chat the inefficient marketing of our primary products is one of the sources of our troubles. So long as our wool and butter are dumped unrestrictedly on the world’s markets to bo the playthings of international gamblers so long Mill there be manipulation of the market to the detriment of the primary producers. They will never get a fair return for their labour until they present a united front to the interests arrayed against them. As Mr. Goodfellow, a competent judge of the situation, stated in Tha Sun: “The unrestricted competition in selling is enabling th© big buyers of dairy produce to control the market very much to their advantage.” The organisation of our primary producers to overcome this and other difficulties is a gigantic task, but it will have to b© faced if farming is to continue to b© a profitable occupation in this country. The orchardists of California and th© pig farmers of the U.S.A. have shown what can be done by cooperative methods on a big scale to ensure a fair return to the producer for his labour.

When M r e arrive at that stage in Ncm t Zealand our land settlement problem will solve itself. There will b© no need to give our boys “an agricultural bias” in education as an artificial stimulus to land settlement. That is putting the cart before the horse. Make the land attractive and settlement will follow automatically. Our secondary industries must be protected from unrestricted competition M’ith the products of sweated labour whether produced in the Empire or anywhere else. Our iron workers cannot compete with Indian coolies working 14 hours a day for tenpence a day. Yet that iron is coming into this country on preferential terms as an Empire product and depriving our OM'n men of employment. It is to the eternal discredit of the Reform Government that it declined an invitation to send a representative to the International Labour Conference at Geneva when this problem of the regulation of hours of work and rates of pay in foreign countries was to be considered. Mr. Coates gave as a reason that New Zealand bad nothing to learn in Labour legislation! Surely if that is true it Mas more than ever our duty to send a representative to give some information to those less favoured, but New Zealand has a great deal to learn and apparently Mr. Coates himself has to learn the simple truth that the standard of living of the workers of this country depends to a great extent on the standard of living which obtains in other countries in competition M’ith us and that it is in the best interests of New Zealand that the exploitation of cheap labour should be checked by international agreement. British and foreign capital is dewing into tho Argentine, India and China, where 1om t Mages and long hours assure higher returns for the capital invested and so the colonies are being deprived of th© life blood of K. C. SIMMONS.