Machinery

*THE WORKER*

Brisbane, February 16, 1895.

Machinery and Production.

As an illustration of the marvellous effects of machinery on production, a correspondent of the Age gives the following:

Cotton alone has doubled its production inside 15 years, being in 1873 three and eight-tenths million bales, and in 1886 – 87 (with less labour, mind you!) six million and a half bales. In the same time the transport both by rail and steamer went down by by one-half. The economics introduced were equally marvellous. The cotton gin worked by one man can clean cotton equal to 1000 working by hand; the spindle that in 1873 made 4000 revolutions per minute now makes 10,000; the weaver of 30 years ago, working 14 hours per day, made some 9000 yards of sheeting, while his brother weaver of today, working 10 hours, is able to turn out 30,000 , thus being able by one year's work to clothe some 1600 fully clad Chinese or some three thousand half clad Indians.

Again, turn to iron, England was formerly the world producer. In 1855 the output of pig iron was 3,218,134 tons, but in 1891 it was 7,406,964 tons. Its value in 1855 was £8,045,385 and in 1891 £19,440,918 England between 1870 and 1883 increased her production by 239 per cent. The economics here introduced play an important part in lowering prices. In 1870 the labour of an English worker produced 173 tons, and he now produces 261 tons. The introduction of the Bessemer principle of making steel lowered the cost from £14 to £4 per ton. Here neither gold nor silver had anything to do with the great fall of prices. Take again wheat. The cost of sowing an acre of wheat was some 30 years ago from 15s. to 20s. Per acre; to-day its cost is not more than 2s. to 3s. Almost every step in wheat culture is now done by machinery.

The economy of labour in production and distribution, Mr. Atkinson assures us, is so great that the labour of four men for one year will grow, grind, mill and transport, 14,000 miles from the seaboard as much flour as will keep 1000 persons for one whole year. This in itself is a potent factor to cause a great fall in prices.

The duplex steam engine that was introduced into our ocean going steamers gave greater speed, and the space occupied by coal could now be given to cargo. While it drove 2,000,000,000 tonnage of sailing vessels out of the trade, the Suez canal made the local almost a national market; and the importance of the telegraph as an agency for reducing charges in the old methods of commerce must not be overlooked. The revolution that machinery has made in the boot industry is so great that little or no skill is required in their production, and three men and two boys now produce what it took 40 men to do without the new inventions.

A factory hand can turn out from 20 to 25 pair of trousers, that is, do all the machining required to be done. In some industries of to-day no labour is required but super superintendence. The lace machine has displaced thousands of women, and as the cost of labour enters largely in the price, its displacement must govern the rise or fall of prices.