The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-01-07

not the facts. Result: a far flung controversy.
 l Scott said the data on which he based his predictions would be published as soon as possible, per- haps early next year. He said a group of engineers at Columbia university, of which he was di- rector, for ten years have been quietly gathering a huge mass of lfigures an dcharts, data that in- dicated the machine was throwing men out of work faster than they could be employed
 ] Reverse Data Given
 Meantime, other people told of data indicating exactly the reverse They asked:
 l Does not society already have the machine under control? Is the problem of the men replaced by machines q worry of fundamental importance2 Have not the ma chimes really increased mems op- portunity for getting work, rather than. decrease it? 5
 Technocracy said maximum in dustrial employment was reached in 1919, was lower in 1929 despite much greater industrial produc- ton. Tschnocracy's critics said, What Of it? Wasn't 1919 a post war year? Employment was swell ed by war needs It was unnat- ural."
 Census Enters Picture
 Statistics of the United States Bureau of the Census, as compiled by John H. Van Devsnter, direct or of United Business Publications,
 for manufacturing industries show ed other things. Why not. sug- gested Van Deventer, take the fi- gure for 1914, which showed BOA
 workers per thousand, against
 l929s figure of 839 per thousand
 in manufacturing industries, in-
 stead of 19l9's excessive 995 per
 thousand. 8s Others asked, Should these vari-
 ations be regarded as of great sig. nificance? In manufacturing, me-
 chanical and mining pursuits, the
 proportion of the total population
 therein engaged varied in this way,
 bsing 25.6 per cent in 1880; 291 per cent in 1900; B per cent in
 1920, and 30.9 per cent in 1930 Others asked, why not consider total employment, not just manu-
 featuring employment?
 Properticnate Gain Small Considering all gainfully en-
 plcyed in all pursuits from soda
 clerks to bank presidents, it has besn calculated by prominent economist in a paper soon to be published, that the proportion of
 the population ten years of age
 and older in gainful occupations
 has varied only s or T per cent in the 50-year period 1880 to l93O. L The economist doubts that this if } gure indicates any serious prob lem
 Scott has cited as statistics to ], indicate the extent of the machine's $ inroads on employment; it took a man 5,760 minutes or 96 hours to till an acre with spade in 1880, , and somewhat less with wooden blow. Today he can till an acre in five minutes, a gain of about 100 times.
 Statistics Value Questioned , A statistician for leading re- search organization, objecting that such startling statistics mean little alone, find they should be consid- } cred in the. whole manufacturing picture. has collected some index numbers of production per capita ], Taking 1S49, as 100, he found that production for each individual worker in manufacturing, and me chanieal pursuits had increased ! to 362~ra gain of about three and one half times.
 The National, Bureau of Econo- mic Research in a recent study by Dr. Frederick Mills of Column ] bia university, finds that between 1922 and 1929, there was an abso-
 lute decline in the amount of farm