St. Paul recorder., 1962-11-30
Unemployment Is A
National Responsibility

Unemployment clearly played an important part
in election upsets throughout the country voters
registered their disturbance about conditions by vot
ing against the incumbents. The impact of this
uneasiness about economic conditions felt most
jarrngly In the gubernatorial elections though
the power of the governors to deal with the problem
Is at best very limited.
This uneasiness was a factor in electing Repub-
licans in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Two
years ago Governor Andersen used the issue with
telling effect against the incumbent OrVile Free
man-and this year it boomeranged
What can a governor do about unemployment?
He can't order the mining companies to put the
miners back to work the range. Those who
argue that he can accomplish the desired result by
providing "a favorable business climate" are talking
through their hats and most Of them know it. There
some possibilities in the organized encourage
ment Of industry, but these possibilities
limited Moreover they tend to develop into a kind
Of competitive bidding system between the states
which is self-defeating and often destructive.
Whether the critical employment situation
face could have been avoided as automation be-
gan chewing up jobs Is academic question now.
But many people think the impact of automation
could at least have softened by careful govern
ment and industry planning. Indeed some efforts
along this line made back in the 1905 For
example the Rust brothers, who invented the mech
antcal cotton picker spent good deal OF time ana
effort proposals and plans for using the proceeds
of this development to help those displaced by the
machine.
But most automation has been undertaken with
out a thought for human consequences. The federal
governments power to influence the timing Of auto
nation to give consideration to human values has
been used but little If at all And the process goes
forward faster and faster dsplacing those workers
who are least equipped by education and experience
to adapt to new work.
The resulting crisis is bound to get worse, and
This administration like previous ones, seems to
feel that the economic crisis can be dealt with by
manipulation of the national budget and taxation
policy but we are convinced that it must be faced
in more personal more human terms. The real crisis
Is what is happening to people, whether they are
miners the iron range mill hands in Birmingham
and Pittsburgh or field hands who follow the harv
est through the orchard and garden country. What
Is happening is that machines eating up their
jobs at a faster and faster pace.
The governors of state cannot do much If
anything, about this. The governors, thus, in
nocent victims of development that is deeply dis
turbing to the voters
The national government can do something
about it. 1t can influence the rate of automation
which it has recently been encouraging. 1t can do
more heroic job of organizing work for those who
are displaced by machines and other economic de-
velopments. job heroic, perhaps as that Of the
New Deal in the 193Os, when PWA and WPA saved
millions of Americans all but defeated by the break
down of the economy.