Year after
year defects have been eliminated, and improvements introduced.
Machines every part of which represent the thought of a single
individual are rare. Most machines are composite photographs of the
ingenuity and thought of many inventors."
The elder man paused, then added whimsically:
"Sometimes I feel like taking off my hat to a delicately adjusted and
intricate piece of machinery; it is so human and such a monument
to the men who conceived it."
The boy looked grave.
"If more people felt about machinery and about work as you do,
Mr. Croyden, they would have more respect for our industries as well
as for the men who run the machines."
"It should be so," was Mr. Croyden's instant reply. "A factory that
turns out a completed product is like a watch. You know that unless
every wheel of the watch turns; unless every minute rivet and screw is
in its place and doing its part we get no perfect result. It is just
as important a service to be a wee screw in that organism as to be
something larger and more conspicuous. So it is with each workman in
a factory. He performs his part--often, alas, a small and dull one
too, I am afraid; but viewed from the standpoint of the completed
product that man with his humdrum task is as worthy our respect as is
any other member of the working staff.
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