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Bentham Panopticon

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Page 1: Bentham Panopticon

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from Karl Marx, Capital Volume I 1867

502 The Production of Relative Surplus-Value

In manufacture, the isolation of each special process is a condition imposed by the division of labour itself, whereas in the fully developed factory the continuity of the special processes is the regulating principle.

A system of machinery, whether it is based simply on the co-operation of similar machines, as in weaving, or on a combination of different machines, as in spinning, constitutes in itself a vast automaton* as soon as it is driven by a self-acting prime mover. But although the whole system may for example be driven by a steam-engine, some of the individual machines may require the aid of the worker for some of their movements (such aid was necessary for the insertion of the mule carriage before the in-vention of the self-acting mule, and is still necessary in the fine-spinning mills). Equally, certain parts of the machine may have to be handled by the worker like a manual tool, if the machine is

17.'The principle of. the factory system, then, is to substitute . . . the partition of a process into its essential constituents, for the division or gradu-ation of labour among artisans' (Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manu-factures, London, 1835, p. 20).

*The expression 'vast automaton ' is taken from Ure. See below, p. 544.

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Machinery and Large-Scale Industry 503

to do its work. This was the case in machine-makers' workshops, before the conversion of the slide rest into a self-actor. As soon as a machine executes, without man's help, all the movements required to elaborate the raw material, and needs only supple-mentary assistance from the worker, we have an automatic system of machinery, capable of constant improvement in its details. Such improvements as the apparatus that stops a drawing frame whenever a sliver breaks, and the self-acting stop which stops the power-loom as soon as the shuttle bobbin is empty of weft, are quite modern inventions. As an example both of continuity of production and of the implementation of the automatic principle, we may take a modern paper-mill. In the paper industry generally, we may advantageously study in detail not only the distinctions between modes of production based on different means of pro-duction, but also the connection between the social relations of production and those modes of production. The old German paper-making trade provides an example of handicraft production; Holland in the seventeenth century and France in the eighteenth century provide examples of manufacture proper; and modern England provides the example of automatic fabrication. Besides these, there still exist, in India and China, two distinct ancient Asiatic forms of the same industry.

An organized system of machines to which motion is com-municated by the transmitting mechanism from an automatic centre is the most developed form of production by machinery. Here we have, in place of the isolated machine, a mechanical monster whose body fills whole factories, and whose demonic power, at first hidden by the slow and measured motions of its gigantic members, finally bursts forth in the fast and feverish whirl of its countless working organs.

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Machinery and Large-Scale Industry 505

The transformation of the mode of production in one sphere of industry necessitates a similar transformation in other spheres. This happens at first in branches of industry which are connected together by being separate phases of a process, and yet isolated by the social division of labour, in such a way that each of them produces an independent commodity. Thus machine spinning made machine weaving necessary, and both together made a mechanical and chemical revolution compulsory in bleaching, printing and dyeing. So too, on the other hand, the revolution in cotton-spinning called forth the invention of the gin, for separating the seeds from the cotton fibre; it was only by means of this inven-tion that the production of cotton became possible on the enormous scale at present required.19 But as well as this, the revolution in the modes of production of industry and agriculture made neces-

18. The power-loom was at first made chiefly of wood; in its improved modern form it is made of iron. To what an extent the old forms of the instru-ments of production influence their new forms at the beginning is shown, among other things, by the most superficial comparison of the present power-loom with the old one, of the modern blowing apparatus of a blast-furnace with the first inefficient mechanical reproduction of the ordinary bellows, and perhaps more strikingly than in any other way by the fact that, before the invention of the present locomotive, an attempt was made to construct a locomotive with two feet, which it raised from the ground alternately, like a horse. It is only after a considerable development of the science of mechanics, and an accumulation of practical experience, that the form of a machine becomes settled entirely in accordance with mechanical principles^ land. emancipated from the traditional form of the tool from which it has emerged.

