UNEMPLOYMENT PROCESSIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 176, 28 July 1932, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT PROCESSIONS

Sir, —The contribution from the pen of “ID.E.” which appeared in your issue of 21st. inst. is a fair sample of what has for a long period been hurled at the relief workers of Raetihi. The scathing reference to the womenfolk reeks of intolerance and reveals in the writer an attitude born of class hatred. The procession referred to was a demonstration of the Raetihi section of the Unemployed Workers’ Movement, it being the total effort in support of a national campaign of protest against the failure of the Unemployment Board to pay sustenance on the stand-down week. Despite the fact that three weeks have elapsed since the Wanganui Hospital Board discontinued these sustenance payments not one penny has been paid by the Unemployment Board. It must be realised by all that the miserable amount earned by relief workers during three weeks is insuffi cient to carry them over a month. Communists played no part in this procession and furthermore, Communists as residents are unknown to this town. The demonstrators were, in the main, residents of Raetihi of many years’ standing. Men, who in days gone by. assisted in the carrying on of the timber industry, good honourable respected residents. Men whose wages kept our town afloat over a long period of years and whose earnings to-day, although meagre, are the means of keeping the shopkeepers from closing their doors. The wives of these workers, fully cognisant of their poverty-stricken position, were playing a noble part in assisting their husbands in a fight for the right to live. Instead of being subjected to the abuse and contempt of such individuals as your correspondent, these women are deserving of commendation for their courageous action. His (or her) disparaging remarks will in no way deter these women from playing a prominent part in future demonstrations. The real character of “D.E.” is made manifest by resorting to a nom de plume after making this attack. I would give a word of warning to “D.E.” The so-called “depression” that has enveloped us iv as yet only in its baby days. The unemployment and chaos that we know to-day is but the fringe of our troubles. A year or two hence our economic ailments will be on a large scale. Many who are to-day comparatively comfortable will be dragged into the morass. In those times “D.E.” may, with many of those nearest and dearest, be in the great army of unemployed—the starvelings. What then will be correct action? Street demonstrations may be too mild. Thanking you, Mr. Editor, for space. I am, etc. TOM SHOUT.