taxation, traffic, etc.; fifth, financial, such as banking systems, credit, currency, interest, etc.; sixth, industrial and mechanical, involving overproduction, displacement of labor by machinery, wages, variation in wages, cost of production, hours of labor, etc. The long list of causes given above will readily shape itself in any one's mind in accordance with these two classifications. It is not necessary that the power and influence of what are denominated providential causes be discussed, nor is it necessary that those which might be classed under remote, indirect, and trivial should be allowed to take up any time or space, but to those which are leading and to some of those which are contributory, and which occupy the largest place in men's minds, and especially to those causes regarding the influence of which the Bureau has been able to colleet any illustrating facts, not only time but space should be given.

Falling Prices.-One of the chief positive causes, as alleged, which produce depressed periods is a fall in prices. It matters not what causes the fall. It may arise from a lack of demand or from too great a supply, or it may be the result of a general tendency or of improved methods of production; but whatever the cause, the first influence of a fall in prices is an apprehension of loss.

Dr. Robert Giffen (a), chief statistician of the British Board of Trade, in a very able discussion of the influence of low prices upon depressions, comes to the conclusion that it is clearly unnecessary to assign any other cause for the gloom of the last few years, and he cites that just before the beginning of the existing depression, the first symptoms of which were discernable in England about the end of 1882 or the beginning of 1883, there had been a period of prosperity and rising prices, though for a comparatively short time. The period of depression which had lasted from 1873 to 1879 suddenly came to an end; there was a general boom in the produce markets and a recovery of tone in business, which continued for two or three years; but at the end of 1882 prices began to fall, production and foreign trade fell off, and since then there has been in Great Britain a steady outcry from the market-place about depression, which has been echoed and re-echoed in political circles, and, as Dr. Giffen says, in a somewhat "unintelligent manner, with more than usual emphasis laid on the assumption, so common at such times, that depression is itself an uncommon and bewildering phenomenon, instead of being the most natural thing in the world, and that the present depression is the worst on record and the beginning of the end of British industrial greatness." Dr. Giffen's language might be used as American entirely and not be out of place; but in quoting so eminent an authority, who backs up his statements with so many facts, it is not necessary to quote the facts themselves, so far as the cause alleged is concerned. Along with low prices there must be, of course, reduced wages, low interest, and small profits. Low prices work to the a "Trade Depression and Low Prices," in the Contemporary Review, June, 1885,

great advantage of those living on invested funds at permanent rates of interest, because one dollar in a depressed period to such parties has a purchasing power enhanced to the degree of the low prices. It is during such periods that fixed capital is tempted to become active. Surrendered estates are bought at low figures, properties are secured at bargains, and while the parties securing the great bargains are apt to utter the loudest complaints, and thereby keep up the apprehensive features of the depression, they contribute toward the restoration of business activity; so, while low prices may be regarded as one of the chief and one of the leading causes, if not the leading cause, of industrial depressions, the influence of the cause is sure to react upon itself and bring abont an activity through example, the effect of which is felt in various directions.

Machinery and Over-production.-Machinery-and the word is used in its largest and most comprehensive sense-has been most potent in bringing the mechanically-producing nations of the world to their present industrial position, which position constitutes an epoch in their industrial development. The rapid development and adaptation of machinery in all the activities belonging to production and transportation have brought what is commonly called over-production, so that machinery and over-production are two causes so closely allied that it is quite difficult to discuss the one without taking the other into consideration. That labor-saving machinery, so called, but which more properly should be called labor-making or labor-assisting machinery, displaces labor temporarily cannot successfully be denied. All men of sound minds admit the permanent good effects of machinery; but the permanent good effects of it do not prevent the temporary displacement of labor, which displacement, so far as the labor displaced is concerned, assists in crippling the consuming power of the community. A few illustrations relative to the displacement of labor by the introduction of machinery, if of no value in themselves, are of historic value in preserving the growth of industrial systems and the changes which come with them, and are therefore given in this chapter. It has been very difficult to gather positive information illustrating points so thoroughly apparent; yet the Bureau has been able, and from original sources largely, to bring together a mass of facts relating to the temporary displacement of labor and to conditions of industry and of society which would exist without the presence of power machinery. These illustrations show positively the influence of inventions in bringing about industrial depression.

In the manufacture of agricultural implements new machinery during the past fifteen or twenty years has, in the opinion of some of the best manufacturers of such implements, displaced fully 50 per cent. of the muscular labor formerly employed; as, for instance, hammers and dies have done away with the most particular labor on a plow. The

proprietors of an extensive establishment in one of the Western States has furnished the Bureau with the following table:

DISPLACEMENT OF MUSCULAR LABOR BY MACHINERY IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

By this table it is shown that in the establishment cited 600 employés are doing the work which under former conditions would have required 2,145 employés, a displacement of 1,545.

In the manufacture of small-arms, where 1 man, by manual labor, was formerly able to "turn" and "fit" 1 stock for a musket in 1 day of 10 hours, 3 men now, by a division of labor and the use of power machinery, will turn out and fit from 125 to 150 stocks in 10 hours. By this it is seen that 1 man individually turns out and fits the equivalent of 42 to 50 stocks in 10 hours as against 1 stock in the same length of time by manual labor, a displacement of 44 to 49 men in this one operation.

In brick-making improved devices displace 10 per cent. of the labor, while in manufacturing fire-brick 40 per cent. has been displaced, and yet in some concerns, in manufacturing various kinds of bricks, no displacement has occurred.

