November 1951 — Vol. 32, No. 11 —
Machinery, Tool
of Production
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The four material factors most
important in the economic well—being of a nation are
invention, population, natural resources and economic organization.
This article is about the machines we invent in order to mould
natural resources into usable products for our people, and
to distribute the commodities.
With a world population so large that economists tell us
we must strain our resources to feed all the people, we are
under increasing compulsion to expand productivity. We can
do so only by using machinery.
For a dramatic contrast between the efficiency of human
labour and that performed by machines directed by men, look
at the Great Pyramid and Boulder Dam. The pyramid contains
2,300,000 blocks of stone, each weighing 2½ tons. Dr. W. M.
White, a consulting engineer of Milwaukee, has figured out
that it took 100,000 men over a period of 30 years to build
it. Boulder Dam has 3½ million cubic yards of concrete, requiring
the handling of ten million cubic yards of material. A power
line 220 miles long brought electricity which was applied
through machines by 5,000 men. The pyramid was built by slaves
under the taskmasters' lash in 30 years: the dam was built
by machines under the direction of skilled workmen in 5 years.
What has brought about the change from a slave society to
one in which every worker may be the master of manufactured
power equal to that of hundreds of men? Imagination; the power
to visualize what would result if this and that were put together;
progressive skill in applying the forces of the six basic
principles of machines: the lever, the wheel, the pulley,
the wedge, the screw and the inclined plane. The wooden scoop
of untutored races developed through the ordinary spade to
one with a pneumatic attachment, and finally to a huge shovel
with steel teeth that can gobble up a cartload of earth at
one mouthful.
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution, which was simply the substitution
of gigantic non—human forces for our puny human physical
powers, took us out of the backward economy of the spade,
the hand loom, and the human back as a burden bearer. It altered
the character of life from the old indignity of harsh toil
to mastery over resources.
Economically, the effect was to take industry out of small
family establishments and concentrate it in factories. Cities
in Britain were booming industrial centres while the scattered
farmers of Canada still used tools the Egyptians had invented,
and still carried grain long miles on their shoulders to have
it ground at a water mill.
Opposition to Machines
Machines met strong opposition, but it is nothing new to
find progress obstructed. The art of selling new ideas is
often as dangerous as it is difficult.
Ancient beliefs and frivolous ideas were used to resist
mechanical advancement. English farmers drove out with violence
the man who suggested using drilling machines to plant grain.
Vienna police forbade the use of a carriage driven by a benzene
motor because it made too much noise. Railways were opposed
on the grounds that they would prevent cows from grazing and
hens from laying. In the United States, small—town bankers
refused for many years to lend money on tractors because they
were a menace to farmers. And in that same country in the
1840's the bathtub was denounced as an innovation designed
to corrupt the democratic simplicity of the Republic.
In spite of all these, and the propaganda effect of Samuel
Butler's utopia in which no machines were allowed, not even
clocks to keep time, machinery has come. We plant and cultivate
and harvest by machines; we have survived the noise of the
horseless carriages, and our streets are cluttered with them;
there are single counties on this continent with more cows
than there were in all of pre—railway England; and bathtubs
are made in thousands by machines, to the great increase of
cleanliness and improvement of health.
Improvement in Factories
Early complaints about the factory system were undoubtedly
justified. The coal, iron and textile industries in England
were swept too suddenly into mechanization. Factory buildings
were improvised, and people crowded in from rural hamlets
to build bleak and grimy towns.
In explanation, it might be said that no one had the foresight
to know what was coming; indeed, we are in the same fix today
in our ignorance of what is meant to the world by atomic energy,
international rivalries and the uses that will be made of
inventions flooding the patent offices of the nations.
Public opinion brought about improvements through enlightened
legislation, through raising the age at which children might
be made to work by their parents, and through rigorous factory
inspection. Management, too, has become more intelligent and
has accepted extended responsibility toward working people.
In fact, although there are some industries still backward,
and some employers who fail to measure up to the general standards
of their colleagues, the Western countries have progressed
a long way on the road toward industrial democracy.
