Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-04-30

a willing ear to such nonsense. Their
were riots in England when manu-
factures sought to introduce labor
saving methods in cotton-spinning
and when railroads were introduced
among us. there were doubtless thou
sands of draymen, stage-drivers ant
boatmen who. II they had dared
would have torn up the rails ant
thrown them into the rivers, as tn
Chinese did along the Yangste-Kiang
With much the same feeling the old
time hand -compositors looked upol
the coming of the typesetting ma
chine.
And yet with all our engines doini
the work of millions Of draymen ant
cabmen; with all our factory-machine
doing the work of hundreds Of thou
sands of weavers and spinners: will
all our telegraphs and telephones TAX
ing the place Of numberless messen
gers, runners and errand boys, and
with a population, too, vastly in excess
Of the population when old-fashionet
methods prevailed, the fact stands ou
that labor has never been in greater
demand and has never commanded
higher wages than today.
How Machinery Has Helped Progress
The explanation is very simple. II
labor-saving machine enables fifty
men to do the work 1t formerly re.
quired a hundred men to do, in pro-
ducing some necessity Of life, then the
released fifty men, the fifty mer
whose services were dispensed with
are free to produce some comfort OF
luxury for which the increased earn.
ings of the retained fifty will help pro-
vide q market This has been the his
tory Of all industry, as we know. A
study of the very elements Of indus
trial evolution teaches us that at frs
with crude tools and knowledge II
probably took the primitive man al
his tir1e to provide food for himself
game, fish, grain, fruits. Then there
came a time when, with better tools
and better knowledge, only half the
mer were required to produce the
food-whereupon the other half did
not starve, but began making clothing
and building houses for the whole
number, and everybody lived better
than before. Still later there came q
time when with increasing knowledge
and increasing mechanical power, all
the men were not required to produce
food, and shelter, and some were re-
leased for gathering knowledge, writ
ing books, making music, painting
pictures, carving statues, for search.
ing after spiritual truth, and fol
teaching that life is more than meat
or raiment.-and all men lived inf
nitely better, found 1t easier to gel
employment, and earned higher wages
than ever before, in spite Of their great
increase in numbers.
With a proper organization Of in.
dustry it seems to me that 1t must evel
be so-certainly as far ahead as we
car look into the future. When
ma chine is invented that enables one
man to do the work 1t formerly re.
quired two men to do In producing
some sheer necessity for mankind, an
extra man is released or freed tc
serve mankind by the production OF
some comfort or luxury, or by minis
terirg to the things Of the mind and
spirit. And itsis the duty Of society
and government, I may say just here
to facilitate this result, to provide ed.
ucatlon and equality of opportunity sc
that each man will work where his
efforts will mean most in human SER
vice.
We must also remember that
knowledge or education not only cuts
the shackles which chain a mar
down to a few occupations, not only
sets him free to labor where he car
work best; but It Is also a productive
agency; a tool with which man may
work better. Take the simple fac
that cowpeas gather that expensive
fertilizing element, nitrogen from the
air; farmer may harness this scien'
tific truth, use it and set 1t to work
and get results, profits, power, from 1t
as surely as from a harnessed horse ol
steam engine. And so with every 9th
er useful bit of knowledge under heav
en-. knowledge is power.
Asia's WastefuI Methods.
All this doctrine Asia has rejected
or has never even got to the point o.
considering. In America a motormar
or conductor by means Of tools ant
knowledge-a street car for a tool ant
the science of electricity for knowl
edge-transports forty people from
one place to another. This motormar
and this conductor are igh-priced la
borers from the oriental standpoint
and yet it costs you only five cents fol
your ride, and five minutes time. II
Pekin, on the other hand, 1t takes for
ty men pulling rikshas to transpor
forty passengers: and though the pull.
ers are ,"cheap laborers" it costs yor
probably ten to twenty cents and ont
to two hours time to get to your des
tination-even IL you are so lucky a:
not to be taken to the wrong place!
In Asia forty men to do the worl
that two would do in America! Mer
and women weavers doing work tha
machines would do at home. Farmer!
blowing with one handled wooder
plows, or breaking the land by hant
with Kuwa hoes. Grain reaped by
sickles instead of by horses and reap
ers as in America. Sixteen men a
Hankow to carry baggage that ont
man and a one-horse dray would car
nv in New York. Women carryint
brick, stone and timber up the noun
tain side at Hong Kong. The Chines'
threatened a general riot when TIT
English built a cablecar system up TIT
incline; and compelled the owners Il
sign an agreement to transport passen
gers only-never freight! No saw
mills in the Orient, but thousands o
men laboriously saving up huge log
by means of whip-saws. No pumps
even at the most used watering places
hut huckets and ropes: often no wind