Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 32

4-f Sunday, Feb. 7, '65 DETROIT FREE PRESS -nn-janr'' -irriTf t. ,11 amrrnWiti r-mmm TnT.i--nmhmi-n.tfi. i nnr vn i tm ii.iil,ftiii,i,lilM-Mtl lllfMMM. iWiifiWlWlfaxwii Machines Haven't Licked Man Yet ently convinced that automation makes more jobs than it destroys." But Wirtz hastens to add that this statement Itself "suffers so from semantic fever that it is barely rational." Wirtz has no really meaningful statistics to back up his statement.

Neither does John I. Snyder, president of U.S. Industries, who has been one of the most vocal and widely-quoted exponents of the view that automated machines are replacing workers at a rata of 40,000 a week. Nor does Dr. Donald N.

Michael, the sociologist who invented the word, have any reliable figures ta back up his sweeping proclamation that cybernation means the end of full employment. DANIEL BELL, Columbia University sociologist, puts it rather bluntly: "Nobody knows a damn thing about it; it's all a matter of assumption, speculation." Bell is a member of the new 14-member National Commission of Technology, Automation and Economic Progress established by Congress last year. It held its first formal meeting last week. Armed with an appropriation of $800,000, the commission is charged with the responsibility of taking a comprehensive look at automation and recommending to President Johnson and Congress "the most constructive action that can be taken to secure maximum benefits with the least possible harmful effects upon the nation." This study, and a $5-million project at Harvard University, are the most important efforts now under way to take some of the guesswork and doomsaying out of the emotionally-charged discussions which until now have characterized almost every attempt to assess automation and Its impact upon the nation. By James Robinson Free Press Washington Staff WASHINGTON This was the year when ID) automation was supposed to take over.

Remember? Factory workers kicked off the assembly lines by computerized robots would march silently off to human junk heaps and take their places alongside the old automobiles and other remnants of a mechanized society. The unemployment rate was going to hit 10 per cent In 1965, while production continued to increase at an alarming rate. was the view of the future trumpeted loudly from some ivory towers back in 1957 and 1958. only was automation destroying job faster than society could think up new ones, but a new threat had been discovered. Automated brains (computers) were falling In love with automated machinery and producing an offspring called cybernation, capable of displacing the men whose job it was to control the machines that made other machines.

IT HASN'T HAPPENED quite that way. Automation, the growling monster of five years ago, i3 turning out to be a surprisingly tame pussycat. Computers, initially developed for military use, have been in commercial operation in private industry for more than a decade. They have revolutioned business and industry. At least 20,000 are now in general purpose use outside of government and the number is increasing at the rate of about 500 a month.

But they haven't made man obsolete, either on the factory floor or in the executive suite. Take a look at som figures. Latest reports from the Department of Labor disclose that manufacturing employment has again increased, for the third straight year. In the blue-collar area, where automation was supposed to have its greatest impact, more than a million production workers have been added to the work force in the last three years, a dramatic change from the preceding three years when manufacturing employment declined by nearly 300,000. The computerized economy has boosted productivity and output per man hour, but only at a slightly faster pace than In the decade before computers entered the industrial picture 3.6 per cent average annual increase sine 1960, compared with 3.1 per cent between 1947 and 1960.

The average gross weekly earnings of production workers in manufacturing industries is up to $106.55, an increase of nearly $15 since 1960. Total unemployment is down to less than 5 per cent. Last year 1,500,000 new jobs were added to the economy, more than enough to take care of the number ot new workers who entered the active labor market. SO, ECONOMISTS, labor leaders, businessmen and social scientists are taking a second and more sober look at automation. They no longer speak of automation "destrojing 1.5 million to 2 million" jobs every year, jobs that were supposedly "lost forever." That many jobs do disappear every year, but not from automation.

Department of Labor economists now say that during the 10-year period between 1950 and 1960, an average of only 187,000 jobs a year were lost in manufacturing. The 1.5 to 2 million jobs that disappear each year Is a gross figure, helpful perhaps in measuring the changing character of the economy and the uses of labor. But the figure is almost meaningless in terms of employment and job opportunity. Jobs disappear when businesses go bankrupt, when factories become obsolete and are replaced, when consumers change from one brand of breakfast food to a'nother, and for thousands of other reasons, most of which are only remotely, if at all, connected with automation, or even technological changes. At the same time, new jobs are created, new firms are created, new products appear on the market, population growth and rising incomes boost consumption.

