Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-09-03

SUPPORT Your MEcHANIcs.-The following
sensible remarks, which we find IN some OF
our exchanges, we transfer to our columns,
and would earnestly commend them to our
readers in this place and the State at large:
There is no truth more undenlable than
that it is the bounden duty of every commu-
nity to support its mechanics. They are a
worthy and Indispensable class of men, and
we find no town or village hourishlng with
out their aid. Indeed, their presence or alb
sence is always a true index OF the condition
Of the place-whether it is advancing IN
wealth and importance or sinking into decay.
Whenever we pass through 81 vlllrge and
hear the frequent sound OF the carpenters
hammer, the clink of the blacksmlth's anvil
that village, we say to ourselves, IS Hour
ishing. 1t cannot be otherwise, Tor the pro-
ducers are actively employed, and outnumoer
the consumers. Whenever this is the case,
the people are growing wealthy, and at the
same time training the rising generation to
habits Of industry and morality. Where. II
Il city or village pursue the opposite OF this
course-neglects its mechanics and supports
those of some foreign town-those who can,
will be compelled to go to some other place,
and those who are compelled by the force OF
circumstances to remain, will become idle
and proHigate-they will cease to produce,
and become consumers-in q few years they
became beggars, and their children ignorant
and vicious.
If there is any truth in the assertion that
we ought, as a nation, to give the preference
to domestic manufactures, the fact Is equally
true with regard to the community both are
sustained by the same arguments. Ii a mer-
chant would have around him substantial GUS
toners, let him by every means in his pow
er, support the mechanics of his village, and
as they become more wealthy, their custom
will increase, especially in those articles on
) which he makes the greatest profits, tor II
, is undenia6le, that as men become more
r wealthy they also become more luxurious,
and no merchant will deny that articles OF
luxury always afford the greatest profits
The habit of importing large quantities OF
, cheap and half made articles of competitor
l with our village mechanics, is s~hort-slghtec
: and wrong, both as regards the mechanic
4 and consumer if the merchant would loot
: further into the operation of things, he woulc
q find that he crossed the path of his own IN
! terest by doing so. Let the merchants bring
= the case to his own door, and he, perhaps
. may better understand it. Supposesthat ev
+ cry individual who possesses the means, am
y who uses in his family four or five hundred
n dollars worth of goods per %annuni, should
instead of buying of him at retail, go to som
e city wholesale establishment and purchas
his years ~supply-would he not in bitterness
} condemn such an illiberal course, and woul
q he not say to him with truth, that he wa
warning against his own interest, by destroy
ing the business of his town and giving it t
another and that his httleness would reac
W upon him in double fold by decrease of hi
m property and business! SO, in the case abov
instanced, could the mechanic say the sam
y to the merchant. We say, then, let all class
u es support each other, and by mutual exchar
es keep that wealth at home, which, if ne
Us ~essarily expended abroad, tends to destro
te the business of your neighbor, and which i
' turn destroys your own.