The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-07-08
MACHINE PRODUCTION.

MACHINE PRODUCTION.
The outstanding fact about the
American standard of living is that
| it is not standard: it grows over
night, and, as it grows, the problem
of maintaining the pace grows with
it.
The answer to the problem is in
creased production, but how are we
to increase production? The work.
ers who are constantly setting new
boundaries for the standard of living
refuse to move production along at
the same time; they demand more
silk shirts, automobiles and phono-
graphs, but they refuse to produce
more coal and iron and to move more
freight. If we concede the right of
the worker to get more for less, we
must seek a solution of the problem
in another direction. Furthermore, if
it is possible to give the worker more
for less it ought to be done. We are
on this earth but once that we know
of. and we ought to make ourselves
as comfortable as we can while we
are here. We have come long way
along that road and the end is not
yet in sight. We can't possibly do the
full journey overnight, but If we
Knew that more for all lay at it's end
we would carry our burdens with
lighter hearts, and so long as we felt
that every man was doing his share
there would be nothing of envy or
distrust. AS far as our ingenuity
and inventive skill will let us we
ought to place the burden of produc-
.tion upon machinery-make it auto
matte. We cannot hope to abolish
manual labor entirely, for the more
we do the more we find to do, but we
can make it pay bigger dividends to
the worker. No policy that it ever
followed emphasized the inefficiency
of the leadership of the American
labor movement as much as it's oppo-
sition to machine production. It is
easy to understand the opposition of
the individual skilled worker who
feared the immediate loss of a pre-
ferred place, but the opposition of
labor leadership which sclaims the
qualities of prophets in other matters
was. plainly due to lack of even or
binary foresight. Machine production
was opposed in the earlier days, and
still is opposed by some crafts, on
the ground that it destroys mems jobs
and reduces them to a status of au-
donations. Half Of the dissatisfaction
of the workers in industry today is
traceable to the old prejudice against
machines. 1t is possible that the ere
ative spirit in some workers is re-
sponsible for their antipathy toward
machines, but that can hardly be the
explanation of general opposition. We
have to look for the explanation of the
general opposition in some vague no
IN he Of h.
worker from the other day, that in
some way, some how, the employer
is getting the best of him. If he pro-
duces ten units where only one was
produced before, he feels that his pay
ought tod be measured by the oil
standard and that he should get ten
times as much as the man who did
the job before. What he overlooks
completely, and what his leaders over
look, is that the increased production
reduces the cost of his product and
enables him to buy it in the shops
with tenth of his wage. Workers
and their leaders are inclined to
count what they get in terms of
money and to ignore the benefits of
whole sale production. The old time
labor leader scared his followers to |
death by telling them that when the
were installed half of them
would lose their jobs. He never once
thought of the elementary fact that |
goods are made to sell and are value
less until they reach the consumer.
If he had told the workers that more
goods produced meant more goods for |
and better times for the
worker, the psychology of the Ameri- !
can workman of today would have |
been vastly different.
But for the machine we should still
be living under the hard conditions of |
fifty years ago; lack of the flivver |
and the photograph, the electric light |
and the bath tub, and be wearing |
homespun. The adoption of the ma
chine undoubtedly resulted in abuses. !
and employers doubtless exist who |
hteir obligations by profits /
rather than by service, but time will |
eliminate the errors, and the benefits |
will far outweigh the losses.
We are at a turn in the road and |
are about to move across a new count
try in which the fields are greener,
are more limpid. Machinery conquers
both time and space, for it eliminates
and packs a week into an hour. Our
span of life, measured by what we
can do and see, is infinitely greater
than that of any generation that ever
lived in the world, and we have the
power to make it wider still.-Amer-
can Exchange National Bank Bulle-
tin.