Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1878-11-27
EFFECTS OF SUBDIVISION OF La
BoR IN OUR MANUFACTURE

Dor IN OUR MANUFASfonA0S'
81 remember" says JOSEPH Cook, In
a recent lecture, pacing hours ana
hours up and down the banks OF the
canalssat Manchester, and watching the
mill hands come and go at noon and
night Once 4 fell into conversation
with group Of workingmen, English to
their finger tips, all their ways English
and vet they reminded me OF the poor
whites of the South. Pallid. half-grown,
they had been brought up almost from
infancy in the factory rooms and gone
to their labor without enthusiasm.
They talked Of the monotony OF their
work. ut is the same thing day by day,
sir; it is the same little thing" said one
man to me. zone little, little thing,
over and over and over. We are weary
when We get home. We are so tired
We do not feel like reading. We some
times 60 to the beer shop, where there
is light and cheer"
This is picture drawn from real lie,
and the scene may be laid as well in one
locality as another-as well III America
as in Europe-if only the older and
larger manufacturing centers are select
ed There is the single difference as to
the degree of coloring which We may
give the picture when laid in America.
We are not yet old enough to have de-
yeloped all the characteristics of the
class of hereditary operatives which are
seen in other countries.
Again, Mr., Cook presents a compan-
ion picture, showing the condition OF
the proprietors OF the manufactures:
zone evening, on the top of an omnl.
bus I went out into the suburbs OF
Manchester, and came upon palaces, nm
mense private establishments, with
grounds kept in the best English styles
Whose houses are these? They are the
masters houses, manufacturers homes.
This is the country seat OF Sir So-and.so,
who owns such and such acres OF
factories in Manchester under the SCOT
wonder. Where do his workmen live?
Thew must live close to their work, un-
der the caves of the factories, and
found | had been studying the homes
of the operatives employed by these
very princes and masters"
These two pictures OF the operative
class and employing class OF manufac-
turing populations are grown out OF the
subtle working of the laws OF subdlvi-
sion OF labor and the size OF establish
ments, both of which are regarded as
necessary auxilariss to the manufactur-
ing interests. The subdivisions OF labor
increases the skill of the operative, and
the larger the establishment the greater
the profits.
At the same time it is evident that so
for as the influence upon the two classes
is concerned, the direct effect is to dwarf
the one and develop the other, and,
therefore, to establish an inequality OF
conditions, which continually makes the
distance between rich and poor in man
ufacturing populations wider and wider,
Through the laws of the subdivision
OF labor the operative is confined to
some single detail, the work upon which,
after it becomes habit, calls into activ-
ity only a few OF the mental powers
has in it no variety, and So does not
develop the mind by tasking it ut differ
ent points. "What," says IN eminent
philosopher, "can be expected OF the
human intellect, when year after year,
it is occupied in the single detail OF
making heads of pins?"
On the other hand, the operation OF
the principle, that the larger the manu-
featuring establishment, the greater the
tendency to call out all the capabilities
of the minds that lead and organize them
serve to make the proprietor more and
more like the master that he is, and his
| employe more subservient by contrast.
His business tasks all his faculties
makes him ADLER, gives him social
rank. But the operative, little tasked
intellectually, and leading monotonous
life, becomes socially lowered, and de-
pendent more and more upon the or
panizing mind above him. The man
who manages the great establishment
may become rich and can take
care of himself; the man who
makes the pin head loses capabil'
ity to do anything else. If he
loses the opportunity to make that
pins head, he knows no other trade,
and has lost capacity to learn another.
These degenerating influences OF our
system of manufactures il beginning to
occupy serious attention in our own
country as these establishments begin
oshow the etfectsupon their population.
1t is not to be supposed that because We
are more Democratic in America that
wa cannot degenerate as the working
classes have in England. Observation
goes to prove that American blood can
dcteriorate also. The same influences
which have so degraded foreign manu-,
featuring populations will work like re-
suits in time in this country, and they
present one OF the profoundest pro-
blems that Democracy has ever had ia
deal with.
Tue inCurablc old fool, CoUNT DE
| CRAWFORD, whose folly NAV always be