The morning call., 1894-04-16
MACHINERY AND LABOR.

The old discussion of the evils resulting
from increased production through laboE-
saving machinery has been revived by an
article in the New York Su1, which has
provoked controversy. The facts lie ln q
small compass. By improvements in ma
chinery one man now does the work of
ten men few years ago; tins other nine
are perforce thrown out of employment
Again, every new discovery displaces
certain number of persons whose vocation
is destroyed. Thus the discovery of
aniline dyes made the growing OF indign
unprofita BILE and took away the living Of
those who were engaged in manufacturing
vegetable dyes, just as the extension of
the railroad system put an end to the
manufacture Of Concord coaches and re-
duced the demand for stage horses and ex-
pert drivers. But the Sun writer ignores
the counter argument tha. every new in
vention or discovery leads to new con-
sumption Of labor and furnishes employ
ment to new hands.
When the spinning jenny was invented
ignorant workmen smashed the machines
because they threatened to take the bread
out OF their mouths. But if the new
machinery enabled one man to do the
work OF ten. IL also Increased the product
to such degree that the displaced work.
men were soon all needed to handle 1t, and
in very short while the industry con-
sumed larger volume of labor than it
had ever done. So with the railroads.
They threw out of use the stage-coachas.
with their drivers and their hostlers; but
rapidity and chsapness stimulated travel
to such an extent that the men got work
at once on the railroads. A single line Of
cad in this country at the present time
employs more hands than were engaged
in srsge-coaching in all the States of the
Union. The indigo plantations in Hin
dostan are deserted, but thousands upon
thousands of men have found steady and
profts bic work in converting coal tar into
merchantable property.
Labor-saying machinery increases the
potential capacity of labor. If it enables
one man to do the work of ten, the labor
Of the other nine was wasted before the
machinery was invented, and the nine
had to be supported without yielding an
adequate return. Now, the nine are free
to engage In other productive work. They
find it in constructing and handling the
machinery which superseded them, in
procuring the fuel which feeds it, and IN
marketing the increased yield of the in
dustry. Wherever one employment oecu-
pies the minds and the muscles of tive
men when one would suffice, one o! the
two is drone, who occupies toward the
community the attitude Of a pauper to be
supported at the public expense: 1t is only
when be is discharged and set free to earn
his living that his account with the public
is set straight.
Henry George and other dogmstic writers
neglect an essential factor in the problem
they undertake to solve-which Is, the con-
ditiou OF the working class sii ce the accu-
mutation of wealth as compared with their
condition before that accumulation. The
life of the common workman before labor
saving machinery came into general use
can hardly be conceived to-day. Their
food barely kept body and soul together.
Arthur Young tells US tn at in the populous
shirss of England the children of the labor
ing classes rarely saw animal food. They
wore rags and went barefoot. Education
was Of course out of the question. Zola
in "GerEinal" draws very similar picture
OIL bue COUuItlOu VI q mini Ing cOui IA unity III
France. In beih cases the condition of the
working people may be summed up in the
words misery. starvation. privation and
degradation. This was the net result OF
system under which two or five men did
work which with improved appliances
1euld have been done by one.
When a laborer is superduous he is
burden to the community, and the COM
munity is mainly composed of his fellows.
Where the consumption of labor in the
creation Of finished product is reduced to
a minimum, certain amount OF potential
energy is released for which use is sure
to be found. In the long run no one Is idle
unless he does not want TO work. No
modern invention has thrown so many men
out of work as eleclro-dynamics. Yet the
mum Der of these extruded workers bears no
proportion to the number Of mechanics
who are finding work In the factories in
which electrical machinery is made. Each
step in human progress creates demand
for labor; the vacuum 1t produces is
quickly filed.