FACTORY AND FACTORY SYSTEM 2126 



FAINTING 



ing tariffs, or even by going to war, but under 

 normal conditions the manufacturer in any 

 country may compete wherever it pleases him 

 to do so. 



Benefits and Evils of the Factory System. 

 The benefits of the factory system have been 

 enormous. The old argument that the intro- 

 duction of machinery would be followed by 

 lack of work and poverty has long since been 

 disproved. It is now admitted that the fac- 

 tory system merely diverts labor to the most 

 profitable channels. A factory-made shoe, fin- 

 ished in twenty minutes, will wear as well as 

 a hand-made shoe which the individual shoe- 

 maker makes in one day. A factory-made 

 watch, finished in a few hours, keeps as good 

 time as a Swiss hand-made watch finished in 

 nearly as many weeks. The Swiss watchmaker, 

 moreover, gave the best years of his life to 

 an apprenticeship which is no longer neces- 

 sary. As a general rule the division of labor 

 has resulted in a vast improvement in the 

 quality of the article, in a great saving of 

 time, and consequently, in a reduction in the 

 cost of manufacture. Lower cost means lower 

 prices, which in turn have increased the de- 

 mand for labor, and the increased demand 

 for labor has been followed by higher wages 

 and a higher standard of living. While there 

 are sections or industries in which these facts 

 may not always be apparent, they cannot be 

 questioned if the effect upon the civilized world 

 is considered as a whole. 



That the factory system has its evils is also 

 true, but their importance is easily exagger- 

 ated. Women and children have doubtless 

 been employed in greater numbers under the 

 factory system than ever before; but their em- 

 ployment did not begin with the factory, and 

 in many respects the conditions of work are 

 better in the factory than outside of it. Un- 

 sanitary conditions do exist in some factories, 

 but they are not to be compared with the 

 wretchedness of sweat-shops or tenement 

 homes. It is true that by regulating the speed 

 of machinery the work-pace may be forced 

 so that the factory wears out the workman 

 at a comparatively early age perhaps forty- 

 five or fifty years is the average in most trades 

 but on the other hand the factory provides 

 better pay and shorter hours of work. It has 

 made possible a higher standard of living, un- 

 der which the laborer has more time for recre- 

 ation and self-improvement. In some respects 

 the minute division of labor permits the use 

 of a lower order of intelligence, since the work- 



man need understand only one step in a com- 

 plicated process; but, on the other hand, by 

 associating with other workmen the individ- 

 ual acquires new ideas and a broader outlook 

 on life. 



No further evidence of these facts is needed 

 than the success of labor organizations in 

 securing better working conditions for their 

 members and their constant struggles for still 

 higher standards. Perhaps the most conspicu- 

 ous result of the factory system has been the 

 widening gulf between labor and capital; at 

 one extreme are the powerful labor organiza- 

 tions, at the other extreme are the great 

 combinations' of capital in production. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Invention Labor Organizations 



Labor, Division of Patent 



Labor Legislation Trusts 



FAHRENHEIT, jah ' ren kite, GABRIEL DANIEL 

 (1686-1736), a German scientist, ranking high 

 in the realm of physics and famous as the in- 

 ventor of the thermometer scale that bears 

 his name. He was born in Danzig, Germany, 

 but lived for some years in Holland and Eng- 

 land, making his living by the manufacture of 

 meteorological instruments. He was the first 

 to employ mercury instead of alcohol in ther- 

 mometer tubes, thus greatly adding to the 

 accuracy of the instrument. He was elected 

 a member of the Royal Society of London in 

 1724. See THERMOMETER. 



FAIENCE, fayahNs', a soft-bodied, glazed 

 pottery first made by the Italians at Faenza, 

 from which it received its name. The French 

 learned the method and improved upon it, 

 until a very beautiful ware was produced in 

 the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 

 turies. It became very popular, and during the 

 wars of the reign of Louis XIV, when all silver- 

 ware was being sent to the mint, faience sets 

 were made for the royal palace and the nobles 

 at court. Josiah Wedgwood, whose wares are 

 now so famous, started a faience factory in 

 England in 1763. The Rookwood pottery, 

 made in Cincinnati, O., is faience of a high 

 order; its decoration is unusually beautiful. 

 See WEDGWOOD WARE; ROOKWOOD POTTERY. 



FAINT 'ING, or SYNCOPE, syng'kope, is 

 loss of consciousness and of power to move 

 and to feel. The face of a fainting person 

 becomes pale, the breathing process is for the 

 time being suspended, and the pulse at the 

 wrist ceases to beat. There is such complete 

 loss of muscular power that a person who 



