466 PKOCEEDINGS OP SECTION G. 



by the life of the generation terminating in 1885 a place of im- 

 portance, considered in its relations to the interests of humanity, 

 second to but very few, and perhaps to none, of the many similar 

 epochs of time in any of the centuries that may have preceded it; 

 inasmuch as all economists who have specially studied this matter 

 are substantially agreed, within the period named, man in general 

 has attained to such a greater control over the forces of nature, 

 and has so far compassed their use, that he has been able to do far 

 more work in a given time, produce far more labour, and reduce 

 the effort necessary to insure a comfortable subsistence in a far 

 greater measure than it was possible for him to accomplish twenty 

 or thirty years anterior to the time of the present writing (1889). 



" In the absence of sufficiently complete data, it is not easy, and 

 perhaps not possible, to estimate accurately, and specifically state 

 the average saving in time and labour in the world's work of pro- 

 duction and distribution that has been achieved." 



Mr. Wells, however, was of the opinion, at that time, that "In a 

 few departments of industrial effort the saving in both of these 

 has certainly amounted to 70 or 80 per cent." Mr. Wells, in 

 support of these views, quotes several accepted authorities. Among 

 these authorities he refers to the report for 1886 of the United 

 States Bureau of Labour. This report affirms that " The gain in 

 the power of production in some of the leading industries of the 

 United States ' during the past fifteen or twenty years,' as 

 measured by the displacement of the muscular labour formerly 

 employed to effect a given result {i.e., amount of product) has 

 been as follows : — In the manufacture of agricultural implements, 

 from 50 to 70 per cent. ; in the manufacture of shoes, 80 per cent. ; 

 in the manufacture of machines and machinery, 40 per cent. ; in 

 the man^facture of silk, 50 per cent., and so on." 



Mr. Wells further affirms, on the authority of Mr. Atkin- 

 son, that " In a print-cloth factory in New England, in 

 which the conditions of production were analysed by Mr. 

 Atkinson, the product per hand was found by him to have 

 advanced from 26,531 yards, representing 3,382 hours' work, 

 to 32,391 yards, representing 2,695 hours' work, in 1884 — 

 an increase of 22 per cent, in product, and a decrease of 20 

 per cent, in hours of labour. Converted into cloth of their 

 own pi'oduct, the wages of the operatives in this same mill 

 would have yielded them 6,205 yards in 1871, as compared 

 with 9,737 yards in 1884 — an increase of 56.92 per cent. 

 During the same period of time the prices of beef, pork, 

 flour, oats, butter, lard, cheese, and wool in the United 

 States declined more than 25 per cent." . . . " The 

 deductions of Mr. William Fowler, . . . Fellow of 

 University College, London, are to the effect that the saving 

 of labour since 1850, in the production of an article amounts 



