MEN AND MACHINES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 226, 23 September 1932, Page 6

MEN AND MACHINES.

MORE DATA REQUIRED,

(To the Editor.)

"H.W.A.'s" latest figures are elmnlr » generalisation of what he gave in detail L previous occasion hence the same before suffices. Comprehensive fi-mlfes en i ae these are more satisfactory to handle C ever, and another examination of them nuv be advantageous. A displacement of labour*; manufacturing to the extent of rouehlr in per cent is shown by these β-tatistics trnl! enough, but who handled the-58.5" Per £1 extra production in its passage from tli e fa 7 tory to the consumer? Until "statistics »V embodied in the evidence, .covering thie ami the other considerations previously enumw ated, mechanical progress cannot be renrdi" as the creator of idleness. Furthwmo«--ff.W.A." has stated that the unempE army of America numbered 5,000,000 in low whereas in his last most comprehensive treat ment only 1,083,000 of theee are accounted fo and these with figures which as shown tr'n demonstrably excessive. Again, also, no eetimate is made of new industries eprin<Tn 2 un during the 10 years for which the figures are given, for, ae comparative produ<rtio n -ie definitely treated, those obviously could not h»v« been included. The case of the 376 cutters of whom 71 per cent failed to find work within a year, carries no weight, firstly, .because the figures of this case (1920) are already induced in the statistics for the decade deaH with comprehensively, and, secondly, because this could as easily be a result as a cause of unem ployment. Comparing the 71 per cent labour displacement of this case with the 10 per «ent average displacement of hie comparative figures for the period 1919-29, "H.W.A." has shown very neatly how it fe possible to make a 000 per cent error in judging by a particular case. "The breaking point in a nation's history" seems to be a favourite postulate and it will perhaps be interesting to note' just what this implies and one or two conditions which, of necessity, would exist if such a deadlock was possible. We would then have, on the one hand, the capacity for almost unlimited production (thanks to machinery) -and on the other hand the human horde starving for produce—clearly a case of mismanagement and in no way attributable to mechanisation. Like the beggar on horseback, we, civilised humanity, have ridden to the devil, and now the anti-machine faction is busily engaged nVoing the one truety old steed, precision, that w capable of taking us back, instead of tryui* to find where we went amiss in the race. " D. CAT-LEY.