Labor-saving device

“ No class gained so much from the introduction of labor-saving machinery as did those who did the labor. The reason for the increase in well-being, the reason society enjoys luxuries and comforts beyond the fondest dreams of former generations, is due to the fact that the labor of each man has been made so much more effective through these labor-saving devices. ”

“ The introduction of labor-saving machines is a direct addition to human power and economy of time, and a means of converting useless material to meet human wants. That a new machine throws out of employment workers in that particular field brings a hardship which ought to be shared by the multitude who are benefited; but the probabilities are great that the improved method of manufacture will so increase the uses for the product as to bring into employment a far larger number of [pg 193] laborers. ”

“ The labor saving machine, too, has played no unimportant part in increasing the workman's compensation. It has raised the quality of the work done and has brought into use a higher grade of skill than was formerly employed. While the labor saving machine is by some regarded as antagonistic to the welfare of the laborer, no farsighted observer can fail to note that it has increased rather than diminished the number employed at the work into which it has been introduced, while it has developed a higher skill which, in turn, has secured a higher compensation. ”

“ When labor-saving machinery is introduced, special care should be taken—by the Government if necessary—to see that the wage-worker gets his share of the benefit, and that it is not all absorbed by the employer or capitalist. ”

“ a machine for saving work, is it? He'd invent that, I'll be bound; let a nigger alone for that, any time. They are all labor-saving machines themselves, every one of 'em. No, he shall tramp!" ”

“ Do you know of any tools that are not labor-saving? The mason's trowel is a labor-saving tool, invented to prevent him from using his hands to put on the mortar; the bolo or the knife is just as much a labor-saving tool as the planing machine; the sickle saves labor and so does the reaper. The difficulty is that some people do not stop to think that the saving of labor applies just as forcibly to a simple tool as to a complicated one. ”

“ But I declare to you that I believe labor-saving machinery to be a mighty curse to mankind, because the laborer is being driven closer and closer to the wall by the innumerable inventions that are driving him out of every field of labor. ”

“ They have introduced improved machinery into the factories and thrown the workers out on the streets to starve, or used the surplus labor created by labor-saving machinery to grind the lives out of those who were fortunate enough to have a job. ”

“ They have learned, that the remedy indicated is a change to an industrial system, that will secure to the laborer an equitable share of the benefits, which follow the introduction of labor-saving machinery. Under such conditions, the laborer himself, having more leisure and unexpended vitality, will be stimulated to increase his available resources by cultivating his brain capacity for invention, thereby largely increasing his power to produce. ”

“ Practical labour-saving appliances, such as automatic and electric machines, are an immense gain in the long-run, although perhaps naturally they are not always at first acceptable to trades unions, who are sometimes apt to take a short-sighted view of economic development. ”

“ You Earth people try your utmost to continually increase the quantity of your individual worker's production through his own energy and by always adding and inventing new labor-saving methods and devices and machinery. By this method you can do away with the services of many workers and hire one to do the labor of many. At the same time, you have a terrific waste on account of a considerable number of constant labor turnovers. ”

“ The manufacture of all these things has been, so to speak, socialized. Anyone who has seen or visited the enormous mills in Lowell or Lawrence, with their perfect adaptation of machinery to the work to be done, and with all their labor-saving devices, is led to wonder whether the ultimate solution of the present difficulties in the garment trades may not be in some such arrangement as has been suggested. Improved methods might throw some of the present workers out of employ- ment ”

“ Now, it is not to be denied that on the first introduction into any factory, or class of factories, of any new labor-saving machine, by which perhaps one man is enabled to perform the work of a dozen or twenty, a large number of hands must necessarily be thrown out of work, and more or less immediate distress arise therefrom ”

“ Frequently farmers of the highest type will equip their farms with the latest and best implements and machinery for their work and yet will fail to provide their homes with equipment equally as essential and desirable for the work of the women members of their households. ”

“ This has come about mostly through labor-saving machines. The invention and application of labor-saving machines to the industries of the farm has made it possible to dispense with a great number of men. ”

“ Machinery has been called "labour-saving," but the immediate result of its introduction has been to throw people out of work—labour-saving in the sense of taking their work from them, or the bread out of their mouths. ”

“ That is to say, he must appeal first to the individual worker who exists now, rather than aim at the needs of a conglomeration in a factory, which will come about in the future. The tools should be simple in character, easily worked and kept in order, and without the application of quick-return and other mechanical devices so necessary for labor-saving with us. Light wood-working machinery can be made to supplant the present manual-labor methods; and a large field is open for all kinds of pumps, wind-mills, piping and other articles of hydraulic machinery. ”

“ There is much evidence showing that while inventions greatly diminish the amount of labor necessary to accomplish a certain result, on the other hand they open up new lines of industry which fully compensate laborers for the loss which would otherwise fall upon them. It is to be noted also that, in our country at least, the wages of laborers have increased in the period during which labor-saving machines have been invented.
The modern sewing machine is an inestimable blessing to a family. ”

“ All labor-saving machinery that does not save labor in the sense of giving leisure, that merely increases the quantity or improves the quality of that which is produced, but does not redound to the improvement of the producer, rather contributes to his degradation, has somewhere a fatal flaw. ”

