The Labor enquirer., 1886-09-11
MACHINES.


umn of the Tribune Republican means
well. and he sometimes puts real SEN
sible paragraph in with his matter; but
like many editors who think they can
lump at the industrial question and
write it up without any particular in
ouiry or preparation, he frequently
makes very bad break. Thursdays
Republican contained an article headed
Improved Machinery" which stated
that, with the use of labor saving appll
ances a sewing machine can be con-
structed in one minute; reaper IN nj
teen minutes; 300 watches in daY ,and
perfect locomotive, from the plans OF
the draughtsman to completeness, IN one
dry. After making these stat 3ments, the
a-ticle winds Up with this sentence:
Machines do not supplant workmen'
but create a Ia J and for them"
Is anv argument needed to prove the
falsity of. this latter statement? Prob
ably there are a few thoughtless persons
who will accept the assertion of the Be
publican without analyzng it, and for
the benefit of such, THE ENQUIRER will
briefly dissect it.
Let US take the reaper for example,
and see whether the improved methods of
is manufacture SUI plant or create de-
,oo,J For
There are Just so many reapers re-
quired to harvest the grain each year.
1t is safe to presume that one made by
machinery will last as long as the hand
made machines, and no man is foolish
enough to dispute the superiority of the
new machine over the old style. But
the point l want to impress upon your
mind here is that the demand for reap
ers is no greater when they are quickly
made than if they were put together by
the old process.
1t has been estimated that. with i'm
proved machinery in the manufacture of
agricultural implements, the power, of a
given number of hands, to produce has
increased more than ten-fold i'll the last
twenty wears. The hours of labor have
not been materially reduced; and if
there is ANYTHING with which the in
crease of population has kept pace it Is
the demand for agricultural implements.
Now if the producing power in this
department has increased to ten times
what it was, and the hours Of labor have
not been reduced in proportion, what
rule in mathematics can dlsprOve the
fact that the machinery has thrown men
out of employment This, TO some ex-
tent accounts for the 100000 idle men
ip the country,
What is true of the reaper is also true
Of every other article manufactured by
improved machinery.
Stephen B. Elkins says, at is esti-
mated that it requires less than one-half
of the manual labor that was required
in 1865 to produce an equal amount OF
substance"
Statistics show that machinery has
multiplied until its productive power, in
the United States and England alone, is
equal to the power of thousand million
men; and it is fact that there are now
lying idle in Great Britain enough ma
chimes to manufacture the clothing of
the whole civilized world; and girl or
boy at one of these machines can pro-
duCe more IN one day than could fifty
men in the same length of time, fifty
years ago.
Huxley SAYS: The 100000 work
ers in England can produce as much in
six months as would have required, one
hundred years ago, the entire working
force Of the world one year to equal"
John Stuart Mill saws: 1T is question
able if all the Improvements in machin-
cry have lightened the toll of single
man"
MIR. Mill fnrgets that it lightens the
DAYS toll to certain number of labor
ers, by depriving them of EMPLOY ment
altogether and throwing them helpless
on the streets.
This subject of labor-saving ma
chinery is an extensive one, and one
that needs to be looked into closely be-
fore it can be fully understood. The
Republican man has not seen the covers
Of the book.
am not fighting machinery" as
some have said of me; but am fighting
its control by monopolists. If the oene
fits were equally shared the inventions
Of this century would have been the
creates of blessings, but as it is, they
have proved bitter curse to the work
ers, and, with their swih-spinning
wheels, are weaving web which will,
so ensnare society that its extrication