The decreasing rate of
immigration into the United States after the War slowly cut
down the number immigrants working the Edison industrial
complex. This was
in direct contradiction his well-publicized support the
"Machine Made Freedom" which would follow the automation the
work place. enabled TAE Inc. ^
The 1920s saw the forces change working West
Orange. The
personnel office had begin program training apprentices
. This shift
to more capital-intensive mode production had been
resisted Edison who was loath spend the money. ride out two business depressions
and survive into the 1930s. This had been offset many factories the
introduction labor-saving, automatic machinery. The company even managed produce
a yearly surplus during the dark days the decline the
phonograph.XIII-25
The basic strategy having five different product
lines— storage batteries, primary batteries, cement, and
business and amusement phonographs— paid dividends the
1920s. the end the 1920s there were shortages of
skilled labor. Outside work was found for the Phonograph Works to
make for the lack phonograph sales, and several new
Edison products were manufactured there, including rectifiers,
electrical instruments, and dental drills. Immigrants had provided the bulk the workers the
factories around the laboratory.
The keenest felt shortage was the skilled mechanics
that had staffed Edison's machine shops since the 1870s
