inate place among the mill or factory hands until he gains
enough skill to handle a machine. From that time until age compels him
to join the ranks of the unemployed he is bound to his machine, as
firmly as the mediaeval serf was bound to the soil. Theoretically he is
free to sell his labor in the highest market and to cross the
continent if he will, but actually he is the slave of his employer,
for he and his family are dependent upon his daily wage, and he cannot
afford to lose that wage in order to make inquiries about the labor
market elsewhere. Theoretically he is a citizen possessed of the
franchise and equal in privilege and importance to his employer as a
member of society, but actually he must vote for the party or the man
who is most likely to benefit him economically, and he knows that he
occupies a position of far less importance politically and socially
than his employer. Employment is an essential in making a living, but
it is an instrument that cuts two ways--it establishes an aristocracy
of wealth and privilege for the employer and a servile class of
employees who often are little better than peasants of the belt and
wheel.

188. =History of Manufacturing.=--The history of the manufacturing
industry is a curious succession of enslavement and emancipation.
Until within a century and a half it was closely connected with the
home. Primitive women fashioned the utensils and clothing of the
primitive family, and when slaves were introduced into the household
it became their task to perform those functions. The slave was a
bondman. Neither his person nor his time was his own, and he could not
hold property; but he was taken care of, fed and clothed and housed,
and by a humane master was kindly treated and even made a friend. When
the slave became a serf on the manorial estate of mediaeval Europe,
manufacturing was still a household employment and old methods were
still in use. These sufficed, as there was little outside demand from
potential buyers, due to general poverty and lack of the means of
exchange and transportation. Certain industries became localized, like
the forging of iron instruments at the smithy and the grinding of
grain at the mill, and the monastery buildings included apartments for
various kinds of handicraft, but the factory was not yet. Then
artisans found their way to the town, associated themselves with
others of their craft, and accepted the relation of journeyman in the
employ of a ma