The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-01-11
PENSACOLA FLORIDA TuEsD AY MORNING JANUARY H. 1910
Distribution of
The Products of Labor.

In recent magazine article Thos.
A. Edison painted a picture of the
future. 200 years hence, as follows:
In 200 years. by the cheapening of
commodities, the ordinary laborer will
live as well as man does now with
100000 annual income. Automatic
machinery and scientific agriculture
will bring about this result. There
will be no manual labor in the fac
tories of the future. The men in them
will be merely superintendents, watch
ing the machinery to see that it works
right. The clothes of the future will
be so cheap that every young woman
will be able to follow the fashions
promptly, and there will be plenty OF
fashions.
Commenting on this prediction, the
Savannah News grows a little pessi-
mistic as well as sarcastic when it
says:
This is good news for the poor man,
but the edge of that poor mans rejoic-
ing is dulled somewhat by the fact
that it will be some 200 years before
Mr.. Edison's prediction will come true.
In the meantime, however, the poor
can get some satisfaction out of the
thought that the poor of the future
will be able to live better and work
less than they do.
But isn't Mr.. Edison a little too san
guine? IL all the labor required by
the industries and agriculture is to be
done by machinery will there be work
enough for all? Although clothes and
food may cost only a fraction of what
they cost now, may it not be as diff
cult to get that fraction as it is to get
the cost of food and colthes now?
We think our Georgia contemporary
misses the point when it assumes that
a reduction in the labor necessary to
produce the necessities and comforts
of life may still work a hardship on
the poor man by the possibility of
there not being enough work for all.
The world has never seen and never
will see the time when there has not
been or will not be enough work for
everyone. The difficulty has always
been, not with the distribution of
labor, but with the distribution of the
products of labor. That has .een the
problem for centuries past and it will
continue to be the problem for GEN.
turtles to come-even when Mr.. Edi-
sons dream comes true.
If the products Of labor were
equitably distributed, there would be
little or no want in the world today.
If all manual labor could be done by
machines and the human race relieved
of its drudgery and its burdens, the
question of ease and comfort and hap
piness would still hinge on the other
question of the distribution of the
products of these machines. If those
products were controlled by and dis
tributed among a special, privileged
class, want and suffering would be as
widespread as it is under the present
unequal distribution of the products
of human toll.
Let us hope that Mr.. Edison's pre-
diction may come true and let us hope
also that with 1t may come a more
equitable distribution of the blessings
that all labor-saving devices produce
but let us hope as well that long be-
fore these 200 years have been run,
the millions who produce the wealth
of the world may come into their
proper share of it along with that
other class who now get so much
more than they deserve of it.