19. The cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney had until very recent times undergone less essential changes than any other machine of the eighteenth century. It is only during the last decade (i.e. since 1856) that another American, Mr Emery of Albany, New York, has made Whitney's gin out of date by an improvement as simple as it is effective.

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506 The Production of Relative Surplus-Value

sary a revolution in the general conditions of the social process of production, i.e. in the means of communication and transport. In a society whose pivot, to use Fourier's expression,* was small-scale agriculture, with its subsidiary domestic industries and urban handicrafts, the means of communication and transport were so utterly inadequate to the needs of production in the period of manufacture, with its extended division of social labour, its concentration of instruments of labour and workers and its colonial markets, that they in fact became revolutionized. In the same way the means of communication and transport handed down from the period of manufacture soon became unbearable fetters on large-scale industry, given the feverish velocity with which it produces, its enormous extent, its constant flinging of capital and labour from one sphere of production into another and its newly created connections with the world market. Hence, quite apart from the immense transformation which took place in shipbuilding, the means of communication and transport gradu-ally adapted themselves to the mode of production of large-scale industry by means of a system of river steamers, railways, ocean steamers and telegraphs. But the huge masses of iron that had now to be forged, welded, cut, bored and shaped required for their part machines of Cyclopean dimensions, which the machine-building trades of the period of manufacture were incapable of constructing.

Large-scale industry therefore had to take over the machine itself, its own characteristic instrument of production, and to produce machines by means of machines. It was not till it did this that it could create for itself an adequate technical foundation, and stand on its own feet. At the same time as machine production was becoming more general, in the first decades of the nineteenth century, it gradually took over the construction of the machines themselves. But it is only during the last few decades that the construction of railways and ocean steamers on a vast scale has called into existence the Cyclopean machines now employed in the construction of prime movers.

The most essential condition for the production of machines by machines was a prime mover capable of exerting any amount of force, while retaining perfect control. The steam-engine already

*In Fourier's table of 'successive characteristics of civilization' (op. cit., pp. 386-7), he describes four 'phases', each of which turns around a 'pivot', such as 'maritime monopoly ' or 'industrial feudalism'.

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Machinery and Large-Scale Industry 507

fulfilled this condition. But at the same time it was necessary to produce the geometrically accurate straight lines, planes, circles, cylinders, cones and spheres for the individual parts of the machines. Henry Maudslay solved this problem in the first decade of the nineteenth century by the invention of the slide-rest, a tool that was soon made automatic, and was applied in a modified form to other machines for constructing machinery besides the lathe, for which it was originally intended. This mechanical appliance replaces not some particular tool but the hand itself, which produces a given form by holding and guiding the cutting tool along the iron or other material of labour. Thus it became possible to produce the geometrical shapes of the individual parts of machinery ' with a degree of ease, accuracy, and speed, that no accumulated experience of the hand of the most skilled workman could give'.20

If we now look at the part of the machinery which is employed in the construction of machines, and forms the actual operating tool, we find that the manual implements re-appear, but on a Cyclopean scale. The operating part of the boring machine is an immense drill driven by a steam-engine; without this machine, on the other hand, the cylinders of large steam-engines and of hydraulic presses could not be made. The mechanical lathe is only a Cyclopean reproduction of the ordinary foot-lathe; the planing machine is an iron carpenter that works on iron with the same tools as the human carpenter employs on wood ; the instru-ment that cuts the veneers on the London wharves is a gigantic razor; the tool of the shearing machine, which shears iron as easily as a tailor's scissors cut cloth, is a monster pair of scissors; and the steam-hammer works with an ordinary hammer head, but of such a weight that even Thor himself could not wield it.21

These steam-hammers are an invention of Nasmyth, and there is one that weighs over 6 tons and strikes with a vertical fall of 7

20. The Industry of Nations, London, 1855, Part II, p. 239. It is also re-marked, on the same page: 'Simple and outwardly unimportant as this appendage to lathes may appear, it is not, we believe, averring too much to state that its influence in improving and extending the use of machinery" Has been as great as that produced by Watt's improvements of the steam-engine

' itself. Its introduction went at once to perfect all machinery, to cheapen it, and to stimulate invention and improvement.'

