62 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



arises from the decreased market price of the commodity which he 

 formerly helped to produce. If it is a commodity which enters 

 into his own consumption, then the lower price which he pays for 

 it will, in a measure, offset the lower wage which he receives in 

 his new occupation. If it is not a commodity which enters into 

 his own consumption, then his compensating advantage must come 

 through the stimulus which the decreased price of this particular 

 commodity gives to other industries in which it is employed as 

 raw material or, more properly, as a factor of production 

 cheaper raw material yielding, of course, a decreased cost of 

 production, higher profits, and a stronger demand for labor.^ 



As to those workmen who suffer only relative displacement 

 there is, ordinarily, no need for any compensating advantages. 

 The greatest hardship which the use of machinery lays upon 

 them is that of avoiding those occupations in which the demand 

 for workmen is becoming weak. It will be noticed, too, that for 

 every relative decrease in the number of persons engaged in one 

 industry, there is a corresponding increase in some other industry. 

 As a matter of fact, the persons engaged in gainful occupations 

 constitute a greater proportion of the total population now than 

 formerly. 



of work even for a few weeks may exhaust his credit and the affection and means 

 of his friends, and there may remain nothing for him but starvation, unless poor- 

 laws or private charity come to the rescue. Nicholson, "Effects of Machinery 

 on Wages," p. 30. 



^ Labor-saving methods seem to be a calamity, because the effect is to inter- 

 fere with present pursuits and deprive some of their accustomed means of liveli- 

 hood ; to render useless, skill acquired after a lifelong training. The benefits all 

 seem to accrue to the person who first uses an invention, while the ones dis- 

 placed are apparently shut out of the industrial system. It is not noticed how 

 they are gradually absorbed into other channels of employment that open up as 

 the cost of production is decreased. If such were not the case, the whole indus- 

 trial mechanism would soon come to a standstill, considering the progress of 

 inventions sv-prfUfnented by the army of aliens that arrive yearly and the increas- 

 ing proportion 'of women breadwinners. Henry White, "The Problem of 

 Machinery," The American Federationist, Vol. X, p. 83 