In total, jobs are being created at an annual rate of 2.5 to 3.5 million a year. LOUIS T. KADEK, General Electric vice president of electronics, estimates that the computer industry is providing employment for one million persons in manufacturing, sales and service. Secretary of Labor Willard Wlrtz says: "I am pres AND IN DETROIT Nose NAILERS (gZ Auto Jobs Rival Record 55: HONEY- COM3 7A Significant increases in the average weekly wages of domestic hourly employes (including overtime) also have been achieved over the last decade, specifically: GM from $102.41 to $150 Ford from $106.68 to $149.77. Chrysler from $93 to $144.25.

The proponents of pessimism obviously did not allow for the spectacular growth and expansion the industry has enjoyed when they voiced their fears of automation in the '50s. And Henry Ford II, Ford chairman, added another explanation: "None of our stamping plants Is as automated now as when we built it. Because of the differences in the demands of buying public for different sizes of cars and the resulting broad range of our production program, we do not have the long runs we once had." A GM EXECUTrYE advanced another Idea! "Every time we take man hours out of the product by a technological advance, we seem to add something to the car that takes new man hours, like tilt steering wheels and other innovations. "We are making cars that people could not afford If we had not achieved technological advancements in production. How could we sell these cars without developing better ways to do things? "We make changes every year, and we think in terms of changes all the time," he said.

A LABOR RELATIONS official said the impact of automation on automobile employment has been softened by provisions written into UAW contracts, some of them as early as 1940, covering layoffs caused by changes in methods, products or policies. What about a totally automated automobile plant in the long range future? The prospects are very slim indeed, it appears, because of the cost factor. "This industry has its own built-in policeman in the form of its pocketbook," a Big Three executive commented. AUTOMATION, so the legend goes, i3 s-) A a Detroit-created word, aptly com-pounded from "automatic" and "imagination." And imagination, It now appears, also became a principal ingredient in creating the widely-trumpted bugaboos that automation would destroy manufacturing jobs by the millions in the auto industry as well as other key industries. Certainly, to the vehicle manufacturers, the no-human-hands plant never appeared to be any more of an imaginative figment than it does now.

The Big Three's employment figures are up and apparently still growing from the 1957-58 era when the doomsayers were having their heyday. Actually, 1964 employment at General Motors and Ford Motor Co. even compares very favorably with 1955, when the Industry turned out 7.9 million passenger cars to set a record that still stands. Chrysler employment is below the 1955 level. But Chrysler, at that time, was overloaded far beyond its needs with hourly workers, and subsequent wholesale layoffs were largely an essential corrective action that had little direct relation to automation.

AT ANY RATE, present Big Three payrolls of nearly 800,000 hourly and salaried employes are far higher than anything the critics of automation foresaw for the '60s. The automobile manufacturers naturally would like to be able to prove statistically that automation has CREATED jobs in their Industry. Instead, they do maintain that advancing manufacturing technology has had little, if any, adverse impact on employment. The manufacturers admit that there are some instances where automation has been painful to individuals who have been displaced by machines or dislocated in the closing down of an inefficient plant. 'But one thing for sure," a top labor executive said, "any drop in passenger car sales would Uy Tom Kleene Free Press Business-Industry Writer have a far greater effect on the size of our work force than automation has had." FORD'S total United States employment, including both salaried and hourly workers, last year averaged out to 176,000, which was 8,600 under the 1955 figure.

The difference can be accounted for largely by the transfer of its West Coast Aeronutronic operation to Philco, a wholly-owned Ford subsidiary not included in the total, and the closing down of Chicago and Kansas City defense operations. A breakdown between the two classifications is not available, but the trend unlike that at GM and Chrysler is towards a growing percentage of hourly workers and a diminishing share of salaried employes. THE GENERAL MOTORS rolls last year were only 4,000 under the 1955 total despite the fact that defense business has dwindled sharply from its nine per cent of sales in 1955. The 500,000 employes last year included 130,000 salaried and 370,000 hourly, compared with salaried and 390,000 hourly nine years earlier. The increasing percentage of salaried workers to some extent reflects an upgrading of jobs.

