Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1867-05-16

coal productions Of Pennsylvania
and every branch Of useful art is
represented amongst thousands oi
factories in Philadelphia. All over
the country the same facts exist to
a greater or less extent, and enter
into the structure of American So
ciety. They cannot be ascribed to
design or legislation, but they have
grown out of the circumstances OF
daily life. Ourindustri'l organization
has arisen under the pressure Of hu-
man wants and activities. In the
free section, while each citizen has
been pursuing his individual vel
fare, and none taking thought
about division Of labor, or, indeed,
conscious of the need for it, divis-
ion of labor has yet been ever be-
coming more complete. This may
be observed in the simplest matters
of agricultural life. The time was,
and that not many years ago, when
the American farmer did all his
own fencing, made his own axe
helves and scythe handles, and cra-
dies and hay forks, and when the
farmers wife spun yarn at the
the wheel and knit the stockings of
the household for winters wear
In well regulated establishments
they had loom for weaving cloth
and flannel, and linen for sheetings.
Now this work is done so much
more readily by persons specially
employed in the separate branches
Of it, and their products can be sold
so much more cheaply than the
time of expert hands would be
worth as laborers, that the old-fash-
ioned habits have fallen into disuse,
Patent mowers and reapers, and
factory-made articles of wear and
tools of husbandry have superse-
ded home made work. 1t would
surprise some of our readers to
know into what a multiplicity of.
parts the labor of many well-knOwn
articles of commerce has been di-
vided. Take the revolver pistol,
for instance; there are separate
hands whose whole time is devoted
to forging the butts; others make
| the barrels; others drill holes
through the barrels; Others make
the triggers; Others the handles;-
others the little screws that fasten
the parts together; others do the
chasing Of ornamental work; 9th
ers the silver-plating. In a large
establishment like the Colts facto-
ry all these different parts are Civ
en- out by contract and the contrac-
tor, with his set of hands, fultils his
special duty only. The ordinary
old fashioned gunmaker used to
make lock, stock, and barrel. just
as this division and subdivision of
labor has taken place in the large
factories of the land, so has it been
going on slowly silently, develop
ing new social organization in all
civilized countries for many years,
without having attracted attention
until comparatively recent date
BY steps so small that year after
year the industrial arrangements
have seemed to men just what they
were before, by changes as insensi-
BILE as those by which seed passes
into tree, society has become the
complex body Of mutually depend
ent workers which we now see.-
And this economic organization is
an all-essential organization. Thro'
the combination thus evolved every
citizen is supplied with daily neces
saries, while he yields some pro-
duct or aid to others. That we are
severally alive to-day we owe to the
regular working Of this combina-
ton during the past week; and if it
should be suddenly abolished many
ofus would be dead before the end
of another week. The wants Of So
ciety must be met, and the methods
of providing for them develop in
free society under the operation Of
demand and supply. The new South
is in transition from a forcing to a
voluntary system; and the rules il
lustrated above, as applying to the
North, will speedily develop the
same facts in the South. The char
acter of the people Of any country
lis the original source Of its politi-
cal form; but in the future we shall
have to take the aggregate charac-
ter of the people of the United
States, and not Of a section, to base