The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-07-27
STRESS OF PROGRESS TO WORKER

. Va Az
The world is in the greatest industrial transition period
since steam was harnessed to do the work of man. With
the aid Of electricity the period has produced inventions
which even the soaring imagination of Jules Verne 30
years ago was unable to vision in his then fantastic tales
which went 10000 leagues under sea- and scared above
the world in the dream of the present airplanc.
AS H. G. Taylor said at the advisory board luncheon
here. Tuesday, five industries which did not exist 80 years
ago today are employing $4,000 900 workers. while in the
last seven years new machines have displaced 100000
workers from their old jobs, some of them from their
LIES occupations. He meant the movies, electricity,
chemistry, the automobile industry and the radio.
The swift transitions that have resulted from the de-
velopment of these and other forms of mechanical prog
ress have brought about a period Of stress for the work
ers, especially those above 40, which since DR.. oslcr's
bromide about choroforming men at that age as no
longer useful. has become a sort of dead line to faith in
human efficiency. in spite of the Edisons, Burbanks.
the Darwins. Wendell Holmeses. Mary Baker Eddys and
other mental and inventive geniuses being %refutation to
the contrary.
This stress has been poignantly demoralizing at all
periods when the mechanical devices that have trans
formed industry and, through that transition. even CIV
ilization itself, have begun the formation Of their new
economic orders. Mr.. Taylor stated the situation in
these epochal instances in his two citations-the one Of
the loss Of employment to 100000 workers in the last
seven years through mechanical inventions and adapta-
tions and the other the creation OF jobs for 100000 by
entirely new industries developing in the last 80 years.
Usually the industrial ills that have resulted from me-
chanical progress have carried their own antidote, but
the present period brings up the spectcr OF unemploy-
mentor rather decreasing c~mployment-in q more un-
pleasant and fearsome way than in the past, when one
~contcmplates the swift and ruthless changes entailed by
civilized mechanical progress and mass production.
Stuart Chase, who has proven himself Is clear eyed
an observer Of modern industrial trends Is any man in
the country. invokes the dread specter Of Laid of at
4O' when he declares in the July Harpers magazine that
We seem to be headed for an ever greater technical eff
ficiency at an ever greater human cost, and adds that "a
more truly damnable apportionment of the human costs
Of industry it is difficult to imagine"
Laid off at 40' is a phrase that probably will be heard
repeated q good many times In the next few years. It
represents one Of the biggest problems raised by modern
industrial Methods problem that this generation must
solve II we are to come even close to ~justifying our be-
lief that America is the best Of countries in which to
live. For to be Laid off at 40 is the fate Of constantly
increasing numsers of American workers, according to
Mr.. Chase.
Business and industry. having taken to machinery, mass
production and high pressure tactics generally, are hit
ting IN ever higher pace. This pace requires young men.
Middle age. In the eyes Of many employers. is not tho
period Of greatest usefulness, but the period Of declining
powers. In addition. machines are continually displacing
workmen from their jobs: and this. likewise, means that
young men st the call and that the middle aged man is
not wanted.
Conditions will grow steadily worse, Mr.. Chase warns.
unless the nation az . whole Gets itself to remedy mat
teFs And-stransely enough-he declares that President
Hoover. supported by public opinion and 4 willing con-
grsss. could 90 far TO remedy matters.
According to Mr.. Chase. unemployment could be ma.
teTially checked. II not altogether eliminated. By the fol-
lowing steps:
!. The collection and maintenance a dependable un-
smployment statistics 70 sate the prohism.
= a reliable sSeen % labor exchanges.
= An intelligent program for the construction Of pub
~ works 70 absorb at least I part Of the human sur
etus.
= 4 sysem q unemployment insurance.
3 Ihe gradual reduction q hours Of labor to equal
~ 1eGhnical improvements.
1nooe ~ not rsdical moves. They are relatively SIM
- \ natea thsl M al~ngs peided itssf On its eeval-
1 - U~Dslv Gsoak = = ssady - a1sDt tbsm With.