130 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [May 
concerned, instead of being an encyclopaedia of his trade, he becomes a 
mere monograph, with special semi-automatic skill in one or two simple 
operations. The demands on his physical strength and skill are small; on 
his intellect, negligible; and on his discipline and nerve,-great in proportion 
to the power he controls. 
An excellent illustration of how far this organization of industry has 
already gone, even in so-called skilled trades, is easily seen in the fact that 
enormous “ dilution ” of skilled labour has taken place in munition- 
factories and engineering-workshops in Great Britain and France, and 
doubtless in Germany and Austria, in the last three years, without affecting 
either the quality or the quantity of individual output. 
At the same time, in proportion as the attainments necessary in the 
operative are reduced, so the technological skill and scientific training of 
those managing the work increase. 
The strength of the system lies in the scientific skill with which it takes 
advantage of every natural law to exploit natural sources of wealth and 
increase the material prosperity of the people. Its fatal weakness lies in 
the fact that this same scientific exploitation leads inevitably to the 
degradation of human labour, and to the consequent degeneration of the 
vast mass of the workers. Labour ceases to be dignified when the worker 
becomes the attendant slave of the machine. 
It has been held as a first principle of democracy that every worker 
should enjoy the fruits of his own labour. It seems to me necessary, as a 
prior condition, that he should enjoy the labour itself, and that it should 
call forth the exercise of his best powers. While, therefore, we may admit 
that under the compelling influence of urgent necessity, and inspired by 
the loftiest motives of patriotism and self-sacrifice, the worker may find 
joy and satisfaction in the performance of monotonous and nerve-racking 
duties, we cannot assume that the same duties will be cheerfully performed 
for long periods under ordinary commercial conditions. Even if they were, 
the worker must surely degenerate so far as his physical and mental equip¬ 
ment are concerned. 
Again, it has been and still is to a large extent customary to employ 
young children in factories to perform the simpler operations. This 
custom, which was very popular as long as cheap production was assumed 
to be possible only with cheap labour, is likely to die out rather rapidly. 
It results in large human waste through the fact that as the children grow 
up they must for the most part seek other occupations, for which their 
past service has rather tended to unfit them. Hence the same method 
applied to all industries would result in the industrial machine being unable 
to swallow its own human waste. 
The evil, in fact, is largely the result of applying only the first principle 
of economical production—that of subdivision of labour. As soon as the 
second great principle—of providing each worker with abundant power— 
is brought into operation the employment of children in large numbers 
becomes unprofitable, and high wages become associated with increased 
output and cheap production. 
j We may expect, therefore, on purely economic grounds, a progressive 
rise in the age at which children go to work—not because the machine 
demands a man’s strength or even a man’s intellect, but because it is too 
valuable to be put in the hands of a child, and because it demands a man’s 
attention, responsibility, and nerve to maintain its production. Of this 
tendency we find ample evidence in the reports of the American Bureau 
of Education, and in British Government reports in particular. (See, e.g ., 
