The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-10-14
MACHINERY AND LABOR.

MACHINERY AND LABOR.
To those who are SO fearful of labor |
saving machinery and those devices that |
save time and insure swiftness in the out |
put of human energy the fact is COM |
mended that in no line of industry has |
there been more of revolution by ma
chine work than in the production of
household furniture. The result has been
to greatly cheaper the product, despite
the fact that in several desirable varieties
the woods for furniture have become |
scarce.
Yet the returns Of the furniture-mak- |
ing industry show that, whereas in 1880 |
there were employed in the making of
furniture 55.304 artisans, In 1890 there |
were employed 92,304, and wages ad- |
vanced in the same period from an aver !
age of S453 to 1927. the average taken in |
the lowest and least skillful workers and |
the highest and best paid and most skilled
workmen.
In nearly all lines of carpentering ma
chinery has been introduced year by
year for the last forty years, but most so
in the last twenty. But while in 1880
there were in the United States SO, 547
employed carpenters, there were in 1890
140,62l, and the average wages rose from
$3.50 to 500. In the same decade brick
making machinery was more introduced
than ever before. but the number of
workers in brick-making and brick-lay-
ing doubled and wages advanced some %
per cent on the average, while the in
crease in the number of brickyards was
but small.
Commenting upon these statistics. re-
ported through the Government bureaus,
the Detroit Free Press reaches the con-
clusion that the effect of The introduction
oflabor-saving machinery is not perma-
nent reduction of the number OF en-
ployes nor reduction of the wage, but
different adjustment of working forces.
Perry, in his admirable work treating
of the division of labor, concludes, from
his study of the subject, that machinery
abridges labor in ali It's departments and
increases it's efficiency, because the ma
chine does for the worker precisely what
he would devise aids to do for him, if in
genious. Also. that these aids more
equitably adjust the divisions of labor
according to strength, skill and expert
ence.
A machine is simply q tool of greater
or less efficiency, and all tools are saving
of time and material But there is q
widespread and strong prejudice against
labor-saving machinery on the part of
those into whose vocations 1t enters, on
the ground that machinery lessons the
opportunities for labor in those lines
where hand work was the rule OF neces-
sity. on this point, Perry says that con-
sistency should carry the objection to OPP
position to all forms Of existing capital,
if il ia work that is wanted, since ma
chinery lessons work, and TO stop the
operation OF all forms of capital that
would give work in plenty for simple
human hands would be consistent. But
what labor wants is not work so much
as wages, or commodities for which wages
are expended.
The question then is, says Perry, do
labor-saving devices tend to lessen. not
work, but works remuneration? He
adds that, as matter Of human expert
ence. il is found that the introduction of
improved processes has not deteriorated
the condition of workers in those depart
meuts into which inventions have been
wrought, nor of laborers in general. Ex-
actly the reverse has usually taken place
and wages are apt to be highest rather
than lowest in connection with the most
and most durable machinery, and higher
than lower after the introduction OF more
and better machinery. Thus operatives
I'm manufactures are better paid than
farm Iaborers, and those in superior es-
Establishments better than those in inferior
ones.
The reasons given for these conclusions.
which are based on facts and experience
extending over q large area and much
time are increase of labor In construc-
ton of machinery and its repair, thus