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CHAPTER 8Spread-the-Work SchemesIhave referred to various union make-work and featherbed practices.These practices, and the public toleration of them, springfrom the same fundamental fallacy as the fear of machines. This is thebelief that a more efficient way of doing a thing destroys jobs, and itsnecessary corollary that a less efficient way of doing it creates them.Allied to this fallacy is the belief that there is just a fixed amount ofwork to be done in the world, and that, if we cannot add to this work bythinking up more cumbersome ways of doing it, at least we can think ofdevices for spreading it around among as large a number of people aspossible.This error lies behind the minute subdivision of labor upon whichunions insist. In the building trades in large cities the subdivision isnotorious. Bricklayers are not allowed to use stones for a chimney: thatis the special work of stonemasons. An electrician cannot rip out aboard to fix a connection and put it back again: that is the special job,no matter how simple it may be, of the carpenters. A plumber will notremove or put back a tile incident to fixing a leak in the shower: that isthe job of a tilesetter.Furious “jurisdictional” strikes are fought among unions for theexclusive right to do certain types of borderline jobs. In a statementrecently prepared by the American railroads for the Attorney General’s45