UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF WAGES.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17751, 1 July 1929, Page 9

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF WAGES.

(To tho EditorO Sir-; —It must be regretted that our Mayor and councillors (with the exception of Cr. Denz) at their meeting on Wednesday evening failed to recognise the need of adequate support by Way of standard awards to the unfortunate citizens of Hamilton who are dependent on relief work as a means of their existence. —The -.intensified development of capitalism, with its higher efficiency of machinery, is the direct oause of this ever-growing problem of unemployment. The labour power of the working class is bought and sold as a commodity, and by buying labour power and setting it to work the capitalist is able to reap the profits of the surplus labour of the worker over and above the whole of his labour power—i.e., his wages. The Introduction of modern machinery, having been developed to such an extent as to Incalculably increase production, replaces many hands, requires less human exertion, and the cry of overproduction arises; "warehouses full, must secure markets for our goods.” Such phrases are economically meaningless, more especially at a time when a very large number of people are daily on the verge of starvation; when tho paupers of every civilised country are numbered by thousands and even millions. The demand is clear, but the capitalist, who has cornered the supply, dictates the terms on which the goods he possesses may be released. The capitalist with his wealth of goods created by the exertion of human labour, controls the labour power of tho working olass, and unemployed citizens

are necessary to make capitalism suc.l cessful- The capitalist uses the unemployed as a means for the lowering of wages and all the horrors of sweating—low wages, long hours and deaths from starvation —are traceable to the large number of people who are totally unemployed or casually unemployed. Unemployment has been a world problem since February, 1893, the day that J. Keir Hardle, the first Labour M.P. In the British House of Representatives, made his maiden speech on an amendment to the Queen's Address appealing for justice to the unemployed. New Zealand, the land which nature has riohly endowed, is rapidly approaching the methods adopted by the older capitalistic countries. Our cities are teeming with men not wanted, placing <ear in the worker at the workshop

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that outside there are many willing and eager to .step into his shoes if he be dismissed as a consequence of any attempt to Improve his conditionsUnemployment is a national question, and it Is of vital importance that the necessary legislation be introduced in Parliament. Yet the Prime Minister of New Zealand, in reply to questions relative to the increasing numbers of unemployed at Auckland on Thursday, stated that it was not the Government’s "fault, but he was afraid the fault was with someone in Auckland. He also stated that the national side could not be allowed to intrude on the municipal side. The fault is with the syste'm that allows it and all individuals who legislate in the interest of the capitalist, and, as for intrusion, I am sure our local councillors would welcome any legislation that would relieve them of their obligations to the local unemployed. Cr. Denz's resistance to the lowering of the recognised award is deserving of praise. The most harrowing feature connected with the problem of unemployment is not the poverty or hardships they have to endure, but the fearful moral degradation that follows.. In conclusion, I refer to the words of Henry George.: “That justice is the highest quality in the moral hierarchy I do not say; but that it Is the first. That which is above justice must be based on justice and be reached through justice. It is not by accident that in the Hebraic religious development which through Christianity we have inherited the declaration, ‘The Lord thy God is a just God,’ precedes the sweeter revelation of a God of love. Until the eternal justice is perceived the eternal love must be hidden. As the individual must be just before lie can be truly generous, so must human society be based upon justice before it can be based on benevolence.” —I am, etc., W.H.