Evening star. [volume], October 25, 1931, Page 2, Image 76

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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2
E. Wickenden of the Case School of Applied
Science recently put it, at least five thousand
mi lion human s'aves in America—more than
double the population of the whole earth!
•
it | p the abolition of machinery would enslave
I mankind by thrusting back upon flesh and
bicod the innumerable chores now performed
by mechanical energy, may we not assume that
the introduction cf machinery can bring great
er freedom?” continued Dr. Compton.
"I like to think that the great races—China
and India, for example—with their underpriv
ileged millions, may 3'et find away to larger
life through labor-saving machines. No one
imagines that the engineer, by the introduction
of mere engines, can solve the intricate prob- *
lems of politics, religion, custom, caste, pre- '
cedent —the complex of traditions which com
plicate life for the submerged populations of
these ancient lands. But assuredly the engi
neer can help solve some of the economic prob
lems. He can eliminate plague, banish fam
ine, control floods. By raising the standard of
living in these lands he can raise the demand
for products of the machine and so enormously
increase the markets of the world.
“The paradox of overproduction in the Kan
sas wheat fields and of underconsumption in
China or in India or on the Bowery is not
the fault of machinery. Rather it is the fault
of our system of economic exchanges and or
ganization by which wheat can rot in Kansas
while men starve in Arkansas, just a few hun
dred miles away. Going back to Athens and
, Thebes will not adjust the faulty exchanges
Dor restore the economic equilibrium.”
Dr. Gilbert Murray of Oxford, who knows
his Greece as few moderns know it, has ex
pressed the contrast in these words: "The
average clerk who goes to town daily, idly
glancing at his morning newspaper, is probably
a better behaved and an infinitely better in
formed person than the average Athenian who
sat spellbound at the tragedies of Aeschylus.”
We crowd and elbow into our huge mechan
ised cities, but, says Dr. Murray, the Greeks
“lived in pretty little towns, like so many
wasps’ nests, each at war with its next-door
neighbor and half of them at war with them
selves.”
But is it not preferable to be a slave, and
work and eat, than to be a free citizen, with
no employment and no prospect of honestly
eating except by the bounty of charity? This
is what the issue hardens into, in some minds,
at the prospect of this third-consecutive Winter
of unemployment for millions.
CERTAINLY the machine has displaced
workers. Indeed, is not its prime purpose
to save labor? Messrs. E. R. Weidlein and Wil
liam A. Hamor of the Mellon Institute point out
in their recently published book, "Science in
Action,” that in some lines of industry machin
ery has made 1 man as productive as 64 a few
years ago.
“The iron and steel industry produced 81 tons
a year for each operator in 1879 and 1,250 tons
a year for each operator in 1925. • • • Research
Thomas Alva Edison as a Man, a Genius and a Myth
BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.
THOMAS ALVit EDISON, like Abraham
Lincoln, in tribute to whom the
phrase was originally used, belongs to
the ages now. Time will have its
way with him, and as his figure re
cedes into the shadows its outlines
will grow dim. Finally there will be only his
name, a mere label, an impersonal thing, ac
cepted, taken for granted, a commonplace de
tail in the long history of human progress.
Such is the fate of all great men, and Edison
win not be exempt from the universal rule.
But there Is, undoubtedly, an Edison legend
which may survive more accurate representa
tions of the inventor’s life and work, an Edi
son myth which may replace more scientific
conceptions of his personality. The romance
Inherent in his career is so dear to the human
heart that Edison the Wizard may be remem
bered when Edison the Man has utterly dis
appeared from recollection. This Edison created
by popular imagination is “a culture hero” of
the modem age. Like Apollo, St. George, Sieg
fried and William Tell, he reproduces the chief
virtues of an era, mirrors a national psy
chology and expresses a national aspiration.
Edison watched the growth of this gigantic
prodigy and stood aghast at its dimensions.
But as the years passed he gave up trying to
do anything about it. He submitted to it. And
the Wizard blithely outgrew the Man.
