Page:Philosophical Review Volume 20.djvu/274

260 counts, for intelligence is a part of his mental equipment for his work, there are bound to arise in the history of labour differences of excellence both in the performance of the work and the nature of the work to be performed. Hence the difference which has arisen and must arise between skilled and unskilled labour: hence the absolute necessity for training, and, as a consequence, of schools of instruction or technical education. And finally (5) we see that if a stage in the development of a given kind of labour arises where a labourer can perform his work without bringing out to any extent his individual interest in his work, the sooner that work is undertaken by another agency the better for the workman and the better for the work. Now it is just at this stage that such an agency does appear in the form of machinery. When labourers do work in which individual ends and individual needs cannot be expressed, it can be and should be done by some lower agency which can produce the same result. The conditions required for such an agency are that the movements necessary to produce the work should be uniform in character, should be continuous, should not vary in the course of repetition, and should be more or less coherent. A machine is precisely an instrument or agency which can carry through movements with those characteristics. Monotony, which is the extremity or limit of efficient labour for the individual, is the opportunity for the machine. And when such monotony in production is obtained, it is time to hand it over to machinery. It is only a question of time and intellectual ingenuity before the man will appear who can invent the machine to do the work. Such an instrument, therefore, is not merely a 'labour-saving' apparatus; it saves the labourer himself, preserves him from monotony in his work, sets his mind free for other things. So far from being the enemy of the workman, it is the friend of the workman, and so far from destroying individuality, it is the only way of saving individuality from destruction. A true insight, therefore, will lead the workman to welcome the construction and the utmost use of machinery. And the history of machinery in industry bears this out completely. For while it has been the cause of temporary discomfort when those