The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY JUNE 12, 1931. A FAILURE AND AN OPPORTUNITY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 137, 12 June 1931, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY JUNE 12, 1931. A FAILURE AND AN OPPORTUNITY.

yy/HEX the Unemployment Scheme was launched the Chronicle pointed out that the problem of unemployment might be more aggravated tlian solved by the operations of the scheme. It was not a difficult eventuality to foresee because a premium was placed upon discharging men, not on employing men. The consequence which the Chronicle foresaw has come to pass, but it affords us no satisfaction to be right, it would have been a happier experience to have been wrong. The Government’s handling of the unemployment problem has been a ghastly failure. The Unemployment Board appears to have worked hard at a problem which grew faster than they could cope with it. Now the funds are exhausted at the very worst period of the year. 'The next three months will be the most difficult period to negotiate. The inadequacy of the Government's policy needs no elaborating, and although the unemployment issue should be kept out of the arena of Party polities, this does not debar criticism of the insufficiency of the measures adopted by the Government. Within two months of the closing of the session especially convened for the purpose of dealing with the crisis the whole scheme has broken down. Unemployment, however, is a matter of human liesh and blood. Now is the time, not for loud-voiced oratory, but cold, hard thinking. The man who tells us that his heart bleeds for the unemployed is in the way. Keep him quiet. He is a nuisance. The unemployed have no use for “bleeding hearts’’; what they need is better brains to aid them. Food and clothing must be provided. Food is plentiful in this country. We need a proper organisation in our eity. We need men capable of organising to come forward and to do the necessary work. There are men, able and experienced men, now living comfortably in retirement. To them, and such as them, we urge the desirability of their coining forward and giving of their ripe experience and ability. Unemployment means hardship, hardship and hunger; and this not for men and women only but for little children. Remember, poverty does not vaunt itself, it more often hides away. Wasters and spongers there will always be, but these must be tolerated until weeded out, for the sake of those who are unfortunate through pure mischance. Men and women found in Napier their great occasion when devastation reigned. Let men and women of Wanganui find in the failure of the Government to handle the unemployment problem their hour to prove again their charity, and their compassion and their capacity for practical work to aid the poor and distressed