SOME variations of the myth are exceedingly
novel. For instance, there are those who
believe that Edison was of Aztec descent. How
the story started no one remembers, but it has
been perennial. With clock-like regularity
some one says that Edison had in his veins
the imperial blood of Montezuma. Edison
denied it, his family denied it, his friends
denied it, but the myth persists. People wanted
him to be an Aztec. It did not matter what
he wanted. A contradictory legend has made
him of Spanish origin. Perhaps his middle
name is responsible for the idea. But he really
was of Dutch extraction, and he was called
Alva in courtesy to Capt. Alva Bradley, a friend
of his father, not in remembrance of the noto
rious duke who vainly tried to subdue the Low
Countries.
Edison was the seventh child of his parents,
but the suggestion that he was "a seventh son”
is Inaccurate and would have doubtful sig
nificance if It were true. As a child the in
ventor was frail and sickly, and the myth by
which he was later on to be represented as a
veritable monster of physical energy and strength
bad no proper foundation in fact. The Edisons
are a long-lived elan, but they do not have
more than a normal quota of physical capital.
Edison as a boy gave little promise of bis
future eminence. A school Inspector considered
hfcn “addled,” and people commented on the
large size of his bead. He attended regular
daeaM for only three months, and "that was
TT?F SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON. D. C., OCTOFFR 25, T9?T.
carried on by a manufacturer of small metal
appliances enabled him to eliminate nine
tenths of his labor requirements in preparing
his product for finish.” Even the fish industry
is going in for mass production and mechaniza
tion: "One man. using an automatic fish-scal
ing machine, can seal? about 40 fish a minute,
regardless of their size, compared to about 3
fish a minute by hand operation.”
In operating open-hearth furnaces 1 steel
worker today, with machines. does the labor
that a few years ago required 42 men. In ma
chine shops, 1 man with semi-automatic ma
chine tools can do the work of 25 with the old
hand-controlled equipment. In the brick in
dustry a machine now turns out 40,000 bricks
an hour, whereas under handicraft methods one
man in eight hours could make only 450 bricks.
In the manufacture of boots and shoes, cites
William Green, 100 machines have taken the
places of 25,000 men, and in the manufacture
of electric light bulbs there is a machine which
turns out 73,000 bulbs in 24 hours, whereas as
recently as 1918 one man a day could make
only 40 bulbs.
They call it "technological unemployment,”
this effect of machinery in reducing the num
ber of human units employed in a given in
dustry. Os course, the charge is as old as the
power machines themselves. Did not Har
greaves, inventor of the spinning jenny, have to
flee from the mob of displaced textile workers
who broke into his home and smashed ma
chines? And were not Stephencon and his suc
cessors, the early pioneers of the steam rail
road, the object of revilement and attack on the
part of stagecoach drivers and canal boatmen?
But technological unemployment is a tran
sitory hardship, says Dr. Compton, and is com
pensated for—in normal times—by the techno
logical creation of new employment, "Thus, the
railroads have multiplied opportunities for em
ployment many times that afforded by the stage
coaches and the canal boats; and so with other
industries.
"The United States census shows that dur
ing the last 30 years, when the population of
the country increased from 75,000,000 to 121,-
000,000, the percentage of the population gain
fully employed remained constant at 39 per
cent. The group employed in factories, how
ever, increased from 6 to 7 per cent during this
period, and factory wages increased 300 per
cent.
11 /'~'LEARLY, the introduction of labor-saving
machinery and methods, which was
most rapid during the 30 years, has not on the
whole displaced human workers, since the rec
ord shows that the proportion of the population
engaged in factory work has actually Increased.
"What happened is this: Just as fast as a
labor-saving device enabled one man to do the
work which formerly required three workmen,
his wages increased to the total amount former
ly paid the three; and the other two workmen,
thrown out of employment in that industry,
found other employment in new industries
which in the meanwhile had been created by
scientific and engineering development.
