855] 



Machinery and Labor 



57 



gument that a large dependent class is dangerous to 

 society. 1 



The reason for this condition of affairs has been 

 already indicated. The profitable use of a machine re- 

 quires that it shall have a field of operation suited to 

 its capacity ; 2 just as a man, in order that he may work 

 to best advantage, requires more and heavier labor than 

 that suited to a boy. Hence the movement toward 

 larger farms and greater average crop acreage per farm 

 so noticeable in the machine using states. Moreover, 

 the larger farms call for a corresponding increase in the 

 amount of capital at the command of the farmer, es- 

 pecially when, as in this country, there is a tendency 

 toward more intensive cultivation. This is equally 

 true whether the farmer be an owner or a tenant. The 



paratively small class known specifically as capitalists, in whose 

 hands are concentrated the implements with which alone modern 

 industry can be successfully carried on. That such dependence is un- 

 favorable to the highest type of manhood will hardly be questioned ; 

 and the enormous extent to which machinery has increased and is 

 still increasing the percentage of persons subject to such dependence 

 is surely a most serious matter. The manhood of a nation is its most 

 precious possession, for the loss or deterioration of which no increase 

 of material wealth can adequately compensate." Edward T. Peters: 

 Some Economic and Social Effects of Machinery, p. 2. 



1 In 1890 the proportion of male agricultural laborers reported as 

 unemployed during some portion of the census year was 17.2 % ; in 

 1900 it was 36.1 %. Females, in 1890, 18.6 % ; in 1900, 44.3 %. 

 Twelfth Census, Occupations, pp. ccxxviii-ccxxxi. 



* " In order to make the steam power machines of value, the farms 

 must be large and extensive. On small farms, they would prove too 

 costly either In the operation or initial expense. For this reason it 

 has been said that steam power could never supplant horse power on 

 the farms, for our democratic notions demand that farming-lands 

 shall never be consolidated in the hands of a few, and farming on a 

 gigantic scale can never represent more than a very limited part of 

 the industry in this country. Yet the tendency in the West is to I 

 operate enormous farms, combining several rather than cutting up I 

 into smaller ones." Geo. E. Walsh : "Steam Power for Agricultural 

 Purposes," in Harper's Weekly, Vol. 45, p. 567. 



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