The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1962-11-30

rate schools. Restrictive covenant
became way of life; and in spite o.
federal financing of housing that ha
extended into the billions, those cove
nants are firmly rooted in most com
munities. Colored people are still ex
Guided from juries and from the vot
ing lists.
STILL A FORCE FOR DISUNITY
Racial discrimination appeared
even in governmental employment
State laws emerged, aimed at the
practice; and the '40s and sos saw
progress. Yet Americans do not today
speak in one voice. Racial discrimina-
ton is still force for disunity. Many
trade unions-either by reason of a
constitutional provision in charter
or by reason of habit and practice
still bar Negroes. The teachings of
the Declaration of Independence are
not always remembered.
The racial problem is only one of
several ways that saps our strength.
Automation promises to make the
machine more dominant over man
than ever before. With that domi-
nation comes insecurity at the
prospect of unemployment. Idle
ness, even when the idle people are
paid, is a corrosive influence. There
is therapy in work; it creates joy
and sense of fulfillment. A nation
e = l.
though everyone receives a hand
some pension.
THE MACHINE: AN OLD
PROBLEM
This problem of the domination of
the machine over man is not a new
one. The mood of the fifty years pre-
ceding 1861 is often referred to visit
fully as the Romantic Age. Yet there
we're then shaping up voices of dis
content who were to be heard for a
century. A working mems meeting
IF Sept. &c, 1929, (as related by Mark
and Schwab in THE FAITH OF OUR
FATHERS) complained that there
vas as yet ''no system of education
for the poor" that monopolies |
strengthened "the aristocracy'' and |
reduced "the power of the farmer,
Mechanic and labourer," that ''half |
If society are the slaves of etiquette |
md the other of excessive labour,"
md that the producers of wealth
ire poor and dependent, whilst the
consumers are rich and powerful"
AN ERA OF EXPLOITATION
The gilded age that followed the
jivil War proved that those COM
laints were based on fact and that
reat reforms were necessary, for
hat age greatly exploited both our
esources and our people. The gilded
ge was laissez faire period, when
was rampant and hu-
ian rights were made secondary to
roperty rights. During the thirty
id years of the last century and the
rst decades of the present one, no
manac of liberty would record
any victories of human rights over
lie machines. !
The legal dimensions of the prob :
EN- have greatly changed but the /
central issue remains. Who will
own the machines that supplant 6
men? How will men find work" :,
hat is SO vital to human welfare? =
The civil service that was to save v
vernment from the "spoils' system l.
S produced vast bureaucracies that "
e heavy-footed and under watchful 9,
es. The loyalty-security programs II
verning employees now reach into m
2 private sector. All who do bust g,
SIS with the government need Sc o.
rity clearance. The engineer who h,
S given his best years to reach a n,
5000 salary loses everything if he II
branded a poor security risk-his III
OCCASIONAL standing and his liveli-
cd as well.
CHESS BREEDS CONFORMITY
PUBLIC ISSUES {