BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1930, Page 6

BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

i RAPIDLY-GROWING HOST.

Aspects of “dole” system. Some aspects of the British, “dole” system are . dealt with in an article in the journal John Bull by Mr. A. G. '■Gardiner. He writes: “The Postmaster-. General said the other night that even a ■ Government of archangels could' not Jhave saved the country .from the des-, •dperate. straits into, which,-dt has fallen. nothing, and I think Mr. Lees .'Smith' knows nothing,' of“ the political -capacity of archangels. What is unfortunately, clear to everybody is that,the political capacity, of' the MacDonald Government has proved disastrously unequal' :to its task. Tried by the acid test lof unemployment, its failure is catastrophic. Let-us look at a few.facts. “The host of the unemployed; was increased last week by 80,000. It amounts now;,to nearly two and a -quarter milSince Mr ; - MacDonald came into ■ office, little more than a year ago there has been an addition of a million—in other words, Die unemployed have nearly doubled .under ■ the Labour' Administration. ’ ' ” *.? “By general consent we have not yet touched the bottom. It ie openly predicted, even by members of the Government; that there will be three million- unemployed before Christmas, and at' is. even regarded as possible that before the winter is over the total may be in the neighbourhood of four millions. Consider the . financial consequences of this. “The unemployment insurance fund is insolvent. In spite of increased replen- . ighments it is borrowing from the Exchequer at the rate of £60,000 a week, or '3l -millions a year. It is in debt jto the State already to the extent of over; • £50,000,000. Should the gloomy estimate of .this .winter be fulfilled the fund will be borrowing at the rate of (£80,000,000 a year. If ■■ this .colossal drain continues it is;not only the insurance fund that will: be bankrupt. The State itself will be bankrupt. And remember that with this mountainous and increasing burden our capacity to bear it i&. diminishing. The revenue returns, in spite of increased taxation,, are falling. They must continue to fall. “We- are /creating a new . “rentier” ielass, largely among the young—a class . which .is; coming to look upon unemployment as its career and upon the State as the source of its supplies, It contributes nothing to the fund from which :it draws "and nothing to the natural productiveness wjiich is. the ultimate source of its income. It is parasite upon, labour. The employed pay into the fund and the professional unemployed draw out. ■ ■ . . . ■ ‘“I do mot suggest that the uncovenanted benefit could be avoided, say, in the circumstances of Lancashire. But the lengths to which it has gone and the abuses associated with it are flag- . rant and scandalous. The herring girls from the north finish their seasonal job and go back on the “dole.” Married women are discovering that by taking occasional work they can draw the benefit while at home, no-matter if their tusbands are in good work. / “Boys-leave their jobs because it pays the family better for them to be. at home on the “dole.” The male hop-pick-er has ceased to go.to the hop gardens. The women and children go and he stays at -home .’on the “dole.” The harvesting ' -nf the' past summer was disastrously jffiected by the same , ■