Wichita eagle., 1889-03-14
MODERN ART WORK.
Some of the Compensations of the Intro
ducticn of Machinery.

Some OF the Compensations Of the Intro.
duction of Machinery.
Appalling computations are frequently
made of the vast number Of Workmen who
are constantly thrown out of employment
by new mechanical inventions that take the
place of human hands. But along with the
displacement of hand labor, says the New
York Sun, there has gone replacement in
consequence of the increased production
which always follows cheaper process of
manufacture.
This is especially observable in all artistic
matters. There are now produced and given
away as advertisements pictures that could
only be purchased by well-todo people a
century ago. Processes of duplication have
made beautiful things accessible to people
of moderate means, and thus gives employ
ment to armies of workmen. In this way
art has been applied to a thousand articles
Of daily use, and artistic forms thus perpet-
uated have come to the homes even of the
poor.
There is signal illustration Of this in the
application of photographic processes of en-
craving to stone or steel or wood or zinc.
Before photography was thus applied, the
cost Of all engraving was a considerable
drawback in the production of pictures.
Not only was it necessary to draw every
thing by hand, but it was also necessary to
draw to the precise size required, and the
slow processes of all hand engraving were
very expensive. But now the sun has
largely taken the place of the hand.
And yet the cheaper processes of engrav-
ing, instead Of causing the employment of
fewer artists, has required the services of
more and better artists, so that the most
skilled artists are in greater demand and
better paid than ever. An almost entirely
new class of artists, known as pen-and-ink
draughtsmen, has come into the field and
gone to the front rank of remunerative en-
ployment, some of them taking incomes Of
from 5000 to $4,000 year. These are the
gentlemen who have made the illustrated
newspapers of to-day far superior in artistic
excellence to any thing ever known be fore.
The number of artists thus employed is far
greater than ever.
But 1t is not alone in picture making that
the progress of invention gives new em-
ployment for artists. There is an immense
" wide fed for designers in a hundred de-
partments of industry. For wall papers,
for carpets, for all sorts of textile fabrics,
for silverware, for elegant furniture, in
cluding carving of all sorts; for the million
products of iron, India-rubber and brass
there are armies of artists engaged to
make patterns and designs that were never
needed in the world until new processes of
duplication created an almost Unsuitable
demand for variety.
There has, of course, been a vast stride
in this direction during the past ten years,
but even the last census shows how wide a
field for employment is supplied. For in
stance, the yearly wages for engravers is
put down at over g, ,3O0, 200, for photograph
ing at s1,150,11S, and for hthographing
s., 307 500. When il is considered that the
materials used also give employment t.
many workmen, it must be admitted that
the field of employment is infinitely greater
for artistic work than before the application
of machinery.
Other fields OF employment have also
been opened in the present generation for
vast numbers of workmen- In the construc-
ton of electrical apparatus, OF watches, of
machinery and tools, and the thousand and
one products of invention, there is room for
the lahorer. There are more women en-
ployed even at sewing, and at better
wages than ever, for the skilled. The type
writing machine has already its army OF
wage earners. The discovery Of crude oil
has put leglons at work, and, looking at
the whole subject, it must be admitted that,
though mechanical inventions have put a
great many persons out of work, they have
also put great many persons into work.
besides producing for the multitude an
endless variety Of beautiful aud useful as
well as cheap products.