Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-08-29

7 But how is the principle to be applied on a
r large scale, and so as to affect all the indus
t tries of a great community? Some industries
prosper in the worst of times, while others
) languish in the most f1ourishing periods. Are
the persons employed in the prosperous
trades, who find all the work they can do de
! manding their utmost skill and energy, will
ing to shorten their hours of work or lessen
the amount of their production because in
other industries there are more engaged than
can find steady employment, and cons equent-
IL many idle hands Human nature, whether
in the capitalist or workingman, contains a
certain vein of selfshness, and we doubt if
the fully employed operatives in one branch
of industry would consent to curtail their
hours of labor or the amount of production
for the reason that in another branch there
were more hands than could find steady work.
Now, unless this proposed distribution Of
time and labor were made general, affecting
all the industries in community, its benefi-
cence would be inevitably limited and partial,
still leaving great mass of forced idleness
unprovided for. 1t scarcely needs argument
to show how chimerical the suggested remedy
is. 1t will not work, it cannot be made to
work, and no legislation can ever cure its in =
herent and fatal defects Overproduction in
a specific industry may be partially remedied
by cutting down the hours of labor and limit
ing the extent of production until the demand
again becomes equal to the supply, but in
doing this hardships have to be imposed and
endured as the result of loss of wages accord
ing to the unemployed time. The suffering
is not less in the aggregate, but it may be
more widely diffused.
Those who argue in behalf of this remedy
usually attribute the larger share of enforced
idleness to the introduction and wide use OF
labor saving machinery. One writer esti-
mates the employment of mechanical labor to
be equal to nine -tenths of all the manual la
Dor in the world. In other words, every la
| Dor saving machine dsplaces nine out Of ten
of the hands employed in the production of
the same amount of goods. Here, then, if
the estimate be not excessive, are nine-tenths
of the laborers of every community driven
into idleness by achinery which does the
work better, cheaper and with immensely
greater rapidity. Now. if the evil be in part
or in whole result of the introduction of
such machinery in industry, there is far
more simple and practical remedy for it than
the curtailment of hours of labor and imita
tion of the total of production. The hands
who attacked the inventor of the spinning
jenny and burned his machines, and who
have from time to time protested more or
less violently against the use of other labor
saving devices, foresaw the consequences.
Had they succeeded in stamping out the ma
chinery and discouraging inventors we should
still be jogging along in the old fashion, when
all hands we're required to supply the wants
of civilization, and when the cost of produc-
was so great that thousand articles now en-
tering into the home life of the laboring |
classes, and helping to make it more tolerable,
were only possible to people of large wealth.
1t is foolish to deny that the effect of cheap |
production by machinery has been to promote |
the comfort of mankind, and to extend the |
operations of trade and commerce.
Let US follow the argument of the theorists |
to its logical conclusions. If to the use of
machinery is to be traced the enforced idleness
of millions of people throughout the civilized |
world, we should do away with all patent
laws and withhold from the inventor the en-
couragement and reward he derives from
their protection. Undoubtedly machinery has
which in its turn has resulted in the inevita-
BILE consequences of fall in prices to point
where production ceases to be profitable, and
where it is absolutely necessary to either sus-
pend production or greatly limit it. But such
cases were not uncommon long before ma
chinery came into general use. One has only
the social history of England during the first
quarter of this century to be convinced of
that. Going farther back, the labor guilds of
London, Antwerp, Ghent and other cities in
the fifteenth century, were organized for the
same ends that labor unions are now formed
to protect the laborer against undue cOmpeti-
tion, regulate the number to be employed, and
limit production to the demand for it. The
same difficulties, spriDging from different
causes perhaps, had to be encountered then as
now, and there were pretty much the same
sort of contentious between the employers
and the employed.
We fail to find in the remedy which has
been discussed a sufficient nostrum for the
evils of the times-evils which are as distress
ingly felt in parts of Europe as in the United
States. The deliverance will come when we
get our financial system settled on a sound
and stable basis, when the extravaganza
which preceded tine period of reaction is |
atoned for by economy, and the people have {
got so far ahead in means as to be able to in
dulge in more generous style of living. De-
mand must precede supply, and demand will :
only come when the means justify it. Mean {
Time men who feel the pinch of hard times I
must study frugality and apply themselves to
seeking for new avenues of livelihood. One
Of the most encouraging signs of the times is !.
% see the number of men who crowded into =
he large cities during and Immediately after
he war, seeking homes for themselves in the 3
West and South. Thousands are going from t
he East, taking their families with them, and !
Ire filling up the waste lands beyond the >
Mississippi. Labor, as in other times, is h
ooking for new and more faYorable condi b
ions; and this, after ALL is the final solution d
If the whole matter. 1t will suffer until o
hose conditions are found, and the finely
lrawn schemes of theorists will do very little
n helping it to make the discovery. BALTIC. :,
American. y
Wonderful Twins.
New York Tribune. :
A pair Of twins is now on exhibition q
It the Aquarium, and is attracting n
much attention from physicians and q