Development of American Industrial Enterprises. American manufacturing came into being with these small beginnings and crude efforts to fashion those common objects of household necessity and daily use, which, although crude and clumsy, yet answered the purpose until supplanted later by those of more improved form and workmanship. These primitive successes led to greater endeavors, and developed into still broader usefulness, when the time came that necessities had been provided for and luxuries were now demanded by the higher plane of living to which the people had in due time advanced.
Thus the crude beginnings and rude surroundings among which the early American mechanic performed his work, were in his own house. Soon he outgrew these primitive facilities, and built small shops, frequently in the garden or back yard of his home. These gradually enlarged. The development of the business demanded increased facilities, and buildings were erected quite independent of the home surroundings, and two or more men were associated as manufacturers. These plants developed and enlarged, and in due course of time became the machine shops and the factories, which have since multiplied many hundreds of times, not only in number and in value, but in influence and importance, until to-day our country stands the foremost manufacturing nation of the world. This is true, not only as to the volume and value of her manufactured productions, but also as to their great range and diversity of kind and usefulness. One by one the American mechanic has taken up the various classes of work formerly monopolized by this country or that, failing perhaps at first, but always progressing and developing, until, by native ingenuity and unflagging energy, all obstacles have been overcome, all difficulties put aside, new industries have come into being, and other "victories" of peace "no less than those of war" have been added to the laurels of the American mechanic and of his ever-ready and ever-confident partner, the American manufacturer and capitalist. It is to this combination, each confident of and faithful to the abilities and honor of the other, and each acting his part in his own sphere of usefulness, that the immense success of American manufacturing is due.
The factories of to-day are the logical results of a natural growth and development of the various branches of business for which they were originally built and organized. As the buildings increased in numbers and dimensions, the methods of construction, the equipment, and the systems by which they were managed, developed methods of greater economy and efficiency.
Tools of the Early Mechanic. The early mechanic had few tools and appliances wherewith to perform his work; and these were crude and primitive, consisting principally of a limited number of hand-tools brought from the Old Country, and occasionally a hand-lathe of modern dimensions and operated by foot-power. But with their few tools and meager facilities, and animated by the condition that "necessity is the mother of invention," these old-time mechanics proceeded with practical common sense and ingenuity to design and construct better tools and machines—which have continually developed, until we have the splendid array of manufacturing machinery seen on every hand to-day. As machinery developed, larger and larger amounts of money had to be expended; and the banker had to be called upon to provide it. Thus the capitalist became the partner of the manufacturer, the one furnishing the mechanical ability and inventive genius for the actual designing and building of machinery and manufactured goods, while the other contributed the money to carry on the work, and the business ability necessary to market the product.
Relations of Capital and Labor. In brief, this is the condition to-day. But, says the carping critic, "there are often hundreds of struggling and hard-working employees where there is one rich manufacturer." This may be partly true, although it is a fact beyond dispute that the American mechanic is the best paid workman in the world. It is true that there are hundreds of workmen to one capitalist. Why? The Creator has so ordained that there shall be many of moderate ability, and but few possessing the unusual ability and talent to lead them. So it has ever been since the days of Moses, and so it probably will ever continue to be. Doestick's regiment composed entirely of colonels was a manifest absurdity, and so intended as an illustration of a well-known and natural condition that should be realized by every reasonable and thoughtful man who considers these questions.
Considering carefully the great scheme of manufacturing, and the immense industrial problem of supplying the wants of the people of this great country and providing for the vast volume of trade that goes abroad, by the modern manufacturing plants equipped with all that is latest and best in machinery for every conceivable purpose, it should not be forgotten that, as the very basis and foundation of the whole, stands the modern machine tool, and that it is principally to the great and important development of this that we owe primarily our industrial growth and prosperity as a manufacturing nation. To the machine tool may easily be traced the gradual but continued upward tendency of the mechanic and his methods, from the hard physical toil and small pay of the early days, to the immeasurably lighter exertion and increased compensation made possible by the highly developed condition of the automatic machines of the present day. It has been an oft-repeated victory of "mind over matter," wherein brains have won where hands made but little advance; ideas have developed wonderful mechanisms that have revolutionized the earlier methods of manufacturing and raised the standard of mechanical excellence beyond what was thought possible years ago, and at the same time reduced the cost to a fraction of its former amount.
Here, again, the capitalist furnished the means whereby the practical realization of the ingenious designs of the mechanic's fertile brain became possible, and the successful combination of capital and labor brought success to both.
Combinations of Capital. But here comes our critical labor agitator again with the comment: "It is all very well to talk about the amicable relations of capital and labor, and how each ought to help the other, but how about the great combinations of capital that we ordinarily call "trusts"? To give a correct and intelligent, as well as a fair and truthful answer to this question, we must know the conditions under which the combination is formed, the plan upon which it is organized, and the object of its formation. As these are not given, we must assume the conditions of some well-known combination. Let it be the United States Steel Corporation. One of the foremost men in this combination has defined his position on the subject, and in so doing has outlined the policy of the corporation, by saying:
"Any combination of capital which operates, first, to prevent competition; second, to increase the price of the product; and third, to reduce the wages of the workmen, is working under a trio of wrong principles that sooner or later will bring about disaster."
Let us see how the actual operation of this combination of capital really works out in practice.