The record-union., 1899-07-11
=LABoR-sAvING BENEFITS.

On a certain railroad line in the
northern part Of the continent the To-
comotives have to be coaled. AS people
travel day and night and freight rolls
by day. and night as we'll, trains must
run at all hours. So men were ena''
ployed to coal the locomotives and the
cost was very heavy, which as matter
of course had to be visited upon the
business. done.
!. To meet the regular and irregularly
arriving locomotives at coaling stations
the coal shovelers had to be divided
into gangs, some working by night,
some by day. These gangs had to be
ready at all times. of course. Some-
times they had nothing to do for many
hours, at other times they had to work
hard and rapidly in a few hours. on
the whole, however, they had nearly as
much rest in working hours as they had
labor. @
Presently the jawbone laborera hap
pened that way and managed to con-
vince the men that they were greatly
oppressed, and accordingly they struck
for increase of the number Of gangs
decrease OF the working and waiting
hours. and increase Of wages. The
company acceded, though declaring that
the increased cost, was not justihed.
Thereupon an ingenious mechanic set to
work and invented system by which
the locomotives could be coaled by ma
chinery. That is to say, the locomotive
fireman pulled lever and the coal was
chuted into the tender in a few Sec
onds This rendered but one man nee
essary at each bunker where before
there were six 1t saved time and 1t
cut down the cost of operating the road
Thereupon there went up cry
against the mechanical device. But
this latter was Inevitable. Just
as inevitable as was the sewing ma
chine, the harvester, the tele-
graph and the telephone. 1t was just
as sure to come as was the match to
displace the punk and flint, the knife
the sharpstone, and the fork the fingers
in eating. Probably the strike hastened
the matter, and the complaint of the
shovelers stimulated the genius of the
| inventor But the gamers were the
travellers by the road, the company In
operating expenses, With corresponding
gain to the patrons of the road in re-
duced rates and increased volume OF
traffic, and SO on to the last of consum-
ers.
| In fact the gain in even so small
matter as this ran to the whole COM
munity and actually visited some Of its
benefits upon the displaced shovelers
! For it is a trueism that whatever less
| ems the strain of labor without reGuc-
! ing the production, whatever adds to
needed human comfort and convenience
betters the whole body Of the people
At first there is some suffering by
| reason of the transition from the hand
| to the machine, but the mechanical de-
vice in the end Is beneficent.
1t may take a long look ahead on the
part of some intelligences to see It; but
as surely as that day dawns and night
settles down, the device that lessons
toll and makes accomplishment easier
and products cheaper benefits the whole
body Of the people and adds to the sum
of human happiness. It Is not a popu-
lar thing to say as much, but the en-
tire history of progress proves it from
the time when the steamship supersed-
ed the sailing craft. to the hour when
the tramcar displaced the slow moving
and numbering omnibus.
More than this, the benefit has invar-
iably opened up new avenues for human
activity. 1t has increased human de-
sire and supplied it. 1t has enabled US
to have that which before was impos-
sible for us to enjoy. 1t has made the
consumers ability as broad as his de-
sire, while enlarging and stimulating
| the latter. ls@
Says the Stockton MAIL in response
to the statement in a metropolitan pa
per that San Francisco will give the re-
turning troops warm welcome: PERU
sal of the program shows that it will