MECHANISED INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 207, 1 September 1932, Page 6

MECHANISED INDUSTRY.

RAPID DISPLACEMENT OF LABOUR,

(To the Editor.)

I used to believe, as D. Catley apparently, does, that mechanical developments led to increased occupations for labour. But I (have had some severe jolts lately. Here is one: According to Professor Rugg, in his "Introduction to the Problem of American Culture," the percentages of increased production and decreased labour forces in nine industries in the States from 1923 to 1927 were: Increase in Decrease in production, labour force, per cent. per cent. Oil refining 84 ii Tobacco 58 13 Ment 20 l<) Railroad transport 30 1 Coal 4 15 Steel 8 0 Cotton 8 18 Lumber .6 21 These are big industries, and the tendency to displace labour by machinery is evident. Another example is in a plant equipped with huge mechanical "dragons," wliere 200 men (ehice reduced in number) made as many as 2000 men made in an adjoining plant of the same size and with the usual equipment. It seems inevitable that jobs should be killed by these new giants. Here are some further ■figures, given by President William Green, of the American Federation of Labour, in the "New York Times": (1) There were 32,000 razor "blades made per operative in 1930, as against 500 in 1913. (2) Thirty men with ten machines in the shops of the Sun Tube Company do .is much work as 240 men had done previously. (3) One man with a "gang" of semi-automatic machines replaces 25 skilled mechanics. (4) Within five years the Bessemer process was improved so that it required 24 per cent less labour, and in pig-iron production seven men did work which formerly took the labour of 00. Another report (Mr. Herbert Hoover, chairman) gives the number of unemployed at 1,500,000 in 1923; 1,775,000 in 1925; 2,000,000 in 1927; 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 in 1929. To-day America has 10,000,000 unemployed. These figures are taken from an article in the July "Atlantic Monthly" by Arthur Pound, an engineer and student of human problems in industry, entitled "The Breaking Point; When Jobs Wear Out Faster Than lien." I commend the article to Mr. Catlev. H.W.A.