294 J 0HN FOSTER FRASER 



employer to get an improvement on machinery suggested by 

 a workman. In the first place, the British workman has not 

 that zest for his work which the American has; in the second 

 place, it is none of his business to invent; in the third, even 

 if he thought of an improvement, he has a shyness about 

 approaching the employer; fourthly, the chances are he 

 might be snubbed for his trouble. 



Nothing like this exists in America. There is a much 

 closer relationship between employer and workman. The 

 one calls the other "boss," but it is only a term, and is no 

 admission the employer is his master. He gives good work 

 for good dollars. On how a tiling should be done he will 

 "cheek" back his employer. There is no "Yes, sir," and do- 

 ing the thing the wrong way simply because the employer 

 proposed that way. The workman knows if he strikes an 

 improvement it is going to be a good thing for him personally. 

 If he thinks of some alteration whereby he can turn out twice 

 as much, he knows the employer won't expect him to turn 

 out twice as much for the same pay. They are partners, 

 and the workman will get at least half the advantage. So 

 there is an incentive to all the mechanics of America to adapt. 

 They make it their business to improve, and it is by this 

 wholesale adoption of labor saving machinery that the diffi- 

 culty of high wages has been largely overcome. 



But there is another result. With almost everything 

 being done by machinery there is no need for skilled artisan- 

 ship. The brains are in the machine, and all the manufac- 

 turer requires is somebody to look after the machine. That 

 is often a simple matter. So what a British workman learns 

 to do after seven years' apprenticeship is, in America, done 

 by a machine looked after by a lad who has had only a fort- 

 night's tuition. 



That is why as the Englishman walks through American 

 workshops he is startled to see so few middle aged men. What 

 is done by a man of forty in England is done by a lad of twenty 

 in America, and where we would employ lads the Americans 

 employ girls. Go into the Westinghouse works at east Pitts- 

 burg, and you will see a thousand girls engaged in making 

 delicate electrical appliances. Go into any of the big shoe 