Similarly, the ratio of skilled tradesmen to production workers at GM has shifted from one to 10 in the early postwar years to one to six at the present time. "It now takes more people to maintain equipment, and the multiplicity of models requires more GM explained. CHRYSLER after a very sharp drop from 165,000 domestic employes in 1955, has been building up its employment in each of the last four years to its present total of 104,000. The 1955 ratio of eight to two in favor of hourly workers now has shifted to seven to three, partly as the result of some reclassification of former blue collar jobs to white collar Jobs. Jobs Aren't Gone-They're Changed ri i i The Chess Corner Exhibits Hone U.S.

hamp White to Mate in Two Moves Benko (Black) has Just moved 17. Q-Kl to reach the following board position. HQE3 mtm mmt mtm 13 0 then 24. Q3 and mate can-be prevented. This position is nearer the Fischer rook sacrifice than the Capablanca Nimzovitch position.

But Capablanca only set the trap which Nimzovitch avoided. Here the concept unfolds in all its glory. 23. K-N2 24. Q-Q3! This second offer of the rook is amusing, for if 24.

KxR, then 25. N-N4 ch, K-K2; 26. Q-Q6 mate. 24. P-KR4 25.

P-KR4! KxR 26. But this is almost unbelievable! 26. PxN 27. B-K5ch White's fourth sacrifice. A beautiful concept.

27 KxB 28. Q-Q4mate The principle of this combination is worth S. Pooler Staff Writer operates machine which perforates tape which is run through an automatic 'cold' type-setting machine." "Preformer Operator sets up forming machine to mold fibre-glass furniture seats." Which is just a little sample of the growing specialization and titles in jobs today. THE FIRST ISSUE of D. O.

which became a Bible for government and industrial employment services with its listing of job titles, the work performed and skills involved, came out 25 years ago. There were just some 17,500 job descriptions listed then from "Able-Bodied Seaman'' and "Abnormal Psychologist" to "Zig-Zag Machine Operator" and "Zoo Storekeeper" and even then some mighty odd job titles most Americans never heard of. Pinchers (not those in elevators, but who worked on the fuse handles of hand grenades) Metatarsal Pad Setters Barley Steepers, Barrel Branders', Batters Out (they work with clay to hand over to the Jiggerman), Bush Monkeys (who pile tanbark) Cattle Dehomers and Cauliflower Cutters the Gang Knife Man (who cuts fish in the right lengths for canning) Car Carders (who change the advertising cards in streetcars and buses) Acidizers (who treat oil wells to increase production) Nose Nailers Accommodators and Star-Boil-Off-Tank Operators. As evidence that Michigan's old lumbering industry had gone, or changed, still listed but with no openings were "grease monkeys" (the boys who greased the skids over which logs were dragged), "oil boys" (who greased the saws), "flumemen" and "ship-knee makers" (who cut timber to fit in wooden ships). But the chain saw worker had become a "saw jockey." The airplane industry had added "skin mill operator" and the "honeycomb router" (who shaped the honeycomb aluminum used In planes.) THERE ARE a lot more Job titles to cover one occupation than you think for the D.

O. T. is mighty thorough in its classifications. Such as breaking down "Entertainers" Into Acrobats, Actors, Jugglers, etc. And then classifying "Actors" into character men, heavies, juveniles, stooge, straight man, ingenue, understudy.

Oh yes, the burlesque "stripper" not to be confused with the macaroni, furniture, hide, pickling and other "strippers" is known officially as an "exotic dancer." Probably the biggest numerical class in the country is He's In every field, automotive, airplane, steel, building everywhere you look there's a foreman. By James Free Press qrOBS? Hold onto your hat! America will shortly show some 40,000 job titles for some 30,000 'different occupations. The old "Gandydancer" and "Grease Monkey" have disappeared. But along have come such new jobs as the "Programmer" (who feeds the right dope into computers) and the "Blue Freeze Man" (who seals openings in military tank3 so moisture won't get in during shipment overseas). That's just a little glimmer of the big changes going on in our industrial and economic life thousands of new jobs being found and hundreds of jobs becoming obsolete.

RIGHT NOW a corps of research workers at the Michigan Employment Security Corn-emission is winding up seven years' work on revising the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (D. O. Detroit is one of eight field centers in the country bringing D. O. T.

up to date. The occupation analylsts point out that the vanishing handcrafters the steel en- gravers, the coopers, the basket weavers have been replaced by new specialists In the electronics field, and rocketry and nu- clear energy. Everything from "radiation card inspec-I tors' in the nuclear energy plants to "minu- turization card weavers'' in electronics. HERE ARE SOME of the new job listings -for Michigan that will show up in the 1965 Tissue of D. O.

according to Thomas Rou- mell, director of the Michigan Employment Security Commission: "Bridal Consultant retail stores helps brides list preferences in china, sil-. ver, clothing helps arrange wedding." "Erector successor to millwrights puts technical machinery together to make several sections to perform several operations." "Brazer in shops abrazes carbide tips to induction heating machines." 'Casing-In-Line-Setup-Man printing Industry goes through various opera-' tions in binding books." "Glass Temperer new job resulting from technical changes in handling glass tempers glass in such operations as I bent automobile windshields." "Model Maker for fabric and plastic products shapes up new designs in cast, extruded and other forms also designs mock-ups for cars and furniture for school use." "Photo Composing Machine Perforator 8. B-Q3 QN-Q3 9. N-KB3 PxP 10. BxP X-Q4 11.

