Germany Leads the Attack on the Machine

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 103, 28 October 1933, Page 23

Germany Leads the Attack on the Machine

The International Labour Office has published details of some remarkable orders issued by the Nazi Government, placing restrictions on tho use of machinery. In view of the increasing technological unemployment in the cigar industry, the German Government issued an Act on July 15, 1933, prohibiting^tho installation of any further machines for' rolling tobacco leaves and the restarting of any established machinery which had ceased working, says the "Manchester Guardian." The preamble to the Act states that the progressive mechanisation of the cigar industry was in process of destroying the livelihood of the population of certain districts, especially in Westphalia and Baden, where work in the cigar factories formed an essential auxiliary to agricultural work, which did not by itself suffice to yield a livelihood. The fact that machinery has lately been introduced for processes which were formerly carried out entirely by hand had led to the growth of large undertakings and tends to change the whole structure of the cigar industry, some 70 per cent, of which has up to the present remained a handicraft. Of the workers employed in it j 96,000 reside in villages or towns with I fewer than 5000 inhabitants. As machinery has rendered superfluous about 80,000 workers, or five-sixths of the present labour force, tho means of subsistence of tho."areas depending on the cigar industry was being eliminated, and the result could only be a further increase of unemployment and consequent burdens on the Federal Government. It is stated that the output of rolling machines is 1000 to 1200 cigars an hour, while that of a hand-worker is only 70. New ■ machinery may only be -installed in exceptional cases, and then only for the purpose of testing its technical valuo with a view to export. Undertakings making us© of leaf-roll-ing machines may not extend their production beyond the quantity manufactured in 1932-33. The Minister of Economy is authorised, in consultation withvthe Ministry of Finance, to reduce the quantities which such- undertakings may manufacture in the future. On the other hand, undertakings which pledge themselves to return to production by |hand will not bo subject to any limitation. The Minister of Finance is authorised, undor certain conditions, to grant subsidies to a. maximum of,

2,000,000 marks to undertakings which decide of their own accord to refrain from using machinery, and also to engineering undertakings to compensate them for any losses resulting from the application of this Act. Two supplementary decrees of July 28 and August 5, 1933, regulate the compulsory declaration of machinery in service and out of service and the- conditions under which subsidies may be granted. The power given by tho Act to the Ministers concerned to limit production in mechanised undertakings is ■ expected to ensure a gradual return to handwork, oveii apart from the fact that the absence of any restrictions on handwork constitutes in itself an encouragement to this form of production. Subsidies to undertakings which, might bo forced to close down by tho prohibition of machinery will be partially compensated by savings in Unemployment benefit. Again, although the prohibition of the uso jof rolling machines will necessarily affect the engineering industry, this industry may find the means of recovery in an increase of its exports. Tho export of German machines for cigar manufacture has good prospects and is capable of considerable development, provided that full • advantage is taken of all technical improvements. For this reason tho Act exempts machinery installed for testing purposes with a viewto export. , The prohibition docs not extend to certain machines worked by human power or to auxiliary machines such as those for cutting the tobacco, removing stalks, etc. A still more radical measure has been taken by the Commissioner for Economy iii Thuringia against the use of machinery in tho manufacture of glass articles for chemical or pharmaceutical purposes. The Commissioner not only prohibited tho installation of now machinery likely, to take the place of glassblowers, but, as ho observed i that in spite of the severe ■unemployment many undertakings were working three shifts without interruption, ho restricted tho time for which each machine might lie used to 48 hours in tho week. A special system of inspection was established to soe that this measure was strictly carried out. Recently three manufacturers of glass articles who had worked their machines continuously in spite of the prohibition were condemned to stop them .altogether and to pay a fine of 1000 marks into the fund for tho relief of distress in the glass industry. ,