Limits of division.—With all its advantages, division of labor is limited by circumstances. It can never be applied where, because of poor roads or peculiarities of temper or habit of life, the workers are naturally separated. The necessary isolation of the farmers for the sake of space makes any combination for the sake of economy in dividing their tasks almost impracticable. Even where farms are small, few advantages from division of labor by different kinds of work can be adopted. The farmers are too far apart to work directly [pg 185] into each other's hands. It is limited, too, by the natural demand for the products of labor. If the labor of one man can supply all need of iron work in his community, there is no possibility of employing ten, even with a hundred times the effectiveness. This is well illustrated in the country store, which sells everything over the same counter. Not even the grocery department can be separated until the demand is sufficient to support two store-keepers in two stores.
But even in places where division of labor is stimulated by demand, it can go no further than the number of distinct motions required in carrying through the manufacture of the article made. Indeed, economy requires that each motion should make a complete round, so that the work begins and ends for each worker with everything in the same position. The exception is when a motion with great exertion requires an interval of rest before a second. Two men with a cross-cut saw, although their motions are alike, do more than twice as much as one man, because of the relief in pushing back the saw.
A most important limit, however, is made by the inconstancy of natural forces employed in any industry. This is notable in all the processes of agriculture. No matter how many workers combine in raising field crops, they can gain but few advantages from dividing their tasks minutely. Each laborer must be employed through the year, and the change of seasons requires that he be ready for all the operations of the different seasons in planting and tilling and gathering through all the succession. Ordinary changes of weather, cold [pg 186] or hot, wet or dry, windy or calm, make necessary changes in his labor. The uncertainties of each year as to moisture and heat require a variety of ventures, so that no farmer dares confine himself to raising but a single crop. Even under the most favorable conditions the different stages of growth are so intimately related that the watchfulness of the same interested manager is required at every stage. A delicate plant must be carried delicately, even in transplanting. More important still are the conditions of fertility, which make a rotation of crops and even mixed farming essential to highest productiveness. If each field must have its definite series of cropping and tillage, together with the application of animal manures, the advantage of these combined operations under the oversight and labor of a single farmer outweighs the advantage of more perfect division of labor.
The result of all these limitations, so obvious in agriculture, is that farm work is but slightly more effective or more continuous than it was hundreds of years since. While improved machinery has immensely reduced the cost of certain processes, a year's labor involves innumerable changes of employment, so that no farmer inquires, in hiring his help, for an expert in any direction, but wants a man of all work whose skill is largely ingenuity in adjusting himself to the constantly changing duties.
Suggestions of fuller division of farm labor.—It seems possible, with the improved condition of agriculture and the nearness of ready markets, to attempt a larger use of division of labor in several directions. A group of [pg 187] farmers, well acquainted with the possible advantages, may classify their farms as grain farms, dairy farms, breeding farms, feeding farms and market-gardens. Such a community of interests would find not only the advantages of exchange between each other, as well as the rest of the world, but would soon build up bodies of expert young men in the several specialties, whose work would be at a premium everywhere.
With these interests recognized, still greater division of labor is possible. An expert in the care of trees and prevention of diseases to fruits and vegetables can quickly find employment, and may perfect himself in all the requirements of successive seasons. A dairy expert may find use for his superior knowledge and skill on successive tours among the dairy farms. Every farm large enough to employ several men gains some of the advantages of division by making each man responsible for a definite part of the farm work. The less the workmen are handled in gangs, the better each one's abilities can be trained to meet his responsibilities. These possibilities are greatly increased by every device for diminishing the effect of weather changes. Under-drainage gives large advantages in this direction from lengthening the time during which the same operation can go forward. Means of protecting crops in the field serve a similar end.
Perhaps the easiest application to be made in any neighborhood is a system of marketing, through keeping an expert collector and distributor of produce busy in a limited region. All the waste of articles too few to be carried to market is practically saved, and constant [pg 188] association with the markets of the world is made possible. Especially is this applicable to small fruits, milk, butter and eggs. If this market wagon can also serve to carry the daily mail for all the neighborhood, the problem of rural delivery would be almost solved with a trifling expense. Even where such a measure is not possible, neighboring farmers may approach such results by combining for market and mail days in a circle, each taking a different day of the week when he will do his neighbor's errands.
With increased confidence in mutual interests, it seems possible that specialists in various directions might grow up among a united circle of farmers. The use of machinery and blooded stock can certainly be greatly increased by careful adjustment of interests. Great improvements in seed and in methods of culture may be discovered by agreement among a body of farmers that certain individuals shall make a specialty of those improvements. It is even conceivable that a rotation of crops might be carried on upon a dozen farms, while each farmer gives his attention to his specialty. It would require, of course, a much closer combination in credit with each other than has yet been found among farmers. At the very best, however, farming must still remain the most prominent illustration of limitation in the application of the great labor saving and capital saving by minute division of labor.
Disadvantages of extreme division.—The great addition to wealth so distinctly traced to division of labor is not gained without some disadvantages to the community. Almost certainly the inactivity of body compelled [pg 189] by confinement to a simple portion of a trade induces physical weakness. The health of workers in factories is often uncertain, and the average of life is known to be reduced. While steadiness of employment contributes to steady habits, the reduced activity contributes to weakness. Perhaps even more perceptible is the tendency toward narrowness of mind. Ingenuity is developed in the “Jack of all trades,” although his information in regard to each one may be limited. The man who knows all about a very small part of one trade has little to stimulate his mind to exertion. Indeed, habit is liable to make his very action and judgment purely automatic. The fact that the raw hand can be quickly made effective makes the stimulation to self-education even less than in ordinary circumstances. The constant dependence of each laborer upon the routine of his work and his absolute dependence upon authority for his employment lead naturally to lack of self-control. A man may grow almost like the machine he handles, responding only to the demand of his overseer. These tendencies foster also a growth of class distinctions. Such workmen are thought of as operatives, held in a class by themselves. They may be expected to know little of the interests of community outside their own circle, and are often distrusted in matters of common welfare. They themselves distrust the leadership of those upon whose management they depend for employment.
All these disadvantages may be overcome by more community of interest among workers of all classes for their comfort and improvement outside their tasks. It [pg 190] is a fact that associations for the advancement of workers in social and political freedom and mutual self-support have grown most rapidly in the neighborhood of factories, where division of labor is extreme. A truly philanthropic spirit may be in entire agreement with the massing of labor for greatest accomplishment. The places of least development are always found where crowds of laborers work in mere gangs or wholly unorganized. The wholesome influences surrounding rural life are everywhere granted so far as physical development goes. They may also be granted in communities of general enterprise with reference to ready ingenuity and judgment. The farmer's boys moving to the cities carry not only physical strength and endurance but a mental capacity for ready adaptation to emergencies which develops into wisdom. The majority of leaders in great enterprises are still expected to grow up on the farm. This is undoubtedly in part due to the impossibility of cramping by extreme division of labor. At the same time a partial application of its principles is needed to bring leisure for some general culture and larger acquaintance with the progress of the world. As the evils of factory life can be cured by attention, so the weaknesses of rural life can be removed by a careful study of its needs. True education in both quarters is essential as a means of mutual understanding and adjustment of interests.