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he watched is to limit the loss arising from this cause, to makethe work of the machine ever more automatic.
The machine has therefore replaced hand-labour. A conditionfor this was the interleaving of the principle of division with theworld’s market, which, with the object of cheapening the cost ofproduction, divided the old hand-work into a large number ofsingle functions. That division of labour, as already recommendedby Petty (25), as described by Adam Smith in the well-knowninstance of pin-making, was the first step thereto, that, as the singlefunctions became simpler they could be undertaken by themachine. The machine thereby freed the worker from that far-reaching division of labour which threatened to make man himselfinto a mere tool. Division of labour has transferred itself fromthe operative to the machine. The more automatic the machinebecomes, the more automatic becomes the labour of tending.
Skilled finger proficiency disappears therewith in qn increasingdegree, which shows itself, amongst other results, in the advanceof the average wages, and, on the other hand, extremes counteractthemselves more and more. Even the difference between thesexes is lessened by the machine. During the time of Ure femalelabour in the cotton industry accomplished still less and was paidlower than that of the male, as at the present time in Germany (26). In the industry of Lancashire this difference is now in manycases neutralised. Especially in weaving do male and femaleoperatives earn the same piecework wages, just as those six andeight loom weavers in Lowell are young women (27).
In spite of this, it would be a mistake if we imagined that labourhas become easier compared with former times. As far as acomparison can be made, the opposite' is the case. A hand-weavercan work 13 hours per day; to let a six-loom weaver work 13 hoursis a physical impossibility. The nature of the work has entirely
25. Sir William Petty : “ Essays in Political Arithmetic” fLond., 1G99),
pp. 35, 179, 180.
2G. “Protokolie zur deutschen Enquete,” p. 372.
27. Compare Sidney Webb: Economic . Tournul , vol. I.. No. 4. Alsoherein the English cotton industry stands in advance of other trades, especiallysuch as are less controlled by modern machinery. In this industry theequalisation of the difference between male and female labour is the farthestadvanced, especially when we remember that in it mostly young unmarriedfemale operatives come into consideration.