The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-20
LABOR AND MACHINERY
INTERESTING REPORT BY COMMITS
SIONER CARROLL ID. WRIGHT.
Improved Appliances Have Lowered
Cost of Products and i'm Some Cases
Given More Employment.

| WASHINGTON, Oct 19-The results of
a thorough investigation ordered by Con-
gress and just completed showing the eff
| fects of machinery on labor and incidental
questions constitute the thirteenth annual
report of the commissioner of labor. The
statistics of costs reported involve only the
actual labor expenses. The report goes into
detail. and, among other things says:
There would be no dispute over the con-
clusion that machinery has lowered the
| cost of products and when it is known
| that under the machine method there is an
| increased demand for labor as rule, the
| bearing of the supply of labor becomes
| probiematical. Sometimes there is a lack,
| often times a surplus of labor. The Stats
| tics presented make evident that there. has
been larger increase in the number Of per-
sons required for the production of the ar
ticles considered, in order to meet present
demands, than were necessary to meet the
demands under the hand-labor system One
interesting result is to show how extensive
is the hand method of producing even now.
Hand methods are going out of use. 1t is
| impossible to summarize results so as to
snow the displacement and expansion of la
Dor in various directions. The statistics pre-
scented, however, cannot consider each OPP
GRAFTON and process of labor separately.
In agriculture the figures show, among
other things, that under the primitive
methods the time required for blowing one
acre of ground varied from five to eight
hours. and under the modern method from
five to seven hours and forty-two minutes,
where two horses are required and from
three hours and five minutes to six hours
and forty minutes, with three horses The
ten hours required, under the earlier meth
DDS. where two oxen drew the ordinary
steel pillow. were reduced to six hours and
Iorty minutes by one modern method, and
five hours under another. where horses
drew a similar pillow. Fertilizing ground re-
quired twenty-five hours under the earlier
wagon and shovel method and but one
hour by the modern drill. In digging, the
machine in general reduced the time be-
tween One-eleventh and one thirteenth of
the old time. and in small grain harvesting
the self-binder has reduced the time for
cultivating, and binding, and shocking to
about one-eighth. of that under the primi-
tive system. In ,threshing the ratio of tine
used is more than thirty-two to l in favor
OF the machine In corn planting, the old
method took nearly six times as long.
One of the comparisons shows the manu-
facture of one thousand one-pound loaves
of bread is reduced in cost from $3.50 to
$l.55. and in time from twenty-eght hours
TO eight hours; axle clips, one thousand in
quantity, from $2SS.33 to $427, and from 666
dred pounds of dairy tub butter, machinery
cut the cost down from $1066 to SITS and
from 125 to twelve hours In diamond cut
ting, machinery has reduced the time for
four three-karats from 1872 to thirty-nine
hours but increased the cost from $14.S4 to
$2625. In lithographing. the cost is cut from
$92I per one thousand copies of a speci-
fed size, to $S.75. and time from 166 to thir-
ty hours In making matches the time is
cut from 259 to twenty-nine hours and cost
from $24 to 49, In printing and publishing
magazines, ten thousand copies. the labor
reduction cited is from $40 to fourteen
hours, and the cost from $S0250 to $4.62.
Cigarettes, 100000 in number manufactured
by hand in 1880. and by machinery in 1895.
cost, relatively, 1914 and $l1.4S; time, 800
and 149 hours, the number of workmen also
being reduced from twenty-seven to
eighteen In mining one hundred tons BIZ
luminous coal, the hand cost, in 1891 was
$3.50 and time consumed 342 hours. Ma
chinery reduces this in 1897 to SAB 40 and the
time to 1873 hours, while the number of
workmen is also reduced from forty-two
to thirty-two.