B-KNS XxN 12. PxN After 12. RxN, B-N5 is possible. 12. QB4 13.

O-O P-QR3 14. B-QS N-KB3 Black should have moved 14. P-QN4. 15. N-K5 B-QS 16.

B-R4 B-K2 17. B-Nl White prepares an attack against Black's castled king. 17. Q-Kl With the Intention of answering 18. Q-Q3 with 18.

P-KN3. 18. PxP P-KX4 If: 18. BxP, then 19. BxN, etc.

19. B-NS BxP 20. P-KB4! White's attack starts with the early rook sacrifice. 20. BxPch 21.

K-Rl BxR 22. PxP! BxP 23. Nimzovitch (Black), Instead of immediately moving 13. K-Rl, with the intention of dominating the KN file himself, first exchanged his bishop for the knight and prevented the following "small combination" a phrase Capablanca used to describe his brilliancies. If Black moves: IS.

K-Rt Then: 14. X-K4 B-K2 15. N7S-N5! PxN 16. BxN 17. K4 Mate cannot be prevented.

Here again the blockade of the KB pawn is decisive. BY WILLIAM J. BULT Free Press Chess Editor U.S. Champion Robert Fischer has taken to hiding his chess light under a bushel full of cash. The 21-year-old Brooklyn genius has not played in a major tournament for two years, and he dismayed his countrymen by refusing to represent the United States in the recent Chess Olympics in Israel.

The Russians walked away with the Olympica, leaving a battered U.S. team lying sixth in the dust. FISCHER still eats, steeps and breathes chess. He is studying constantly and forever demonstrating his skill in simultaneous exhibitions against 50 or more players. These exhibitions provide Fischer with, a certain weekly paycheck, a comforting security that few can achieve while attempting to make a living from the game.

The six-time winner of the U.S. championship Is unquestionably the strongest player we have, but he refuses to venture Into International tournaments where for long periods he would be deprived of the Income he derives from his exhibition play. During his absence from the global chess jousts, however, Fischer's piercing style of attack has not atrophied. In winning hi3 last U.S. championship he met Pal Benko, a Hungarian refugee who has been in this country fox seven years.

Benko has put undue confidence In 17. Q-Kl. His only chance would have been 17. N-K3, which also would have lost in the long run. Fischer moved: 18.

19. The brilliant point. Benko probably oniv figured 19. P-K5, P-KB4! with good counterplay. Why did Benko not consider this blockade of the KB pawn? As an experienced master he should have remembered the 1928 game Capablaiica-Nimzovitch in Bad Kissengen.

19. K-Xl What else can Black do? If: 19. P-KR3, or 19. BxR; 20. P-K5 will be decisive.

20. P-K5 P-KR3 21. N-K2 The most simple method, threatening 22. RxN. Black will lose with 21.

N-N4 after 22. and he resigns. Here la the position from the Capablanca Nimzovitch game that Benko should have remembered, mn mtm mtm soon FV THE SAME vein some credit must be given to the Lithuanian Master Mikenas, who played this game in the 1941 GruzLnke tournament. THE PROBLEM of the week (see diagram above) has White mating to two moves. Solution will be published next week.

PROBLEM SOLUTION Last week's puzzler has a key move of 1. R-K3, then I. P-B3; 2, K-K6, KxN (forced); 3, K-Q6 dis ch and mate. There is no other solution. Persons having questions on chess are invited to address queries directly to the Free Press Chess Editor, William J.

Bult, 9663 Manor, Allen Park, Mich. 4810L White MIKENAS 1. P-Q4 2. P-QB4 Black LEBEDOV N-KB3 P-K3 P-Q4 B-K2 P-KR3 O-O P-QB3 N-QBS B-N5 P-KS B-R4 The brilliant point. Black cannot accept this exchange sacrifice far if 23.

BxR, 7. R-Bl.