"The president of one of the largest of the
American manufacturing concerns recently
/
The Great Inventor , IVho Died Last Sunday , tVas the Object
of Legend and Romance as JVell as an Unwilling
Culture Hero of the Modern Age,
all the formal education he ever received.”
Recent biographers have made much of what
they term his “faculty of observation” as a lad,
but this is just another myth. A story is told
to the effect that he once sat on some goose
eggs with the Intention of hatching goslings,
and this is cited as evidence of his perceptive
powers, whereas, of course, it is just the oppo
site. Had the youthful Edison possessed the
“faculty” attributed to him, he would almost
surely have noticed that while geese may sit on
eggs, little boys, being somewhat heavier in
weight, do not.
His mother is commonly represented as hav
ing been friendly to her son’s tendency to "ex
periment,” but in sober truth she had little
patience with his "messes” and discouraged
them with some violence. Edison himself al
ways believed that he Inherited his talents in
large part from his father. It Is true, how
ever, that Mrs. Edison did give her boy some
rudimentary instruction at home; she had
been a school teacher, and she had the spirit
to resent the notion that "little Al,” as he was
called in the domestic environment, was in any
way "addled.”
There are several myths about Edison’s read
ing as a boy. For example, it Is soberly claimed
that before he was 12 he had gone through
such solid works as Gibbon's "Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire” and Hume’s "History
of England.” A casual glance at these ponder
ous tomes will prompt the opinion that "gone
through” is merely a polite exaggeration. Lads
of 12 may "go through” volumes of this kind,
but to assert that they properly read or under*
stand them is too romantic. The book which
really did Influence Edison as a child was
Parker’s "School, Philosophy,” with its dis
cussion of elementary physics.
THE legends about Edison’s deafness are
legion in number; The facts were these:
That a trainman none too gently lifted
the boy out of a burning baggage car at Mount
Clemens Station—lifted him out by the ears,
according to one version of the story—cuffed
him soundly about the head, according to an
other. But there are people too imaginative to
credit such a simple explanation. They insist
that Edison’s deafness was cau.esd by a prema
ture explosion of chemicals, by listening over
long to his own phonograph, by listening to the
incessant ticking of a telegraph instrument, by
going without sufficient sleep, by falling down
stain when exhausted from overwork, etc.
And closely related with these notions is the
compankm idea that the inventor found his
stated that 30 per cent of his 1930 business was
derived from products that were ue known 10
years Ego. The manufacture of these new
products—ell of them fruits of scientific re
search—provided employment for thousands of
workmen. Many other establishments can tell
the same story.
"Radio is an example of what research and
invention may do to create jobs. The whole
business of broadcasting dates from 1920, and
it is now a world-wide industry, with some
hundreds of stations in the United States alone,
each employing its corps of electricians and
other skilled and unskilled workers In addi
tion to the thousands indirectly employed—the
makers, installers and servicers of radio sets.
"One needs to go back only 50 years to span
the whole development of the electric light, the
telephone and the automobile. Undoubtedly
the producers and distributors of kerosene, the
postal and other communication services and
the lost some business to the
new contraptions, but the eventual gains In
employment are many, many times the losses.”
However, it does not fill an empty stomach
in 1931 to assure the workman that these lapses
are temporary. He may reflect that life Itself
is temporary and may resent the suggestion
that he be sacrificed on the altar of present
unemployment for the future gain of posterity.
Posterity is no more sacred nor privileged than
its parents.
And yet, isn’t it? Isn’t it almost instinctive
with parenthood to assume for its children a
better chance, more privileges, more opportuni
ties, than the parent enjoyed? It is here, thinks
Dr. Compton, that the machine has functioned
with indubitable beneficence, for he sees the
wider educational opportunities of the present
as a direct result of the mechanization of In
dustry.
"Universal education came with the machine
and is a fruit of the machine,” said Dr. Comp
ton. "Under the old handicraft system children
were early pushed out into common labor or
apprenticed in the skilled trades. Child labor
in the mills and factories had its prototype
for centuries in child labor in the fields, mines,
sculleries, shops. The idea of devoting 4 to 12
years of a child’s life —of every child’s life—to
education did not come until the machine had
economized labor and multiplied production so
that there was a surplus, a margin which has
freed the children.”
