one sixty-fourth part of a shoe not only offers no
encouragement to mental activity, but dulls by its monotony the brains
of the employee to such an extent that the power to think and reason
is almost lost."[216]

The work of a machine-tender, it is urged, calls for "judgment and
carefulness." So did his manual labour before the machine took it
over. His "judgment and carefulness" are now confined within narrower
limits than before. The responsibility of the worker is greater,
precisely because his work is narrowed down so as to be related to and
dependent on a number of other operatives in other parts of the same
machine with whom he has no direct personal concern. Such realised
responsibility is an element in education, moral and intellectual. But
this gain is the direct result of the minute subdivision, and must
therefore be regarded as purchased by a narrowing of interest and a
growing monotony of work. It is questionable whether the vast majority
of machine workers get any considerable education, from the fact that
the machine in conjunction with which they work represents a huge
embodiment of the delicate skill and invention of many thousands of
active minds, though some value may be attached to the contention that
"the mere exhibition of the skill displayed and the magnitude of the
operations performed in factories can scarcely fail of some
educational effect."[217] The absence of any true apprenticeship in
modern factories prevents the detailed worker from understanding the
method and true bearing even of those processes which are closely
linked to that in which he is engaged. The ordinary machine-tender,
save in a very few instances, _e.g._, watchmaking, has no general
understanding of the work of a whole department. Present conditions do
not enable the "tender" to get out of machinery the educational
influence he might get. Professor Nicholson expresses himself
dubiously upon the educational value of the machine. "Machinery of
itself does not tend to develop the mind as the sea and mountains do,
but still it does not necessarily involve deterioration of general
mental ability."[218] Dr. Arlidge expresses a more decided opinion.
"Generally speaking, it may be asserted of machinery that it calls for
little or no brain exertion on the part of those connected with its
operations; it arouses no interest, and has nothing in it to quicken
or brighten the intelligence, though it may sharpen the sight and
stimulate m