Chapter XIII. Technical Division Of Labor.
Economy of minute division.—The advantages, limits and disadvantages of minute division of labor are worthy of a more careful discussion, since they bear upon every kind of enterprise and all classes of labor. A large part of the century's progress in manufacture, and especially the development of machinery in production, has grown out of the extension of this principle of division. An analysis of the particulars by which great saving is made in the cost of production will help us not only to understand the facts better, but to extend the principle in various directions. In the outset it implies the united effort of several workmen in succession and in close combination upon a single product. It is said that a pocket knife, which we buy for fifty cents, has involved in its manufacture the services of seventy-two different persons, doing different things. The perfection of its finish depends upon the perfection of each of these persons in his single act. The cheapness depends upon the readiness with which each act is performed, and the utility of every kind of power employed.
A good illustration of division of labor may be found in the process of butchering hogs in a large packing house. The live hogs enter the building in the upper [pg 181] story, while able to carry themselves on their own feet. Their weight then moves them easily on through all the stages of the process. Two men catch the hogs by hooking a short chain about the hind leg and slipping it into the notch of an endless chain power, which hoists them to the carrier, a continuous track upon which a roller attached to the chain may easily move. A single man wields the knife which sticks the hogs. Two men are sufficient to manage the scalding trough. One directs the machine through which the body of each hog is jerked to remove by brushes the mass of hair. Four, perhaps, may handle scrapers as the hogs are dropped upon a platform, and six more may use the shaving knives by which every particle of hair is removed. Two are needed with different tools for beheading; and one makes place for the gambrel. Two remove the feet at opposite ends, three with different implements are needed in removing entrails, two are required to halve the body, while another gives it the final washing. The result is that each hog has passed from the pen to the cooling room in less than ten minutes, and the hogs pass under the hands of these several men at the rate of eight a minute. Each man uses but one tool in one particular spot, and repeats that single act constantly. By a similar division of labor eighteen men are employed in skinning a single beef, a different knife being used for each particular part of the body, and all pass in regular routine over the ten or twelve beeves undergoing the operation. The rapidity of this motion can scarcely be conceived by one who has witnessed simply the butchering upon a farm. All this is due to a minute division [pg 182] of labor into as many tasks as there are different operations, each man having, if possible, but one distinct kind of motion. The saving is not only shown in the increased quantity of work, but in the uniform quality as well. All the workmanship is essentially perfect. These advantages appear more strikingly in the manufacturing arts, where the so-called factory system has brought division of labor to perfection.
A brief analysis of the advantages, limitations and disadvantages is worth our study, because of their possible application to farm industry. So far they have been felt chiefly in contributory manufactures of farm machinery, facilities for transportation, with all attending manufacture, and the factories consuming raw materials furnished from the farms. They apply equally well where division of labor is profitable in farm operations.
Extra efficiency of labor.—Most obvious advantage is seen in the saving of the time of a laborer, both in learning the essential parts of his work, so that apprenticeship is shortened to one-tenth or one-twentieth of the time required for a full trade, and in the far greater dexterity with which he works without change of tools or change of location or distraction of attention. Thus a raw hand in the course of a few months performs his single task more rapidly and more perfectly than an expert workman who must know and practice all the parts of the business. While such a hand can scarcely be called skilled in a technical sense, in the narrow application of skill to one action he may be more perfect than any skilled workman. The fact that each man's work passes immediately under the inspection of [pg 183] another, whose motion must exactly correspond in time and adjustment, makes any costly oversight in the shape of executive labor very much less, since every step in the process tests every other step. It is also found that minute attention to a single detail tends toward the highest improvement by invention of every tool and machine employed.
While this system is not likely to foster the inventive spirit which brings out entirely new principles in machinery, because the work grows easy by familiarity, it does make the workmen quick to invent the little devices that perfect such machines. A broader culture and more general training discovers the difficulties and devises the entirely new method: the worker hits upon improvements. Watt invented the steam engine, but a lazy boy employed to move the valve hit upon the automatic movement.
Increased efficiency of capital.—The efficiency of capital in production is greatly increased by minute division of labor. The shop room required for each man is reduced to the minimum space for himself and his material. His tools, while the most perfect possible, are the fewest possible.
The machinery and motive power are used to their utmost capacity constantly, and the economy of larger engines and machines is well known. Possibly one-fifth of the power required to move all the machines used by ten men working as independent tradesmen would provide better motion, more constant and cheaper, for the ten working together under division of labor. The waste in starting and stopping of machinery is almost [pg 184] entirely avoided, and the condition of the machine for doing its work well is kept up to the best. A most important saving is in diminution of waste. The shortened apprenticeship and the superior dexterity make waste from blunders almost nothing. Still more noticeable is the saving from any waste of superior abilities, either strength or judgment, upon actions requiring little ability.
Under minute division of labor a strong man is kept where he is needed and the child may serve where his powers are sufficient. The efficiency of women is recognized wherever applicable, and all the workers have their full abilities made constantly useful. Moreover, the circulating capital represented in the raw materials is kept in use much less time than under the less effective system. Since any article of manufacture passes through all the operations upon it in very much less time, the interest upon capital employed in holding the material and in supporting the labor during its changes is indefinitely less. The quicker returns from this more rapid manufacture are everywhere recognized.