The manufacture of boots and shoes offers some very wonderful facts in this connection. In one large and long-established manufactory in one of the Eastern states the proprietors testify that it would require 500 persons working by hand processes to make as many women's boots and shoes as 100 persons now make with the aid of machinery, a displacement of 80 per cent. In another class of the same industry the number of men required to produce a given quantity of boots and shoes has been reduced one-half. In another locality, and on another quality of boots, being entirely for women's wear, where formerly a first-class work12854 LAB- -6

man could turn out 6 pairs in one week, he will now turn out 18 pairs. A well-known firm, engaged in manufacturing boots and shoes in the West states that in the grade of goods manufactured by it, it would take 120 persons working by hand to produce the amount of work done in its factory by 60 employés, and the hand-work would not compare in workmanship and appearance, as expressed by the concern, by 50 per cent. Goodyear's sewing machine for turned shoes, with 1 man, will sew 250 pairs in 1 day. It would require 8 men working by hand to sew the same number. By the use of King's heel-shaver or trimmer 1 man will trim 300 pairs of shoes a day, where it formerly took 3 men to do the same. One man, with the McKay machine, can handle 300 pairs of shoes per day, while, without the machine, he could handle but 5 pairs in the same time. In nailing on heels, by the use of machinery, 1 man and a boy can heel 300 pairs of shoes per day. It would require 5 men to do this by hand. In finishing the bottoms of shoes, 1 man with a sandpapering machine can handle 300 pairs, while it would require 4 men to do the same by hand. A large Philadelphia firm, engaged in the manufacture of boys' and children's shoes, states-and the foreman of the establishment corroborates the evidence-that the introduction of new machinery within the past thirty years has displaced about six times the amount of hand labor required, and that the cost of the product has been reduced one-half. On another grade of goods, manufactured in Maine, the facts collected by the agents of the Bureau show that 1 man can now do the work which twenty years ago required 10 men.

The broom industry has felt the influence of machinery, the broom sewing machine facilitating the work to such extent that each machine displaces 3 men. One large broom-manufacturing concern, in 1879, employed 17 skilled men to manufacture 500 dozen brooms per week. In 1885, with 9 men and the use of machinery, the firm turned out 1,200 dozen brooms weekly. Thus, while the force is reduced in this one establishment nearly one-half, the quantity of brooms sewed is much more than doubled.

In the construction of carriages and wagons, a foreman of fifty years' experience testifies that the length of time it took a given number of skilled workmen, working entirely by hand, to produce a carriage of a certain style and quality was equal to 35 days of one man's labor, while now 1 man produces substantially the same style of carriage in 12 days.

In the manufacture of carpets, some of the leading manufacturers in the country, and men of the largest experience, consider that the improvement in machinery in the past thirty years, taking weaving, spiuning, and all the processes together, have displaced from ten to twenty, times the number of persons now necessary. In spinning alone it would take by the old methods from seventy-five to one hundred times the number of operatives now employed to turn out the same amount of work, while in weaving there would be required at least ten times the present number. A carpet-measuring machine has been invented which

brushes and measures the product at the same time. By the use of this device 1 operator will accomplish what formerly required 15 men.

In the manufacture of clothing, where all cutting was formerly done by hand, much of it is now done by the use of dies. In cutting out hats and caps, a man working improved cutters is able to cut out a great many thicknesses at once, and he does six times the amount of work with such a machine as could formerly be done by 1 man in the old way. The same is true to a certain extent in cutting out garments. On the whole, in an establishment for the manufacture of hats of a medium grade, 1 man does the work now of 3 formerly, and the product is far superior to that produced in the olden times. In the manufacture of some kinds of hats, especially soft and stiff hats, experienced men consider that there has been a displacement in the proportion of 9 to 1.

The cotton goods industry offers, perhaps, as striking an illustration as any of the apparent displacement of labor, a Delaware house considering that the displacement has been 17 per cent. outside of motive power. By a hand-loom a weaver used to weave from 60 to 80 picks per minute in weaving a cloth of good quality, with 20 threads of twist to each one-quarter square inch. A power-loom now weaves 180 picks per minute of the same kind of cloth. Even in power machinery, a weaver formerly tended but 1 loom. Now 1 weaver minds all the way from 2 to 10 looms, according to the grade of goods. In a large establishment in New Hampshire, improved machinery, even within ten years, has reduced muscular labor 50 per cent. in the production of the same quality of goods. In another line of goods manufactured in the same state machinery has displaced labor to the amount of one-third the number of operatives formerly required. In the days of the singlespindle hand-wheel, 1 spinner, working 56 hours, could spin 5 hanks of number 32 twist. In England, at the present time, with 1 pair of selfacting mules, having 2,124 spindles, 1 spinner, having the assistance of 2 boys, will produce 55,098 hanks of number 32 twist in the same time, when the mules are running at the moderate rate of 3 stretches in 453 seconds. It is quite generally agreed that there has been a displacement, taking all processes of cotton manufacture into consideration, in the proportion of 3 to 1. The average number of spindles per operative in the cotton mills of this country in 1831 was 25.2. It is now about 72, an increase of 185 per cent. Along with this increase of the number of spindles per operative there has been an increase of product per oper. ative of 145 per cent., so far as spinning is concerned. In the olden time in this country a fair adult hand-loom weaver wove from 42 to 48 yards of common shirting per week. A weaver, tending 6 power looms in a cotton factory of to-day, would produce 1,500 yards a week. In the manufacture of flour there has been a displacement of nearly three-fourths of the manual labor necessary to produce the same prod

uct.