ATTITUDE TOWARD 'MACHINERY. Historically, trade unions have opposed the introduction of labor-saving machinery, but, speaking generally. the unions have realized at last that it is im possible effectively to oppose the introduction of labor-saving devices; and among trade union leaders the number of those who fully realize that the machine in the long rim is the friend and ally of the wage-earning classes is rapidly increasing. Trade union leaders may he said in general to have learned how to meet successfully the industrial problems caused by the introduc tion of machinery. Thus, when the printers were confronted with a great decrease in the demand for labor as a result of the invention of the type setting machine. the Typographical Union met the problem in a rational manner. It insisted that the operators of the machines should be selected from ordinary printers, and that they should be paid as much at least as the wages of the hand printers. For a short time large num
bers of printers were thrown out of employment, but in three years. according to the estimate of the president of the Typographical Union, the increased demand for printers, consequent upon the decrease in the cost of printing, afforded work for more than the old supply of printers. The justice of trade union regulation respecting the use of machinery must in each ease be de cided in accordance with its intent. Trade unions are justified in the attempt, if not clothed with the duty, of lessening the hardships occa sinned by the extensive introduction of revolu tionary inventions. It is the permanent an tagonism to labor-saving machinery which is both hopeless and eeonoinieally fallacious.