Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-05
Continued From First Page)


things human the making Of new prod
ucts and the institution of new fac
tories and new businesses will provide
for the employment needs of the work
ers There will be dLsplacementS and
temporary economic disturbances, but
l believe that requirements will follow
and that the active world will maintain
its place on the plane upon which it
has had a foothold during the great
majority Of modern years.
There Is a thing which seems to me
to be Of human interest in this matter
of the displacement of hand workers
by machines. The old English word
and the old English family name. Hand
wright. comes from the occupation OF
the hand worker 1t is a more inclu-
sive word than "wheelwright" or any
other word or name which suggests
specific occupation. All men who were
hand workers whether they we're wheel
wrights or something else, were artists
in their line; and the word artist Is
! used with thought.
Handwrights Strike.
When machines and mass production
began to decrease the need for hand
workers in certain trades many of the
men who had been engaged in the
manual labor of producing things de-
clined to take employment under the
| new conditions. They had pride IN
their old profession. a pride which for
babe them to do what seemed to them
to be debasing of their talent. 1t was
the old HandWright pride.
The Younger men who we're starting
as hand workers in certain industries
were willing to make the change and to
become a part of the framework of
mass production and Of the making of
machine wrought goods Not all of
these young men were needed in the
newer and, from one point of view,
more advanced industries The elders
who had declined TO change retired or
went into occupations entirely different
from those in which they spent the
years Of life's work What specif1-
cally became of these displaced ones,
young and old. no one knows, but the
chances are that the young found occu-
oations easily. for during the long period
Of change from hand work TO machine
work the times generally we're pros
porous, thus furnishing evidence that
no great masses of men for any great
length of time were without occupa-
ton.
But this was In an earlier day. At
the very height of our prosperity in
recent years changes in production
methods by the increased use Of labor
saving machinery were throwing men
and women out Of work month by
month It was pointed out in an edi-
torial in the Railroad Trainman of Jan
uary 1923. that the fact that employees
then were receiving more money for
what they did than ever before did not
mean anything to other employees who
had no Jobs and no prospect of getting
them. The fact that, generally speak
ing. times were flush and that wage
earners In steady employment we're
spending money freely gave the entire
country the feeling that everybody was
employed and turned attention away
for the time being from the problem
of what to do when the use of labor
saving machinery should increase to
such an extent as to cause many to
lose their Jobs permanently.
Facts Hard to Gather.
When the period of depression in
general business came. the UNEMPLOYED
who had been forced out by mass pro-
duction in the shops became merged
with the unemployed who were thrown
out Of work because Of the general
slowing up of the business life Of the
country. 1t probably would be an i'm
possible task today to determine def
ployed lost their places because of the
machine age and how many lost them
because OF the let-down in business
When employment conditions improve
and l believe they are certain to i'm
prove shortly-it will be easier to de-
termine the facts concerning the work
ers who find themselves in that condi-
ton because machines have supplanted
them in the shops.
The introduction by the great rail-
roads of virtually automatic signal de-
vices and the aholishing of many grade
crossings naturally reduced the num-
bers of men ION the railroads felt
they must employ The building of
much more powerful locomotives, the
use of longer freight trains and other
attending changes gradually brought
about a reduction to the numbers of
railroad workmen in the shops and out
of them
These changes In equipment are only
partly responsible for the number of
railroad employees who are without work
today. The business depression affected
the railroads perhaps more injuriously
than 1t affected other lines of business.
Rail Employment Traced.
The Interstate Commerce Commission
in an official bulletin gives the monthly
trend of employment from January,
1923. to January, 1881, on Glass rail-
roads-that Is. all railroads having
operating revenues of s1,000,000 or
more. From the first date given the
decrease in the numbers Of employees