The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-03-09
THE AMERICAN WORKMAN
EVEN MORE APPRECIATED ABROAD
THAN AT HOME.
Secrets of His Efficiency and Success
Explained by n Frenchman's Book
Published I'm England.
London Mail.

industrial markets of the world as much
to the qualities of its workmen as TO the
natural resources of its dOminiOns.
The American mechanic by his ingenuity
inventiveness and industry has placed HIM
self atop of the worlds workers. This
lends special value to the study of Ameri-
can industrial life written by NJ. E. Levas-
seur and issued in English form by Mr..
Fisher Unwin under the title of 1.-THE
American Workman NJ. Levasseur is a
French student who spent some time in
the United States visiting industrial centers
to learn at first hand the actual truth about
the life and ways of the transatlantic
toiler.
What are the secrets Of the American
servations they may be described as his
strenuousness, his power of iniative, his
independence and his high productive ca
pacity. He is imbued with intense national
self-confidence. I'VE are the first nation
of the globe" said one. Without us Eu-
rope would be groveling in the barbarism
of the middle ages"
The American workman is the man with
the machine For many years the steady
tendency has been TO introduce machinery
Nothing is done by hand that machinery
can do instead, and the automatic appa-
row. Machines count up the ledgers or
record the output of other machines. The
fact that plant has been in use for short
time is thought good reason for removing
il. At MINNEAPOLIS the author visited a
sawmill where the great trunks of trees
were picked up out of the water though
they were match sticks, trimmed, sawn
up and automatically piled up on land
He expressed his admiration, but his guide
dismissed the work as nothing. This sys-
tenn is two years old he said. II regret
~ Cl7nxr
newer mills. They are not running to-
night. They will soon have to be recon-
Structed."
Along with improved machinery has come
an enormously Increased output with less
labor. NJ Levasseur gives some striking
instances of this. The pin trade supplies
one. When Adam Smith wrote his book
which forms the foundation of modern
economics he showed that with the ma
chinery then existing one man could make
1890 pins a day To-day one man makes
1500, 900. A pound of pins then cost a guinea.
for manufacture; now it costs about shill-
ing.
One mandatory of machinery that for
merly needed 2,l45 men now does the same
work with GOO workmen. Machinery dis
penses with about 10 per cent. of human
labor in shoemaking as against the old ma
chimes, while man with modern plant fin
ished 800 pairs of shoes in the time 1t would
have required to finish five by hand.
AUTOMATIC PLANT EVERYWHERE.
These illustrations might be multiplied in
definitely. American factories use auto
matte plant to an extent which even in this
country is unknown, and the men employed
have to work much harder. The rate of la
Dor is such as surprises those accustomed
TO slower Eastern ways. In the well-organ-
lied factory there is talking during
working hours save on business The weak
and incapable go to the wall, while the
able-bodlod are well rewarded. NJ. Levas-
seur might illustrate his story of the in
stance Of a well-knOwn watch factory. The
chief there one day noticed a girl worker
pauSing for a minute over her machine to
recurl her fringe. He inquired and found
that in the hot air of the factory fringeS
got out of curl, and the girls often quickly
twisted them up. Thereupon he issued an
edict that the women workers should come
with their hair brushed straight, and what
is more. he got his order obeyed.
The extra eXertion is by means always
willingly given. The manufacturers work
the men like horses or slaves" one grum-
bled. They pay you well here, but you
have to work hard" said an immigrant. Be
fore an industrial commission one man
complained that the American bricklayer
much worse off than the English. be-
cause, though he was paid more he had to
lay 500 brick day more.
1t is this fact which explains how, while
paying higher wages than their rivals the
American manufacturers can underselI
them. Thus the nailmaker of the English
black country" works, according to NJ
shillings. and turns out 200 weight: the
Pittsburg man works a day of ten hours
earns a guinea and turns out two tons and
a half. But the authors figures on this
point are not borne out, it is fair to saw
by the official returns of either England or
America.
NJ. Levasseur was much impressed by the
orderliness and excellence of the conditions
of work. The silence in the factories
seemed to him specially strange In many
works he found baths and toilet rooms for
no mon In M L.
each man in which to keep his outdoor
clothes while working, and the inserting
of the key In the lock of a machine auto
matically registered the hour of the mans
arrival. In some works men who Disc OBJ
scene or profane language, or who quarrel
and fight are Immediately discharged. Dis
cipline is strict, defective products being
charged to the labOrers; cleanliness is
enforced, and in many cases smoking at
work is forbidden
The author investigated with special care
the everyday life of the mechanics Sta
tistics show that the nominal wages of the
American workman are much higher than
those of his competitors. But wages, after
all, only represent their actual purchasing
power, and NJ. LeYasseur set himself to
find if the American toiler really lives bet
ter than others.
WORKMEN WITH CARRIAGES.
He found that he does. He lives, dresses
and INDUCES in luxuries which surprised
the French critic 1t is very common in
the West and not rare in the East NJ Lee
vasseur states, for workmen TO keep their
own carriages. But by carriages he means,
not the brougham of rich city livers, but
the little trap or buggy familiar in the
country. They travel much for pleasure
and largely go in for social meetings The
prominence of religion in their lives and
the amount they contribute to religious
CARNATIONS somewhat surprised the writer.
But, strangely enough, he fails 10 empha-
size this important point. In social life the
American workman is abstemious, and his
temperance is one OF the chief factors in
his prosperity.
The Workman'S wife is not oyerbllrdened
with household duties. She reads a good
deal and it is not an unheard of event for
her to take lessons in French. drawing or
music AS a rule the American workman
gives his wife about q shillings a week to
keep house on and perhaps shillings or u
shillings week more for her own personal
expenses. The standard of living is high
The life of the American workman is broad
and his comforts are more numerous than
those of his European rivals.
Looking twenty or thirty years ahead, NJ
Levasseur believes in the continued tri-
umph Of the American workman. Machin-
cry, concentration and combination of capf-
tal-the lines which the industrial bait
ties are TO be fought-promise well But
there are difficulties ahead. Labor unions
Will increase and the state regulation of
labor will check private industry. In time
NJ. Levasseur believes, wages must fall
and in their fall will come great Conflicts
between capital and labor.
His book has at once the merits and short
irlcya of afd arfS inv