8o American Economic Association [878 



therefore, always to give over to the machine, 1 the 

 routine part of any work and to leave the more varied 

 employment to the person in charge. The business of 

 weaving, by the former hand method and by the 

 present machine method, is a case in point. 2 Routine 

 work is found quite as frequently in other occupations, 

 as for example, in that of book-keeping, or of teaching 

 music, or of repairing boots and shoes. It is accom- 

 panied, not infrequently, with heavy and exhaustive 

 labor, as in the case of hod-carriers and of stone- 

 masons. If we look to the business of many of our 

 common laborers on the street, or on the railroads and 

 canals, or at boat-wharves, we shall find many in- 

 stances of routine employments such as the worst of 

 machine-driven workmen, not only would not, but 

 could not endure. 



It is not so much the fact of routine or monotony of 

 work as the far more serious fact of monotony of life 

 which depresses and degrades the workman. 3 The 



1 "New machinery, when just invented, generally requires a great 

 deal of care and attention. But the work of its attendant is always 

 being sifted ; that which is uniform and monotonous is gradually 

 taken over by the machine, which thus becomes steadily more and 

 more automatic and self-acting ; till at last there is nothing for the 

 hand to do, but to supply the material at certain intervals and to take 

 away the work when finished. ' ' Marshall : Principles of Economics 

 (3ded.), Vol. I, p. 341. 



2 " Nothing could be more narrow or monotonous than the occupa- 

 tion of a weaver of plain stuffs in the old time. But now one woman 

 will manage four or more looms, each of which does many times as 

 much work in the course of the day as the old time hand-loom did 

 and her work is much less monotonous and calls for much more judg- 

 ment than his did." Marshall : Principles of Economics, (3d ed.), 

 Vol. I, p. 342. 



8 " As Roscher says, it is monotony of life much more than 

 monotony of work that is to be dreaded ; monotony of work is an 

 evil of the first order only when it involves monotony of life." Mar- 

 shall : Principles of Economics, (3d ed.), Vol. I, p. 342. 



