Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-09-12
SECRETARY BOUTWELL, At TIE
NEW ENGLAND FAIR.

Secretary Boutwell, being present at the
New England Fair, was called upon to re-
spond to the third regular toast The fol-
lowing extract from his remarks as report
ed in the papers, is interesting enough
to be read in all parts of the country.
although this is the eighth annual ex-
hbition of the New England society, it is the
first one which have had opportunity to at
tend, and l am surprised at the magnitude
and success of the undertaking. 1t may be
said that what Is presented to our eyes is
vastly superior to what is withheld. This,
no doubt, is true, but it is criticism which
may be made upon all fairs, exhibitions and
eXpositions. Accepting the criticism for all
it is worth, the great fact still remains, that
what is before US exists and that which eV
lists, though exceptional, may by diligence, by
training, by education, be made general if not
universal and this is the great lesson which
an exhibition of this sort should teach. |
cannot doubt that the farmers of New Eng
land will go away from the city of Lowell
with higher ideas of their own occupation,
and with clearer perceptions of the best
methods of rising in it, New England is
stinted in its agricultural pursuits These
six States are less blessed by nature in this
particular than any other equal portions of
American territory on the eastern side of the
Mississippi river; and yet, | think, if there
are gentlemen here, as have no doubt, from
other and more favored regions of the coun-
try, they will go away impressed with the ex-
tent and the variety and the excellence of the
exhibition which New England has this week
here made. The farmers of New England
are greatly indebted to the mechanics of the
country for the invention and Improvement
of labor saving machines, and the farmers
Cor MT MT 6aa xphi 10
a delusion, that the introduction of labor
saving machines upon the land diminishes the
demand for manual labor upon the land
From the invention of the first machinery for
spinning and weaving until the present time,
the demand for labor and the education and
elevation of the laboring classes has gone on
increasing with the invention of labor saving
machinery; and every labor-saving machine
invented for the use of the farmers diverts a
certain number of laborers from the land and
from mechanic pursuits, where otherwise
there might be an excess of labor and an I'M
welcome competition in the production of
these articles and the agricultural interest
of New England, and indeed the whole coun
try, is largely indebted to the development of
the railway and telegraphic system which has
taken place in the last twenty years. Again
am reminded that am no longer young by
the reflection that can remember when there
was a broad difference between the city and
the cosntry; when a countryman in State
street was known as soon as Chinese would
now be marked cut from the mass of the
people. But it is so no longer. There is the
same civilization for the city and fer the coun-
| try. Before the development of the railway
| and Geographic system it was in the power,
| and think the records will show that to a
| certain extent it was a fact, that the concen-
| trated public sentiment of the cities repre-
| scented by the press had very large and a
| disproportonate influence upon the public
sentiment of the country. All that has passed
| away. With the railway and the telegraph,
| information is diffused to the uttermost parts
| of our country, and the country now is more
likely to form opinions for the city than the
| city for the country. On occasions like these
it is very natural that one should take by
| contrast, after listening to such speeches as
| the president of the New England Society
! makes, and others, to the fact that notwith-
| standing all that is said in agricultu-
! raj orations and speeches of the tascina-
| tons of agriculture, that the young men upon
| the farms go away to the cities. That fact
still remains. They are attracted by the
prizes of commercial, mechanical and tinan-
cial life. Some of them succeed; others
/ fail But there is this counteractng influence
going on continually, and it should be more
important than it is. Men in cities who have
acquired sufficient wealth for the proper duties
OF life instead of remaining in cities, living
| in streets where you open on one side into an
alley, and on the other brick sidewalk, SEN
sible people, / submit shouldleave such places
when they have no longer business interests
which induce them TO make the sacrifice, and
90 into the country, where a fortune which is
only stinted means of living in a city fur