The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-10-22

SCIENCE AND LABOR.
New CallinEs Claim the Work of the Men
Displaced by Modern Machinery.
From the Nineteenh century.


From he Nineteenth Century.
At certainly seems at first sight to be an eco
nomlc danger this educating Of the labOrng man
and woman to be far too good Tor laborers work
Let us cast our thoughts however, over wider
horizon, and see how the decades that bnng the
peril also bringing the remedy Science is
steadily sweeping away all those humblest classes
OF employment. Hardly any man has now to
toll up ladders with the bod of bricks upon his
shoulder The donkey engine does the purely
animal part Of the work. The reaper is replaced
by the machine and the ploug hman is fast reced
ing as the steam plough makes Its appearance
We rarely see long lines of men, laden with coal
bags running up planks as in the olden days.
The need OF men 10 do the work Of horses is
steadily diminishing.
II 10 true that science has by no means con
auered the whole domain. There is ST. II much
sCrubbing Of floors TO be done by men and women
on Bonded knees and coal Is still hewn out with
pick aud axe and the use OF muscle, with but
little use Of brains. And yet even in our fertile
country, science never work by revolution but
only by progress. one domain after another
has gone Where are now the armies Of water
carriers, and chair portcrs and ngh men and
Imagine. II ships had still 10 be moved by galley
rowers what millions would be doomed toa beast-
Like toll 1rs n %t be F bur
the process gong forward and i! IS clear that
while education IS rendering the lower classes
is steadily sweeping away these occupations
II would be too much to hope that these processes
snoher oe q But it" in The, the general dr Of things they
are compensatory. and 4 We only give TO science
reasonable time i will leave us none o. that
| labor to be done which requires an uneducated
Then comes the uneasy question as, to what
is TO become of the classes thus deprived OF occu-
! patton The working classes themselves often
! curse the progress Of invention and are tempted
to look upon il no friend 10 their welfare There
| il iS longer machine break
ing frenzies: but the difficulty often arises In an
acute, though silent sufernsl Unfortunately
| through transltory ills When an army OF com
positors Is dismissed because some one has in
| ness OF feeling. And yet there was a time when
| a whole army Of manuscript book copers had to
give way before the advent OF the compoS!tor
But the difficulty is always eran,scent. for
here, too, there are compromising influences at
work. For If science is abollshing occupations
at the lower end Of the scale; she is creating new
| ones at the top. Think Of the hundreds OF thou,
sands Of men who IN England are now employed
| in calings that had existence sixty years ago;
| the tcegraphers, and photographers. land ma
| chinsts Of hundred kinds In the last de- ode
or two, what an army Of skilled men have been
| demanded by the invention OF the bicycle, the
| telephone and the eletr.c Light! As compared
| with the beginning Of the century, think OF the
| long array Of marine and locomotive engineers,
the chemists, the journalists the draugh,smen.
! the teachers, the poslmen railway ,poTiers and
! tram conductors. What multitude "t calllngS are
| there which are either new or else newly stocked
50 that while the population has qnadrnpled,
| their ranks have been muluplled a hunufculold.
But il is the entirely empoyments that strike
| the mind most forcby and any one who runs
| his eye down a census Of the occupations Of the
people will satisfy himself that IN England Of
| the present day one fifth part Of the adult male
populate find their livelihood in calllngs that had
| no existence when the century began.
Thus while science takes away with one hand
| II literally beStOwS with the other; but what Il
| takes away the low class occupations and
| what il gives the high class ones, demanding
| intelligence and Culuvaung IT, The general ten
| dency is therefore, humAn.7ing.
| But, of course, il never happens that the coal
| HEAVIER, when thrown out OF work by the intro
! ducton Of a steam crane, can go away and get
| place in Of the newly created surerior calngs.
| lie is not such fool al Ia vast" his time in APP
| plying for an opening as an electrical engineer.
| But there is gradual creeping up that is al
! ways taking place. And yet the transfer ~ much
| less effected by the promotion OF individuals than
| by promotion of generations. No doubt Il some
! times happens that the intelligent plumber steps
| into the opening for an electrical engineer.
! and leaves gap which some one Of an inferior
calling steps into the gaps beng filled IN succession
| until perhaps the rsveter. thrown ont Of work
| by the introduction Of hydraulic machinery,
| finds vaancy at last and steps into it, But
| il more frequently happens tina the plumber
| and the carter apprentices his boy 10 the plumber
| and the dock laborer sees his young folk aspiring
| 10 be carriers.
Thus the general drift Of the whole social scale
! is steadily upward in proportion as science pro
| v.des intelligent occupations at the upper end
and abolishes those that OF less brurelIke
| at the lower, and so humanity az a whole is the
! gamer There is. therefore, reason ~ feel
| uneasy al prospect Of generalization.