Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/803

 SOME ECONOMIC LOSSES IN THE BUILDING TRADES 787

carpenters, and a few younger men who learned their trade under more conservative conditions, can now make doors, shutters, sashes or frames with any fair degree of dexterity. The intro- duction of machinery has transferred that work to the planing mills, and the work of the house carpenter is limited to fitting the products of the mills together. When the change was first extensively introduced twenty-five or thirty years ago it effected a great reduction in the cost of building operations. The steam planer, shaper, and mortising machine began to turn out work at a cost that seemed phenomenal. The skilled carpenter, who used to test the strength of his antiquated seven-by-nine sashes by standing on the cross bars, was displaced for a great part of the year by the "machine hand," who having less knowledge and training could be secured at lower wages. The carpenter had been earning wages ranging from one to two dollars per day accord- ing to the locality. A "steady job" was the natural condition of his trade. In winter he made sashes, doors, frames and other articles, and in summer he was out on the buildings under con- struction. With the introduction of the new methods his winter work disappeared and the increased competition for what may be called the remainder of his trade lessened the wages obtaina- ble during the working season. There was in consequence a great reduction in the cost of carpentry. But the carpenter showed his relationship to the "economic man." His services could not be dispensed with entirely. They were absolutely necessary during a part of the year, and to that end (in an economic sense) he must live during the idle interval. For a time that living must have been a serious problem. But the condition of the trade warned young men from learning it, and conditions for those remaining gradually improved. In time the trade adjusted itself to the new conditions, and the house carpenter became able to obtain quite as much wages for the "working months" as was previously paid for the entire year. The friction of supply and demand in the labor market now gives him pay for the idle tiim- which results from the introduction of machinery. Estimated by the hour, his wage, while working, is from twice to three