Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1933-01-05

Fascists, the economists, the soldiers,
and the politicians are things of the
past"
This looks pretty serious, especially
when bolstered up with scores of in
stances and reams of figures showing
the tremendous rate at which ma
chimes are displacing workers. Some
of the interpreters of TechnOcracy
predict 2O,OOO,OOO unemployed next
winter, and the complete collapse of
civilization in the spring of 1884.
Here is the cheerful side. AS the
Technocracy experts are quoted by
Wayne w. Parrish in The New Out
look: MAN in his age-long struggle
for leisure and the elimination of toll
has finally arrived at that position
where for the first time this goal is
not only possible but probable" 1t is
pointed out that in such complete
self-sufficient area as North America,
with what is known of technology to-
day in this country, it is now neces-
sary for the adult population, ages
twenty-five to forty-five to work but
go hours per year, per individual to
produce a standard of living for the
entire population ten times the aver
age income of 1929" But we can not
attain this golden age of leisure with
out scrapping our present economic
and financial machinery. Technology
has written meme, meme, tekel, uphar-
sim across the face of the price sys-
tem."
Without ever once mentioning the
word Technocracy, the magazine For
tune discusses this problem of 'ob-
solete men," 1t sees the new power
revolution about Ito replace man per-
manently as source of energy, and
to install him in new and limitable
| function as a tender of machines"
Whereas it has been assumed that
men thrown out of work by labOr-sav-
| ing machines can find employment
sooner or later in new industries, we
are now, in the words of the Secretary
machinery at faster rate than we
have been developing new industries
And while the spread-work plan is
helping in the present emergency, "as
permanent device it is evident tina:
if the rate of mechanization continues
to rise, as it is now rising, a time will
shortly be reached when the rationins
of the residuum of work among the
total number of wage-earners with
corresponding cuts in real wages
would result in no wage-earner re.
ceiving a living wage"
Perhaps that is enough to give an
idea of the assertions that are being
echoed or challenged in the editorial
columns of practically every newspa.
per in the country. The Nation calls
it all "the first step toward a genuine
Revolutionary philosophy for Amer
ica-" The president of the Case
School of Applied Science in Cleve.
land says that certain of Mr.. SCOTS
facts may be wrong. but the tota
picture is substantially true
Arguments for Machines.
And now for the critics of Tech.
nocracy.
Let us hear first from such an au
thority as DR.. Walter r. Ingalls,, pres
ident of the American Institute Of
Weights and Measures:
"Convalescing business has been hi
below the belt by a pseudo-scientifi6
fist, armed with the brass knuckles Of
an imposing but meaningless scien
tific jargon. Technocracy has pre-
scented multitude of alarming con
illusions, but has withheld supporting
facts"
The sharpest challenge of all, per
haps, comes from John H. Van De
venter, editor of The Iron Age. FRS
he hits the Technocracy statistics. A:
an authority on the iron and stee
business, he says flatly: Instead O
productivity in pig-iron having in
creased $50 times in fifty years, a.
technocracy claims, it has increased
1872 times" Mr.. Van Deventer de
clares that the technocracy spokes
men have similarly exaggerated tn,
acceleration of chronological unem
ployment in other lines. Then h
gives figures of his own to show tina
instead of the machine driving tn
people out of work, it makes work TO
, them:
"In 1880, we find the density O
employment greater instead of les
after thirty years of our most inten
sive mechanization. For there wer
then 1913 breadwinners for each thou
sand of our population as contraste
with 383 in 1900. A net gain of fiji
teen workers per 1000 of population
during the thirty-year period"
Such figures should prove conclu
: sively, in Mr.. Van Deventer's opinion
, that machinery, with its continuou
, record of multiplying working oppol
, tunities, is not the cause of the de
: preston" He quotes approvingly thi
D statement by the New York Times:
1.-The glut in primary commoditie
is not the result of too many ma
t chimes, but of too many acres of col
!, fee, rubber, beef, wool. 1t lis not tn
E result of technology. but Of huma