Labor: Smash the Machines?

Considering what automation has done for U.S. industry, and the fact that the U.S. currently has 70 million employed, it was strange to hear President George Meany at the A.F.L.-C.I.O. convention. Said he: “Every big corporation in America is in a mad race to produce more and more with less and less labor. Their plans for expansion are staggering, and every one of them calls for more and more pushbutton operations with machines to push buttons, if you please—even eliminating the human element there. Automation is rapidly becoming a curse to our society.”