790 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
present rates. But there are now only a few plumbers of the old school who can make lead traps, and their services are never required for that work. When the old methods were in vogue the making of three four-inch traps was regarded as a fair day's work. A man sitting beside a modern machine can turn out many score in the time formerly allotted to three. Contrary to the general rule the product of the machine is supe- rior in many ways to the handmade article. The work of con- necting fixtures in buildings has also been materially lessened by more recent inventions. The slow, skillful handling of lead has been superseded to a great extent by new methods, but is still an essential part of the work. The lead trap machines and other innovations made a marked reduction in the cost of work. But a few years of partial idleness brought about conditions which enabled mechanics to secure proportionately higher time wages, thus neutralizing the economic gain temporarily secured by the labor-saving inventions.
In bricklaying and masonry the contrast between British and American conditions illustrates the change from old to new con- ditions in other building trades. In Great Britain employment is far more steady on account of the general use of fireplaces, grates, and other adjuncts requiring the work of the bricklayer and mason. In the United States and Canada the bricklayer leaves the ordinary building after finishing the walls and chim- neys, his work being, in consequence, less steady than in Great Britain. The natural force of competition enables him to obtain proportionately higher rates for the time of actual employment, the consumers being forced virtually to remuner- ate him for lost time. Stoves, furnaces, and various systems of artificial heating are adopted on account of climatic conditions, and the nature of the western fuel supply, rather than through a desire for cheapness. But the effect has been similar to that of the cheapening inventions alluded to above. Employment has been rendered less continuous in certain necessary branches of the building trades, with a consequent increase in the cost of their products.
