The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-05-13
MACHINE AGE PROVES CURSE INSTEAD OF BLESSING
 TO MANKIND
May II, 1857 Editor Waterbury Democrat:

Mdy II, 40oS Editor, Waterbury Democrat:
 Conflict between Capital and La- bor seems to be the order of the day. Newspapers devote lot of space to it, and both sides of the contro- versy inspire men either to fume or weep if they can get an audience to listen to them.
 I am very sorry to have missed such weeping party conducted by MT. Sidney E. Cornelius, manager of the Hartford County Manu- facturer's Association, addressing the Industrial Foremen's club at the local Y. M. c. A., few nights back.
 Weeping. like confession, is good for the soul, and, as Andrew H. Brown. president of the Escort Company would say, T missed somethin'."
 Well! What was all the weeping about anyway? Lo and behold! Sid- ney E. Cornelius made the enlight- ening discovery that, Organized labor comprises mostly a group of deluded people who have listened to or have been coerced by Spellbind- CTS and misleaders-The laboring man is not to be blamed for sit- down strikes, but rather, the in- fluence of outside agitators and or- ganizers who have no interest in the community in which they are stir ring up trouble"
 This is a very sad word picture indeed, but not nearly as sad as if it were absolutely true. In all fair ness, we must expect truth to be subdued by either side to a contro- versy, and the controversy between Capital and Labor is no exception to the rule. We quite understand your position MT. Cornelius, as manager of the Hartford County Manufacturers Association, you must, of necessity, have limitations; you must soft-pedal some, and per- haps, to degree, must have to ab- dicate some of your mental inte- gritty. These words, you must be- lieve me, are written in all kindness.
 Now, may we try to analyze the hurt feelings of the manufacturers representatives? Is it the fact that workers are out of workers are out of work that causes that torrent of tears, or is it the peculiar fact or set of facts that cause unemploy- ment? I am inclined to believed that latter proposition. For in- stance, if few hundreds or a few thousand workers find themselves out of work for a few weeks, due to a strike, and especially a sit-down strike, called to enforce some of their legal rights, long ignored by their employers, this constitutes an impasse of such a magnitude, that we find employers of labor and their acolytes simply overcome by sym bathing as evidence by a flow of crocodile tears emitted from their sympathy glands. Sad! Very sad indeed!
 But, Oh! mystery, when millions are thrown out of employment for a period of years, not by strikes, but by what they choose to call, economic cycles, or economic read justments, or again overproduction, the wells of sympathy dry up, and the only apparent physiological dis turbance is nerve racking gnash- ing of teeth, as their taxes increase in order that the unemployed may be taken care of.
 When there is unemployment on a large scale, the trouble, it seems to me, is not so much-"Spellbind- CTS, misleaders, and outside organ- izers," as much as machines vs. men.
 Machines have a way of produc- ing fast and at much less cost then men, therefore, it follows that there is much more profit to be made by putting machines to work than men. The number and effi- ciency of machines is astounding. No great wonder that they have re- placed man-power in the produc- tion of wealth and profits. They are most valuable ally to the in- dustrialist, and in return they are well taken care of. None of their owners would entertain the thought. even for a short fleeting moment, that they might sleep out on park benches like many of the poor dew ills that they have permanently kicked out of the modern industrial scheme of things-machines have