Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-20
AUTOMOBILE AIDS
MOBILITY OF LABOR
Industry, While Seasonal,
Provides Locomotion for
Thousands of Workers.
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
DETROIT, March 20.-While ma
chimes may bring about unemployment,
they sometimes provide their own cor
receives for the evils they create. The
increased mechanization of automobile
labor is responsible for a full share of
unemployment, but it is the automobile
which suddenly has given large groups
of labor mobility which it never had
before.
According to John Lubbock of the
Detroit Employers Association about
half OF the 10000 Michigan workers
who lost their employment last Winter
have left the State. Thousands have
travelled by automobile, many to the
Southern States or States along the
Mason and Dixon border.
Importance of Flivver.
In all the discussions of "tech-
biological unemployment" by President
Hoover'S commission the lack of mobil-
ity and adaptibility of labor, particu-
larry as evidenced in the coal mining
trades. has doomed up as a baffiing and
so far unexamined factor. In one sense
automobile manufacturing is seasonal
industry. Buying starts in the early
Spring and declines in the Fall 1t was
the f1ivver which took the wind out of
the /. w. w., confined mostly to sea-
sonal industries, and now 1t is the auto
mobile which is at least lancing the
boil in this focal center of unemploy-
ment, with new and bigger seasonal
industry now on the map.
Neither State and Federal bureaus
nor industrial organizations have ade-
quate statistics or practicable plans in
employment. The Employers ASSocia-
ton here puts the Wayne County unem-
ployment figures at $4,000. The labor
unions make 1t $50 1000.
In Detroit the United States Labor
Department is represented by q single
volunteer official, with no staff or means
irof gathering information There is no
correlation of State and Federal agen-
| cieS with either industry or labor in a
search for information or a program.
Eugene j. Brock, commissioner of
labor for the State of Michigan, was
asked whether he knew of any hopeful
official investigation of unemployment
| caused by the increasing mechanization
of labor.
Conflicting Reports.
I'VE can't even get dependable sta
tistics to show us what is happening -
he said, and there is now no machin-
| cry, either State or Federal. to correct
/ 1t. Roughly, employment, production
and income in Michigan are just about
so per cent of what they were a year
ago.
THE automobile industry has been
steadily and constantly expanding for
many years. 1t has to keep itself in a
position to meet the suddenly height
ened season demand and steadily to take
care of replacement. 1t has thus had
to consider normal plant and normal
productivity, plus seasonal demands.
The tempo of production has been
steadily increased, with continually
more use of machinery. This means
constant displacement of workers.
This mechanization, plus a much
greater division of labor-that is, the
assignment of simple, mechanical
task to single person-must lessen the
demand, for many of the old skillS and
many of the highly trained craftsmen
will be on a level with virtually I'M
skilled labor"
(Copyright, 1oS0)