Birmingham age-herald., 1895-08-01
HANDS OR MACHINES? ]?
DOES LABOR SUFFER FROM coMPE-
 TlTlON WITH MAcHlNERYf

interesting 1nScstlSaAioh Fo8 heiak SsaA-
 ried on by the National Governmcnt-A.
 M. Dewey on the Result-one Machine
 Equals Many Men. but Employs More.
 Philadelphia is at present. tho scat of an interesting investigation at the hands of the national government. The last session of congress directed the department of la Dor to ascertain to what extent manual la bor had been displaced by modern machin. cry. For this purpose Carroll D. Wright commissioner of labor, detailed a number of experts and special agents of his bureau last winter, each agent pursuing an inves- tigation in all industries found in the ter ritory assigned him. Recently, however, a new departure was made, and each off ccr was assigned to an industry, or group of allied industries, making technical analysis of the relations of machinery to handwork, as to quantity and quality pro- ducctl by the most modern and tho oldest methods obtainable.
 MT A. NJ Dewey is in Philadelphia in tho interests of the department and rccont- ly said to press representative:
 "Therc has been prevailing impression that labor was being mado to suffer because of competition with machinery, and there has been much strength and energy wasted by some of tho best of tho organizations of labor in their efforts to suppress the ma chine. These fears have proved ground less
 i'So far us typcsctting is concerneth the machine which does the work successfully is of recent discovery, but all papers near ly and many book offices are getting them in as fast as the factory can supply thcm As a matter of fact, when all em- ployocs arc taken into consideration, the machines in tho printing business employ more than they displaco.
 And this evolution, or revolution, per mcates cveryerade. There is a book print ing press now running in Philadelphia which prints the sections, gathers them for binding and folds tho gathered sheets ready for stitching, and this, too, at the rate of 1000 books per hour. l am told that a firm at Lowell, Mass, has in opera tion a machine which docs all this ono can do, and, in addition, prints cover in two colors and puts the cover on the book, leav- ing it ready for tho trimming machine, and does this twice as fast as the Pljladel- phla press mentioned.
 "Wc have found very few industries in which all the work is done by machinery. Most of them still employ good percent ARb ol ItilNNOlh bihNilhO iiittiO products, so called, arc more than half made by hand. Common grade blank books arc popularly supposed to be ma chino product entirely, but this is an error. They are ruled, folded, sewed and trimmed by machine, but are bound practically by hand, the forwarding and finishing occu- pying more time than all tho rest of the work together. The finer grades of blank books are yet made almost entirely by hand.
 Perhaps the most remarkable displace- ment of all is to be found in the wood working trade. Machinery has rendered practically useless the big chest of tools with which the carpenter and joiner for merly piled his vocation. A six panel pine door, which would require a good man from 10 to 12 hours to build by hand, is made by the hundred in from 10 to 12 minutes each. In ironwork the moro the iron Is hammered the better it becomes, and therefore hand work is stronger than machine work, except in special cases where tho trip hammer is used to beat the iron we'll But almost everywhere ma chinery lessons the price of the product and brings it within tho reach of the masses. This creates demand for more of it, and so the opportunity for labor in crcases.
 The investigation includes everything. During the past winter it was my privi- lege to examine into the corn canning in- dustry in an adjoining state, and I ac- knowledge that what learned was a rev elation to me. In single institution this season 30 people will do tho work formerly requiring over 800. Green corn will be husked by machinery for the first time n cutting machine will cut off as much corn us could be cut by 200 women with knives, and machine which cooks, fills, meas ures, weighs and puts the caps on the cans of corn does tho rest of the work. It is simply marvellous. And yet in that in- dustry in spite of this most wonderful machine equipment 1 was told by tho manufacturcr that there were now ten times tho number of employees engaged at tho time of hand labor, while the goods had been placed within tho reach of every one.
 Tho machinery does not displace labor in the aggregate and is of great benefit to society besides. Those who oppose its in- iroduction from labor standpoint may bo honest in their opposition, but they arc mistaken.
 '.Tho idea that machinery has been the cause of reductions in tho price paid to labor in recent years is an error. Men at work on machinery receive better pay, as rulc than tho hand workmen engaged in the sainc business "-Philadelphia Press.