Year: 1878

The Congressional Committee OF In
quiry into questions affecting labor and
wages met at New York City on Thurs
day last. The appointment of this Com
mittee was wise movement. There is
never any danger in having information,
and the best way TO discover remedy
is 10 find out what the trouble is. A
number of representative workmen ap-
reared before the Committee, including
two persons representing the stone-ma'
sops and the granite.cutters. The
burden of their special grievance was
the letting of Government work by con-
tract and the use of machinery. If
there were no machinery, they claimed,
the work now done in that way would
be done by hand, and, there being more
work for hand.labor, the Society could
enforce the payment of fixed wages 1t
is possible that under the present labor
agitation and platforms there Will be a
general agreement among the mechani-
cal operatives that the use of labor.sav-
ing machinery shall be discontinued.


1t is worth while to consider the gen.
eral as well as special effects of employ
ing labor.saving machinery. Let the
most extreme cases be taken OF some
production where, by the introduction
of machinery, the number of persons
employed has been reduced to one
fourth and the production quadrupled.
This would necessitate the discharge OF
three .fourths of the men engaged in that
trade. We concede that for the time
being, and until these same persons
could find employment at some other
work, the change would be oppressive
upon them; but they necessarily form
but a minute proportion of the whole
population, and the welfare and benefit
Of the whole is of such magnitude that
private losses must be endured. The
increase of production is SO great, and
the cost to consumers so much reduced,
that the whole population share and
enjoy the blessing of increased abund-
ance. Thus all classes of population are
Of necessity consumers, and all enjoy
the abundance, comfort, and luxury of
The increased consumption of this worlds
goods made possible by the reduction in
the cost of production. Thus the stone
cutters enjoy the benefits of having
shoes, cotton goods, woolen cloths, hats
and caps, fannels, carpets, furniture,
glass and earthen ware, cutlery, bread.
stuffs, meats, and everything else enter
ing into domestic uses for themselves
and family at prices not averaging one
ffth of what these articles would cost
IN the absence of labor-saving machln


cry. To stop machinery would raise
the cost of sawed granite, but it would
also proportionately increase the cost of
everything the stone-cutter stands In
need of for his own or his family's use.


There is one universal law from which
there is no escape. Human wants grow;
increase, and expand in the exact pro.
portion to the ability to crafty them.
When cloth was made by hand, suit OF
clothes not only served as long as three
or four suits now serve, but also descend
ed from sire to son, and at best was
inferior compared with what is now at
tainable. She household furniture of
half century ago would be extremely
plain in the humblest houses of to-day ;
home made carpets, the product Of long
years accumulation Of rags, were then a
luxury. To abolish the use OF labor


saving machinery would be to turn the
world backward 70 comparative barbar


ism. and the remanding of the people to
wooden shoes, leather breeches, and
home spun lipsey, would in no part Of
The world produce such revolt as
among the free working people of tho
United States The comforts and
abundance, in the matter Of clothing
variety OF food, and household conven


fences, would never be surrendered
The steam saw and planning mill worked
a revolution in the cost of wooden build


ing material, and though it took away
an immense amount of labor once per
formed by hand, it increased the demand
for sawed and planed lumber, giving
employment to an increased number O
carpenters and joiners, and with in
creased wages There has been no in
vention for the saving of labor which
has ever had the permanent effect of re
ducng the number of workmen or theil
wages. The granite cutters widely mis-
take the truth when they assume that
there were no stone.sawing machiner.
the same amount of stone would be con
sumed as there now is. They overlool
the fact that the use of machinery ha


so reduced the price of stone as build
ing material as to bring it into genera
use, aud that in niue cases out of tel
stone is used because of its cheapnes


when brick would otherwise be used
There are probably three times as man


men now engaged in preparing and lay
ing stone in buildings as there woul


be so engaged if there were no stone


saving machinery. Increase the co:


Of stone and the demand for it woul