Machines Replaced Horses, Then People...

(Page 2 of 2)

April/May 1994
Philip Pressgrove 
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Next came the purchase of a Model T truck for hauling produce to the market. My father wept when the horse buyer drove his team of matched Percherons out the gate and down the road. I'm sure he realized that day marked the end of the horse era.

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Laboring men are becoming obsolete, too. Science and technology have literally caused the need for much manual labor to no longer exist. Take a look at our farms. My father had from three to five men at all times to assist in the farm operation. Today, my nephew farms nearly 2,000 acres using the latest machinery and equipment, and he hires one man only occasionally to assist him. In our modern dairies we now have milking machines, automatic feeders, and automatic barn cleaners. Our hay fields are harvested with automatic mower-swatters and automatic balers, even automatic stackers and loaders.

Look at our factories. Robots are doing the work that people used to do. Now they are even talking about operating trains without engineers.

What are we going to do with the excess labor? We cannot send the farm hands and factory laborers to the packing house like we did our horses and mules. However, we simply have more 'hands' than we have work to do.

It has been stated that 'idle hands are the devil's workshop.' This has certainly manifested itself in the appalling rise in the crime rate throughout the world. There certainly are myriad things that need to be done in the world. Roads, bridges, streets, homes, hospitals and airports, all need to be built. Can we not channel this effort to man's benefit and away from destructive acts?

Tragically, it as simple as this. We can't make dog food out of our surplus labor.

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