Every day the State War Council | vainly parades the fact that a number of discharged | returned soldiers are seeking immediate employment. | Each day it makes application after application to | employers and Governments; but, in the main, the men who | went voluntarily forth to fight because great statesmen | said it was their duty to go and fight, now find they | cannot locate a job.
This paper knows no evil so
| great as that produced by the inability of a man to
| obtain work. It considers there is cast upon the
| administrators of the country
For men to stand idle is | absurd. For returned soldiers to tramp the streets | heart-brokenly seeking work in the country they fought | for is a crime which shrieks to heaven. For idle men to | roam round Perth or any town in Western Australia, or in | the Commonwealth, in an era of soaring prices, high | rents, and costly living is nothing short of madness. | Commodities are dear, because they are scarce. If they | are not scarce and remain dear, then somebody should be | put in prison. But we are assured by great patriots | that scarcity and not profiteering is the cause of the | gigantic living charges. In that case, the remedy for | high prices is increased production. And the basis of | increased production is increased labor-power. The way | to secure increased labor-power is by taking the | unemployed men from the streets and placing them in a | factory or workshop. Does Lefroy see the point?
| In this city blankets are as dear to the poor as
| Nor'-West pearls to the rich. For quite a while the
| whole output from Australian mills was commandeered by
| the Defence Department. The public
A wise Government in Australia would | increase the number of workers in the woollen mills by | lessening the number of idle men in the streets. By | this arrangement workless men would be provided for, the | supply of blankets multiplied, the cost brought down to | what the poor could afford, and the war on cold be more | successfully fought in the forthcoming winter offensive. | And the time to do these things is now.
There is | the case of houses. In every capital city rents are too | high to admit of the worker's family living decently. | In all too many instances overcrowding is rampant and a | thousand and one social evils promoted as a result. The | number of houses available is notoriously less than | requirements. What madness is it that views such a | situation unmoved and uninspired to the formulation of | corrective proposals? Lefroy's refusal to even consider | a Fair Rents Court, coupled with his masterly inactivity | in any other direction, could not be improved on were he | Premier of a Ministry of troglodytes.
Many of the
| returned soldiers were and are carpenters and know
| something of the building crafts. Even if they do not,
| the work of the Ugly Men demonstrates how much a little
| resolution and singleness of purpose can accomplish.
| Could not Lefroy at once embark on the construction of a
| number of houses which could be tenanted by soldiers'
| dependents at a reasonable rental? Would not this
| course encourage enlistment because of the economic
| guarantee it assured the men venturing forth? Of course
| it would. What is wrong with Lefroy building even a
| large number of houses? There are at present thousands
| of Australians oversea. Where is it proposed they shall
| live when they return? There are no empty houses
| now
But rents are not low. | And they never will be at a reasonable rate until more | houses are constructed. At present none can be | obtained, as the saying goes, for love or money. Does | Lefroy suggest that when the men return, in addition to | augmenting the numbers now seeking jobs as advertised by | the War Council, they shall sleep on the Esplanade? If | he does not, let him get a hustle on. All the fine | words about vocational training and cowboys up in the | Kimberley get nowhere. A programme of housebuilding in | the overcrowded cities only calls for but a little | brain-power on the part of the Government. It is a | proposal workable from the start and on the spot. | Backed by a definite effort to manufacture from our own | raw material it would materially help the War Councils | put an end to the shameful situation their notices to | the press disclose.
Unless something is at once
| done the position will be so chaotic as to be almost
| beyond correction. No amount of oratory on the part of
| Millen and Colebatch will compensate for the definite
| failure to find employment for the comparatively few men
| so far discharged from the forces. The number dealt
| with by the repatriation authority to date is
| negligible. Of 37,230 discharged to the end of last
| year only 3252 men have been provided for by the
| trustees. That means in effect the Commonwealth is now
| seeking twice as many new recruits in one month (7000)
| than the total who have been "repatriated" in forty-one
| months of red war. Allowing for everything calling for
| consideration in order to judge the Government fairly,
| it is a condition which should not be allowed
Neither Lefroy nor Hughes can
| escape censure. Each has had a reasonable time to
| enable the country
It is a queer | tribute to the statesmanship of the National Governments | that work can not be found for even the handful of | soldiers at present seeking it. What the position will | be when demobilisation takes place can be better | imagined than described. The only sane preparation for | what is then certain to happen is to grapple with | present problems in resolute fashion. This paper knows | Hughes and Lefroy have not the money with which to do | the job properly. But it also knows this is due | entirely to the public policy being employed to suit the | book of Big Business and not that of Bill-Jim. A bold | cut at the vitals of monopoly would almost at once | provide enough capital to enable Humanity set up in | business.
These are the times when statesmanship
| would use wealth as a minister to human needs. It would
| not countenance for an hour the prolonged, and we
| fear
|