Machines Increase Employment
One of the great fears of workmen always has been that installation
of a new machine will result in unemployment. As a matter
of fact, technology has not in the long run resulted in a
decrease of the number employed, but has decreased the hours
of labour.
Few occupations have been affected more by intensive mechanization
than those in the manufacturing and mechanical industries.
Yet employment in these industries increased 414 per cent
in the United States between 1870 and 1930, while the population
went up only 218 per cent.
Millions of people are now employed in industries that would
never have existed had it not been for science and mechanization.
They produce a variety of goods and services quite unthought
of in a time of primitive handicrafts, and make them available
at prices within the reach of all who want them enough to
exchange their work for them.
There is a long term increase in employment: the index of
leading industries in Canada has risen from 99.4 in 1939 to
183.4 in July 1951, based on employment as it was in 1939.
In June this year there were 5,247,000 persons with jobs in
Canada, of whom 920,000 were in manufacturing and mechanical
pursuits.
New Industries
One of the fascinating aspects of the new era is the birth
of new jobs in new industries. While old occupations have
been made obsolete, the net change has been an increase in
employment opportunities.
We need only look around us to see the tremendous multiplication
of labour opportunities which machines have brought about.
In 1881 there were only 1,391,000 persons gainfully employed
in Canada; in mid 1951 more than five million.
Our census lists many industries which did not exist at
the beginning of the century, some of which employed the following
numbers in July this year: electrical apparatus and supplies
66,714; motor vehicles 33,020; aircraft and parts 19,070;
rayon and allied products 18,193. Figures are not to be had
for earlier years, but since 1933 the monthly production of
domestic electric refrigerators in Canada has gone up from
1,260 to 32,948 in May 1951, and washing machines from 8,350
in 1929 to 27,236 in May 1951. In 1937 there were 24,100 radio
receiving sets manufactured monthly; in 1949 the production
was at the rate of 66,700 a month.
Social Effect of Machines
When he wrote Man The Unknown Alexis Carrel put his
finger on a truth which worries all who seek the good of mankind;
"In learning the secret of the constitution and of the properties
of matter, we have gained the mastery of almost everything
which exists on the surface of the earth, excepting ourselves."
To what degree is human disappointment with the influence
of the machine upon the well—being of the individual
traceable to better education, widened interests and greater
opportunities for pleasure? Humans will start their tomorrow's
quest for contentment where they left off today, and today's
level is considerably higher than yesterday's; consequently
their demands are greater.
Today's young lady at the spinning frame of a great factory
probably suffers fewer discomforts than her ancestor of colonial
times at the spinning wheel in her kitchen. She likely works
under less pressure, because in those days it took every ounce
of energy people had just to keep themselves alive. But wide
reading, the romance of the movies, and the insistent voice
of radio dramas combine to create dissatisfaction and lure
her to search for some lotus land.
Standard of Living
Inventions and the products of machines have made themselves
part and parcel of our lives. Without the help of machinery
there could not be that vast outpouring of goods upon which
our high standard of living is based. The very hardest toil
by everyone in the world, without machines, would not provide
anything but a scant life for anyone. It is the margin of
labour—saving provided by the machine that makes possible
the extras, the new necessities of life, which add brightness
to living.
W.F. Ogburn wrote a book called You and Machines in
which he showed the machine advantage in this way: "Many workmen
today live in steam—heated houses with bathtubs, and
hot and cold running water, and indoor toilets. More than
a few of them have automobiles. In Queen Marie Antoinette's
apartments in the Palace of Versailles in France, the stove
used to heat the big rooms was very inferior to our modern
furnace....Her bowl and pitcher were not as convenient as
the modern wash basin with its drain pipe and running water.
Very probably the girl behind the counter at Woolworth's has
more silk stockings than had this queen. She never had a radio,
nor a telephone. She never went to a moving picture show.
Her food was cooked over an open hearth in the cellar of the
palace, not on an electric or a gas range."
Not only on the level of physical well—being are the
workers of today better off than the queens and kings of not
so long ago, but on the higher levels of individual culture.
Magazines and books broaden their horizons, and art treasures
belong to the people, not in guarded castles. Our life—span
has grown longer. We have more leisure, though we have not
yet learned fully how to use it in satisfying self—expression.
