Montana labor news., 1933-01-12
MACHINERY AND UNEMPLOYMENT

DR.. Dexter S. Kimball, dean of the college of engineer
ing of Cornell university, told the American Association
for the Advancement of Science at Atlantic City that la
bor-displacing machinery has not impaired the security
of the workers and has not been the primary cause of
unemployment.
Of course DR.. Kimball meant labor-displacing machin-
cry under the present economic system. Machinery in it.
self does nothing. Its inanimate. 1t neither breathes nor
thinks. But machinery controlled by those who own in
dustry is invented, installed and used for the sole purpose
of ~displacing working men and women made of flesh and
blood with machines made Of iron and steel which enable
a few workers to produce as large an output of commodi-
ties as many workers were able to produce either by hand
methods or older machinery.
It is automatically plain that machines thus owned and
used do impair the security of the workers and do cause
large amounts of unemployment.
When one man operating a modern brick-making ma
chine does the work formerly done by 10 brick makers,
when one man operating a ~glass-tube making machine
does the work formerly requiring 600 skilled hand work.
men, when one man operating a new electric light bulb
making machine takes the place of 10000 human electric
light bulb makers, when machinery in tens of thousands
of other instances makes it possible for a few workers
with the machines to produce as large an output as many
workers could produce by hand methOds-When these
facts are well known and authenticated it is idle for DR..
Dexter or any other engineer cOnsecrated to the principle
of industry operated solely for private profit Of those who
own it to declare that machinery is not used both to inn
pair the security of the workers and create millions of Job
less. The 1882 convention of the American Federation
of Labor covered this question with precision when it de.
clared;
THE machine is good when it is made to serve man.
1t becomes a menace, a veritable Frankenstein, when
it is used to displace him. The true purpose of the
machine is to tighten the burden of labor by enabling
greater production for human needs to be accom-
plished in a shorter time"
Those who own and control our industries have not
used the machinery to benefit the workers. They have
not used it to serve mankind. They have used it for their
own selfish interests, for the paramount purpose of max
imum profit for themselves regardless of the interests Of
the workers and the people generally.
They have installed labor-displacing machinery in ev-
cry industry. They have refused to decrease the length
of the work day and work week in proportion to the in
creased productivity of machine labor. Without the quiv-
|er of an eyeash they have tossed millions of discarded
workers into the breadlines of unemployment, reducing
them and their families to poverty and the garbage can
living provided by private and public charity.
They have indeed turned the machine, which should
be used to tighten the labor of all, into a Frankenstein
used exclusively for The benefit Of the ~profiteers who con-
troll industry, with the jobless millions and their families
living in poverty and restitution.
With the six-hour day and the five-day week, which is
demanded by the American Federation of Labor as a
measure to provide work for the unemployed, machinery
could be made a blessing for all. Until then it will re-
main an unmitigated social curse.
1t is regrettabe that our present pagan industry, based
on the relentless use of labor-displacing machinery against
the workers, should find a defender in the dean of the
college of engineering of Cornell university.
WASHINGTON SCENE mands mon the federal mower o brng