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receive 88.; while in the latter, one man and two children are capable, with the best machinery, of doing the same, and their wages are 5s. 6d."

If, then, there be such difference in the productive efficiency of laborers, in operations calling for mere manual dexterity, it is obvious that the higher we ascend in those departments of mechanics and manufactures, in which the mind has a considerable part, the greater must be the advantage in favor of intelligence and skill. And such is the fact. The only standard by which to estimate the cost of labor is the amount of work done for the money paidthe per diem earning of the workmen being in itself no criterion by which to judge of the cost of labor.]

Mr. James Hodges, the superintendent for the construction of the great Victoria bridge over the St. Lawrence river, remarks: "In England, the trades-union dominates everywhere, and it soon ruins a man. He can only do just what its rules prescribe, and what he is allowed to do, and it is only one particular sort of work that he does. I am ready to admit that if a man only makes the head of a pin, no man can do that so well as the man who does that alone; but his intellect becomes cramped by that fact, and he soon loses all grasp of mind."

121. What is the great practical lesson that all mechanics should learn, and without which, all other education is comparatively worthless?

It is the lesson of fidelity in workmanship, to do thoroughly and well whatever one undertakes to do at all. THOROUGHNESS is the golden precept which should be engraved on the heart of every mechanic, whatever the work he is called upon to do. England has achieved her pre-eminence in mechanism mainly by observance of this

principle. English workmen are excelled by the Americans in dexterity, and by the French in taste; but their products are every where sought for in the world's markets, because of their intrinsic excellence. The principal proprietor of the London Times, in an address to mechanics, enlarged upon the importance of thoroughness in work, and used this forcible illustration:

"As a rule, Swiss workmen are competent in their several trades, and take an interest in their work; for, thanks to their superior education, they fully appreciate the pecuniary advantages to their employers, and indirectly to themselves, by adhering strictly to this course. A striking instance of the impolicy of acting otherwise has lately happened at St. Imier, in the Bernese Jura, and produced a deep impression. In this district, for some years past, a great falling off in the quality of the watches manufactured has taken place, owing to the inhabitants finding it much more profitable to increase the production at the cost of the workmanship, than to abide by the old rules of the trade. They prospered beyond all expectation for a considerable time, but finally their watches got such a bad name that they became unsalable, and the result is a general bankruptcy of nearly all the watch manufacturers of this particular district.”

CHAPTER X.

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS IN MANUFACTURING.

"It is the glory of manufacturers that they have placed within the reach of the common people, fabrics and implements and commodities that a century ago were regarded luxuries by the rich; and it is an ennobling and inspiring thought that he who sends good calicoes, woollens or hardwares into the market, who improves either the texture or the pattern of the goods which are consumed by the poor, who beautifies some common household implement, or sends into the market a new material which will cheapen or improve the staple consumption of the world, is performing a work as essentially noble and beneficent as any vocation of man."-ANON.

122.0

HAT is the object of every useful manufacture?

The end of every manufacture is to increase the utility of objects by modifying their external form or changing their internal constitution. In some instances, substances that would otherwise be utterly worthless are converted into the most valuable products-as the hoofs of certain animals into prussiate of potash; the offal into goldbeaters' skin; and especially rags into paper. Thus beneficent in their general object, it is scarcely remarkable that modern manufactures are principally distinguished for their ameliorating influence upon man's social condition. By cheapening manufactured products, they put within the reach of the poorest classes what, in former times, was accessible only to the wealthy and noble. The servant, the artisan, and the husbandman of England, at the present time, have more

palatable food, better clothing and better furniture, than were possessed by "the gentilitie" in the "golden days" of Queen Bess.

123. Which, of all the circumstances that have an influence in contributing to the growth of manufacturing industry in a nation, is the most important?

The possession of abundant supplies of valuable coal. It is to this circumstance, more than to any other, that England is indebted for her pre-eminence in manufactures; and nearly all her great manufacturing towns, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Birmingham, and others, are situated in what may be called the coal districts.

[Even though we had possessed, says an able English writer in the Edinburgh Review, the most abundant supply of the ores of iron and other useful metals, they would have been of little or no use but for our almost inexhaustible coal mines. Our country is of too limited extent to produce wood sufficient to smelt and prepare any considerable quantity of iron or other metal; and though no duty were laid on timber when imported, its cost abroad, and the heavy expense attending the conveyance of so bulky an article, would have been insuperable obstacles to our making any considerable progress in the working of metals, had we been forced to depend on home or foreign timber. We, therefore, are disposed to regard Lord Dudley's discovery of the mode of smelting and manufacturing iron by means of coal only, without the aid of wood, as one of the most important ever made in the arts. We do not know that it is surpassed even by the steam-engine or spinning-frame. At all events, we are quite sure that we owe as much to it as to either of these great inventions. But for it, we should have always been

importers of iron; in other words, of the materials of machinery. The elements, if we may so speak, out of which steam-engines and spinning-mills are made, would have been dearer here than in most other countries. The fair presumption consequently is, that the machines themselves would have been dearer; and such a circumstance would have counteracted, to a certain extent, even if it did not neutralize or overbalance, the other circumstances favorable to our ascendency. But now we have the ores and the means of working them in greater abundance than any other people; so that our superiority in the most important of all departments—that of machine-making—seems to rest on a pretty sure foundation.]

124. What is the best location for a manufactory? Wherever the goods to be manufactured can be produced with the greatest economy. If the raw material be the principal item in the cost of production, the manufactory, other things being favorable, should be located near where the raw material is obtained. An iron furnace should be located near the ore beds; a cotton factory, producing coarse fabrics, near the cotton fields; but where skilled labor is the essential ingredient, the manufactory should be located in or near a city, where alone a regular supply of such labor can at all times be had. Many manufacturers have been seriously disappointed in their enterprises, and some have failed, in consequence of difficulty in procuring and retaining an adequate supply of good mechanics in an unattractive locality; and to a disposition to select such situations, because of a good waterpower or some other circumstance, may be ascribed many of the past embarrassments of our pioneer manufacturers.

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