There is in Canada a great educational equipment, universities,
schools, libraries, night schools, trade schools, study groups
and farm forums. There is, literally, no excuse for boredom.
Society needs socially literate persons who will turn their
hands to advancement of community life, and in this type of
participation everyone can find as great satisfaction as the
most eminent statesman does in working for his country.
Opportunity for Advancement
Now that the handicraftsman of past centuries has been split
up into parts, how can he find happiness in his work? The
physical energy he used to contribute is provided by manufactured
power; his individual operative skill has been replaced by
the precision of mechanism; and his craft knowledge has developed
into the technician's specialized knowledge of the reactions
between the factors with which he works.
We see many a workman who is visibly proud of operating
a powerful machine with full responsibility for its control.
That is not a depressing, monotonous job, but one that expands
a man's ego and establishes self—confidence.
The farmer, like the city factory worker, must know far
more than his ancestors. His work with tractors, harvesters,
milkers and the other machines that ease work on the modern
farm is not soul—destroying or deadening. It gives him
new horizons, and far from making him a robot develops him
into a king.
Some persons, of course, are happy in ruts. As the psychologists
say, they "fixate" at a certain level. They become content
to throw a switch, tighten a bolt, press a button or pull
a lever. They survive in the Machine Age with far fewer skills
than the most primitive savage in his jungle.
These are the robots, because they are content to be. There
are not among them any George Stephensons, climbing from mining
drudgery to change the world with their ideas; nor Isaac Newtons,
glass grinders and makers of spectacles, seeing through space
to a new idea of the universe; nor George Westinghouses, bucking
opposition from the highest quarters for the sake of a life—saving
idea. But their backwardness is not the fault of the machine.
There have been such people in all ages.
The Use of Capital
Over the long run, national prosperity will hinge on our
ability to generate a sufficient rate of capital expenditures
to provide the machinery for new, different and increased
quantities of products. The maintenance and advancement of
material wellbeing require that funds be made available from
savings to finance research, to perfect inventions, and to
apply the processes which translate new ideas into practical
uses.
There is no way in which a self—sustaining production
job can be created except by some people spending their savings
to buy tools that men may use to produce the marketable goods
from the sale of which comes the money to pay their wages.
"Even the lowly job of digging," said Voorhees in The Uncommon
Man, "requires the employer to spend savings for a shovel.
For steel production - from mine to market - at least $20,000
would nowadays be required to create one new job."
Capital is one essential ingredient in production. If we
wish to state the value of a machine in a lump sum, we can
do so only by calculating what sum of money would be needed
at the current rate of interest to give an income equal to
the value of the product of the machine.
This brings up the thought that if the machine does not
produce all expected of it the man who provided it loses money.
There are big hazards in investing capital.
It is often taken for granted that capital invested is perpetual.
This is very far from the fact, because all equipment in which
capital is invested begins to depreciate the moment it is
produced.
A study of the obsolescence of metal—working equipment
revealed that it was as a rule obsolete if not produced within
the past 10 years. This suggests the magnitude of the need
for renewed capital. Neglect has a secondary but very important
effect: when plant is in a bad state, requiring a heavy programme
of repairs, this tends to irritate the worker, reducing his
output even below that caused by run down machinery.
A principal safeguard, and the main assurance of growth
and progress, is the practice common in Canadian industry
of plowing earnings back into the business. By retaining a
portion of net income for future needs, successful enterprises
of all sizes have strengthened their financial positions.
This is one of the best features of the Canadian system, because
it gives an assurance of continuity to a business, and at
the same time provides for development to meet changing needs.
Making Machines
Given capital, the next thing is to get the machines.
Publications of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics show the
interesting growth of Canada's machinery industry. These figures
cover only the operations of firms occupied chiefly in making
industrial, household, office and business machinery, and
do not include farm implements and electrical machinery. Between
1925 and 1949 the number of plants grew from 151 to 366; the
number of employees from 8,313 to 30,070; the wages paid from
$10¾ million to $74 million; and the gross selling value of
products from $ 30½ million to $241 million. In addition,
there were 546 machine shops in 1949, with 6,027 employees,
wages of $12,840,000 and a gross value of work amounting to
$28 million.
