Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/467

* FACTORIES. ir.i FACTORIES. In fact, the obvious and universally proposed remedy for the sweat-shop and for unsanitary tene nt-house labor is the application "i the full-fledged factory system t<> the manufacture of all parts and all kind-- of garments. The history of clothing manufacture should furnish food for reflection to those economists who advocate the encouragement of household industries. I hiving traced the fundamental causes which have produced the factory system, one is led to ask, what are the effects of this system industri ally, economically, and sociologically, upon mod- ern life? The old argument that the introduction of automatic machinery tends to displace labor has been disproved by the logic of events, and it is evident that it only tends to divert labor to other and more profitable channels. A more accurate timekeeper can now be produced in a watch factory for a few dollars and in a few hours than the skill of the Swiss watchmaker, whose family has been trained for generations to the work, can produce in as many weeks. But this cheapening and bettering of the product has so enormously increased the demand that a pro- portionately larger body of men are engaged in different branches of the business — from the in- venting and making of the delicate machinery re- quired to the selling of the finished product — than ever before. Although this may not be true in all branches of manufacture, yet the introduction of the factory system, by cheapening production, has so raised the standard of living and enlarged the number of industries that labor was never so much in demand nor so well paid as at present. But while most people admit the great indus- trial advantages of the factory system, the nature of its economic and sociological tendencies, and especially of its intellectual and moral effects upon the factory employee, are disputed. It must he remembered that many of the evils which have accompanied the introduction of the factory sys- tem did not originate with it, but either descend- ed from the older labor systems or are part of a widespread industrial movement. That employ- ment of women and children preceded the factory system and gave rise to the most incredible cruel- ties the history of labor legislation shows; and it is not now confined to these employments, but pervades all forms of industrial and commercial life. In the management of the modern factory there have been and still exist grave abuses in the form of long hours, child-labor, and unsanitary conditions. But the main question is whether these evils are essential to the system or are inci- dental abuses which an educated public senti- ment and proper legal enactments will abolish. Certainly wrong conditions are more easily de- tected and removed when concentrated in large factories than when scattered over a multitude of small shops. In the mill, too, the law may be made the champion of the workman in limiting the hours of labor., while at his own home the length of his working day may be measured by the endurance of the worker. Commenting on this phase of the subject in America's Working People, Charles B. Spahr says: "[ was struck with the sanitary gains which (lie factory system has brought to the working classes. As compared with the home workrooms which the factories have displaced, conditions seemed almost ideal. It is true that there were rooms in which the air was thick with dust, and others in which it was heavy with odor of chemicals, and many more where the noises would be sufficient to rack the brains of people un- accustomed to them. Bui the dust, so to peak, was clean dust, and tl lors were clean odors, and the din of the machinery was said to act as a sedative rather than an irritant to those who spent their lives in the mills. . . . The dust, the smells, the noises are all evils_, but none of the things to which ih human frame must inure itself in factories sa] the vitality like the conditions in the tenement- house workshops. The safety, the cleanlim th,' light, and even the ventilation in all the fac tories showed that agitation and legislation, supported by the humanity of employers, as well as by the self-interest of workmen, had raised the sanitary conditions to a higher level in public factories than in the homes of even our modem workmen." Upon one phase of the physical effect of factory life upon the workman Mr. Spahr touches lightly, but if his statements admit of general application, they furnish a strong indictment against the factory system. "When I had gone through room after room, everywhere watching faces, I was forced to re- mark that I hadn't seen any old men. . . except at long intervals, and then at such work as sweeping and the like. By 'old men' I mean men above forty-five or what should be the prime of life. 'Why do the men drop out so young? 1 asked. . . . The answer was ready and specific. The strain of the work wore men out before they were forty-five, and their fingers were no longer nimble enough to keep up with the work demanded." It is also contended that the factory system, in which each operator repeats indefinitely a single task, requires and creates a lower grade of intelligence among workingmen than the old system under which the laborer knew the whole of his trade; that the man who works in the modern shoe factory, feeding an automatic sole- cutting machine or automatic heeler, does not need and will not have the mental vision of the ancient shoemaker. And yet the work of the modern factory operative requires an alertness of intelligence and deftness of movement undreamed of by the ancient handicraftsmen, while the shorter hours, increased wages, and higher stan- dard of living among laborers, that have come with the factory system, give him time for out- side interests and self-improvement which his predecessors never enjoyed. The success of the system and the skill of the individual operator alike are dependent upon this minute subdivision cf labor. As an example of the extent to which the latter is carried a quotation may be made from Mr. Hubert's article in Scrihner's, already referred to: "It is stated that a pair of lady's hoots can be completed it a modern snoe factory in less than twenty minutes. To accomplish this 57 operators and 42 machines are employed, which require 20 pieces of leather. 14 pieces of cloth, 24 buttons. SO tacks, 20 nails, 2 box toes. 2 steel shanks, and 20 yards of thread." It must be remembered that this minute subdivision of labor has brought about the gathering together under one roof of an enormous army of men with common aims and interests. The intellectual stimulus which the discussion of common needs, grievances, and plans furnishes should do much toward preserving the mental balance which con- stant concentration on a single form of work