The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-04-28
LABOR SAVING MACHINES
THEY HELP MANKIND TO GET
WORK.
Without Labor Saving Machinery Man
Would Not Get the Food He Does
Now, and Laborers Would Starve.

AT the close of the last century Mall
thus evolved the theory that the worlds
population was increasing more rapidly
than the means of subsistence, and nat
all nations would soon be starving il
the birth rate was not held in check
How completely this prophecy has been
falsifed, and why" says the Chicago
Tribune, lis shown in an article in the
current issue of Guntons Magazine
written by Carroll d. Wright, United
States Commissioner of Labor. The use
of machinery has wrought the change.
A few years ago Congress authorized
a commission to investigate the refa-
tive productive power of hand and ma
chine labor, and upon the recent report
of this commission Mr.. Wright has bas-
ed some of his calculations.
"A thousand paper bags could for
merly be made in six hours and thirty
minutes by hand; they are now made
in forty minutes with the aid of a mn
chine To rule 100 reams of paper on
both sides by hand required 4,S00 hourss
with a ruling machine the work is done
in two hours and thirty minutes or
one mans time. In Smelling corn by
hand sixty-six hours and forty minutes
would be required to shell a quantity
which can be handled by a machine IN
thirty-siX minutes. A moving machine
cuts seven times as much grass per
hour as one man can cut with a scythe.
These examples might be extended in
definitely, but a more forceful illustra-
ton is found by considering the total
horse power applied to machines in thfs
country, and calculating how many men
it would require to do the same work.
For such calculations the census of 1890
must be used.
One horse power is equivalent to the
power of six men. Thus, if the work of
6S,4Sl men in the flour mills of the Uni
ted States is supplemented with the use
of 752, 1865 horse power the power is
equivalent to the work of 4514, 1870 addi-
tiunal men. In other words the power
does seVenty-One times as much work
as the employees. The ratio differs rad
ically in different industries. Mr.
Wright finds that the total horse power
used in the United States in 1890 was
about 100000 equivalent to the work
of 36O0O,OOO men, while only 4476.SS4
persons were employed, the two kinds
of power having a ratio of eight to one.
A force of 36,000,000 men represents a
population of 100000 600, so that, if the
products Of the manufacturing estab-
| lishments were all made by hand, ii
! would require a population of that size
| to do it, with none left for agriculture.
trade, transportation, mining, forestry,
| the professions or any other ocCupa-
| lions.
| A still more striking illustration is
! found in our transportation system. In
1890 there were over 10000 locomotives
| in this country. 1t would take $3.50, $40
| horses to do their work, or 347, 425, 500
men. In countries like China nearly ALI
| the work of transportation is actually
! done by man power, and no further ex-
! PLANTATION Of the difference between Am
erica and Asia is required. BY the use,
| Of steam we are evoking aid from the
storedup heat in our coal beds equiva-
lent to the population of the whole
earth, while the Chinaman let's his coal
lie underground, packs his wood on his
back and does his manufacturing
| largely by hand.
Mr. Mullhall the British statisticiar-
calculated in 1895 that the use of steam
power had increased in the United
/ States fVe-fold in thirty-fve years
thus more than trebling the collective
working power of the population. He
| also remarks that the working energy
| of one American is more than double
/ that Of one European Thus, the civil
! lied world, with the United States lead
! ing is yearly doing greater amount
of useful work. while Asia does no
more than 1t did a thousand years ago
/ This fact, alone, will explain the de-
mand for the open door and the in
| creasing world domination of the ma
! chine using nations"