21. One of these machines, used for forging paddle-wheel shafts in London, is in fact called 'Thor'. It forges a shaft of 16i tons with as much ease as a blacksmith forges a horse-shoe.

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508 The Production of Relative Surplus-Value

feet, on an anvil weighing 36 tons. It is mere child's play for it to crush a block of granite into powder, yet it is no less capable of driving a nail into a piece of soft wood with a succession of light taps.22

As machinery, thç instrument of labour assumes a material mode of existence wnich necessitates the replacement of human force by natural forces, and the replacement of the rule of thumb by the conscious application of natural science. In manufacture the organization of the social labour process is purely subjective: it is a combination of specialized workers. Large-scale industry, on the other hand, possesses in the machine system an entirely objective organization of production, which confronts the worker as a pre-existing material condition of production. In simple co-operation, and even in the more specialized form based on the division of labour, the extrusion of the isolated worker by the associated worker still appears to be more or less accidental. Machinery, with a few exceptions to be mentioned later, operates only by means of associated labour, or labour in common. Hence the co-operative character of the labour process is in this case a technical necessity dictated by the very nature of the instrument of labour.

22. Wood-working machines that are also capable of being employed on ' a small scale are mostly American inventions.

23. Science, generally speaking, costs the capitalist nothing, a fact that by no means prevents him from exploiting it. 'Alien ' science is incorporated by capital just as 'alien' labour is. But 'capitalist' appropriation and 'personal'

Page 8: Bentham Panopticon

j SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT-Editor of Industrial Engineering Says

It !s "App l ied Common Sense." To the Editor of The A'etc York Times:

Tho railroad freight rate hearing before the Inter-State Commerce Commission at "Wash-ington last week brought the subject of scien-tific management into great prominence. I t Is probable that being a new science, the public has only a faint Idea of what scientific man-agement really Is. Having had considerable to do with n In the last five years, may I trespass somewhat on your space to explain this science whlQfa is to save money for tho railroads?

In e*~ery operation of doing work there are two functions—planning and performance. The planning consists In, say, machine shop work, of selecting the machine In which the work Is to be done, choosing the tool to use in the ma-chine, determining the sequence of operations, the speed of the machine, the depth and thick-ness of cut, and a number of other consider-ations. Under the usual form of management, planning as well as performing is usually left to the workman or to a badly overworked fore-man. The work Is laid out and done largely according to precedent or tradition—In the way the work or some Job nearly like It was done by some one else.

Scientific management separates sharply the planning and performance. Few workmen know the full capability of their machine, and are therefore unable to plan their work to the best advantage. Under scientific management men specially trained for the purpose plan all work and issue definite written Instructions to the men for its performance. These Instruc-tions are not based on guess work, on tradi-tion, or on precedent. They are the results of careful studies made on the fundamental oper-ations necessary to the performance of a given pleco of work, which determined the most eco-nomical way to do It, the best tools to use, the speed at which the best results could be ob-tained, the proper sequence of operations, and tho minimum time required for each funda-mental operation, including that necessary to place the work In tho machine, to remove It, and adjust It. All these things are made mat-ters of record, and from these records the man who does the planning draws up his Instruc-tions to the workman, giving him at the same time a statement of the time required.

