太子爷小说网 > 英语电子书 > the vested interests and the common man >

第7节

the vested interests and the common man-第7节

小说: the vested interests and the common man 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



before the coming of the machine industry and the material 
sciences。 
    Since the underlying principles of the established order are 
of this make…believe character; that is to say; since they are 
built up out of the range of conceptions that have habitually 
been doing duty as the substance of knowledge and belief in the 
past; it follows in the nature of the case that any 
reconstruction of institutions will be made only tardily; 
reluctantly; and sparingly; inasmuch as settled habits of thought 
are given up tardily; reluctantly and sparingly。 And this will 
particularly be true when the reconstruction of unseasonable 
institutions runs counter to a settled and honorable code of 
ancient principles and a stubborn array of vested interests; as 
in this instance。 Such is the promise of the present situation; 
and such is also the record of the shift that was once before 
made from medieval to modern times。 It should be a case of break 
or bend。 
 
Chapter 3 
 
The State of the Industrial Arts 
 
    The modern point of view; with its constituent principles of 
equal opportunity; self…help; and free bargaining; was given its 
definitive formulation in the eighteenth century; as a balanced 
system of Natural Rights; and it has stood over intact since that 
time; and has served as the unquestioned and immutable ground of 
public morals and expediency; on which the advocates of 
enlightened and liberal policies have always been content to rest 
in their case。 The truths which it holds to be self…evident and 
indefeasible are conceived to be intrinsically bound up in an 
over…ruling Order of Nature; in which thoughtful men habitually 
believed at that time and in which less thoughtful men have 
continued to believe since then。 This eighteenth…century order of 
nature; in the magic name of which Adam Smith was in the habit of 
speaking; was conceived on lines of personal initiative and 
activity。 It is an order of things in which men were conceived to 
be effectually equal in all those respects that are of any 
decided consequence;  in intelligence; working capacity; 
initiative; opportunity; and personal worth; in which the 
creative factor engaged in industry was the workman; with his 
personal skill; dexterity and judgment; in which; it was 
believed; the employer (〃master〃) served his own ends and sought 
his own gain by consistently serving the needs of creative labor; 
and thereby serving the common good; in which the traders 
(〃middle…men〃) made an honest living by supplying goods to 
consumers at a price determined by labor cost; and so serving the 
common good。 
    This characterisation of the 〃obvious and simple system〃 that 
lies at the root of the liberal ideals may seem too much of a 
dream to any person who shuns 〃the scientific use of the 
imagination〃; its imponderables may seem to lack that axiomatic 
self…sufficiency which one would like to find in the spiritual 
foundations of a working system of law and custom。 Indeed; the 
best of its imponderables are in a fair way now to drop back into 
the discard of uncertified make…believe。 But in point of 
historical fact it appears to have stood the test of time and 
use; so far as appears formally on the face of law and custom。 
For a hundred years and more it has continued to stand as a 
familiar article of faith and aspiration among the advocates of a 
Liberal policy in civil and economic affairs; and Adam Smith's 
followers  the economists and publicists of the Liberal 
movement  have spoken for it as being the normal system of 
economic life; the 〃natural state of man;〃 from which the course 
of events has been conceived to depart only under pressure of 
〃disturbing causes;〃 and to which the course of events must be 
pruned back at all hazards in the event of any threatened advance 
or departure beyond the 〃natural〃 bounds set by this working 
ideal。 
    However; the subsequent course of events has shown no 
indisposition to depart from this normal system of economic life; 
this 〃natural state of man;〃 on the effectual reality of which 
the modern point of view rests its inviolate principles of law 
and morals and economic expediency。 A new order of things has 
been taking effect in the state of the industrial arts and in the 
material sciences that lie nearest to that tangible body of 
experience out of which the state of the industrial arts is 
framed。 And the new order of industrial ways and means has been 
progressively going out of touch with the essential requirements 
of this established scheme of individual self…help and personal 
initiative; on the realisation and maintenance of which the best 
endeavors of the Liberals have habitually been spent。 
    Under the new order the first requisite of ordinary 
productive industry is no longer the workman and his manual 
skill; but rather the mechanical equipment and the standardised 
processes in which the mechanical equipment is engaged。 And this 
latter…day industrial equipment and process embodies not the 
manual skill; dexterity and judgment of an individual workman; 
but rather the accumulated technological wisdom of the community。 
Under the new order of things the mechanical equipment  the 
〃industrial plant〃  takes the initiative; sets the pace; and 
turns the workman to account in the carrying…on of those 
standardised processes of production that embody this mechanistic 
state of the industrial arts; very much as the individual 
craftsman in his time held the initiative in industry; set the 
pace; and made use of his tools according to his own discretion 
in the exercise of his personal skill; dexterity and judgment; 
under that now obsolescent industrial order which underlies the 
eighteenth…century modern point of view; and which still colors 
the aspirations of Liberal statesmen and economists; as well as 
the standard economic theories。 
    The workman  and indeed it is still the skilled workman  
is always indispensable to the due working of this mechanistic 
industrial process; of course; very much as the craftsman's 
tools; in his time; were indispensable to the work which he had 
in hand。 But the unit of industrial organization and procedure; 
what may be called the 〃going concern〃 in production; is now the 
outfit of industrial equipment; a works; engaged in a given 
standardised mechanical process designed to turn out a given 
output of standardised product; it is the plant; or the shop。 And 
under this new order of industrial methods and values it has 
already come to be a commonplace of popular 〃knowledge and 
belief〃 that the mechanical equipment is the creative factor in 
industry; and the 〃production〃 of the output is credited to the 
plant's working capacity and set down to its account as a going 
concern; whereas the other factors engaged; as e。g。; workmen and 
materials; are counted in as auxiliary factors which are 
indispensable but subsidiary  items of production…cost which 
are incorporated in the running expenses of the plant and its 
productive process。 
    Under the new order the going concern in production is the 
plant or shop; the works; not the individual workman。 The plant 
embodies a standardised industrial process。 The workman is made 
use of according as the needs of the given mechanical process may 
require。 The time; place; rate; and material conditions of the 
work in hand are determined immediately by the mechanically 
standardised process in which the given plant is engaged; and 
beyond that all these matters are dependent on the exigencies and 
manoeuvres of business; largely by way of moderating the rate of 
production and keeping the output reasonably short of maximum 
capacity。 The workman has become subsidiary to the mechanical 
equipment; and productive industry has become subservient to 
business; in all those countries which have come in for the 
latter…day state of the industrial arts; and which so have fallen 
under the domination of the price system。 
    Such is the state of things throughout in those greater 
industries that are characteristic of the New Order; and these 
greater industries now set the pace and make the standards of 
management and valuation for the rest。 At the same time these 
greater industries of the machine era extend their domination 
beyond their own immediate work; and enforce a standardisation of 
much the same mechanical character in the community at large; in 
the ways and means of living as well as in the ways and means of 
work。 The effects of their mechanically standardised production; 
in the way of goods and services as well as in the similarly 
standardised traffic through which these goods and services are 
distributed to the consumers; reach out into the everyday life of 
all classes; but most immediately and imperatively they reach the 
working class of the industrial centers。 So they largely set the 
pace for the ordinary occupations of the common man even apart 
from any employment in the greater mechanical industries。 It is 
especially the latter…day system of transport and communication 
as it works out under the new order highly mechanical and 
exactingly scheduled 

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的