Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/797

 726 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST |n. s. f i, 1899

but as the machine performs all the nice mechanical work, the artisan turns his attention to the control of the machinery, and to

J be successful in its manipulation he must understand the principle

of mechanism and the application of powers to the accom- plishment of human purposes. The skill now required in handi- craft is the skill of intelligence supplemented with universal skill in handiwork. It is thus that industry is emancipated from the system of slavery involved in apprenticeship, and a new


 * ■ system is rapidly developing in which childhood and youth are

taught the fundamental elements of all handicrafts in the com- mon schools. Political economists have deplored the inability of laborers to change their occupation, seeing that the intro- duction of machinery destroys many a special handicraft, and the laborers employed therein are compelled to seek employ- ments without the benefits of apprenticeship. The introduction into industry of scientific methods practically makes them all accessible to all men.

Another change to be noticed is the enlargement of the

jj! sphere of commerce. Production may now be carried on in the

most economic manner wherever special conditions exist favor- able to production ; climates may be more thoroughly utilized for the development of special products, and powers may be utilized wherever they are found under the most favorable con- ditions in nature. The enormous cheapening of products by their narrow specialization and by their multiplication through the efforts of the few who are the most favorably conditioned for the special production, requires that the producers of large «quan- tities of special goods be distributed to great numbers of con- sumers, and thus commerce is multiplied. For the development of commerce to meet these new conditions, inventions are em- ployed, and the highways of commerce are made to ramify throughout the country and throughout the world. All of these processes cooperate in the reconstitution of society by specializ- ing industries and integrating them through commerce, and the

��i;

��r

v ,1

��■ i

��"

�� �