“ Opposition to the introduction of labor-saving machinery is both useless and short-sighted. The officials of most unions now advise workmen not to oppose the adoption of machinery, but rather to fit themselves to operate the machines. ”

“ Surely because in these latter days, in which as a matter of fact machinery has been invented, it was by no means invented with the aim of saving the pain of labour. The phrase labour-saving machinery is elliptical, and means machinery which saves the cost of labour, not the labour itself, which will be expended when saved on tending other machines. For a doctrine which, as I have said, began to be accepted under the workshop-system, is now universally received, even though we are yet short of the complete development of the system of the Factory. ”

“ Labour is saved by machinery, when a machine either does what man cannot do so well, or when it does in a shorter time, or at a less expense, the work which man can do equally well in other respects. This last was the case with our new machinery. It did not, like the furnaces and rollers, do what man could not do; but it did in a quicker and cheaper manner what man had hitherto done. It was a saving of labour; and as all saving of labour is a good thing, our machinery was a good thing. ”

“ Then half, at least, of the machinery which makes the worker an undesirable neighbor is unnecessary, whether we consider his needs or the consumer’s. From the point of view of the latter, this unnecessary machinery is being used in manufacturing abominable trash, or in making articles to take the place of others which were badly made and faded or fell to pieces, or wore out before their time. From the point of view of the worker, much of our modern machinery saves labor which it would be life and health and happiness for him to perform by hand. ”

“ In other words, in a society that is not governed by the profit motive but aims at saving human labour, the use of machinery is economically indicated just as soon as it can save more human labour than is necessary for making it, not to mention the many cases where the use of machinery is desirable even if it does not answer this economic minimum—for reasons of health and similar considerations, in the interest of the workers themselves. ”

“ They are usually denominated labor-saving machines, but it would be more just to call them labor-doing machines. ”

“ Machinery is conquering every department of activity. It is displacing more and more workingmen and making the lot of those who have employment more and more insecure. Admit that a man has a job. What assurance has he that he is going to keep it? A machine may be invented. He may offend the boss. He may engage in a little agitation in the interest of his class. He is marked as an agitator, he is discharged, and then what is his status?
The minute he is discharged he has to hunt for a new buyer for his labor power. He owns no tools; the tools are great machines. ”

“ But there are circumstances, which have been already noticed, with another view, that materially diminish everywhere the effect of a scarcity of hands. These circumstances are the great use which can be made of women and children, on which point a very pregnant and instructive fact has been mentioned—the vast extension given by late improvements to the employment of machines—which, substituting the agency of fire and water, has prodigiously lessened the necessity for manual labor ”

“ What is good for one busy housewife is not too good for another, and it is a good rule to push a good thing along for the benefit of others. With this in view the author has gathered together numerous inventions of home-made devices of a labor-saving and efficiency-increasing kind, and describes them in this little volume so that all to whom it may come may have the opportunity to make such contrivances, or modifications of them, for their own use. ”

“ The work which is now done by one sewing machine, intricate in its appearance, was formerly done by a number of women with no apparatus beyond a simple needle and thread.
There is no question that the cost of production is lowered by separating the work of planning and the brain work as much as possible from the manual labor. When this is done, however, it is evident that the brain workers must be given sufficient work to keep them fully busy all the time. ”

“ There is also every reason to believe that the large body of workers whose work consists in the regular attendance on and manipulation of machinery have shared largely in the results of the increased production which machinery has brought about. The present "aristocracy of labour" is the direct creation of the machine. But our concern lies chiefly with the weaker portion of the working-classes. How does the constant advance of labour-saving machinery affect these? What is the effect of machinery upon the demand for labour? ”

“ How true this makes the assertion,—‘Every inventor who abridges labor, and relieves man from the drudgery of severe toil, is a benefactor of his race.’ There were many who looked upon labor-saving machines as great evils, because they supplanted the hand toil of many operatives. We have helped to cure the laboring and toiling classes of such absurd notions. ”

“ In testimony taken in the United States in 1872 it was put in evidence that five hundred and nine machines then in service effected a direct saving over hand-labor of five million five hundred thousand dollars per annum. ”

“ Nor has it led to unemployment in the United States of America. There is no reason why it should do so even temporarily. The introduction of time- and labour-saving appliances is always a gradual process in any factory. Ordinary foresight and organization by an employer ought to enable any men displaced still to be retained in employment. But many English employers have impeded the introduction of labour-saving devices by haggling over the readjustment of piece-rates in respect of the installation of machines giving improved output. ”

“ In order that the men employed shall not have to work unpleasantly hard, and that their hours of labour may be as short as possible—at first, say, eight hours per day—and also to make sure that the greatest possible quantity of everything shall be produced, these factories and farms will be equipped with the most up-to-date and efficient labour-saving machinery. ”

“ From the caveman to the hand-workers of three generations ago, the increase in efficiency for food and shelter-getting has been very great. But in this day, by machinery, the efficiency of the hand-worker of three generations ago has in turn been increased many times. Formerly it required 200 hours of human labor to place 100 tons of ore on a railroad car. To-day, aided by machinery, but two hours of human labor is required to do the same task. ”