The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-11-02
Does Machinery Rob the LabOrer.

The complaint that machinery robs
the laborer of his only capital is entire
ly unfounded Machinery never less
ened the amount of work to be done,
though it has constantly changed the
character of the work. The labor-saving
machinery employed in agriculture is
almost entirely the product of the in
ventions of the past thirty years. limo
part of the world has the introduction
of such machinery been more general
or more rapid than in the grain-grow-
ing States of the West. The result is
shown in the census reports. During
the ten years ending in 1860, the farm
hands of those States increased in num-
Der more than fifty per cent. During
the next ten, in spite of the losses of
the war, the increase was about thirty
per cent. During the same twenty
years, the population of the country as
a whole increased only siXty-seven per
cent.
When Walter Hunt invented his sew
ing-machine in 1888, his wife protested
that it would throw all the sewing
women out of employment, and per-
suaded him to suppress it. Howe's
and Singers and no end of other ma
chimes have come since then, and vet
there is work for woman to do. Not
outstanding the thousands of family
machines in use, the number of persons
earning living with the sewing
machine in this country is to-day
much greater in proportion to the
population than was the number of
tailors and sewing women before the
invention of the machine, which re-
cent pretended labor-lover has classed
with the steam-engine as one of the two
worst evils that ever befell mankind.
In noting its influence upon labor, we
must not forget the 10000 or more me-
chanics employed in our sewing-ma-
chine factories, and the thousands of
others engaged in mining and making
the iron, cutting and saving the luni-
Der, and in transporting and preparing
these raw materials for the machines
and their cases; nor the men employed
in making the machinery used in the
construction of sewing-machines and
in transporting and selling the finished
product Counting these, the inven-
ton appears in its true light as a great
creator of labor; and the average wages
of the persons directly or indirectly en-
ployed by the sewing-machinei is doubt
less four or five times that of the old
time sewers.
1t is but little while since metro
politan paper of high rank pointed to
the shoe business as furnishing a forci-
BILE illustration of the disastrous compe-
tition Of machinery with men. The
truth is that while within twenty wears,
not less than 50 per cent. of the work
done on factory boots and shoes has
been turned over to machinery, there
are to-day more men at work in shoe
factories than then, and more than would
now be employed except for machinery
1t is but another illustration of the old
industrial paradox. During these years
of rapid progress in invention, the cost
of materials has advanced, wages have
nearly doubled, and the quality of fac
tory boots and shoes has been i'm
proved 20 per cent; yet the cost of
manufacture has been so much reduced
by new and improved machinery that
American shoes have not only excluded
the foreign-made from our market, but
have successfully invaded the markets
of the whole world. AS a natural con-
sequence, many more shops are re-
CURED not only in New England, but
throughout the Middle States and the
West; more workmen are employed in
shoe factories; higher wages are paid;
and great multitude of other men are
furnished with employment in tanning
the additional leather used, in packing
and transporting and selling the addi-
tional product, and in making shoe
makers machinery and implements
james Richardson, IN Scrj6aaer for No
RENDER.