Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
Automation which does not benefit both labor and management was attacked yesterday as the 106th annual convention of the International Typographical Union opened at the Princess Kaiulani.
Elmer Brown, president of the union, called automation "one of the greatest ogres" facing the printing trades.
"In discussing automation, I am thinking primarily of the computer," Brown said. "These monstrous gadgets are not like some ominous shade lurking in the background. They are here — now — blowing their hot breath down our backs …
"We must insist upon helping to harness the computer so that our jobs are protected today and that we share in the future grown and progress — not to mention profits — which accrue to a computerized industry."
Brown said the ITU will strike "in order to maintain our full jurisdiction over every method of producing the printed word." …
In reviewing the 113 years since the ITU was founded, Brown pointed out that in the 1860s, the union made rules calling for equal wages and membership for all persons, regardless of sex or race.
"Thus, when we refuse to join in the hysteria over so-called civil rights or equal rights, we do so because for nearly 100 years the ITU has had a record and reputation for fairness not equaled by any other portion of our society," Brown said.
The ITU convention, the first outside the Mainland, convened at 9 a.m. Delegates were addressed by Governor Burns, Mayor Blaisdell, Police Chie Dan Liu and Alfred Laureta, director of the State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
The convention will convene at 9 a.m. tomorrow, but the session is expected to be brief because it is Labor Day. The "typos," as members call themselves, will meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
