In a previous chapter I have set out how experiments in our
shops have demonstrated that in sufficiently subdivided industry there
are places which can be filled by the maimed, the halt, and the blind.
Scientific industry need not be a monster devouring all who come near
it. When it is, then it is not fulfilling its place in life. In and out
of industry there must be jobs that take the full strength of a powerful
man; there are other jobs, and plenty of them, that require more skill
than the artisans of the Middle Ages ever had. The minute subdivision of
industry permits a strong man or a skilled man always to use his
strength or skill. In the old hand industry, a skilled man spent a good
part of his time at unskilled work. That was a waste. But since in those
days every task required both skilled and unskilled labour to be
performed by the one man, there was little room for either the man who
was too stupid ever to be skilled or the man who did not have the
opportunity to learn a trade.
No mechanic working with only his hands can earn more than a bare
sustenance.
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