Tax Labor-Ousting Machines to Aid Men They Displace, Unionist Urges
Tax Labor-Ousting Machines to Aid Men They Displace, Unionist Urges WASHINGTON, D. C — Labor" displacing; machinery should be taxed to create a fund for the relief of those whom...
...By spreading this over 2,700,000,000 cigars which represents machine output (60 per cent of 4,500,000,000) plus 45,000,000 (the added 1 per cent), we arrive at a contribution of $.0466 per 1,000 cigars...
...Joseph S. Myers, Conciliator of the United States Department of Labor, presided over the election...
...Whatever its impact on the social structure may mean in its call for changed methods and new views, we must face it and face it now...
...Assuming 1 per cent increased mechanisation for each quarter on the basis of a Mai aninal output of 4,500,000,000 cigars, the increased machine output would amount to 46,900,000 cigars...
...Ornburn contended that a practical method to relieve in part the suffering of cigarmakers from the constant unemployment caused by the substitution of machines for their brain and brawn is to impose a small tax on the machines themselves to create a relief fund, and thus enable the victimised workers to receive a small benefit from the machine which has made it impossible for them to obtain work at their trade...
...This problem of technological unemployment is one of the most crucial ones of the times...
...The election was called at the request of the tramway employees who had organised a union...
...The day has come when it should no longer be permitted...
...The party niultigraphed and distributed 25,00i> platforms and as many Feeley slogans, as well as thousands of fliers advertising bis meetings and backed him up with a telephone campaign...
...on the proposed code for the cigar-making industry...
...fat EVERYONE OF US has got to pitch in and work— and wors hard "Tram" Company Union Wiped Out in Denver DENVER, Colo.—The company union scheme was given a black ^cye here when emr'oyees of the Denver Tramway Corporation voted 353 to 825 to substitute the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees for a "company representative committee* as their agency for collective bargaining under the NRA code...
...Long terrorised and enslaved by the arrogant practices of antilabor capitalists, who forced tha notorious company union down the unwilling throats of their employees, the workers have taken advantage of tha National Recovery Act to organise in bona Ada trade unions without interference from the bosses...
...San Francisco Vote Up400% SAN FRANCISCO.—The Socialist vote )B the last municipal election shows a decided and encouraging incrjase of 400...
...Unfortunately, this is exactly what has happened for years...
...By the band method, using the ratio calculated by the Department of Labor, 448.4* employees would be required...
...Now for ten million members...
...For each 45,000,000 cigars added to machine output thereafter, the rate per thousand should be adjusted to the additional displacement...
...It seeks no retroactive applications of the principle embodied in it...
...machinery should be taxed to create a fund for the relief of those whom capitalists unscrupulously toss into the unemployed army when their industrial engineers substitute iron men for human beings in the production and distribution of wealth...
...Relief Fond Administration "Strict supervision over the relief fund and its adjustment to reemployment, with a lowering of the contribution according to the lowered demand on the fund because of re-employment, should be placed in the handa of a relief committee appointed by the Code Authority with proper regard for equitable representation of all interested parties...
...It is a reality which we, as representatives, as spokesmen, and as'leaders, must heed...
...Thousands Lose Jobs Workera in the cigar industry have suffered severely from the continued onslaught which manufacturers have made on them by the introduction of automatic cigar machines...
...Obviously the proposed contribution would still leave the victims of previous mechanisation uncared for...
...If we are not to fail we must come to grips with the problem instead of sidestepping it...
...If a higher rate of displacement should result from the introduction of more productive machinery, further adjustment of the rate would be necessary...
...Deducting the number of machine employees required from the number of hand employees, we arrive at a displacement of 246 employees...
...In explaining his proposition, Mr...
...These machines would require an average of iVt employees each, or 202 for 46 machines...
...Such a contribution would place the responsibility for technological unemployment squarely on the shoulders where it belongs...
...The results show that many workers ere ripe for Socialism...
...The leaann of the campaign, however, is that wo murt build a much stronger am...
...more efficient organisation...
...is the slogan, with good prospects for the realisation of this goal...
...To those of our comrades and sympathizers who worked hard ;n this campaign,, congratulations...
...The scores of volunteers, old and young, who worked without compensation are to be congiatulated...
...They brought a significant increase in the vote...
...Much jredit if due to Comrade Feeley hirasell for the scores of capable and inspiring talks be gave all over the city...
...nearly 6,000 votes for Thomas F. Feeley this time as against about 1,000 votes for our candidate two years ago...
...Ornburn said: $10 Per Weak for Idle "In order to temper the introduction of new machinery or the increased productivity of existing machines, with social responsibility for displacement of employees, it is proposed that a contribution, based upon a nnit of 1,000 cigars,, be made by the existing automatic machinery toward an unemployment relief fund sufficient to pay each displaced worker flO per week until such time as ha may be absorbed elsewhere...
...The new unions are located in every part of the United States and Canada and include all classes of working men and women...
...824 Unions Since July 1 WASHINGTON, D. C. — The American Federation of Labor has granted eight hun<* A and twenty* four charters to national and international unions, federal labor unions, and local unions since July 1st, Frank Morrison, secretary of the Federation, announced...
...That'we are forced to seek a solution is best answered by pointing to the suffering fellow-beings by whom we are beset This is no idle cry...
...At $10 per week for 62 weeks, a total of 1127,920 must be paid into the relief fund...
...It is realised that the machine cannot now be held suddenly responsible for the havoc created by it under a regime which tolerated social irresponsibility, but with equal reasonableness and firmness of conviction, the proposition of machine responsibility to humanity henceforth, is offered aa a measure of simple equity...
...but tha present proposal is tempered by the practical consideration of limit* to the burden which the machine can be asked to carry...
...that getting votes for our party ia nearly aa easy aa picking ripe fruit off a tree...
...Machinery and Social Progress "If relief were left to the Government, the machine, unencumbered, would be free to create further unemployment, irresponsibly, without bothering to ask about the effect of its progress upon the displaced human beings...
...Problem Most Not Be Sidestepped "If the proposal does not of itself offer a complete solution, it may at least lead to a greater understanding of the problem...
...This was the recommendation which I. M. Ornburn, president of the Cigarmakers' International Union of America, presented at the hearing by the A.A.A...
...45 Machines Scrap 250 Workers "If we calculate 1,000,000 cigars per year per machine, it becomes evident that 45 machines would be placed in operation...
...Statistics compiled by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 13,881 cigarmakers were displaced in 1927, while 10,797 mot a similar fate in 1929, and 21,366 in 1931...
Vol. 16 • December 1933 • No. 23