But our educational system Itself Is under
fire In some quarters, branded as mechanized,
materialistic, barren. Count Keyserllng dashes
through the'American scene and then, lecturing
In Paris on the dominance of the machine age,
characterizes the civilization of the United
States as the “tragic misconception of the mod
em epoch, traceable to a failure to recognise
that man Is essentially spiritual.”
H||K may be right,” answered Dr. Willis R.
11 Whitney, who Is In charge of research
for the General Blectric Co., “but all former
civilizations were still more tragic misconcep
tions, If knowledge and truth are criteria.
deafness a Messing. This was rankly false.
But It Bad for Its basis the fact that Edison,
always a cheerful soul, did not whine about his
infirmity. When it pleased him so to do he
would Joke about it, and some of his hearers
took him seriously. There is mi anecdote to
the effect that a man came to see him one
day when he was past 60 years of age and
promised to restore his hearing providing only
that Edison would consent to obey orders in
the matter of the technique of the cure. Edi
son had no faith in the idea, but he did not
quarrel with the stranger. He simply said:
“I’m afraid you might succeed, and then think
of all the nonsense I would have to listen to!”
The man went out to tell the world that Edison
did not want to hear, that ha considered his
deafness an advantage. The truth is that Edi
son really could hear very well on occasions
when it would have pleased others for him to
have been actually stone deaf. Like many other
persons similarly afflicted, he had seasons when
his hearing temporarily improved. At such
times he could distinguish words spoken at a
considerable distance. Some of his workmen
once said in his presence, "He could hear all
right if we asked him to have a drink.” Edison
did hear them, and he turned around to say,
“Yes, and I might accept.” Really his deaf
ness bothered him a great deal. Any one who
is deaf will understand this, for deafness does
not mean silence; on the contrary, it all too
often means constant noise. But the legend
has amazing vitality. According to the myth
makers, Edison enjoyed being deaf, and there
is no use in arguing with them.
The legend of Edison’s capacity to forego nat
ural rest is perhaps among the best known of
all the romantic ideas connected with his name.
In respect to sleep he certainly was unorthodox.
He had no patience with the rule that one
should go to bed at some certain hour of the
evening and remain there until some certain
hour in the morning. But he did rest when he
felt like resting, and he probably got as much
real sleep as most other people. Sleeping for
sleeping’s sake did not interest him, but his
« capacity to keep awake for days at a stretch
is an Invention in many ways as remarkable as
any he himself created.
nDISON’S deliberate preoccupation with elec
tricity probably started the phrase, “Wizard
of Menlo Park,” so long and so persistently
used in describing him. Electricity, to use a
commonplace, was three score years ago some
thing so marvelous and so mysterious in Its
“There never was a time when so many people
In one nation, or so many nations in the world,
were trying to advance. There never was ft
time when technical and material progress was
more constructively attempted and critically
examined. There never was a time when any
one’s efforts for good were so quickly and SO
generally broadcast. There never was a time
when youth was more earnest or fearless to
seeking the essentials of truth. The accumu
lated data of all material progress never were
so great and never so uniformly appreciated.
“Man is essentially spiritual,” concludes this
researcher of electricity, “blit his tokens of
value, his media of exchange, call for material—
even mechanical—devices.”
This means that “it is futile to expect ft
world that is already enlightened to the ad
vantages of material knowledge, mechanical
substitutes for physical labor and the promts*
of freedom for better growth in the future, to
reduce its efforts or change its direction.”
It does not mean, however, that we have ar
rived. “Our international technical possibil
ities are like the sinews of the child, not easily
broken, but not yet tested or developed. Wa
use radio for mere amusement and noisy ad
vertising, our wealth for armies and scheme#'
for destroying our neighbors. We cannot
change at once, but we realize that there la ft
gradual tendency to get together and live to
peace.”
