"FIRE BUT DO NOT HIRE AT 40" HAS AROUSED IRE OF ENGINEERS' ASSN.
"Fire but Do Not Hire at 40" Has Aroused Ire of Engineers' Assn. Professional Men in Fear of Application of Industrial Policy [Special to The Progressive] CHICAGO. III.—American Industry is...
...To fight the "Fire-at-Forty" policy, further figures must be obtained showing the extent of the practice, according to leaders of the "old" workers...
...An increase in the appropriation for the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been made to permit the gathering of necessary data...
...They are decrepit, not amenable to present working conditions...
...But with gathering impetus the trend of the desires of the employers manifested itself...
...The government has lent its aid in this...
...His faculties have dimmed, his I»wer weakened, he must make way for those younger...
...Davis is quoted as saying that discharge of the worker at an age arbl-i irarily ftxeri, rrgavdVess of his fitness, :s becoming a general policy...
...In the Jast decade the association officials were amazed and shocked at an ever growing tendency of employers to bid for young engineers rather than their old-tr, more seasoned and experienced colleagues...
...Clarence Darrow, 72...
...We don't want the men...
...Thomas A. Edison, 83...
...Oliver Wendell Holmes, the oldest is 8a...
...A. P. Sloan, General Motors Corporation head, 54...
...It wasn't believed at first...
...FROM AN OLD FRIEND [Sturgis, S. D., Jan...
...of forty or more...
...They merely mean extra years of unemployment and dependence upon others, years of idleness, usclcssness and often penuryIn effect, this is the view taken by the American employer of the worker over forty: forty or mlore cannot rtand the strain of modern business conditions whether In office, factory or a field...
...President Hoover, 55...
...John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 55...
...It is one which special-i?c3 in obtaining jobs for elderly people...
...Clemenceau, who saved France after seventy...
...As part cf its service to its members the American Association of Engineers has an employment bureau to keep them in constant activity if possible...
...Harvey, discovering the blood circulation system of .the human body when he was fifty...
...Casting about for every sign of the times they could find, the survey workers came upon an interesting tid-bit in the experience of a New York employment agency...
...Dwight W. Marrow...
...And this is affecting nol onlv laborers and the skilled trades, but the professions, too...
...That's what has actually been done to start the fight, and it's a pretty good indication that there IS an enemy...
...Government Active To such proportions has this age discrimination by Industrial magnates grown, that the U. S. government has Joined private organizations- in instituting counter action...
...Thev listed men like: Columbus, who made his first trip to America when past fifty...
...They noted instead the deeds of countless men- who did not find themselves until they had seen more than two score years...
...But it does not even stop there...
...Give us the more youthful engineers," it asserted...
...The years added to his life arc hardly of t.'ncfU to th...
...The survey thus far indicates that industry, in the face of Its strong approval of scientific improvement of health to lengthen the life span...
...fcfc Back to Stone Age Countless others made up the list compiled...
...Interpreters of the statistics new on hand poiri to the economic fault latent in this inconsistent stand...
...III.—American Industry is ousting workers of forty or past as undesirables: Fire, but do not hire, at forty...
...He also reports that the tendency to fire, but not hire, at forty has spread until it includes all the trades...
...That there really exists such a movement as the "Fire-at-Forty" one...
...Hugo Erkner, learned to fly after forty and flew around the globe at sixty...
...and Charles E. Hurtles...
...In the professions and other fields: Harlan T. Stone, the youngest judge in the United States Supreme court is 56...
...We not only won't hire them—we are getting rid of all like them that we already have...
...John Hays Hammond, 74...
...Elmer A. Spcrry, 6fc Elihu Root, 84...
...While studies of the age discrimination problem have been under way for some time, the one now sponsored by the American Association of Engineers is prompted by the fact that the careers of professional men are endangered...
...It is claimed...
...Henry Ford, 66...
...Outside of especially hazardous occupations and heavy labor Jobs, the age limit used to be the sky...
...Those making the survey looked at American Industry and found these leaders...
...according to a survey just completed by the American Association of Engineers...
...H. W. Westing-house, 75...
...More, who sent the first telegram after fifty...
...It Is just a paper for voters, as it tells the truth, I have taken La Follette's Magazine for years and shall now subscribe for The Progressive...
...In an eighteen month period in which 5800 persons, none under 35, applied for positions, the agency was able to place just 200 applicants...
...Digging through historical and contemporary records, the American, Association of Engineers' research workers failed to find any precedent for this revolutionary attitude taken by industry...
...Pasteur, over sixty when he discovered rabies treatment...
...Through this medium contact is established with thousands of employers...
...i» a rlictum rapidly gaining popularity in all branches of business...
...With Its thousands of members to protect, the association hopes to analyze the situation and find a happy solution...
...Troposed help is also in the offing in several forms Including a number of bills already' brought up in Congress to aid the general unemployment situation...
...In fact there wasn't, any...
...William Wrlgley, Jr., 68...
...20]—The Progressive should be in every home...
...La Follette's Magazine and The Progressive are a great help for children (lint study economics in school.—Mrs...
...worker or society...
...So many in fact, It would sworn according (o the report, that were their deeds to be eliminated from history, the world would be thrown back to a period somewhere about the stone age, or earlier, perhaps...
...Kate S. Anderson...
...Men who study until they are nearly thirty to perfect themselves in learned professions, And themselves cast off ai forty...
...Charles M. Schwab, 67...
...Now, in a recent magazine article, Secretary of Labor James .1...
...The figures gathered reveal that age has become more and more generally accepted as a measure of ability...
...Is Itself cutting short tiW-work span of the American worker...
...T!harles Gates Dawes, 64...
...In addition, the government has also provided for unemployment Information to be obtained with the 1930 census...
...Von Hindrnburg, in his eighties now, and conducting the redemption of Germany...
...Gutenberg, who invented printing from type after forty...
Vol. 1 • February 1930 • No. 10
