The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1962-03-16
WATCH ON THE POTOMAC
By ROBERT G. SPIvACK, Washington. D. C.

that the Republicans at the Capitol
did not seem TO fill that role.
.Let's take the question of tech
biological unemployment" he said.
''The Democrats are really doing very
little about it. Walter Reuther is one
of the few men with new ideas on
how to meet it but his is almost
voice in the wilderness.
"This is becoming one of our most
serious domestic problems. But what
do the Republicans do? They com
plain that the Democrats are doing
too much about it and that we are
unnecessarily worried about such I'M
employment. Put aside the Adam
Smith laissez-faire aspect of these
comments. Do you think that a man
who has lost his job because of auto
nation is going to be impressed Ly
this sort of politics?"
Or take the case of the small bust
nessman. He is being squeezed tight
er than ever. There are many expia-
nations for what is happening to
small business, not only unemploy-
ment resulting from automation.
For example, the Defense Depart
ment, the nations prime contractor,
appears once again to be reverting
to those policies which were severely
criticized by Democrats only a few
years back, that is, throwing huge
contracts to ''big business" and for
getting the little man.
What are the Republicans doing
about it? They are not even talking
about it. Instead they keep repeating
phrases about private enterprise"
and individual initiative and oppo-
sition to federal encroachment'',
whatever that means.
Here are the bankruptcy figures
for each of the last four calendar
years: 1858, 14,964; 1859, 14,053;
1860, 15,445; 1861, 17,075. Most of
these are small firms.
How serious is unemployment?
There are indications that it is
more than go of the real labor
force, not the five or six per cent
that we hear about from some fed
eral sources. Actually there is
hidden unemployment figure
that is difficult to estimate. 1t is
made up of those people who have
grown so respondent they have
simply quit looking for jobs.
The Administration is talking of
! 20 unemployment rate for 1868.
even if it were achieved it would
till not be as impressive as it sounds
because of hidden unemployment"
even if this were a satisfactory OBJ
ective, there is little likelihood it
viii be achieved because of federal
naction. To reach this goal for 1868
7ould mean finding jobs for 4,8O4,-
90 workers.
That is about two million more
han found jobs after the recession
f 1858 and 100000 higher than
ne employment increase after the
954 recession. Democrats, as you
Ray recall, described these as "Eisen-
over recessions".
There is not yet Kennedy recess
on'' but we may be approaching
ne. AS Reuther suggests, we are
flying blind into the age of auto
lation -
On the one hand we see that pro-
uctivity has skyrocketed because of
On the other hand de-
and for goods is tagging because of
unemployment for which
ltomation is partly responsible.
The big question, of course, is
neither we can accommodate our
Ives to an economy of abundance?
r will we find that it suffocates us?
onic isn't it, in an age when half
e world lacks food, clothing, and
e bare necessities?
IF the Republicans were to de-
-ote their regional and national
to tackling such prob
ems as those of automation, then
maybe their Image" would change.
Joters are too sophisticated these
ays to believe that simply con-
Robert WeIch of the John
birch Society constitutes nation
| program.
NJ,