CORRESPONDENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18630, 28 July 1930, Page 13

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE COLLAPSE OF OUR SOCIAIi SYSTEM. To the Editor of the “ Timaru Herald.’* Sir, —There is a growing belief among observant and thoughtful men the world over that the old social system, which has been in a serious state of decline for several decades past, has at last completely collapsed, and many things point to the probability that this belief is well founded# There are 750.000 unemployed people in Germany, one and a half millions in Great Britain, and five millions In the United States, and, in neither country is there any social machinery for coping successfully with such a calamitous state of affairs. It is, therefore. held that the social system which could not prevent such a disaster, and cannot now remove it, was a system which had every reason for taking itself out of the way. before it became necessary tc forcibly overthrow it. If it is argued that unemployment

is directly attributable to the World War. then, it is replied that the social system which ordered millions of young men to go to war. was a system which the world has no need for now, and probably never had. But Sir Elio Geddes. chairman of the Dunlop Company. clearly shows that the war had little if anything to do with presentday unemployment, when he says that three out of every five men employed in the various Dunlop factories at home and abroad were displaced by labour-saving machinery during the past five years. When we consider that every industry, large and small, has introduced labour-saving devices since the war ended, we need go no further in our search for the cause of unemployment. It will be seen, that not the nation but a few speculators and investors reap the benefit of the nation’s inventions. This in itself Yv'ould have been sufficient to condemn oui’ present system of carrying on our business; but, when it is added that every new invention of a labour-saving nature throws men out of employment, the system is doubly worthy of condemnation. While workers are being thrown out of employment by tens of thousands, and while those who are carrying on the work of the world are finding it difficult to secure a sufficiency of the necessaries of life, manipulators of capital are enjoying increasing prosperity. It is only the other day that Lord MiicheU, formerly Sir Alfred Mond, told his shareholders that they had made £11,503,000 profit for the past year, an increase of half a million over the profits of the previous year. From what has been said, it must be clear to the meanest intellect that living by the sale of labour for wages to a class which claims ownership of the nation's sources of wealth, is no longer possible as the basis of a social order.

During the war. workers and soldiers alike got some idea of how it feels to have some money to spend, and the generation which has grown up since then sees no reason why it should not have money to spend in peace time, as I well as in times of war; and it seems ; determined to have things so adjusted j as to make this possible for the future. ! Those young people are telling their elders, straight to their faces, and withj out a blush or a smile, that they have messed up business, bungled politics, and brought the world to such a state ; of muddlement that it is entirely beyond the power of their poor, money- ; making brains to put things right j again. So they advise the old doddards j to get out of the way, and make way for those who can see what is wrong and know how to put matters right. They tell their fathers that they are muddlers; that they can never get rid of unemployment until they find a system by which the worker can purchase enough to prevent the accumulation of supplies: that all they knew was how to make money that they did not know how to use; to make things which they locked up and did not use, and starved for want of them; and to imagine they had solved the great problems of this world and the next by lowering the wages of their workers. And they very kindly advise all grey beards that they must take seats for the future at cosy firesides, put slippers on their feet and pipes in their mouths, and dream of the things they might have done if only their heads had been a little better packed with grey matter.—l am, eta, OBSERNER. Timaru, July 25.