MACHINES BRING MORE WORK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 113, 29 May 1937, Page 4

MACHINES BRING MORE WORK

Speaking in Detroit, the capital of the highly-mechanised automotive indqstries, Benjamin M- Anderson, Jr., economist of the Chase National BeAk, New Yo?k, qrged society to give the machine age freedom to continue its development. Far froni' destroying jobs, he argued, the advance oi the machine had multiplied opportunity for employment and creation of comfort for the masses. "A wise public policy," he said in an address prepared for delivery before the Econpmic Club pf Detroit, ''will work with and not against thp grc^t dynamic forpes which, since tlie beginning of the industrial r evolution, flave, beea ljfting the masses of men out of starved, narrow, stagnant and brutal lives. "Evile and abuses we have iu our economic order and a wise social policy will seejt to prqdicate theiq. But a wise social policy will not interfere with the effieiency of indqstry, the growth of technology, the flexibility pf the markets, including the market for labour, and the aecumulation pf capital." He hpld ' ' nothing wa? bettpr estabHshpd" in eponomie history than ifle "gene?al prppQsition that, gjven time, new technological advance leads to increasing rather than decreasing demand for labpur," "For example," he said, "in 192§ though automobiles could be produeed in one sixth the number of man-hours as in 1910, the numbpr of wprkprs had inoreaSPd frona 51,294 in 1910 to 197.728 in 1925-^an inprease pf 258 per cpnt." Bqt the worker temporarily displaced by technological advance, he contended, was entitled to a "square deal" from society benefiting from evolution of the machine age. "Unemployment insurance pr th? dismissal wage, well handled public labour eyehanges, institutipns for the re-edueation in industrial tepliniques pf displaced workers thst will prevaut tragedy, wt iwi iflord | and should provide," he said.