Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1929. MASTERED BY MACHINERY?

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16958, 23 May 1929, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1929. MASTERED BY MACHINERY?

It cannot be denied that this is the ago of machinery; that mechanical processes have more and more usurped the place of the former manual handcraft; or that there exists a certain threat against individuality clue to the increasing application of methods that demand conformance with modes of operations, that are automatically controlled. One has only to think of the conditions of labor prevailing in any of the great mass-production factories —think of large scale motor industries for example—to be aware that there is something to be said for those who hold that initiative on the part of the worker is being lessened by the domination of the machine. When a man’s whole job consists of a strictly limited number of movements performed as a moving platform reaches him —performed, too, in the accurately measured numbers of seconds allowed him by the machine—it is easy to believe that in his case, as truly as Aladdin was the slave of the lamp, lie will become the slave of the mechanical processes of which he might almost be called a part. It is necessary in the present state of affairs to face the actual facts of the situation. When these are examined in an impartial spirit, it will be seen that such a point of view involves a misconception alike of machinery and of human psychology. A machine is the product, of human brains and skill, and therefore inferior to them. The individual has no call to be dominated by the mechanical, however rhythmical his movements doing his daily occupation may be. Apart altogether from the question of machinery, every man with a systematic method of carrying out his work is in the habit of doing the same things at the same time and in the same way every day. It does not matter what the occupation is; it will be found that system is of the essence of the work; that system involves a certain routine of activity, carried out in a rigidly consistent way; that in other words, a self-imposed mechanisation is evident in almost every enterprise. The alarm clock rings in the morning with its imperative summons to begin another day’s work, but tho alarm clock is regarded as a servant whose usefulness is appropriated to suit personal convenience rather than as a tyrannical master whose behests must be obeyed. It is exactly so in the case oi' all kinds of mechanical aids to human effort when they are rightly viewed. So far, what has been called the age of machinery lias brought with it all kinds of lugubrious prognostications as to what will happen to the human race as the result of the Hood-like “turning of the factory wheels,” and all kinds of prophecies as to the detrimental effect upon human volition and independence. The time has surely come to look upon the whole matter from an ordinary common-sen so point of view and to realise that tho inorganic can have no vital, effect upon the organic; that machines were made for men and not men for machines; that machines do not use men, but that men use machines. It is all most definitely questionable whether the modern , introduction of large scale mechanical operations has had a detrimental effect either upon the skill, the initiative or the mentality of the workers employed. We already know from the reading of such books as Henry Ford’s autobiography, that in factories run on mechanical lines to a degree out of all comparison with other industries, the workers, although their working-days may be spent in the performance of one physical act repeated over and over again, gain in leisure what they lose in tho actual interest of the job and are given more chances and not fewer to cultivate the wider claims of culture, education and the advantages which untrammelled leisure alono can bring. It can be contended, indeed, that the age of machinery, even within the limits of daily employment, has called forth a species of specialised skill in the case of different individuals which would have been impossible of attainment under the old conditions of craftsmanship. An American investigator, Mr. Stuart Chase, who has devoted much research to the social phenomena of mass production, is recorded to have pointed out that the ago of machinery, far from destroying the talents of the artisan, has in truth developed a vast variety of specialised skills of its own, and that while some mechanical arts have been supplanted by the perfection of twentieth century tools, others have taken their place. He gives on exhaustive list of the old haml-erafts cheek by jowl with a similar list of occupations that are eked out by the aid of machinery, and with reference to the United States comes to the conclusion that loss than four per cent, of the total population is engaged in work in which the workman is bound to the rhythm of the machine, and that the positive trend of technical development towards even more finely developed autuomatic machinery is steadily reducing lifts ratio. From this it would seem that there is what the Greeks called a ‘ ‘ hystcron proteron ’ ’—a ‘ ‘ eart-before-tho-horse” attitude—in the point of view from which fears arise that machinery is destined to master humanity. It is all tho other way round. The more complex machinery becomes, the more human directional control is brought to bear upon its guidance and*the actual work accomplished by it. The age of Robots, far from being encouraged by modern mechanical development, is being pushed further and further away. It would be a very interesting subject of research to discover in the case of all those workmen whose daily task involves their standing beside a machine, in what way their mentality, attainments or characters differ from

others whose work lies along different lines. It would not be in the least surprising should the results of such investigations bring to light the fact that by their very freedom from the necessity of too great personal application to what are after all purely mechanical processes, the alleged "slaves of the machine" have found to a greater degree than others the possibility of appropriating , that "leisure to grow wise" advocated by all the poets and thinkers who had the highest welfare of their fellows at heart.