The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-07-11
from the Scientific Americana
Do Inventions Injure the Laborer?

One of the arguments made use of by
many against the patent law is the old
fallacy that improvements in machinery
take the bread out of the mouth of the
laborer, and the great number of unem-
ployed people at the present time is cited
as an example of the effect of the use of
machinery enabling one man to do the
work of several, who must, it is stated,
be thrown out of employment because
the one man on the machine does all the
work that the others did before. From
this it is argued that patent law for en-
couraging inventions is bad law and
should be abolished.
This is one of the old ideas that are
continually cropping up, and its fall
lacy has been SO thoroughly exposed by
the logic of events that it seems to many
as hardly worth considering. We GER
tainly thought so until lately. but it has
made its appearance quite often of late
in places where we would hardly have
thought to nave seen it. Petitions have
been sent to Congress for the abolition
of the patent law; various newspapers
have been publishing articles condemn
ing the introduction of new machinery,
and seriously proposing return to the
old methods of hand labor, so as to give
employment to the thousands who can
not now get it, and it appears from vari-
Gus questions asked by some of the mem
bers of the Congressional Committees on
patents, in the recent discussion on the
amendments to the patent law, that they
are, or rather were, believers in this doc
trine. We say were" because we be-
lieve that since the discussion before
these committees thereof have become
so well posted on the good effected by
la,r hot # tboro b5,,
originally inimical to the law and seri
ously desired to repeal it or suspend its
operation, are now in its favor. The
fact, however, that men having sufficient
general intelligence to edit a newspaper
or to reach the position of members of
Congress believe in the theory that ma
chinery is hurtful to the laborer, seems
to call far some effort on our part, as the
special champion of the inventor and the
patent law, to show how erroneous is this
idea, and we therefore propose to cite a
few instances that occur to us where it
would appear that if there were any
chances Of machinery throwing people
out of employment, it certainly would be
in the examples mentioned.
As one of the prominent and most IA
miliar examples, let US consider the sew
| ing machine. When Walter Hunt in
iected to his introducing it, as she
thought like many others, that it would
| throw all the sewing women out of en-
ployment" Hunt appeared to think the
| same himself, and on his wife's entrea.
ties abandoned his invention, thus losin g
a fortune and leaving the field open to
| Howe, who was either wiser on this point
or had less scruples. Now what has been
the result of the introduction of sewing
machines in lessening the demand for la
Dor? Are there fewer people now en-
ployed at sewing than there were former
! ly? Is it not fact that the thousands
! Of operators earn much more than they
formerly could by hand; that where one
stitch was put in a dress when made by
hand there are ten now; that the misera
BILE three to-the-inch" style oil
clothing has disappeared from the mar.
ket since sewing machines have been in
troduced that tens of thousands of wo
men who formerly made the undercloth
ing of their families, now buy it ready
made, because it is made so cheap by
sewing machines; and that sewing ma
|-chine made goods are exported in large
quantities to countries that would other
wise supply US, because with their under
paid laborers they could compete with
and unuersell our manufacturers, ano
thus throw thousands of our people ou
OF employment?
These statements may, however, bt
said to be mere assertions, not borne ou
by facts. Let US see, therefore, what the
figures Of the census say on this question
In 1850 there were $1,000 tailors employ
ed in the United States, which then hac
population of 23,191 ,S76, or one tailo
to AS inhabitants. In 1870, notwith
standing the introduction and use o
thousands of sewing machines, there
were 106,6 ,679 tailors in a population o
SO, sos, ,37I. or ode to 361 inhabitants. 81
that although the population had no
doubled by nearly eight millions, th
number of tailors employed had NOR
than doubled The statistics relating t.
women's clothing are not so readily oh
tanned, or we have no doubt but tina
they would show equally as we'll.
There is, however, another point to b
considered. The introduction of tn
sewing machine has not been made with
out labor, for according to the censu
there were 1872 hands employed il
sewing machine factories in 1870, ant
there were 3, l52 dealers in machines il
the same year, besides the almost count
less hosts OF canvassers or "agents" VIII
were perambulating the country, all O
whom get their living directly from tn