Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1906-09-21
Tho Ace Of Machinery,

We live in the age of machinery.
The thinking, directing mind becomes
daily of more account, while mere
Drawn falls CORRESPONDENCE in value
from day to day. That eccentric phil.
osopher, Ebert Hubbard, says in one
of his essays, where machine will
do better work than the human hand,
we prefer to let the machine do the
work."
1t has been but few years since
the cotton gin, the spinning Jenny"
and the power loom displaced the
hand picker, the spinning wheel and
the hand loom; since the reaper and
binder. the rake and tedder, the NOW.
ing machine took the place of the old
cradle, scythe, pitchfork and hand
rake; since the friction match gu.
perseded the flint and finder; since
the modern paint factory replaced the
slab and muller, the paint pot and
paddle.
In every case where machinery has
been introduced to replace hand labor,
the laborers have resisted the change;
and as the weavers, the sempstresses
and the farm laborers protested
against new-fangled looms, sewing ma
chimes and agricultural implements,
10 in recent times competitors have
protested against type-setting ma.
chimes, glass blowers against bottle
blowing machines, and painters
against ready mixed paints. And as
in the case of these short-sighted
classes Of an earlier day, 20 with their
imitators of to-day, the protest will
be in vain. It is a protest against civ.
ilization, against the common veal,
against their own welfare.
The history OF all mechanical i'm
provements shows that workmen are
the first to be benefited by them.
The invention of the sewing machine,
instead of throwing thousands of wom-
en- out Of employment, increased the
demand to such an extent that thou.
sands of women have been employed,
1T better wages, for shorter hours and
easier work where hundreds before
worked in laborious misery to exc
out pitiable existence. It was 50
with spinning and weaving machin-
cry, with agricultural implements-in
fact. it is SO with every notable i'm
proveme2t. The multiplication of
books in the last decade is a direct
result of the invention Of linotype
machinery and fast. presses.
The mixed paint industry, in which
carefully designed paints for house
painting are prepared on a large scale
by special machinery, is another i'm
provement of the same type. The
cheapness and general excellence of
these products has so stimulated the
consumption Of paint that the de-
mand for the services Of painters has
correspondingly multiplied. Before
the advent of these goods well-paint-
ed house was noticeable from it's
rarity, whereas to-day an ill-painted
house is conspicuous.
Nevertheless, the painters, as a
rule, following the example set by
the weavers, the sempstresses and the
farm laborers Of old, almost to man,
oppose the improvement. 1t is real
improvement, however, and simply be.
cause of that fact the sale of such
products has increased until during
the present year it will fall not far
short of 90,00O,000 or 10O,000,00O gal.
Ions.
Hindsight is always better than
foresight, and most of US who deplore
the short-sightedness of our ancestors
would do we'll to see that we do not
in turn furnish terrible examples to
our posterity. P. G.