Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-11-25
Machinery DO THE W ORN.-By Frederic j. HaSki

TASHINGTON, D. c., Nov. 1--we
w are doing with our hands thousands
of things that machinery could do
better. We ale even taxing our brains with
simple processes which thinking machines
could do more accurately in far less time.
ernmen; employ who was asked to discuss
This is the statement of scientist in gov
the question whether man is making ade-
quate use of machinery in doing MS work
His answer was an emphatic mo-, and 1t
is an answer which can be corroborated in
hundreds OF ways.
We are accustomed to think that have
made wonderful advances in the use of ma
chinery. We are accustomed to boast of our
labor-saving inventions, and to regard them
as something marvellous. AS a matter of
fact, the basic principles of machinery hav-
ing been worked out, the invention of new
devices is merely matter of the systematic
application of well-known principles. The
present state of our industrial arts is not
thing of marvellous perfection; it is almost
incredibly incomplete. The wonder is not
that we do so many things by machinery. The
wonder is that we sQuander our energy in do
ing by hand thousands of things that ma
chinery might do for us.
The labor of man is worth at the low
est estimate three dollars a day. The same
amount of electrical energy-one man-pow-
er for eight hOurs-is worth about one cent
Wherever a man is doing work that could be
done by machinery, human society is suffer-
ergy.
Machinery could clean our streets, dig our
bitches, cut our wood. Mining could be far
more a mechanical process than it Is. There
is no real excuse for stenographers to pound
typewriters when they can be pounded far
better by electricity Bookkeeping can be re-
duced to an almost wholly mechanical pro-
cess, requiring only little supervision from
the human brain All record-keeping, all
statistical work, of which such an enormous
amount is done in all branches of business
and science car be done by machinery, and
machinery cannot only record, but can also
to a great extent interpret these statistics.
at would be possible to go on multiplying
examples almost endleSSly," said the Scen-
tist. ''The proposition can be stated techni-
caly by saying that any repeat process may
be done by machinery. This may not be true
without exception, but it is very nearly So"
This means that anything which man has
done once, he can devise a machine to do
over and over again. In other words, man
should do nothing but the truly creative
work of the world.
1t takes Imagination to realize the full
possibilities which this statement suggests
but there is nothing incredible about the
statement Itself. The doing of all repeat pro-
cesses" by machinery calls for nothing more
wonderful than the monograph, for instance,
which reproduces every tone and meditation
of the human voice perfectly that even
the human ear cannot tell the difference. 1t
calls for nothing more wonderful than the
modifying machines of the textile mills,
which tie 1876 knots minute with unfailing
precision, uniting two great unfinished fab
RIGS, and which will step of it's own accord
if it makes mistake, and then try again. 1t
asks for nothing more wonderful than the
electric typewriter, which will make any num-
Der of typewriter copies of a letter.
With such achievements as these before
U.s. it is surely not difficult to imagine me-
chanical street-sWeepers and ditch-diggers
and wood-choppers and coal-miners. Except
for the magnitude of the thing, it is not diff
dcult to realize that machinery is capable OF
doing nearly all the ordinary productive work
Of the world whereas it is now doing per-
, haps tenth of it.
But If this is the case," one asks, "why
is our progress toward the realization of this
dream SO slow? II it is really feasible, and
even easy to invent all of these devices, why
are they not invented?"
Lack of cooperation and of coordination,
lack OF enterprise directed toward progress
rather than merely toward making money
and the immense, inert stupidity of the mass
Of men, who refuse to believe and fear to
try are the obstacles in the way.
'InsteGd of setting out Systematically to