The Chairman: You don't know of any real displacement problems caused by automation, so far, do you?
Secretary Mitchell: Well, I do not, Mr Chairman. We have, as I said, these pockets of unemployment, but those cities in which we have such problems have been the result of sick industries, shall we say, for some long period of time. We have a chronic situation, which is not exclusively the result of technological change, or what might be called automation... Certainly, when you look at the high level of employment, and the relatively low level of unemployment nationally, it is difficult to comprehend how great dislocations could be laid at the door of automation.
US Secretary of Labor before the Congress Committee on automation, 1955
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