The experimenting physicists, chemists and
engineers have dene their part when they sup
ply new or improved means of doing useful work
better than it was even done before. But It
cannot be said that the Industrial executive*
have done their part fully until they have
planned the use of these innovations, having to
mind not only their own pocket books, but also
the general good.
The engineers realise this. A statement Just
issued by a committee of the presidents of the
national engineering societies, and published
by the Engineering Foundation, says:
“The painful present effects of our neglect
of the Immaterial or spiritual consequences of
our progress are demanding a reckoning.”
Obviously, the problem is one for business
and not for science. Undoubtedly hampering
laws and restrictions have had a hand in bring
ing about the present disorder. But the horse
power of industry is not wild—the kilowatt*
have conspired against no one—and the labor
saving machine is not master nor slave, nor 1*
It a weapon. It is a tool—a wealth gaining
tool to be used.
Until we come to some intelligent understand
ing of who is to be included among the benefici
aries of Its use. there will be Inevitable peaks of
over production, slumps of underconsumption,
unemployment, relief committees, bread lines,
cycles of torture for millions. Hence the de
mand, among the thoughtful ones, for a na
tional Industrial program—yes, far even more,
an international economic plan. For to the
future to which the machine is bringing us, N th*
whole earth is the field and must be regarded
as a unit in orderly production and consump
tion.
J
facts as well as In its elemental character that -
naturally enough any one who did interesting
things with it must be a magician. But Bdisoo
himself never for a moment took any such
poetic view of either himself or his enterprises.
A man without pretense, he deplored those con
ceptions of his personality which found expres
sion in the word “genius.” To him, as to Hux
ley, science was simply organised common sense;
and his method was to follow the logic of his
thought. Inspiration had little part in Ids
endeavors. He was intensely realistic. “Geni
uses,” he said, “are of two kinds—freaks and
super-hard workers.” He spoke of himself as
one of the latter class. For years he conscien
ciously denied that he was a genius at all; later
he gave up trying to escape the phrase. Mtoon
the Genius and Alison the Wizard were cre
ations of the popular mind. He waved no
magic wand, he had no Jovian capacities. Ho
was just a man, earnest, sincere, deliberate,
direct and very patient.
One more myth deserves to be mentioned. It
has been estimated that the material value at
his inventions exceeds fifteen billion dollars;
and it has been supposed that Edison, there
fore, must have had a tremendous personal
fortune. For this reason thousands of people
wrote to him for aid. He was a legitimate tar
get for appeals for charity. But though he was
comfortably circumstanced, he was never
wealthy. The value of much of his work lay in
its development or exploitation, not in its
original performance. The carbon transmitter
of the telephone, for instance, Alison is sup
posed to have sold for SIOO,OOO, a relatively
small sum. Those who manufactured and ap
plied the Invention reaped a far larger profit
from it. Edison did not pile up vast personal
wealth, but neither did he suffer poverty. He
probably received a more adequate return from
his labors than any of his historic predecessors
did from theirs. He lived in unpretentous com
fort and was free to spend his time in the oc
cupation he loved. He was a happy man.
The world into which Edison was born was
a world waiting to be filled with new values.
How many of these he contributed is apparent
from the fact that he held literally thousands
of patents. These may be classified under the
following headings: Moving pictures, telephones,
electric railways, electric lighting and power,
electrical supplies, phonographs, elec
tric dynamos and motors, storage batteries,
cement, telegraph and wireless telegraph. Take
out of our modern life the telephone, the elec
tric light, the radio, the phonograph, the mov
ing picture and all their innumerable by
products and we have left the world as Edison
first knew It. To give us these things was hie
business and his pleasure. Edison the man, as
he knew himself and as his friends knew him,
may fade; Edison the legend may replace Edison
the worker. But the monuments he reared for
himself, the prime values he added to life, will
remain, and even If nothing but his name en- ,
dures in relation to them the mei* repetition
of the word win be eternal tribute to his
memory.