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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 1963)
TUESDAY. DKCEMHKR 17, l3 MEDFORD .MAIL 1KIBLNE, MEDFORD, OREGON The Problems of Automation-Part II 10 A ends of American s Losing Jobs Bv HARRY FERGUSON WASHINGTON (UPI) - You own a small candy store locat ed one block from a high school and you have one clerk. One day a man appears at the high school and Installs a machine from which the students can "Oil To Burn" S&H Green Stamps MEDFORD FUEL CO. Phone 772-2111 Ret candy bars by dropping a coin in a slot. Here, in its simplest form, is the dilemma of automation. The pupils bcein buying candy from the machine and your business drops to the point where you have to fire your clerk. But the nation's lalair force still is in balance. On lob has been lost hut one also 1ms been gained the man who slocks the candy machine. But then he Installs two, then three, thi'n four machines in the scIimiiI. The time comes when you can't pay the DESTINATION: McGuire's . . . and just think about Dad's sur prised look when he finds that chair he's wanted under the Christmas tree! 220 NO. BARTLETT Neil to Greyhound Bui Depot Open 9:30-5:30 Daily Except by Appointment i rent and you go out of busi- ness. Now the labor force is out of balance because two jobs have been lost and only one gained. One estimate is that 40.000 American workers are losing their jobs every week because of automation. It is a guess ra ther than an estimate because nobody has any hard figures on the problem, nobody has gone from city to city counting heads. Even if they did so, the i statistics would he deceiving be cause many of the 40.000 might have moved to another town and found work. I'm and Con You will not find here any definitive answer to the ques- I tion of whether, over-all and in the long run, automation causes unemployment. Persons eminent ly qualified can be found on both sides of the question with statistics and examples that arc above reproach Like this: In the first nine months of ! this year General Motors Corp. fnmnlmmrt a tntnl nf Idfi IK7 Tint. sons in this country. For the same period last year 3112.207 were employed. General Motors relies heavily on automation, but here we have the number of workers increasing. Daily to Automation There are Instances where automation causes only a tem I porary loss of jobs. Cadillac in ! stalled an engine cylinder block machining department. It re duced the number of workers needed from 89 to 71. Thus 18 persons were laid off early in July, but all of them were re hired for other jobs in Septem ber. That is the bright side of the automation picture, but there is a dark one, ton: In 1023 there were (543,200 men employed in this country mining bituminous coal. Over the years labor saving machin ery was introduced. By 10 the number of miners employed had fallen to 139,400. Here you have more than 500,000 men, trained to do only one thing, thrown on the labor market. Studies made last June showed that the number of em ployes in a leading chemical company was down by 8 per cent; a big oil company was down 28 per cent; and a food corporation was down 25 per cent. All of them had gone in heavily for automation. Basic Factor Any generalization about au- Honor Inmates Worthy of Rating SAN MATEO, Calif. (UPI) San Mateo County Sheriff Earl I WhHmore announced proudly I Monday that 70 inmates at the county honor camp have prov en they know the meaning of the word "honor." Whitmore said he planned to review the sentences of all 70 to determine if "some paroles might be in order. The sheriff said early Satur day morning the 70 inmates were filing nut into the chill air for muster, when deputy Owen Bell the only officer at the camp between midnight and 8 a.m. fainted and struck his head on the pavement floor. Bell, 30, was carrying the keys to all the remote Laguna Honda camp's facilities, plus the keys to three vehicles at the camp. However, three of the prison ers ran to the camp radio to inform the sheriff's office of Bell's collapse, a few others gave emergency first aid to the deputy, and the rest went about their regular work assignments. None of the prisoners at tempted to escape. Eisenhowers Due at Palm Desert Resort SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (UPI) Former President and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower were due to arrive here this morning on the way lo llieir winter vacation resort home in Palm Desert, Calif. The Eisenhowers left Harris- burg, Pa., by train early Sun day morning and were due here at R a.m. FLINCH - One of the best known and popular card games for family play. Deck of 150 cards. 1.44 RICH UNCIE'-With or with out the advice of Uncle Pennybags some clever play er wil make hn ten ihou and grow to fifty. 2.44 ClUE'-Havfi fun nd sharp en your witj. A fascinating "Whodunit" with li x us prcM jind exciting plot. 2.88 Inmation is dangerous, hut it is fairly safe to say that the com petitive position of the industry or corporation involved is a basic factor in the employment picture. General Motors hired more people this year than last, but it also manufactured more au tomobiles. Bituminous coal was forced into a bad position when the demand for coal fell off be cause of the competition from natural gas and petroleum. Those factors, plus the labor saving machinery, spelled dis aster for the bituminous labor force. Persons who look on automa tion without fear like to cite what happened when the Unit ed States emerged from the horse and buggy age. There were about 225,000 persons em ployed to make wagons, har ness and put shoes on horses. The automobile swiftly put them out of work. But within a few years there were 2 million persons employed in manufac turing, servicing and selling au tomobiles. Persons who fear automation have this quick reply: If it is true that automation creates jobs, why are there 3.9 million persons unemployed today? They mention "silent firings," meaning that jobs that might he available to the army of un employed already are being done by automation. t Retraining Roadblocks Much emphasis is put on the , retraining of the unemployed to 1 equip them for jobs in automat ; ed factories. The federal gov jernment has plunged into it with 12,294 projects all over the country involving 96.335 per sons. There are about 6,000 ad ditional persons being trained on the job, that is, they are taught while they are working. But the program runs into some curious resistance re gardless of whether the project is sponsored by the government or private industry. In Califor nia, 50.000 unemployed persons were eligible for a 13-wcek re training course. Only 38 applied and only 20 actually took the course. A meat packing firm offered retraining to 433 work ers displaced by machines. Only 58 actually took the course and only 20 wound up with jobs. The automobile unions have a saying that "automation in De troit can mean firings in Fort Wayne." What they mean is that the auto makers can auto male one process that elim inates the need for a feeder fac tory in some other city. Are workers willing to move out of a dead town into a live one? i The fact is that those thrown ! out of work are the least able to move because they usually are the oldest workers and the lowest paid. A middle-sized company built an automated factory in a new area and of fered 325 persons a moving al- owned hourses for which there i lowance to make the change. It i was no market and could not Next: What the machines can developed that more than 100 1 afford to move. I and can't do. f, FOR YOUR nrAAnno ... iCOUHUO and ONOGRAP HS 1 All Types Records-Singles and Albums Phonos from $19.95 TERMS ON ALL PHONOS' IF DESIRED A CHARGE PLATE STORE MEDFORD. OREGON OPEN EVERY NIGHT 'TIL 9 Including Saturday, Dec. 21st "The Store of a Thousand Thoughtful Gifts" jer.MMWiiw.wj I Sanla In Person UU:, TOYLAND j! f fi rS.U.4p.m."m L. .XMBSmA LOWER FLOOR f f . ( ' ,2 4 ;n ; - m . wk$ -m 13 ISM :(! ALMOND 1)1 ', ALMOND 1 -aH fes- 1 : 41 ROCA ifl ROTA ffl MONOPOLY Parker Bro- LIFE - a family game. True EASY MONEY A Milton ' $ Jf4 k ' - A-'' . mJ ther famous real aslata trad- lo life gamo tor 2 lo 8 play- Bradley game of high fi- vfc.'V " . t.-. - i ' Ajl xC. Mm '8 Q' ers. nance. 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