DIVISION OF LABOR, in economics, a theory based on the principle that industry can be best carried on when each man has a special work to do. Constant practice in doing the same thing leads to a perfection which could not otherwise be attained. The classical illustra tion of it in the history of political economy is that of pin-making as given by Adam Smith: °One man draws out the wire, another straight ens it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations ; to put it on is a peculiar business; to whiten the pin is another; it is even a trade by itself to put them into a paper; and the im portant business of making a pin is in this man ner divided into above 18 distinct operations, which in some manufactories are all performed by distinct hands?' In this way 10 men could make about 48,000 pins in a day, whereas, if they worked separately and independently, they cer tainly could not each of them have made 20, perhaps not one pin in a day. Adam Smith offers the following reasons why the division of labor secures greater efficiency: ((First, the increase of dexterity in every particular workman; sec ondly, the saving of the time which is com monly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly, the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labor and enable one man to do the work of many." Economists believe, however, that Smith has laid too great stress on both the sec ond and third of the above reasons. Later writers have extended the term to include the separation of employments as well as the proc esses or operations in one employment. The fact that one man is exclusively a bricklayer and another exclusively a carpenter increases their combined production over what it would be were they not each confined to one trade. The great advantage of division of labor lies in the saving of labor and of time. By devoting him self exclusively to one operation a workman acquires a high degree of skill in that operation, makes a better use of material, thus preventing waste, and the continuity at one operation saves the time which would otherwise be spent in pass ing from one process to another. Another ad
vantage is the stimulus given to invention by the concentration of energies upon distinct and defi nite processes. Similar advantages result from the differentiation of functions among the peo ple generally, by specialization not only in fac tories and in trade and commerce, but even in professional and scientific activities. The disad vantages urged against the system are that ex treme specialization is harmful to the intelli gence, saps the vitality of the operator and produces workmen who through any industrial upheaval, being capable of doing only one thing, would find themselves without a place and a living. While there may be some truth in such a presentation, it is an extreme one, and is rebutted by the fact that the mechanical opera tions of factories are not so widely dissimilar as to preclude a man, displaced from one from securing suitable employment in another. In addition it may be noted that through the subdivision of labor and the increasing use of machines, there is opportunity for mental de velopment outside of working hours. The dis advantages of specialization and subdivision, so feared by economists and writers of a genera tion ago, have not proved so serious in their effects on the working classes as they appeared. On the contrary, never in any preceding period of the world's history did the working classes make greater progress, not only in their material welfare, but also in their intellectual develop ment.
In biology, a conception borrowed from economics and introduced into biology by Milne Edwards to describe the difference of function exhibited by the individual members of an ani mal colony, or by the different organs, tissues and cells of a single organism. The figure of a hydroid colony, Hydractinia, shows how mem bers, primarily and fundamentally the same in structure, become set apart as nutritive, repro ductive, sensitive and protective. The same division of labor on predominance of special functions in different individuals is beautifully illustrated in the Siphonophora.