The following article is reprinted from the AFL-CIO News and is an excerpt from the nightly broadcasts of Edward P. Morgan, ABC commentator sponsored by the AFL-CIO. * * * HILE WE WERE HAVING our hands full with the British in the War of 1812, the British were busy at home trying to subdue the violent fringe of the working class which had rebelled against the industrial revolution. Roving bands of workers called Luddites, after a poor chap named Ned Lud who about three decades earlier had begun the protest by breaking stocking frames, invaded factories and smashed the new machinery they thought would rob them of their jobs. There was painful dislocation and shame- less exploitation. but out of this mechanization emerged the incredible material strength and wealth of the western world. Today we have a new kind of industrial revolution on our hands which may well have a sharper, deeper influence on civilization than the first. It is the automation of industry, which is already revolutionizing the American society and doing it so swiftly that we hardly are aware of what is hap- pening. I haven’t heard of a worker chopping down an IBM machine or shooting holes in the operations console of a push- button factory. Organized labor uses more sophisticated tactics to protect jobs now, though some of these have been severely criticized as “irresponsible” feather-bedding. Responsible union lead- ers, however. know that needless work artificially preserved is both unsound and degrading. The more thoughtful ones are searching for more lasting and realistic solutions. But they are deeply concerned. It was such concern that led AFL-CIO Pres. George Meany at the convention in New York last month to warn that auto- mation is becoming a “real curse.” Then he invited one of the country’s leading experts on automation, John I. Snyder, Jr., president of U.S. Industries, Inc., to address the conven- tion ‘on the subject. Like it or not, Snyder said, automation is here to stay. He denied it was an evil but indicated it could be if we in- sisted on developing a kind of mythology about its “magic” instead of recognizing the upheaval it was causing. Then he proceeded to shoot down five “fallacies” that have concealed automation’s shattering impact. FALLACY NO. ONE: Automation is not really going to eliminate many jobs. Already it is gobbling them up at a rate of 40,000 a week and this is just whetting its appetite. FALLACY NO. TWO: Automation will create new jobs in the building, running and maintenance of new machines. Fact: In the building of them, maybe, but if it took a big battery of men to run and maintain them, why automate? FALLACY NO. THREE: Those displaced can be rapidly retrained and immediately replaced in other jobs. Fact: By present techniques many workers are simply not retrainable. FALLACY NO. FOUR: Workers displaced in one area can easily be assimilated somewhere else. Fact: Those who lose their jobs are usually just those least able to move in the first place. FALLACY NO. FIVE: There is no relationship between the automation revolution and the Negro revolution. Fact: “This is patent nonsense.” Actually, the technogolical up- heaval has intensified the drive for civil rights because the Negro, always the “last hired and first fired,” is suffering the most from unemployment. Solutions? A partial one, Snyder said, might just be a 25-hour-workweek, which organized labor advocates. But total solutions, he added, depend on total planning toward, first, creation of new industries and second, creation of new markets for our products. “Planning” has heen a dirty word in the American vocabu- lary but when a distinguished industrialist uses the phrase “total planning,” what in the world are we coming to? To our sense maybe, with the realization that our economy is no longer free, in the licentious 19th Century meaning. Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER is January 16. Deadline for ad copy is January 9, and for news copy January 10. A RATE Ted WESTERN CANADIAN f BOLLE Published Twice Monthly on the First and Third Thursdays by INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA (AFL-CIO-CLC) Regional Council No. 1 Editor . . . Grant MacNeil REGIONAL OFFICERS: =>" : Jack Moore Jack MacKenzie mt... Po Jack Holst President .. . id lediintackanain inns IO: pee ae Te AOOEE AER sorte rnmen Fred Pieber national Members Joe Madden, Walter F. Allen Address all communications to: J lg FIEGER, Secretary-Treasurer F mercial , Vancouver, B.C. Beg i RY A = 8 Unt aaa 2S SS ee a aaa THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER New Style Industrial Revolution Demands New, ‘Total’ Solutions He Needs Direction Two Democratic Senators, Minnesota’s Hubert Humphrey and Michigan’s Philip Hart, have introduced a bill to create a governmental commission to examine every aspect of tech- nological change. From such continuing study, the impacts of automation could be more clearly anticipated. This is the kind of work the so-called “think factories” like the Rand Corp. do for the Defense Dept. If this helps military planning why can’t a government agency make similar use of brains and machines to enhance economic de- velopment, asked Pres. Joseph Beirne of the Communications Workers. The answer is it can, if Congress will listen to it. ast to announce the appointment of to head up an expanded SERVICE DEPT. problems for the usual expert attention. CAD, symbol of pioucee chain saw V7 quality 328 CARRALL STREET MUtual 4-1822 ANNOUNCEMENT to ALL CHAIN SAW USERS Knowing as we do that a GOOD PRODUCT deserves GOOD SERVICE, WESTERN PIONEER CHAIN SAW SALES are pleased DOUG LASCELLE Doug is one of the most highly qualified men in the industry, particu- larly in the field of welding and bar repairs. Most recently he was for many years HEAD CHAIN SAW MECHANIC with PURVIS RITCHIE. As of now, Doug will bring to WESTERN PIONEER the same quality of service which built his reputation, and he wishes to extend a cordial welcome to old friends to drop in and bring their service WESTERN PIONEERCHAIN SAW SALES 1st Issue January, 1964 Swedish Workers Insured A special life insurance company formed jointly by the Swedish central labour body and the employers con- federation insured more than 1,200,000 workers during its first six months of operation. The Labor Market Insur- ance Company was blished as part of the two- year central agreement early in 1962. The mutual life in- surance company, writing group contracts, started oper- ations at the beginning of 1963. In the first six months, 73,- 400 employers paid annual premiums of 92 Swedish crowns for the surviving spouse, plus 7,000 crowns for each dependent child. A total of 107 million crowns was paid in premiums during the first half year. By July a total of 1,700 benefit claims had been re- ceived and settlements total- ling 24,000,000 crowns had been made — the average benefit claim was 20,180 crowns. It is anticipated that 85,000 employers with a total of 1,- 300,000 employees will even- tually participate in the novel labor-management insurance program. VANCOUVER 4, B.C. esta- — ~