Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-10-21
HAND AND MACHINE LABOR.
Labor Commissioner Wright Extensively
Compares Two in Annual Report.

report OF the commissioners. Of labor fn,
1898 takes up the supJect of hand and ma
chine labor, and is one of the most ex-
haustivc documents of its kind that has
ever been issued
The report is the result of a,,tboritv
given in joint resolution of Congress
providing for an investigation relating 70
the effect of machinery on labor, under
the provisions of which resolution the
commissioner of labor was authorized
and directed to Investigate and make re-
port upon the effect of the use of ma
chinery upon labor and the cost of pro-
duction, the relative productive power or
hand and machine labor, the cost of man
uai and machine power as they are used
in the productive industries, and the ef-
feet upon wages of the use of machinery
operated by women and children: and
further, whether changes in the creative
costs OF products are due to lack or to
a surplus of labor or the introduction of
power machinery
Commissioner Wright says in the pre-
face to the report that the facts collected
may be used in an argumentative sense
upon these two points, but cannot be con-
sidered as conclusive. AS wages have
constantly increased since the factory
system was established, it will be difficult
to decide positively whether such increase
is due to an increased standard of living
or the increased productivity of labor
supplemented by machinery or to other
causes or to all causes combined Wages
have never been steady. During periods
of depression there is usually decrease,
not only in rates. but in earnings.
There ha No a ,vit u ba
clusion that machinery has lowered the
costs of products. and when it is known
that under the machine method there is
increased demand for labor, as rule,
the bearing of the supply of labor be-
comes problematical. 1t is evident on
examining the statistics presented in
this report and expressly in studying
the text analysis, that there has been
larger increase in the number of per-
sons required for the production of the
articles considered, in order to meet
present demands, than were necessary
to meet the demands under the hand
labor system.
Data were obtained, and have been
given in tabuiated form of 81 different
branches Of manufactures, and also in
agriculture. mining, quarrying and
transportation, embracing total of 6TS
articles in which hand and machine la
Dor could he contrasted. The tables
accompanying the report show iuctu-
atoms in prices at different periods,
both in hand and machine methods Of
Ia bor which We're owing to seasons OF
depression or overproduction, or both
Herewith are given few extracts
from the report, as showing the num-
Der of men employed. the time con
sumed in manufacture and the cost of
certain articles of manufacture:
Ten piows which cost S54.46 by hand
labor and on which two men were EN-
ployed total of 1854 hours, cost when
made by machinery, $3.50. and took 81
men d total OF 81 hours and IS min.
utes TO make.
One hundred blank books cost S219.i,i
when made by hand, on which three
men were employed total of 1872
hours. The same number of books
made by machinery cost $69.97 employ
ing 20 men a total of PAS hours
Ruling 100 reams of paper by hand
took one person 1890 hours, and cost
$400 while two persons did the work by
machine in a total of 2 hours and Is
minutes. costing only So cents.
large reduction in cost and hours
of labor is exhibited in the manufae-
ture of carriage hardware and equip
ments. The cost of q buggy made by
hand, six persons being employed s
total of 200 hours, was s45.66. BY ma
chinery one can be made at a cost Of
$500, employing 116 hands, in a total
of SO hours.
The figures given above as the cost
OF articles is for labor only.
The question may and doubtless IS
oftentimes asked, what good cd the in
vestigations of the department of labo,
do? The same query might be raised
in regard to many other bureaus of the
government. and if scientific institu-
ton, colleges. and especially depart
ments and municipal governments.
They all do essentially the same thing.
in gathering first crop of information
and their real value depends upon the
intelligence and fairness with which
they are respectively conducted. AL
this statistical information does not
profess to be anything but crude. The
various refinements through which the
natural ore. so to speak, must pass
belong to the writer's of books and
Of the daily papers. They make thu
differences. and establish, for them
selves, at least, the conclusions. They
point the moral and adorn the tale.
Besides the first hand gathering of raw
material. this statistical work is Of
enormous value in q negative
way. 1t prevents the growth
and spread of nonsensical notions, which.
in the absence of a recognized basis of
fact would frequently take place. Some
times these inquiries followed the spread
of popular deusion of some sort, and
then their effect is to check the further
growth of the error. For instance, in 1878,
much was said about the unemployed OF
the country. A report was industriously
circulated and freely quoted that in the
City of Boston alone 10000 people were out
of employment in Massachusetts 250.001
people, and so on. Nobody had any facts
on the question, and SO whatever asser-
tons We're made in this line found ready
listeners. AT this time the bureau of stat
isticS of Massachusetts decided to make
an investigation, and conducted two sep
arate canvasses, one in June and the
other in November, with the result that
the highest number of laborers skilled
and unskiileu, male and female, found
out of employment and seeking work,
was 2S,50S, or about one-tenth the number
formerly supposed to be conditioned.
But perhaps a more striking instance