The use of machinery in land and water transportation (steamships, locomotives, electric power), has affected all other kinds of industries, by changing their locations, increas ing the supplies of materials, and widening the markets. Yet the most typical applications of machinery have been in manu facturing, in making form-changes, in the mass-production of standardized products. (See Chapter 31 on large produc tion.) The most striking changes took place in the textile industries. In 1840 a man's work in spinning cotton was 320 times as effective as in 1769, in 1855 it was 700 times. Similar examples are found in the manufacture of shoes, and in all varieties of wood- and iron-work.
§ 3. The lump of labor notion. Of the countless inven tions many do not "save labor," but merely add to the com fort of the user, or to the ease of the worker ; others enable men to do new things before quite beyond the power of any man or group of men; but many are "labor saving," in the sense that they enable the same labor to get a larger result in the same time, or the same result in less time.
The popular judgment always has been that this reduces the "amount of work" to be done, meaning the opportunities for employment, the number of jobs to be had by workers. The "lump of labor" notion, as it is called, is widely held, especially among workingmen. The notion is that there is exactly so much labor predetermined to be done ; therefore, if machines are introduced, there is that much less for men to do. The conclusion easily drawn is that labor-saving ma chines are the explanation of any existing unemployment ; and that they make wages low. Yet few if any would be rash enough to say that the income of the masses would be higher to-day if all tools and machines were abandoned and men worked barehanded. It is recognized that such a course would reduce all alike to want; indeed, that without the aid of labor saving appliances the present population would be utterly unable to support existence. The objection is rather vaguely felt to the use of too much machinery, and to that kind which has been recently introduced, and to that kind which is used in the objector's own trade. The experience in the rapid introduction of machines in England in the period called "the industrial revolution" (about 1775 to 1825), as well as the experience of workers when a rapid change is made in their own trades, gives an appearance of truth to this view.
§ 4. Evils of "the industrial revolution." It chanced that the extensive introduction of machinery in England, particularly in textile-manufacture, was coincident with the unhappy result of a lengthening of the hours of labor in fac tories and a lowering of wages. These were, in fact, quite abnormal consequences and have not been seen elsewhere, altho the owners of factories wish to keep their machines em ployed as many hours as possible. The laboring classes of
England were at that time demoralized and depressed by in dustrial and social influences that had no logical connection with machinery : the very rapid growth of population, due in part to the evil workings of the system of poor relief, ex cessive taxation to carry on wars, the abnormally rapid growth of cities. In all other countries of Europe and in America, where the introduction of machinery has been more gradual, it has been followed by a shortening of working hours (as eventually it was in England also) and by a rise of wages. Indeed, the experience of England served as a warning to other nations, and by labor organization and fac tory-regulation much was done to reduce the shock of rapid introduction of machines.
§ 5. Some evils of the introduction of machinery. Not infrequently it has happened that employers have introduced labor-saving machines at the time of a strike, so that they could turn out the former amount of product with fewer men. The strike gave just the motive needed to overcome the in ertia of changing to a more expensive process, one perhaps still of somewhat uncertain advantage. Small wonder that the striking workmen should view the machine as a strike breaker, for literally at the moment it was taking "their job" away from them.
In more normal conditions, when there is no strike, it often may happen that the immediate effect of improved machin ery, if suddenly introduced, is to throw some men out of employment. Any sudden change in industry injures men that have become adapted to the work that is affected. This is as true of change brought about by the opening of new trade routes or by scientific discoveries (where machinery does not enter in) as in the case of labor-saving machines. If machines displace labor rapidly, men that can not adjust themselves to the new conditions suffer, and there are always some that can not adjust themselves, always some that suffer. A well-mastered trade, a wage-earning tho intangible pos session, may be made suddenly valueless. Men can not quickly change their methods of working or their place of work. It is rarely possible for a man past middle life to shift over into a new trade where his efficiency will be as great and his pay as high as in the New methods of puddling iron sent many old men into the poorhouses of Pennsylvania between 1890 and 1900. Even where the total employment increases, the individual sometimes suffers. The increased demand resulting from the cheapening of a product 1 See ells. 18 and 19.