354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with tlie demand for large investments of capital, in every depart- 

 ment of manufacture, to meet the intense competition arising 

 from the rapid development of new and improved methods, and 

 increased facilities in the means of transportation and distribu- 

 tion. In manufactures of all kinds the margin of profits has been 

 reduced to an extent that is fatal to small establishments, and 

 production can only succeed when on a sufficient scale to make 

 an aggregate of the small items of profit an object worth 

 seeking. 



The subdivision of labor required in the specialization of 

 manufactures on a large scale, where machinery, adapted to the 

 particular purpose, is made use of in every process, tends to di- 

 minish the demand for skilled artisans, unless they are needed as 

 superintendents of labor ; and even then executive ability, general 

 intelligence, and a knowledge of business methods, are of greater 

 importance than mere technical skill. 



The work done by a skillful mechanic, under former methods, 

 is now performed by an unskilled workman and a machine, under 

 proper supervision, and with greater economy and certainty in 

 the results. Dexterity is required in only a single movement or 

 operation, which is soon learned, and, when a machine is properly 

 adjusted to perform its special function, a boy with its aid becomes 

 the equal of the most skilled artisan in the routine of work he has 

 to do. With the exception of localities with scattered population 

 and remote from the lines of trade and distribution, we shall find 

 that wagons, carriages, agricultural implements of all kinds, boots 

 and shoes, tinware, clocks and watches, and, in fact, almost every 

 product of the industrial arts, can be purchased at a lower price 

 than the artisan can afford to make them under the old methods 

 of his trade, and his skill as a workman is only in demand to 

 repair the articles originally produced under a specialized system 

 of manufacture. 



Moreover, in many of the industries competition is so sharp, 

 and the margin of profit so small, on the leading object of produc- 

 tion, that the utilization of what had been waste products has 

 been found to be essential to financial success. In response to 

 this demand for the working up and utilization of residues, the 

 applications of chemistry have produced remarkable results, and 

 in many instances what had been rejected as a waste has assumed 

 a dominant position in the industry, and the original article of 

 manufacture has in its turn become the by-product and of sec- 

 ondary importance on the score of profit. 



Large investments of capital, specialization in production, the 

 use of machinery in every process, and the consequent subdivision 

 of labor in particular lines in which the technical skill of the 

 handicraftsman is not required, together with the utilization of 