The skilled workman thus haa but to follow the instructions In order to duplicate the re-sults required by the planning department. In its highest form, scientific management pro-vides the stimulus for the workman to dupli-cate these results by.giving him*a rate of pay greater than the usual rate of his class when he does the work in accordance with tho time allowed, and giving him a much lower rate when he does not accomplish the task as laid down. It is noteworthy that few men fall to obtain tho higher pay when they have been properly instructed. ' I t should be noted that although the workman

receives more money in a given period of time the employer benefits to a much greater de-gree. The cost per unit of product is less, and the work being done quicker the capacity of his factory is Increased without the expenditure of a dollar for new machinery. These are not Idle dreams. They are hard facts» based on experi-ence. Witness the testimony of Henry M. Towne, of H. V. Scheel, of Frank B. Gllnreth and other men before the Inter-State Commerce Commission, and tho articles and editorials In Industrial Engineering this past Summer. Scien-tific management involves more than planning of the work, however, In Its last analysis. It involves a study of men, of materials, and of tools; a standardizing of tools and equipment, and an Investigation of their qualities and ca-pacity. It involves motion study, to discover what motions made by the men or© unneces-sary and therefore wasteful, and a rectification of tho conditions which make for useless mo-tions. I refer you to the work of Gllbrath, who reduced the motions of a bricklayer In laying one brick from eighteen to six, as one of the great examples of what motion study will do; and bricklaying Is an ar t oo old that the brick-layers of 4,000 years ago worked almost the same as the men of to-day. I personally know ! of a case where the output of a man In a ', machine shop was quadrupled by motion study, and the man was considered a good machinist i who used the best methods of his trade.

Summed up in a few lines, scientific man-agement might be termed " applied common sense." It requires a man to do only that work for which he is best fitted, but requires him to do that work at his greatest efficiency. It requires that he shall not do that work for which by training or environment he 1B un-fitted and which some one else can do better than he. It requires that the conditions be made right for the greatest efficiency of tho worker, this Including not only the tools hos works with, but his surroundings, his pay, and everything else which affects his work.

Tho world owes a debt of gratitude to Fred W. Taylor, the man who reduced tho prin-ciples of management to a science, and who almost single handed for a quarter of a cen-tury worked on in the face of opposition and discouragements that would have appalled i n ordinary man. I*" Is a cause for gratification that Mr, Taylor's reward has come while be is yet among us.

ROBERT THURSTON KENT» Editor Industrial Engineering.

New York, Dec. 2, 1010.

Ehe jKtar JJork Simes Published: December 3, 1910

Copyright © The New York Times

Page 9: Bentham Panopticon

I M P HOMES i " BÄMED BY FORD

« i «

To Keep Profit-Sharing Jobs JEinpIoyes Must Raise the

Standard of Living. -•s

MUST KEEP NO BOARDERS

W o r k m e n E n c o u r a g e d t o S a v e a n d . . - -j- - • « ' < " ' . - • '

. B u y H o m e s of T h e i r O w n — { S c h o o l t o T e a c h E n g l i s h .

Special to The 2*cic York Times.

pEXROCT; April is:—Squalid tene-m e n t s arid crowded rooming: houses a r e no t £o be t he habi ta t ions of t he $5-a-3 a y employes of" t h e Fo rd Motor Com-pany. H e n r y ' F o r d , weal thy head of t he organization, whose philanthropic and

sr*-söciological experiment produced the a -day men, in an interview makes i t c lear t h a t the employes of his company m u s í live in decent homes and in desir-¿ï>îé~ surroundings. Otherwise they will no longer continue Ford ?5-a-day men. Women employes a r e subject to t he same rule .

ü W é will give every one t ime to cor-rec t h is living conditions/* said Mr. Ford/* ' bu t the tenement and the crowd-ed rooming house mus t be eliminated. 2Üen who e a r n from S5 to SO a day do n o t ' need to have their wives t a k e in boarders . They should save their share of t h e profits and invest i t in homes or rea l es ta te . They sell their labor to us anjj we give them a bonus. "^ 'Our lawyers will give each m a n help t ha^"he can be cer ta in is sincere and honest . W e will invest igate the land He" wishes to buy, to see if t he price is r fg t í t r and will supervise the contract . Protec t ion is afforded aga ins t f raudu-îèhaf ' s c h e m e r s / "^TtEgese men of m a n y nat ions m u s t pe t a u g h t American ways , the Engl ish lahguage , t h e r ight way to live. í í a r -rièia men should keep the i r households t o themselves and the i r immedia te famules . They should not sacrifice family r igh ts , p leasure and comfort by filling their homes wi th roomers and boarders .

