MACHINERY & UNEMPLOYMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17976, 22 March 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

MACHINERY & UNEMPLOYMENT.

FACTS AND FIGURES WHICH CANNOT BE IGNORED.

(‘R. J. Cruickshank.)

THE causes of the huge displacement of workers are declared to be:, Improvements in machinery, the invention of labour-saving devices; the extension of cheap * electric power; the* processes described in Great Britain under Ihc name of Rationalisation. There arc about 2,500,000 fewer workers employed in agriculture, factories, railroads and mines In the United States than there were ten years ago. This wholesale “scrapping" of wage earners has taken place during a decade when American prosperity rose to such glittering heights that the country was the envy of the rest of the world. Hundreds of thousands of these dispossessed men and women have found work In new' and growing Industries, such as automobiles, road transport and radio, but in making the change t.hey have often had to accept lower wages, and have had the anxiety and expense of changing their homes. A Very Grave Problem. The new Industries, however, have not been sufficient to absorb the displaced labour, and an exceedingly conservative estimate would put the difference at 800,000. This growing army of workers, displaced by machines and unable to find alternative jobs, is providing the United States with a problem graver than any temporary dislocation caused by the recent collapse in stock market values. The situation is one that has a marked significance for Great Britain because similar developments in the use of labour-saving machines and in Rationalisation are, in the opinion of many, bound to have similar consequences. Tire problem of what to do with men and women “ scrapped ’’ by the relentless new machines is baffling the best brains in American industry. It is like a'gaunt spectre in the richest country in/ the world, and distinguished economists say that the situation must inevitably grow more acute as time goes on. The theory that workers thrown out of one occupation can find employment in others is not sustained by observation. The Institute of Economics conducted a survey of 800 representative workless persons in the great industrial cities of Chicago, Baltimore and Worcester, choosing for their purpose exemplary workers who had lost their *qbs through no fault of their own, but simply by the process of industrial change. A Very Sad Aspect. The Institute of Ecnonomics found in the cases it studied that the change from one type of work to another was in most cases made with sacrifice of income. Almost half the workers received lower wages at their new jobs than in their old. One of the saddest aspects of this machine-made unemployment is the drastic discharge of men over 40. The Institute, in its report, says: “The age of the worker appears to be a significant factor in affecting the ease with which labour is re-absorbed. As compared with the younger workers, relatively few of those over 45 were able lo secure new employment.” Another excuse for the discharge of men of 40 Is that the care of the complicated new machines demands the physical strength and briskness of young manhood.

Among details given to the Senate Committee on Unemployment by William Green. President of the American Federation of Labour, arc the follov/ing: Arresting Facts. In machine-shops one man now replaces 25 skilled machinists by using five or ten semi-automatic machines as his “ gang.” Four men can now do in three to seven hours what it formerly look eight men three weeks to perform in repair work on locomotives, this change being due to the use of the oxy-acetylene torch. Fifteen years ago it took 15 to 30 hours to turn one pair of locomotive tyres, but now the same number of men, using modern processes, can turn six pairs In eight hours. In the glass industry, an automatic machine makes as many prescription bottles in an hour as it would take 40 workers to make. As to making electric bulbs, the output of the automatio machines is more than 31 times that of the human worker. Since 1919, machines have turned one million workers out of United States factories. IWiechanical Robots. In his newly-published book, “ Prosperity—Believe It or Not,” Mr Stuart Chase, the industrial expert writes: Mergers are throwing clerks, salesmen, and even high executives out of work- Such constitute the overhead charges which the merger is chiefly organised to save. Again the older man is the worst sufferer. A Hollywood producer reports that the “ talkies ” have cost 25,000 movie extras their jobs, while they threaten the employment of 10,000 theatre musicians throughout the country. Thousands of tobacco workers are now being displaced by machinery . . . (More than 50,000,000 of retail merchandise will be sold by automatic vending machines in the current year. Out on the street go the some-time human salesman, displaced by mechanical robots. These machines increased 328 per cent, from 1919 to 1927.

No one knows how many unemployed there are in the United States, because no figures are collected as in England, but. the most trustworthy estimates put it between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000. No one knows how many unemployed there are in the United States, because no figures are collected as in England, but the most trustworthy estimates put it between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000Paradoxically enough, when one considers the riches and resources of the United States, unemployment is the gravest problem confronting the nation. In the past, whenever machines have displaced men new industries have ultimately sprung up to absorb the unemployed. Now, for the first time in history, there are indications that this compensatory process may have come to an end, and that the trend of modern invention may be to make less work for idle bands instead of more.