Power
No matter how good our machine may be, it is useless by
itself. It needs power to give life to its moving parts. The
really important thing about the Industrial Revolution was
the substitution of other powers for physical human effort
as the working energy of production.
We of today have the same biological limitations as ancient
people. We have little physical strength. It has been calculated
that we cannot for any sustained period put forth more than
1/10th horse power. With that kind of power the production
of commodities would be on a small scale and very slow.
To increase production and take the load off our shoulders
we were inventive enough to use wind and running water to
turn mills, and then we went on to other devices. Through
the work of many ingenious men there are today five kinds
of power—developing engines which provide 95 per cent
of the world's energy: the reciprocating steam engine, the
steam turbine, the water turbine, the gasoline engine, and
the diesel engine.
Chief among these for industrial purposes is electricity
developed by water power. The first hydroelectric plant in
Canada was installed in the 1880's. The developed hydraulic
turbine horse—power in Canada today is 12½ million. This,
on the commonly accepted basis of one horse—power being
the equivalent of the work of ten men, furnishes energy equal
to that of more than 125,000,000 workers, yet the whole labour
force in Canada today is only about 5,200,000.
Production
Canada is committed to a steadily rising standard of living
for all her people, continuing the trend of the past century.
We are committed to a programme of social services, certain
of which cost so much as to require an increase in the national
income. More consumer goods and services are needed to meet
the wants of a population whose income from wages and salaries
is 289 per cent higher than before the war. There are, in
addition, responsibilities in the way of defence and contributions
to world recovery.
All of these add up to a requirement for production far
above that of 1939.
History and economic investigation show that high productivity
is the key to a high standard of living. Low productivity
can mean only fewer and fewer goods at higher and higher costs
for fewer and fewer people. We have Aladdin's lamp in our
hands, but we have to rub it.
The objective should be to get as much work out of every
machine as we possibly can.
The deeper we explore beneath the surface of today's confused
world situation, the more evidence accumulates that higher
productivity is one of the most urgent requirements for a
reasonably stable economy, both in Canada and internationally.
Machinery can enable us, if we use it fully, to secure the
same amount of commodities for half as much work, or twice
as many commodities for the same amount of work. We just can't
live as high if we spend the same hours per day at machines
and produce only half what we could make.
The human body has ceased to be the burden bearer. The hard
work has been passed along to the machine and to generated
power. But human service remains the sole creator of output,
because it is the workman who keeps the power flowing and
the machine running.
Good production is a matter of men, management and machines.
It is the responsibility of management to increase the productivity
of machines by fostering research and development of new engineering
and manufacturing techniques. It is the function of workers
to make every machine yield its utmost in products. This does
not mean setting a killing pace or restoring any of the abuses
of the old "speed—up" days, but the exchange of an honest
day's work for a fair day's pay.
Such a programme would have a tonic effect upon all our
economy.
The Future
While our universities and schools are well supplied with
teachers of history, not one has a professorship for the study
of the future. It would be a good thing, suggests W.F. Ogburn
in Machines and Tomorrow's World, if we had a group
of thinkers who would devote all their time to a study of
trends. These men would not be lulled by wishful thinking
and loose optimism. Looking at the whole field, they would
see a great variety of changes approaching, but they would
see no innovation that will eliminate man's responsibility
to do a good job, or sanction his producing less than a reasonable
output.
If there is difficulty in building bridges to a bright future
it is not because of lack of materials: natural resources,
inventiveness, skills, and so on. These are all at our finger
tips. It is because of the lack of something that would assemble
all these and make them stick together.
When an ancient Greek dramatist had entangled his plot beyond
human solution, an actor dressed as a god was lowered over
the stage by a crane. He, the "god in the machine", got the
playwright out of his mixup by solving the problem along supernatural
lines. No "god from the machine" can be counted upon to get
human beings out of any tangle they create. It would be good
business to apply common sense and honest endeavour to prevent
the need arising.
Published by RBC Financial Group. All editions from the RBC
Letter collection are available on our web site at www.rbc.com/responsibility/letter.
Our e-mail address is: rbcletter@rbc.com.
Publié aussi en francais.
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