" S i n g l e men a r e a l so expec ted t o l ive comfo r t ab l y a n d u n d e r cond i t ions t h a t m a k e for good m a n h o o d a n d g%od c i t izenship . I t w o u l d ' n o t do for then i to w a s t e t h e : r s h a r e of t he p romts . Once t h e y l ive cor rec t ly , b r e a t h e t h e r e a l f resh a i r of f ree -dom, a n d see t h a t h e a l t h a n d s t r e n g t h a r e " fully conserved , w e can m a k e Them good c i t izens .

**We now have forty-five invest igat -ors, who a re interviewing all of the em-ployes. Eve ry detail of their living"*îs inquired into. Our invest igators do miich more than t a k e names a n d ad-âresses. We inquire and learn t he n a -t ionali ty, the religion, the bank savings, whe the r the man owns or is buying §roper ty. how he amuses himself, t h e

is t r ic t he selects to live in—this and much else a re tabulated. . Next Summer we should be able to give- you tables showing how our employes s tack up *With one another .

" F r o m t h e figures so fa r presented, a n d ' n o n e of them a re complete, it a p -pea r s t h a t the re a re more men *2?> yea r s old" in our employ t h a n of any other

.age. ' Our i nves t iga tdrs have fou ad m a n y of the men in deplorable*-sur-roundings. The notice sen t to em-ployes will warn those who t ransgress .

~** Tiie inves t iga tors Have wide latî-

t h e F o r d wrhen a n w i l l ' ' bfe

been ob-f i r s t c lass of "eleven"

tude. No red tape behind them. W e found one. man, his wife and three children giving in four rooms, and there wore 'five ducks in the ba th tub—live ducks, too. H e couldn't ' unders tand why he was not considered clean. The investigator rented another f lat in a 1 bet ter neighborhood." e Ano the r . innova t ion a t p l an t wil l a p p e a r Monday, E n g l i s h t each ing school opened, a t e a c h e r h a v i n g t a ined in N e w York . T h e will comprise 200 ' students na t iona l i t i e s .

IViYSTERY-GLQAKS PRISONER. S u p p o s e d C l e r g y m a n A r r a i g n e d for

i n t o x i c a t i o n in N i g h t C o u r t . A prosperous looking, middle-aged

man, who gave the name of John Den-ver, was arraigned before Magis t ra te Krotel in the Night Court l a s t evening en a charge of intoxication. Pa t ro lman Jacob Greenberg of the E a s t ' ^ f ty- f i f s t Street Station said he had found tlie man a t Fifth Avenue and For ty-four th Street, in court the prisoner pul led ' the collar of his overcoaj: up' around lus neck to hide his clothing. I t was a s -serted he wore the clothes of a clergy-man. A fine of ;?5 w a s imposed.

A few minutes later Pa t ro lman Ed-ward Galwav of the Eas t Fifty-first Street- s tat ion entered the court room and began to ta lk with ' the clerk about paving the fine. He interrupted the Court, and, after an exchange of r e -marks , Magistrate Krote l ordered Gal-way 's a r res t on a charge of disorderly cöncluct in disturbing the court. "'¿

Galwav said tha t he did not know the prisoner. Asked why he was interested in the case, Gal way said t ha t he had seen Denver a t the station house and had been sorry for him " because of his profession/* I t developed also t h a t the prisoner had checks for a consider-able amount in his pocket and t h a t he intended to-sa i l for Europe hext AVeek. Magis t ra te Krotel finally released Gal-way and remitted the fine he had im-posed in Denver 's case.

