WANTED—CONFIDENCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 24, 24 December 1932, Page 4

WANTED—CONFIDENCE.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Your leader of December 23 has the above heading and calls to our minds that the world has in earlier days been in even worse plight than ,we are in to-day. That the great , masses of suffering people have confidence in a return of better days is I indisputable, the very quietness with J which they are bearing the burden is i sufficient evidence of such belief. There is however a great difference between the earlier catastrophic conditions and those obtaining to-day. The apparently hopeless conditions which prevailed in those earlier days were caused bv the “very opposite” to the conditions from which wo suffer to-day. Then, “shortage” was the cause. The waste of war, the failure of crops, the lack of money, all combined to bring the people to desperate straits, but to-dav we suffer when there is an abundance, and it is this very abundance which has brought us where we are. Strange and paradoxical though it seems, abundance brings about adversity, whilst a shortage makes for prosperity. Why are there so many millions unemployed nnd yet such an “abundance” in the world? Truo,'if money was plentiful millions now unemployed could again be absorbed in manufacturing and subsdiary industries, but 1 am sadly afraid, sir, that there are millions who never again will be employed whilst prevailing ideas hold sway. A new order of conditions of labour will have to be adopted ere true prosperity can bo attained with any permanence. Every step that is taken to improve the situation only succeeds in aggravating and prolonging the agony.

slore spending is the only means of providing more employment. If a shortage occurred in any industry—cotton, wool, iron, steel, or any trade—finance would he immediately forthcoming to proceed with making up the deficiency'. What caused unemployment in the first instance? Lack of money? No, money was being freely handed round and would have so continued if, “what? If productivity had only kept pace with the spending capacity and power to absorb, but this fact is indisputable.” When the people were spending to the utmost in the prosperous days stocks increased instead of decreasing. proving productivity’s powers exceed the capacity to absorb.

After a severe fight the masters have won and now weavers in Lancashire have 6 looms to tend instead of 4. Is this going to add to or reduce the number of unemployed ?’ Six loom weavers will individually produce about 50 per cent. more. No doubt costs will be reduced and profits made more possible, but is a wrong move and one which will be disastrous eventually. Science and mechanics have achieved such wonderful results, especially during the past 15 to 20 years, that they have made the old order of things undesirable of continuance. This is the age of “speed,” and what is it going to do for us? Speed half the people' out of a job or shorten the “working hours.” Well, so long as speed is allowed to be used to enrich the few instead of being of benefit to the many so long will

the ranks of our unemployed grow in numbers. Home day it will come to jjuss that hours of labour will be arranged so that all workers may work instead of some working longer than necessary and keeping unemployed ones out of their earnings. Unemployment is not a temporary evil; it has come to stay until machinery and science are used for the “relieving” of labour instead of “displacing” it.—l am, etc.,

W. ARCHER. 253 Main Street, Palmerston North. December 24, 1932.