The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1908-06-07

development by virtue OF its greater ingo-
nuity N inventing machinery. IL Is pass
ing through a transitOry stage in which
many questions are being discussed and
few determined. During the next ninety
years the changes in laws and customs
necessary to readjustment Of life 10 new
industrial conditions will be completed
BY the year 1000 practically every serious
question affecting industry viii have been
settled and the two component factors Of
Industry. capital and labor, will be at
peace.
The very first piece Of machinery in
vented In the United States which tended
toward creating the modern system OF In
dustry was provocative Of great evil. yet
its good triumphed in the end. When Eli
Whitney made the first cotton gin ne ui.-
doubtedly believed he had invented =
great labor-saving device. But he did not
foresee that it would make the growing
Of cotton so profitable that IL would re-
store the dying institution or African
slavery. He did not foresee that il would
plunge the American people into four
years OF bloody internecine strife. He did
not fOresee that il would inject into the
American politics OF to-day a never-seI-
tied race problem. Yet II II had not been
for the cotton gin the South would not
have planted cotton fields slavery would
have died as IL did in New England-of
its own unproftableness-and the whole
course Of our national history would have
been different.
When the steam railroad first came 10
take the place OF the ancient wagon rosd
vantage was so great that, the people
everywhere willingly taxed themselves 20
aid in construction From the increased
facilities Of transportation and communi-
cation resulted the most modern develop
ment OF industry. Early in the century
the factory in which a hundred men
worked took the place Of the hundred
shops in which one man worked. Then
came the second development, in which a
hundred factories with a hundred men in
each were consolidated under one man.
agement-the trust was born
Every political question which excites
the people OF this country in this cam
paign year is a direct product OF the in
vention OF the steam railroad and the sec
ond stage Of collective or social develop
ment OF manufacturing. The problems
which resulted from the birth OF the cot
ton gin have been practically settled The
problems resulting from these later and
infinitely more important changes wrought
by industrial development Will be settled
long before the American nation becomes
full-grOwn in the year 1000.
While life and civilization depend upon
the farmer. the conditions Of living de-
-,
sociate under the general heading OF
manufacturing" II the reader OF this
article will look about him in the room
he is now occupying. 1t Is unlikely that he
will see single object which would have
been possible in It's present form TO the
American Of ninety years ago. II is en-
tirely probable that the American Of
ninety years hence viii be unable 70 find
anything OF the vintage Of 1905 except in
a museum.
Look about you. The glass in the win
dow Is made by a process entirely IN
known century ago. II is much clearer,
but II is also much more brittle and much
cheaper Glass making was once a trade;
Il is now a business. The desk before you
1T came from Grand Rapids. and each
piece of wood in It was cut by a machine
which cut ten thousand other pieces Of
IDENTICAL size and shape. And you know
that there are ten thousand other desks
just like yours. Ninety years ago your
desk would have been made by your own
cabinet-maker at the village wood shop
The radiator-steam heat and the steel
trust were alike undreamed Of ninety
years ago. Perhaps you or your little
son has a dollar watch. The men who
work in the factory where those watches
are made get higher wages than the
matchmaker OF the first OF the century
Yet no one Of them could make a whole
watch The individual artisan could not
have made a watch for anything Ike so
little cost The dollar watch was made
possible by machinery and collective in
dustry.
The progress Of this development is by
no means completed. The changes Of the
coming nine decades will be many and
wonderful. There can be little doubt
that the separation of the workman from
all voice in the direction of his labor.
by the introduction Of the modern
system, viii be modified. The workman
will have a certain share in the direction
OF affairs, and capital will be none the
less profitable because 1t recognizes that
right.
AS the homes Of to-day are fitted up
with scores of factory-made articles which
were unheard Of a generation ago. so the
homes OF the next generation viii De
by the progress of industrial art.
TIE demand for manufactured thugs will
to increase. Let the doubter think
this over: Twenty years ago there wasn't
such thing as a ready-cooked cereal
breakfast food To-day the money spent
for advertising by the ready-cooked food
Is more than the amount peid for all IN
cooked cereal breakfast foods consumed
then.
The promise of increased demand IS
grateful, because il is only upon that
basis that the manufacturing interests
can hope TO keep up with the march of
progress predicted for the remainder Of
this century. II the development should
be in the same ratio as the growth OF the
last fifty years, the factories OF the Unit
ed States would have an output many
times greater than that OF the whole
world to-day. Not only greatly increased
population and wealth, but a greater indi-
vidual demand for manufactured articles
Will be necessary to sustain the relative
Importance Of manufactures. That all Of
these conditions will be met is as certain
as anything in future can be.
When the year 1000 comes the industry
and trade OF this country will be greater
IN extent than that Of the whole world
to-day; that is. II we progress only one
tenth as rapidly In the future as we have
in the past. The waste of the present
methods Of manufacture will be stopped.
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