Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-10-28


duer;a enternrise of the age is in the struggle man
is now engaged in with the obstacles presented by
nature-in opening channels OF sconmunicaton-ln
laying down the pathways OF trade ana eomme a
engine The vast stores ofthe 1ncas of Peru OWN
die into insigni6cance compared with the hundreds
of millions that have been expended in these monu-
ments of human industry in the United States, IN
England in France and their march is onward
towards the steppers of Asia. In their eonstruc-
ton man has achieved victories over the clemens,
of which Archimides never dreamt 1t was the ooast
of Napoleon, that whilst Hannibal mao scaled the
Aims he had turned then-but the engineer has
done more than either of these great conquerors ;
he has tunnclled them, not for the march OF oesoia
ting armies, but for the transit OF the Products Oh
the pursuits of peace-for the conveyance OF the
traveller in comfort and safety, beneath the roaring
avalanche above his head And what are. railroads.
but the veins and arteries through which the pro-
ducts of agriculture either in their crude state or as
fashioned in the workshop, circulate in seeking the
n,arts of commerce? Whist railroads are DEEPEN
dent upon the products of agriculture yet the two
are inseparaby identified in interest They act ana
react on each other. 1t is upon the productions OF
the field and the workshop. that the railroad must
rey for the materials of freight the very means OF
subsistence; but then again, the construction OF
the railroad by the benefits conferred in contgulty
to market, cheapening the cost OF transportation,
increased convenience in procuring the comforts and
uxuries oflife affords stimulus to the Landowner
to improve his land to its highest capabilty ofpro-
duction; and the products OF the land are IN
creased the railroad finds increased employment,
and enhanced profits. This is no mere theory.
Experience has every where proven it to be true
1t is a mistake, then, to suppose mistake which
the farmers of North Carolins INDUCED in for many
years. to an almost fatal extent-that it is the spec
uator and the capitalist who are principally inter
ested in the construction of railroads, and the ad
vancement of internal improvement. Until within
very few years, the farmers of this State supposed,
and demagogues found it to their interest to foster
the delusion that the only interest the farmer had
cDf,n into IInn ro no
on the State debt caused by their construction. But
the diffusion of intelligence, and the teachings OF
experience have proven that productive labor, after
supplying the producers immediate wants, is
valueless without markets in which to sell and that
markets are valueless, without the means ofreach-
ing them.
Whilst the objects of our association mainly ap-
pertain to agricultural improvement and cultivation,
as the basis of all industrial enterprise yet it en-
braces within its scope the entire domain of produc
tive labor invention and skill The development of
all our resources-of the field the orchard and the
garden-the arts, whether useful or ornamcntal-the
forests. the mines, or the 6sheries-the encourage
ment of every branch of human industry, calculated
to enhance the wealth and character Of the State,
and to add to the means of human comfort and hap
piness-the deveopmenofthe higest effortsofthe hui
man mind in ling, and giving still greater eff
cheney to labor-all these grand and noble aims
cone within the province of our organization. One
of the great agents in solving the industrial prob
lem of the age, is the application of steam to the
mechanic arts and to the removal of the barriers to
the progress of commerce. The mighty revolution
effected by the use of steam for time alarmed po-
ltical economists with the fear, that such an aug
mentation of the powers of labor would leave mil
lions unemployed, or, by ering them unable to
compete with that skill which employed the elements
instead of human hands leave them to starve But
experience has proven the groundle>sness of these
apprehensions. Time has demonstrated that the
greater the improvements in laborsaving machinery
the the forces of nature rendered subservi-
ent to human control; the more extended are the
means of human comfort, and the cheaper do thew
become of acquisition So vast is the great store
house of natures productions and powers so sure
ly does great discovery in science art pioneer
the way for another, that the supply of one want
creates the demand for another-the economizing of
labor in department Of industry, opens still wi
der fields for its employment in others The inven-
ton of the cotongn and the powerloom have felled
millions Of acres of forest, and covered mountain
sides with hocks of sheep; and thus given employ
ment to thousands of hands, and investment to mil
lions of capital, which Whitney and Jacquard never
contemplated dreamt of. The planning machine
(Which may we'll be mentioned as among the great
improvements of the age,) is likely to give a value
to our forests, and demand for labor in developing
their resources which never entered into the imag-
nation of Woodwork. The invention of the reap
ing machine may for time interfere with the avo-
cations of the few, who WELD the scythe or the sick
lie but it promises employment to thousands in the
millions of acres, which the facility of the harvest
will appropriate to the cereal grains.
The wonderful inventions in economizng labor
which mark the present age-especially in the ap-
pcation of steam power-are making slow but
lasting impression the political as we'll as social
and moral organization of Christendom In our own
free country, they find the proper theatre for their
full development; here they find ample scope and
verge for their operation and here they are soonest
destined to yield their rpest fruits There is some
thing in the very atmosphere of freedom that braces
the human nerves for conflict with the elements
and the consciousness of political equality stimu-
lates genius to its grandcst efforts Emperors. and
Kings, and Popes PrncipalitieS and Powers Thrones
and Dominions true to their hereditary and des
potic nstincts-rue to the warning instruction of a
sound philosophy, when they look with dist rust
and misgivng upon the progress of science and the
useful arts, which teach man the dignity of his ma
ture-upon the efforts of genius, which ignores all
social caste and political quality-upon the vcto
ry of mind over the material world which tells
them, this is a conquest more difficult than the
breaking of sceptres or the overthrow of thrones
There is something in the very sight calculated to
up the fever of the blood to whet the edge of
the nerves, to awaken man to the dignity of his ma
ure and the high destiny of his mission as he looks
at the steam-enginc, snoring the land or the
steamer believing over the waves. It is progress
personi6ed; it suggests disregard for the old land
marks of opinion it gives the impulse to 4ouernent
When Luther sounded the toscin of the Reformation
in the streets of Whitenburg, its echoes walked the
slumbers of ignorance and superstition throughout
the Christian world when the Bastile fell in 1889
it Jared the social fabric of Chrstendom; but the
whistle of the steam speaks to priestcrat and
d:spotism in voice more full of warning than all
the blood shed during the thirty years war all the
victims sacrificed to the Demon of faction during
fhn nlf1ftn g.