Full of foreboding, C.I.O. President Walter Reuther* stepped before the Joint Committee on the Economic Report in Washington last week to talk about the future. As far as Reuther could see, the horizon was cloudy—and the blackest clouds of all bore the label "automation." Citing the example of an automatic engine-block assembly line on which 41 workers now do a job that once required 117, Reuther foresaw the day when "entire plants, offices or departments in much of industry and commerce will be operated by electronic control mechanisms." The Administration, he cried, had better do something now about planning for automation before the U.S. drifts "along aimlessly into dislocations and disruptions, mass unemployment and catastrophic depression."
"Just Plain Silly." Next day, at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Johnstown, Pa., quite another view of automation was advanced by U.S. Steel's Chairman Benjamin Fairless. Said he: "Automation has become a menacing word—a kind of modern bogeyman with which to frighten our people." Fairless went on to show why he thought the fears "just plain silly." Was not the telephone industry the prime example of automation, with its increased use of dial phones? Yet between 1940 and 1950, said Fairless, the number of telephone operators in the U.S. increased by 159,000, or 79%. In the same ten-year period, while vast strides were made with electronic business machines, the number of accountants jumped by 71%. As for the auto industry, Reuther's own stamping ground. Fairless noted that, despite big gains in automation, the number of auto workers doubled in 14 years—"and for every new job in the auto industry it is estimated that five new jobs are created in allied fields."
What about the overall effects of automation? In the past 15 years, said Fairless, the U.S. population has jumped 22%, while the number of jobs has grown by 35%. "And in the field of manufacturing itself—where automation has advanced most rapidly—employment has gone up 73% ... The record clearly shows that this rapid increase in employment has occurred chiefly because of mechanization, not in spite of it. The building of machines themselves—plus their installation, maintenance and the construction of new factories to house them—has opened up thousands of job opportunities that never existed before ... As mechanization has enlarged the output and the purchasing power of our people, it has also multiplied enormously their demand for services. So they, in their turn, employ more doctors and dentists, more engineers and scientists, and more teachers and clergymen. They send out more of their laundry, and they eat more often in restaurants. Even the fact that they have more leisure time has created more jobs for others."