uiver of adventurous expectancy relaxes
its tension, and the workman moodily or indifferently lets his machine do
its perfect work, while his undisciplined, unchallenged thoughts wander
freely over external, social, or domestic concerns. It may give an
indolent, unambitious, selfish type of employee a certain amount of
satisfaction to know that the machine frees his mind of initiative, but to
the considerate workman it is a day of tragedy when his brain power
receives no challenge from his work, and that day has dawned in the minds
of millions of men who throng our industries.

"So, then, when this machine-robber, without heart or conscience, makes of
little repute the workman's most shining glory--skill; steals rudely from
him the esthetic pleasure in his product, and leaves him mentally crippled
before his work, how little force has that honored appeal, 'The dignity of
labor'! Talk as we will, in this machine-ridden time, the 'dignity of
labor' is but a skeleton of its former robust self. Take away the king's
throne, the courtier's carpet, the royal prerogative, and then speak about
'The Divine Right'! All that 'dignity of labor' can mean in these days is
simply that it is more dignified for a man to earn a wage than it is to be
a doorway loafer. The workingman's throne--skill--has gone. His
prerogative--skill--has been taken away. The items that have formerly
given dignity to labor have been largely displaced, so far as we have
adventured, by the machine, and the future holds out no other hope than
this, that machines shall more and more increase. There is little
'dignity' in a task that a man does which may be equally well done by his
fourteen-year-old boy or girl. There is little 'dignity' in a task which
less and less depends upon independent knowledge."

But must these workers remain always slaves of machine? Is there no escape
for them? Is there no "underground railroad" by which they may win their
way to freedom?

Here is what Al Priddy has to say about it:

"The most convincing way in which man may master the machine is when he
invents a new and better one, or improves an old one. This is the real
triumph of mind over matter, of skill over machinery.

"With all its arrogance among us, machinery is always final in itself;
incapable of change; incapable of progression or retrogression. Till the
clouds fade from the sky, or the earth cracks, a machine will remain the
same from the day of its creation until th