The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-06-07
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THE LABOR QUESTION.


ing paper upon the Displacement OF
Labor by the improvements in Ma
chinery," which was prepared by com
mittee appointed by the association,
composed of Lorin Blodgett, of Phila-
delphia, Rev. Edward Z. Hale, w.
Goodwin Moody, John J. McNutt, and
FL. @. Turner, of Boston. The report
starts out by a comparison of the labor
of the past and the present. In agri-
culture, at the commencement OF the
present century, very little labor-saving
machinery was III use. Then the farm
er's best pillow was of wood, iron shod,
drawn by from one to four or more yoke
of oxen, one man to drive the team, an
other to hold the pillow, and often another
to keep it clear. Result, about one and
one-half acres plowed per day, by, say,
two men. Now are used plows In
gangs of .wo and three, or more, of pol
ished steel, drawn by horses, controlled
by one man, who rides at ease. Result,
five or more acres per day plowed by
single man, and much better than by
our fathers. Or steam is used, with still
greater results, blowing an acre or more
in an hour. Our fathers sowed their
seed by hand, taken from bag slung
from their shoulders. Now, machine,
controlled by any boy who can drive a
single horse, will do more than three
times the work in a given time. and far
better. Similar changes have been
made in all the preliminary processes OF
agriculture. When the grain was ripe
for the harvest, our farmers would go
into the field with their sickles in their
hands, and long day of hard work
would result in one-fourth of an acre of
grain cut per man. Now, a man will
take reaping- machine. drawn by one or
two pairs of horses, and reap his twenty
or more acres per day; one man now do
ing the work of eighty but about fifty
years ago. To-day, one man with the
aid of machinery will produce as much
food as could be produced by the naked
muscle and tools of score of our
fathers. There is now no known limit
to the power of its production. In con-
sumption there is no corresponding in
crease. Our fathers required, obtained,
and used as many ounces OF food per
day as we do. 1t might have been diff
ferent in kind and quality-nothing
more. Not long ago the farm found
constant employment for all the sons of
the farm, and many of the children of
the city. Now, the farm furnishes en-
ployment for but very small number
of its sons, and that for q few weeks or
months at most in the year, and for the
rest work must be had in the cities and
towns, or not at all. Here we find the
true reason for the stagnation in the
population of the older agricultural Sec
tions, and abnormal growth and crowd
ing of the cities.
In manufacturing machinery the
change has been twice as great.
Throughout the length and breadth of
of our land the hand card, the spinning
wheel, and the hand loom are to be
found as articles without use, kept as
curiosities of q past age. Now the
carding machine, machine spindIes, and
and the labor of one pair of hands,
guiding and controlling machinery,
turns out hundred yards of cloth
where but one yard was produced by
our mothers. A statement by the pro-
prietor of the Frankfort yarn-mill, in
Philadelphia shows d displacement
of 80 per cent. of the former employees
of that mill by improvements in its ma
chinery in the tive years between 1872
and 1877; and that one person, with i'm
proved machinery, now fills the place
and does the work that required 40S
carders and spinners with the tools and
machinery in common use at the COM
mencement of this century.
Tn Ea11 Riuar tha ,1la "a aiobf 1nODno
TO the weaver, run at a speed that gives
Al cuts of 45 yards each per week,
making l $50 yards per week for each
weaver, or $50 yards day. Our moth
ers could weave upon their looms about
three yards in ten hours work. So that
in weaving there has been not only a
of rs per cent. of muscle
In our mills in the last forty years,
mostly within the last fifteen, but to-day
one girl weaver, with her improved ma
chine looms, stands in the place that
would have required 100 women In our
mothers time. The paper cites very
many other instances of the same sort,
showing the extraordinary displacement
of labor by machinery in every branch
OF industry. In boots and shoes, in
building, in brick-making, in knitting,
in matchmaking, in printing, in gold
mining, the story is the same. The
processes in the production and manu-
facture of iron and steel, of ship-build-
ing, Of furniture, of carriages-in fact,
OF everything produced-have been
changed in a similar manner. Every
where is machinery doing the work of
muscle, and In every case marvelously
increasing production. Can any one
name business which is not in this
manner affected?
IL Massachusetts 31S, 76S men, women,
and children are the number given who,
with the aid of machinery, do the work
that would require 1912, 4S8 men with
out machinery. Here we see that ma
chinery in that State alone saves or dis
places the labor of 1903, 700 men. OF
these 31S,768, a. 55 were women, of
whom 9,498 were married 6,671 were
boys, and 1888 were girls, between 10
and 10 years of age; and 81 boys and
169 girls under 10 years. Showing that
more than one third of the workers in
the factories and shops, engaged in run
ming machine ry, we're women and child
rem, whilst more than hundred thous-
and men are compel d to idleness. The
great percentage OF women and children