Sbe ¡Stiv ijork Etmesi Published: April 19, 1914

Copyright © The New York Times

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Editorial Observer - A Casualty of the Technology Revolution - 'Locational Privacy' - NYTimes.com 09-12-31 11:14 PM

Sbc ¿XcUr york (Tunc* PRINT ER-FRIENDLY FORMAT

SPONSORED BY

September 1, 2 0 0 9

EDITORIAL OBSERVER

A Casualty of the Technology Revolution: 'Locational Privacy' By ADAM COHEN

When I woke up the other day, I went straight to my computer to catch up on the news and read e-mail. About 20 minutes later, I walked half a block to the gym, where I exercised for 45 minutes. I took the C train to The New York Times building, and then at the end of the day, I was back on the C train. I had dinner on my friends Elisabeth and Dan's rooftop, then walked home seven blocks.

I'm not giving away any secrets here — nothing I did was secret to begin with. Verizon online knows when I logged on, and New York Sports Club knows when I swiped my membership card. The M.T.A. could trace (through the MetroCard I bought with a credit card) when and where I took the subway, and The Times knows when I used my ID to enter the building. AT&T could follow me along the way through my iPhone.

There may also be videotape of my travels, given the ubiquity of surveillance cameras in New York City. There are thousands of cameras on buildings and lampposts around Manhattan, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, many near my home and office. Several may have been in a position to film dinner on Elisabeth and Dan's roof.

A little-appreciated downside of the technology revolution is that, mainly without thinking about it, we have given up "locational privacy." Even in low-tech days, our movements were not entirely private. The desk attendant at my gym might have recalled seeing me, or my colleagues might have remembered when I arrived. Now the information is collected automatically and often stored indefinitely.

Privacy advocates are rightly concerned. Corporations and the government can keep track of what political meetings people attend, what bars and clubs they go to, whose homes they visit. It is the fact that people's locations are being recorded "pervasively, silently, and cheaply that we're worried about," the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a recent report.

People's cellphones and E-ZPasses are increasingly being used against them in court. If your phone is on, even if you are not on a call, you may be able to be found (and perhaps picked up) at

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CRAZY HEART NOW PLAYING

IN Si IS CI THEMERS WATCH T R A U E R

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Editorial Observer - A Casualty of the Technology Revolution - 'Locational Privacy' - NYTimes.com 09-12-31 11:14 PM

any hour of the day or night. As disturbing as it is to have your private data breached, it is worse to think that your physical location might fall into the hands of people who mean you harm.

This decline in locational privacy, from near-absolute to very little in just a few years, has not generated much outrage, or even discussion.

That is partly because so much of it is a side-effect of technology that people like. Drivers love E-ZPasses. G.P.S. enables all sorts of cool smart phone applications, from driving directions and find-a-nearby-restaurant features to the ever-popular "Take Me to My Car."

And people usually do not know that they are being monitored. The transit authority does not warn buyers that their MetroCards track their subway use (or that the police have used the cards in criminal investigations). Cameras that follow people on the street are placed in locations that are hard to spot.

It is difficult for cellphone users to know precisely what information their devices are sending about their current location, when they are doing it, and where that information is going. Some privacy advocates were upset by recent reports that the Palm Pre, which has built-in G.P.S., has a feature that regularly sends its users' location back to Palm without notifying them at the time.

What can be done? As much as possible, location-specific information should not be collected in the first place, or not in personally identifiable form. There are many ways, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes, to use cryptography and anonymization to protect locational privacy. To tell you about nearby coffee shops, a cellphone application needs to know where you are. It does not need to know who you are.

When locational information is collected, people should be given advance notice and a chance to opt out. Data should be erased as soon as its main purpose is met. After you pay your E-ZPass bill, there is no reason for the government to keep records of your travel.

The idea of constantly monitoring the citizenry's movements used to conjure up images of totalitarian states. Now, technology does the surveillance — generally in the name of being helpful. It's time for a serious conversation about how much of our privacy of movement we want to give up.

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

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