The weekly examiner., 1901-05-04
ADDITIONAL WATERBURY,
(Continued From Page, S.)

1 S.1
 should grant this request and why, in
 doing so, our immense industries would
 realize for the employers actually a larger money return on their capital 1 invested than is at present the case
 on the ten-hour system as constituting a working day. First We are in the twentieth
 century, not the middle of the eigh-
 teenth. The business methods of fifty
 years ago are far behind those of to- day. Labor in 1850 was less intelli-
 bulk was then required to accomplish
 a given mechanical purpose than. is now employed for the same purpose
 in 1901. And, as labor in 1850 was
 on the average less intelligent than
 in 1901-we mean, of course, mechan-
 ica1 industry and labor-and, too, was
 then more bulky in the numbers of
 mechanics necessarily employed for a
 given piece of work, in it's production
 50, too, the time, under such condi-
 tiOns, necessary for labor to. work to
 produce such given result was longer,
 and the mechanical result itself was
 more inaccurate and incomplete than
 the same is now produced by inte1li-
 gent mechanics, working in fewer
 numbers and on shorter work hours,
 in 1901. In a word, the intelligent
 mechanic of 1901-and we throw out
 for the present all consideration of the wonderful improvement in ma
 ehinery of all kinds the past fifty years-knows how to do work better,
 uses less time in doing it, turns out
 work of a higher and more perfect grade than was the case with the less intelligent and less advanced and experienced mechanic of fifty years ago. Our scientific institutions turn l out more scientific master mechanics, 1 send into the world such men in great | CT numbers. than was the case two | generations ago. The average me- therefore, to obtain in such institu- tions now so numerous a speedy scien- tific education in such mechanical lines as he selects to follow than fell to his lot in the past, and consequently | he becomes a higher. grade mechanic a mechanic of today has not the train ing of a scientific institution in full, he still is far more advanced and | skillful workman than was his brother of forty or fifty years ago, because he is more constantly in contact with scientific schools turn out. All this be- ing true, the manufacturer, of course, h derives from the mechanic far higher money return on days work of nine hours than he secured from three l, or. four or more of the mechanics of 1850 working twelve hours per day. Such being the case on every prin- ciple of justice and right, the markedI increase of the earning power Of thel same amount of capital today over it's earning power under the condi- lions of half century ago should be shared in some measure with the me- chanic who thus produced it-and such sharing should come about in theI shape of a proportionate decrease in the hours of labor employed.
 Second. Add to the foregoing con- alterations now, the most important advances made in machinery the past fifty years of all kinds and sorts This wonderful increase and Improvement n all mechanical appliances has well nigh abolished in our shops all un- skilled labor which formerly found 'eady employment, thus vastly reduc- ng the number of workmen required n almost every branch of industry: ! las revolutionized almost completely )ur labor system of years gone by.and las flooded our markets with a vastly tets, of better grade and quality. at much lower prices, in an immensely greater variety of lines, and in less han twO-thirds of the working time < which years ago was required, are ,1aced upon the market at less cost IN If manufacture to the producer and IN Luicker and surer return in profits \ nd dividends. In almost all of our arge mills-and in the smaller ones lJ oo-their accountants and officials will ty ell you-if they say truiy-that theIV manufacturer of today has on his looks fewer bad accounts in propor- ion to volume of business done than l I vas the case years ago. Machinery nd skilled mechanics have made this Y o, by the rapid turning out and in quantities the manufactured q roduct. AS machinery has today x polished the need of common and \