The record-union., 1894-03-06
LABOR AND LABOR-SAVING MA
CHINERY.


If Senator Sherman holds, as is re-
ported, that industrial distress is aug
mented by labor-saving machinery, he has
fastened to fallacy. If alarge amount of
1abor-saVing machinery were suddenly
introduced into an industrial community
where there was none before, it would
produce distress But labor-saving ma
chinery has been and is an incident only
to the advance of civilization; to shut it
cry and the results of it.
So we must conclude that labor-saving
machinery is not the cause of distress,
because besides, its effect is to multiply
property and stimulate discovery, and
hence to reflect the increase of knowl-
edge. Our idea is that the large number
of unemployed is due, more than to any
thing else, to loosening of the moral grip;
to the breaking down of the barriers OF
conscience; the decadence of moral sensi-
bility, and hence the weakening of trust
fulness, human obligation and mutual
dependence and helpfulness.
But aside from this, industrial devices
augment production and the variety of
products, but do not proportionately aid
in all cases speedily in their distribution.
Machinery has divided labor. for exam
pie, in the production of house. For
merly the workers were simply the car
penters and the joiners; now the mill,
the mold-cutters, etc., enter into the
work. This, it must be agreed, enables
given number of men to produce more
than if each worke independently. But
we are perfectly willing to concede that
labor-saving devices lessen mental exer-
else. He who works with one tool has
not the need for such sharpened and
quickened mentality as he who uses
many that demand skill and thought for
their proper employment.
In the single case of the manufacture of
cotton, it is easily seen what have been
the civilizing and forwarding influences
OF the introduction of machine spinning,
etc. But, if it is said that one machine
introduced by which one operative can
produce what before required the labor of
ten, cuts men of who are driven to other
resorts for maintenance-it is true. But
the increase of the product increases
consumption, and, as rule, increases
Il ~ 80
larger wages than in the beginning of the
century while working fewer hours and
less laboriously.
The fact must not be lost sight of,
either, that all the time improvement in
machinery has gone on. has kept pace
with discovery and the unfolding of
those natural laws concerning which we
were once ignorant. Despite all the de-
elamation against it, labor-saving ma
chinery holds its own and its introduc-
ton increases, and it is impossible to see
how it can cease. unless we conceive of
scientific research, discovery, exploita-
ton of nature and the spread of human
knowledge are all to be brought to
standstill.
Men demand, out of their very natures,
that they shall have swifter means Of
communication. more rapid and capable
means of transportation, more certain,
easy and speedy means for the exchange
of products. These demands can only be
responded to through the agency of i'm
proved machinery-snd so it runs
through the whole economy of modern
life.
We must conclude. therefore, that the
law of the political economists is sound
one, namely. ''No operation of cheapen-
ing production can cause diminution in
the sum total of the demand for.labor.
Every diminution which it may cause in
one direction is compensated by an in
creased demand in some other direction"
It's true that in accommodating our
salves to new conditions due to change IN
the method of production, we may for
time suffer. But such subject must be
treated with the whole broad horizon OF
civilization and the production and dis
tribution of products in full view. In