The Daily News TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1934. UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1934, Page 6

The Daily News

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1934. UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

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

It is more than a coincidence that in the two greatest Eng-lish-speaking countries leading statesmen have chosen recently the same subject as being the most important the nation must face. President Roosevelt, fresh from his overwhelming victory at the polls, has drawn attention to the need for some method of safeguarding the community from the distress and waste caused by “epidemics” of unemployment. In England, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, in a pre-ses-sional address to industrialists emphasised the need for removing rather than relieving unemployment. One fact was clear in both statesmen’s addresses. They both desired to remove consideration of the problem out of the political field. It was easy for Mr. Roosevelt to make such a suggestion last week because he could assert with truth that he has behind him the overwhelming support of his fellowcitizens. Mr. Baldwin could claim that the National Government in Great Britain had not lost the confidence of the electorate, but in the municipal elections, even in conservative London, where the solution of unemployment was made a main issue, the swing of votes went towards the Labour Party, not so much because it had announced any better plan, but because there was a feeling abroad that while the financial and commercial safety of the country had been re-established by the National Government, ■ there was room for new methods and a new system in dealing with the unemployed. President Roosevelt suggested an extended insurance scheme, that would eliminate the dangers of the “dole” system in Great Britain, preserve the contributors’ selfrespect when lack of employment made them draw upon insurance funds, and prevent the distress to unemployed and the loss of purchasing power that are inevitable when unemployment becomes wholesale. Mr. Baldwin urged the industrialists of Britain to explore the possibilities of shortening the hours of labour, eliminating overtime, and in other ways making a better distribution of the work available. Neither he nor President Roosevelt gave details of the plans they forecasted, but Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Roosevelt appeared to agree upon one point, namely, that the grant of public money to the private citizen is loaded with political dynamite, and that it is in fact applying a political remedy to an economic evil. For a dozen years the “dole” has, been operating in Great Britain. The contributions made by the State in that period to make good the funds depleted because those drawing unemployment benefits, and their former employers, were unable to keep up their insurance payments, amount to £100,000,000, and though there has been a reduction in the number of the unemployed in the last two years there are still about 2,000,000 persons registered as such. The relief system in Britain has been tightened, .and the expenditure has been lessened by the application of the means test and the fact that as men have been reabsorbed into normal occupation insurance payments from them and from their employers have reduced the liability of the State. The system in Britain has been centralised. It is administered by civil servants, and is free from political influence except, of course, where a change of policy is demanded by the electorate, which it would be the duty of the unemployment insurance authorities to administer as impartially as the policy superseded. But neither in England,

nor America —nor in New Zealand—can insurance be regarded as a remedy. For the loss of a limb a man may receive compensation. But his disability remains, and so with unemployment. An insurance payment, even a dole from the State, may keep body and soul together, but real life is in an occupation that gives a return to the community. As a shock-absorber, taking the strain of exceptionally difficult economic conditions, insurance is a valuable aid to relief of unemployment. But for its elimination, as Mr. Baldwin told the manufacturers of Great Britain, something more is necessary. He asked the captains of industry to see whether co-operation between Capital, Labour and the State could not evolve a new industrial era, making possible a better distribution of the work available, a wiser allotment of the fruits of industry, and a determination to provide work for all who can render good service. For either to attempt it alone would make failure almost certain, and the suggestion was therefore neither the dream of a Socialist nor a policy of despair. It was an appeal to all concerned to handle the problem of unemployment as . one that should be kept outside party politics, and to recognise it as one that must be overcome jf the civilisation Britons enjoy is not to suffer. The suggestion is one that might with much profit be considered in all seriousness in New Zealand.