The Daily News SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1933. UNEMPLOYMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1933, Page 6

The Daily News

SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1933. UNEMPLOYMENT.

. . OFFICES:

NEW PLYMOUTH, Currie Street. STRATFORD, Broadway. HAWERA, High Street.

An increase of 3,000 in the number of unemployed is not pleasant news for those who hoped the Dominion was on the way to recovery. There are explanations of the increase which show it need not cause panic, but which leave the responsibility of the community none the smaller. Above all things it is essential that public opinion should not be stampeded into trying short cuts to recovery. In the United States a gigantic social experiment is in process. It has been inaugurated in a country where conditions for recovery by artificially created-financial and economic methods gave such methods the best chance of success. The latest messages from America, however, seem to indicate that the new methods are creating new difficulties, and whether recovery is to be possible has yet to be demonstrated. The experience of the United States is the experience of New Zealand in one respect at least. It is that to make recovery possible there must be no lack of grit on the part of. the community. The maintenance of the morale of a nation is the test of statesmanship, and honesty demands that critics of present efforts to alleviate the hardships caused by unemployment shall be prepared to show better ways of performing that duty than those that are now in operation. To believe that fresh efforts may be necessary is not to show any lack of sympathy with the unemployed and with relief workers. The great majority of them have shown and are showing patience, determination and pluck that are beyond all praise. Nevertheless disruptive agencies are at work and the mentality brought about by continued unemployment or relief work is suitable soil in which the seeds of national disintegration may develop. It is satisfactory to note that political and social organisations are addressing themselves to this problem. The state of mind of those who seek not charity but work and cannot find employment other than on relief works, particularly of youths who find themselves more or less unwanted when schooldays are over may create a grave danger to the State. Any project for the better government of New Zealand must, as Mr. A. S. Allen said at a meeting of the New Zealand Legion at New Plymouth on Thursday, have as one of its first aims the removal of the causes of unemployment. Speaking with the utmost sympathy and admiration for the endurance shown by the great majority of the unemployed, Mr. Allen considered that th'at was the greatest problem ahead of the Legion not only for the removal of material hardships, and they are serious enough, but to arrest the development of a mentality that was despondent and therefore dangerous. No thoughtful citizen te likely to disagree with such a statement of the position, but the quest for means of removing unemployment is no easy one. Nevertheless, it must be undertaken if the Dominion is to preserve its self respect. The prospect of having ten per cent, of its population more or less permanently dependent upon the community for the bare necessities of life is too serious to be accepted as the best the wisdom of the Dominion can devise. The individual and collective efforts to relieve distress and the fortitude with which hardships have been borne are a tribute to the stamina of the nation. But unless the problem is solved the community is, so to speak, living on its moral capital, and the end of its resources in that direction must be reached sooner or later, for already there are signs that in material assistance the individual power to help is weakening. While the solution of the problem is being sought there must be no slackening of effort to relieve distress. It may be that it can take new forms. Many men and youths, for instance, are seeking employment ; many farmers are requiring assistance, but assistance that is more or less skilled. If such a potential employer would give the unskilled man or youth a chance to make good the employer might do far more for the employee and for the State than by giving a donation to relief funds or to any individual in distress. That is but one instance of where individual effort can be made without interference with the quest for a full solution of the national difficulty. The problem is not only a material one, it is one that, involves the future character of the Dominion. For that reason alone it demands the serious consideration of all citizens.