The San Francisco call., 1897-06-20
PULPIT ECONOMICS"

The widespread circulation given by
the press TO the recent statements of
Bishop Potter on the effect of machinery
upon the condition OF workingmen and
the degree of public interest displayed in
the subject have led a writer in the current
number of Gunton's Magazine to review
the theories of the Bishop. and under the
title of pulpit Economics" point out
some OF the well-known facts OF life which
disprove his conclusions.
The Bishop asserted that the use of ma
chimes has had bad effect upon the minds
of those employed in operating them.
Their tendencies" he said, "is to crush
out individual independence and to hinder
or prevent the free use of human faculties
and the full development of human char
acter." Machinery, he went on to say,
reduces the workingman ''to the level of q
mere appur tenance to a great machine,
with little free will, with no duty but
passive obedience, and with little hope
or opportunity OF rising in the scale of
helpful and responsible citizenship"
To illustrate his argument the Bishop
told of visit he lad made to large fac
tory and said: II saw young man sit
ting before some sort of large hammer.
He sat with his legs crossed and all his
work consisted in showing into an opening
of the machinery a small piece of iron.
He would turn the metal two or three
times, throw it into large box and take
another piece. That was this mans work
day after day, week after week. No won
der that at mig httime he drank, gambled
and fought He had to- otherwise he
would 60 mad"
This is tie view taken of machinery by
what the writer in Gunton's Magazine
called Pulpit Economics" The answer
is n denial that machine labor has any
such effe cts on the brain and the character
of the man who engages in it. and an
appeal 10 the general experience of the
world TO prove that the machinist as a
rule does not drink, gamble and fight,
nor yet go mad.
The man whom Bishop Potter saw put
ting pieces of iron into an opening in a
machine was not being wearied and ex-
hausted by hard physical toll. His ener-
gies were not wholly absorbed and taxed
10 their full capacity by the work he had
TO do. At the close of the day he was not
worn out so that some stimulant was
needed to revive him for any kind Of
effort.
When his days task was done, he was
fresh and bright enough TO read, TO de-
bate, to attend clubs or mass-meetings, to
take an interest in the news OF the day,
and in fact TO lead some sort of evening
life which furnished him with opportunl-
ties for mental development far greater
than those enjoyed by the generations of
workingmen to whom machinery was un-
known and whose labor left the m at the
close OF every day tired, listless, tagged
out and fit only 20 sleep or TO get drunk.
The writer of the review very Justly
says: at is in shortening the length and
reducing the tension of The working day
that lies the only hope of the personal
and social improvement of the labJrer
Everything which makes production au-
tomato and relieves the laborer from ply
sical drudgery and nervous strain tends
TO increase the possibility of social con-
sumption and personal expansion"
All the facts of modern development at
test the truth OF these words. The condi-
tion of the workingman has steadily i'm
proved OF recent years, and while machin-
cry has not been the sole cause of that
improvement, it has certainly materially
aided it, and by allowing the worker more
time to profit by the schools, the books
and other helpful influences of the age
has augmented their beneficial effects,
and indirectly added TO their usefulness
il developing the high order of working
men which is the boast of America 10.
day.