PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 151 



manual labor. It admits of little interest and no entiin- 

 siasm in ones work; and, worst of all, it tends to cramp 

 the mind and to belittle the man. Once the man who 

 made the nail could make the iron fence, also ; now he 

 cannot even make the nail, but only feed a machine that 

 makes it. Political economists tell us that the minute 

 division of labor tends to deteriorate the operative. 

 This tendency may of course be more than counter- 

 balanced by other and elevating influences, like those of 

 education, the press, the ballot. Such influences have 

 made the mechanics of to-day far more intelligent than 

 were those of seventy-five or one hundred years ago, in 

 spite of the deteriorating tendencies of the minute divi- 

 sion of labor. But this increased intelligence enables 

 the operator better to appreciate the belittling influence 

 of his task, renders it the more irksome and makes him 

 the more dissatisfied with the system under which he 

 labors. 



Furthermore, a sense of insecurity ministers to the 

 discontent of working men. Invention is liable, any 

 day, to render a given tool antiquated, and this or that 

 technical skill useless. Every great labor-saving in- 

 vention — though it eventually increases the demand 

 for labor, helps forward civilization and adds to hu- 

 man comfort— temporarily throws great numbers out 

 of employment. The operative, who for years confined 

 himself to one thing, has, thereby, largely' lost the power 

 of adaptation. He cannot turn his hand to this or that ; 

 he is very likelj^ too old to learn a new trade or acquire 

 new technical skill; he has no alternative; and unless 

 anchored by a family, probably turns tramp. 



Competition leads to over-production, which results 

 in closing mills and factories for long periods, thus for 

 the time being swelling the floating population. One of 

 the striking characteristics of modern cities is the insta- 

 bility of the poorer class of inhabitants, most of whom 

 move every year or oftener, and many of them every 

 three or four months. We are told that the condition of 

 working men everywhere has vastly improved during 



