WHAT MACHINERY HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2067, 6 October 1885, Page 4

WHAT MACHINERY HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD.

I.v every civilised land at this time, says the New York Tribune, there is a complaint that times are hard. Everywhere the cause is said to be overproduction. But how can it be a curse to mankind to have the objects of human desire supplied in greater abundance and more cheaply ? If theie is over-production all over the world as aome reason, that means merely that the supply of things useful for human happiness is greater all over the world than the present demand. In reply to this natural suggestion, we are told that a \nst amount of labour lias been displaced by machinery, that a general disturbance of the labour market has been caused, and that a great number ef persons have been thrown out of employment. The very change which some call a blessing brings nun to many producers, and forces many employers to cut down wages, and cvi tails the ability of workers to consume products of other indiistiies. Thus we are taught to believe that the progress of •cience and invention is a progress towards human misery. It is true, then, that machinery has displaced human labour? A century apo relatively few persons were employed in any other avocation than tilling the soil than are now so employed. Machinery has created a new world ; it ha* cheapened .almost everything that man desires. It has brought within the reach of the humblest not only a large number of products wholly unknown a century ago, but luxuries and comforts which a century ago even the i ichest could not afford to commonly enjoy. Meanwhile has it displaced labour? On the contrary, it has made work for a vast population outside of the ruder arts which were formerly pursued. Has it displaced the shoemaker? No. More persons than ever before are making shoes, bccTii«e more shoes are made and used, chenpmss permitting multitudes to wear them who formerly could not. So there are more sewing girls, in spite of sewing machines. There arc more farm wnrkeis in spite of all the agricultural machines. Theie are more cotton and woollen and silk weavers in spite of those numerous improvements which seem to do with steam and iron the work of human hands better than human hand* could do it And to crown all, the wages in all branches of labour have risen. In every occupation, from the rurlcst to the most skilled, from farm labour to the most delicate manipulation of tools and machinery, labour is betfer paid in money than it was before the age of invention. And, moreover, each dollar of the money received will buy far more food than a dollar would have bought a century ago, far more clothing, and more things for the supply of human wants. Thus it it simply blundering to say that machinery does, or can, in the long run, supplant or displace human labour. On the contrary, the use of machinery is limited only by the human labour that can be brought to employ it. Every labour-saving invention enables one human want to be moie cheaply supplied, so that a part of the human energy expended in satisfying it can be tumid to the supply of otherwants. The over-production theory, except as limited to a very narrow field, and within a narrow compatss of time, is altogether without foundation, The human race as a whole does not suffer because its powers of production are increased, or because its wants can be more easily and cheaply supplied, or because thinga needful for human comfoit and use are more abundantly produced. Temporarily, and within come particular market, production may at times so far outrun the demand that a disturbance result*. But thii is not the phenomenon which we are now witnessing. The disturbance of industry in these days affects many countries, though in different measure ; and while it wonld hau> nffrctcd this country bnt little, if at ail, but for the disturbance of the tariff question and has affected n» only within the past year or two, it has continued in Great Britain and other countries with increasing force for nearly ten years. The philosophers who preach of our over-production have not yet detected the cause of the evil.

Jameh Russell Lowell speaks three languages and writes nine. PuiscrhS Beatkick, being a great j walker, has had large provision made in her trousseau in the matter of boots and •hoes, some stout enough to appal a few of our fine ladies, but all of them finished with exquisite neatness. BuvpFACTom —" WhMi a board of eminent physician! and <_hcmnts announced the discovery that by combining som<* well-known valuable remedies a most wonderful medicine was produced, which would cure such a wide ranee of disease* tint most all other remedies rould be dispensed with, many were skeptical, but proof of its merit-: by actinl trial lias dispelled all doubt, and to day the disroyerers of th it gre it medicine, Dr Soule's American Co's Hop Hitters, are honoured and blessed by all as bene factyrs." Read.