People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1897 — POWER OF GENIUS. [ARTICLE]

POWER OF GENIUS.

INVENTION IS WORKING OUT NEW CONDITIONS. i Grand and Peaceful Revolution If Not Blocked by Unnatural Obstacles —The Age of Machinery—Labor Should Control Ail New Inventions. The following is condensed from an able paper by J. M. H. Frederick in the American Magazine of fcivics: Whither are we tending? What of the future? Will it be evolution or revolution; and if revolution, will it be peaceful or violent? These and a multitude of other kindred questions burst from the lips of representatives of all classes, who in wonder and amazement behold the marvelous transformations which are taking place in our industrial and social conditions. Of one thing nearly all seem to be agreed: Some great change is in store for us. What that change will be and how it will be wrought, however, are questions on which many differences of opinion are entertained. Invention, the product of more of man’s inspiration than of his laborious efforts and carefully weighed plans, is rapidly working out new conditions, the “logic” of which points to a revolution—a revolution whose grandeur and peaceful accomplishment will depend upon the ready acceptance and non-resistance by man of the fruits of the present evolution. Left to its own natural course, it will affect its own great changes peacefully; but obstructed and impeded by human resistance, who can say what destruction may not result! Congresses may regulate, general assemblies may legislate, courts may adjudicate, and Individuals may agitate; but at the most, with all their effort they will only change the course of the river of progress; they are quite unable to prevent its final outlet to the sea.

Every new discovery has been hailed as a blessing to mankind. But has it been a blessing? John Stuart Mill said: “It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.” And John Ruskin has written in his melancholy strain: “Though England is deafened with spinning wheels, her people are not clothed; though she is black with the digging of coal, her people die with cold; though she has sold her soul for gain, they die of hunger.” Formerly the introduction of new machines opened up new fields for labor, in some instances creating a demand for labor in excess of the labor saved. Hardships to the laborer frequently resulted from the adoption of a new machine, but these were generally regarded as only temporary defects, which time would rectify. Today the new mechanical devices create a very small demand for labor comparer] with that dispensed with. Largely through machinery one-half as our people are miserable because they have too much to do, while the other half are wretched because they .annot find enough to do. Thus by our ■emarkable social system the work of genius, which should free the laborers from excessive burdens, and bless all ,-hwe so set free, has made slaves of the workers and beggars of the millions who are in enforced idleness. Befcie the Civil War black men and women sold for many hundreds of dollars each; to-day white men, if placed on au auction block, would not bring pennies where tbe blacks brought dollars. Indeed, the taskmaster of today simply does not want a title to the laborer’s body—would rather not have it, in fact—for such a title would carry with it uselessly burdensome responsibilities. To be “master of the situation,” to control the wages of the laborer, is a far more convenient form of slavery.

Every year new machinery i 3 throwing out of employment armies of men, while as a rule supplying in return no corresponding demand for labor. The number cf printers in the United States thrown out of employment by the introduction of typesetting machinery in the last year is estimated at about 1,000 and there is no corresponding demand for labor provided by this change. In the great iron mills the new “electric crane” throws out of employment twelve “heaters,” twenty-four helpers three “dinky” engines, three firemen and three engineers on each turn, besides effecting quite a saving in fuel. It was only five years ago that the Jones . “charger” threw out of work thirty-six men for every machine introduced, and now come 3 the “electric crane,” which will throw the “charger” upon the scrap-heap, besides displacing upwards of forty additional men for every machine in use. The demand for iron has not materially increased since the introduction of the “crane ” and the manufacture of this piece of mechanism gives employment to few, if any, more hands than those required to make a Jones “charger” which it displaces. It has been figured out that 142,285 shoe workers now do as much by the help of the machine as 2,250,000 could have done by the hand process; that is one worker now does as much as fifteen did formerly. Whether this has been a direct blessing to the laboring class may be judged when it is considered that the price of shoes has not fallen nor the capacity to consume increased in any sueh proportion. Alger says if he ran away from any battle during the war he don’t remember it, and that he was away on leave of absence only when sick. One of the peculiar features in the case is that Alger never did have good health until the war was over. But be couldn’t help that.