Today throughout the states automatic printers do
tile work of thousands of the former dot and dash
men. One person, often a girl, sits at a machine, with
a keyboard similar to a typewriter, and starts typing
'known in the trade as punching). As a result of
inventive genius, the words she types on the machine
are automatically copied on receiving machines in
offices all over the country, eliminating scores of re
ceiving telegraphers. The same sort of elimination of;
man power is found in dozens of other industries.,
These are the technological unemployed. What then
is to be done for them, or, perhaps better to say,!
where are they to find new means of livelihood?
Harold I. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior and Ad- 1
minixtrator of Public Works, made an excellent point
in this connection in a recent address in the National
Capital when he said:
With the depletion of our natural resources
there has gone hand in hand a sharp curtail
ment of opportunities for employment on the
farms, in the mines and in the factories. Year
after year, due to improved processes more
produce and goods are being turned out with
less human labor. The result is what has come
to be known as technological unemployment.
It has been estimated that in 1929. which was
Supposed to be the peak year of American
prosperity for all time, there were in this
country between two and two and a half mil
lion men ready and willing to work who could
find no work to do. There seems to be no limit
to the output of American inventors and tech
nicians. And It is reasonable to suppose that,
as time goes on. there will be more and more
men unable to find employment for techno
logical reasons.
