NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1928. AGE OF THE MACHINE

Northern Advocate, 3 February 1928, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1928. AGE OF THE MACHINE

Registered for transmission through the post as a newspaper.

This is the age of the machine; and it is impossible to avoid the thought, in considering its marvels, -whether wc are not running grave danger of mechanising man himself. In the olden days, before the birth of that era which is commonly referred to as the industrial revival, the man of his hands, the handicraftsman, was enabled to take a pride in the individu-| ality of his work. Some of his personality wont into every article he turned out; and the mark of his “ego,'' so to speak, was stamped on it. So true is this that it is possible even now for experts to tell the work of many famous artisans, long dead, by reason of the special signs which it exhibits of their peculiar skill and artistry. Today such individuality is a rare thing, indeed, and it grows rarer with the passing years. . How could it be otherwise, when each man’s labour is so specialised and limited, when each day he cuts a strip tin to one precise ordained pattern, or screws a similar nut —and nothing more—upon each member of a procession of machines passing endlessly by him? No more deadening thing was ever invented than this method of standardising labour; unless, indeed, it be that fatuous objection to piece-work which has worked so grave a wrong upon human effort. It used to bo a happy compliment to artist and to artisan alike to say that he could throw his soul into his work; but nowadays, not only is the opportunity so to animate their labour denied to many who could finely use it, but over and over again the soul itself is dulled beyond all power of expression, even were the opportunity there to seize, by the stark monotony of the apportioned task. A report recently received from New York provides an apt commentary upon this tendency of the age. Not long ago that clover and original Czecho’-Slovakian, Karel Kapek, interested and somewhat startled the thinking world by his satirical drama, “R.U.R.,” wherein he depicted the effects of an invention —things of rivets and steel, which worked under orders until they wore themselves to pieces, and were sent to the factory to be remade. The play was very successful, and much amusing comment was passed upon it by the critics. But there is, proverbially, many a" true w r ord spoken in jest; and Kapok's satire, which was levelled at the mechanising of human souls, has now provided excellent evidence of the truth of the proverb. For the report above mentioned asserts that a company has very literally done what the dramatist’s inventor was supposed to do, and has produced a tool which will obey the oiders given to it by an overseer. This clever and disturbing parody of the human machine, it is said, responds only to I sound, and must be addressed in the]

exact key to which it is attuned, or |

it will fail to act. But, like the youth in Marryat’s story, if it be “spoken to properly,” it will do what it is told —within certain limitations, of course. The example exhibited to a curious crowd of spectators last monthi, for instance, “lit a series of lights, started an electric fan, turned on a searchlight, and started a signal lamp.” Moreover, we are gravely assured that the “mechanical man” no only obeys orders, but when asked “nicely” gives replies to certain technical questions. Three of the machines have been installed to keep a check on the reservoirs of the Washington water supply; and on being asked by telephone from headquarters how high the water is, they promptly and accurately respond with the desired information!

The story need hot be dismissed with a laugh of disbelief. It may not be true in all its details, but that it is very largely true we have expert testimony to prove. Nor is the Wcstinghouse “mechanic” the first of his class to be invented or to do good work; while the idea of such an invention—the perfect servant it has been called by the humorists —is, indeed, quite an old one. Automatons which would, at the word of command, play the sedulous ape to humanity have aroused the wonder of many ages; and only a little while ago Major Phillips demonstrated at the Model Engineering Exhibition in England, the powers in this direction of his model trains. Three engines, with their carriages, started, gathered speed, stopped, and reversed at the word of command, conveyed to them by the inventor through a microphone. An ingenious model of a dog, which would run out of his kennel when called by name, and could; by no means, be induced to do so otherwise, also provided a draw at numerous European shows some years ago; while a correspondent to the London “Observer,” commenting on the Westinghouse invention, recalls the interesting fact that Professor' A, M. Low, of Aberdeen, causes the doors of his garage to open by speaking to them. Indeed, if it were not that the “Arabian Nights” can hardly be called in evidence in so eminently practical a matter, the case of Ali Baba and the “Open Sesame” of the robber’s cave might very well be cited as a proof of the antiquity of the idea. But, presuming for the moment, that the machine man lias really been created, and is now in operation as alleged, are we to rejoice at The news, or find in it a sinister significance? A wonderful invention, truly, though in this age of wonderful inventions ’ our capacity for admiration on that score is rapidly becoming exhausted. •