The Philosophy of Manufactures

Answers

• Q17LABOR

  Does introducing labor-saving machinery improve workers' lives?

  Yes. machinery improves workers' lives. Ure reports seeing cheerful child workers in factories and claims that, with adequate food and clothing, they would thrive there better than in unhealthy homes. These are Ure’s claims, not independently established facts about factory conditions.

  I have visited many factories, both in Manchester and in the surrounding districts, during a period of several months, entering the spinning rooms, unexpectedly, and often alone, at different times of the day, and I never saw a single instance of corporal chastisement inflicted on a child, nor indeed did I ever see children in ill-humourThey seemed to be always cheerful and alert, taking pleasure in the light play of their muscles, — enjoying the mobility natural to their age. The scene of industry, so far from exciting sad emotions in my mind, was always exhilarating. It was delightful to observe the nimbleness with which they pieced the broken ends, as the mule-carriage began to recede from the fixed roller beam, and to see them at leisure, after a few seconds' exercise of their tiny fingers, to amuse themselves in any attitude they chose, till the stretch and winding-on were once more completed. The work of these lively elves seemed to resemble a sport, in which habit gave them a pleasing dexterity. Conscious of their skill, they were delighted to show it off to any stranger. As to exhaustion by the day's work, they evinced no trace of it on emerging from the mill in the evening; for they immediately began to skip about any neighbouring play-ground, and to commence their little amusements with the same alacrity as boys issuing from a school. It is moreover my firm conviction, that if children are not ill-used by bad parents or guardians, but receive in food and raiment the full benefit of what they earn, they would thrive better when employed in our modern factories, than if left at home in apartments too often ill-aired, damp, and cold.

  OCR corrected

  Book III, Chapter I: Condition of our Factory Operatives, as to Personal Comforts · Opened Internet Archive djvu text; confirmed contents and Book III ch. I title and the 'lively elves' passage.

• Q18LABOR

  Does operating machinery develop or diminish a worker's skill and judgment?

  This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.

• Q27CONTROL

  Should a useful invention be restricted if its harmful consequences cannot be reliably controlled?

  No. machinery's benefits outweigh its alleged harms. Defends self-acting machinery against the charge that it harasses the poor, arguing that the blessings of mechanical science to society have been too little recognised.

  The introduction of new machines into any manufacture, with the effect of superseding hand labour, is tempered by the system of patents, which maintains them for a certain time at a monopoly price, and thereby obstructs their rapid multiplication. Did we admit the principles on which the use of particular self-acting mechanisms is objected to by workmen, we should not be able, in any case, to define the limits of their application. Had parliament acted on such principles sixty years ago, none of our manufactures could have attained to their present state of profitable employment to either masters or men. The immediate causes of their vast augmentation may be ascribed, under the blessing of Providence, to the general spirit of industry and enterprize among a free and an enlightened people, left to the unrestrained exercise of their talents in the employment of a vast capital, pushing to the utmost the principle of the analysis of labour, summoning to their service all the resources of scientific research and mechanical ingenuity ;

  OCR corrected

  Introduction · Internet Archive 1835 edition text; 'blessings which physico-mechanical science has bestowed' passage read.