Men and Machines

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 48, 19 November 1932, Page 16

Men and Machines

&6 XT YTT y HILE it is true that tbe present world unemployment is, in >M / Part, caused by international industrial dislocation, there %/V/ can be no doubt that a -contributing factor is the steady growth of the mechanisation of industry,” writes Mr. Angus Watson, J.P., a recognised authority on this particular problem, in the “Free Churchman.” “This may be seen,” he adds, “operating in two quite different directions —the first, by the creation pt the great merger, with the gradual elimination both of competition and labour, and the second, the replacement of the individual worker by elaborate mechanical alternatives. “Both of these developments are, in part, the fruits of the federation of labour which began with the Trades Union movement half a century ago,” adds Mr. Watson, “and which has steadily developed since that time, since when the labour movement became closely organised and increasingly dictatorial in its methods. One effect of this development was a gradually decreased output per unit, and the other, a steadily increased wages cost. “It is unnecessary to probe unduly into the reasons for this. At the moment we are only concerned w-ith the result. Federated capital gradually realised that increasing distribution costs were largely due to the artificial . restrictions that had been placed on the productiveness of labour, and sought a remedy for this through the adoption of mechanical means of production, and with this the elimination of competition by federated units of manufacture and sale.

“ The industrial combine, which was in the process of being before the advent of the European War, has greatly increased in development since the cessation of hostilities, with the result that the financial merger, with large capitalisation and with impersonal control, has developed all over the world. At the present time we are, therefore, facing a position in which Capital is increasingly becoming free from the domination of federated labour, and the individual workman is being crushed between the upper millstone of the combine and the lower millstone of the Trades Union Federation.

“ The mechanism of industry was probably inevitable. As mankind became increasingly expert in creating and controlling machinery, it was natural that he should adopt its extension in all productive methods, for although a standardised article can hardly ever be turned out with the same quality and finish that can be achieved by hand labour, the productive cost is so much smaller that it is natural that this method should be generally employed. “The federation of capital has, however, been a much less satisfactory experiment, and evidence is not wanting that industry is regarding increasing scepticism the grouping of trades into large combines which have so far generally resulted in enormous public losses and in very real hardships to the labour engaged in the enterprise. “ This problem would hare little other than an academic interest for ‘the man m the street’ did it not affect him so seriously in his own life. Probably for the first time in the history of the world, production is greatly in excess of consumable demand, not because the goods produced are not required, but because the purchaser is unable to earn the wherewithal with which to gratify his needs. “ Under ordinary circumstances, the working man of fifty is no longer a profitable employable unit, while in Britain there Is a great army of young men and women from sixteen to twenty years of age who have never yet been able to find an opening for work of any kind. ' “ Here is a problem that civilisation must face and solve, if it is to continue to exist on anything like permanent lines, and it is. a problem that presses in very closely upon the churches, for at its basis, its implications are not economic or industrial, but moral. An order of society which keeps a considerable proportion of its citizens in enforced idleness while providing them with a State pittance, capital taking from the workmen employed whatever margin of profit can be extracted from them, without consideration of any kind, is a situation which, because it Is destructive of tne best elements in civilisation, can only be impermanent. Mankind is more important than the machine that he controls, and his exploitation must be prevented if civilisation is to endure.