The Portland daily press., 1877-01-09
TENDENCIES TO CENTRAEIZA-
TION,
Collector Washburn iH the Mechanics
Course.

The Hon. Israel Washburn in his lecture
last evening before the Mechanics Asso-
citation considered these questions: first,
| asto whether there is a movement
towards Capitalization; secondly as to the ex-
PLANTATION or cause of the movement, if it be
true that it exists; and thirdly as to the prob.
able consequences involved in it. In regard to
the fact the lecturer brought forward many
witnesses furnishing testimony from various
sources and numerous fields, not from the
new world alone, but from the old as WE'LL not
from one, but from most Christian nations; not
merely in single department of activity, or in
one expression of thought or force, but more or
less in all departments and expressions.
In respect to landed property, he referred to
the tendency to the enlargement of estates and
the reduction of small proprietorships both in
Europe and America. Not only is it seen in
England and the United States, but even in
France and Belgium, the countries of all 9TH
ers where the peasantry are most attached to
the soil and where the love of proprietorship is
strongest, the transfer of peasant proprietor
ships is going on at a steadily increasing rate
But the movement is in no sense confined to
real estates. IL all departments and indus
tries alike the turn is in favor of large capital
talists against small, of engrossers against
small retailers. The stage coach and market
wagon have been superseded by the railway
car; the errand man and package carrier have
succumbed to the great express companies and
the Post office department; the factory devours
the distatf; and in shops where boots shoes and
hats are made, many fingered steam moved by
aggregated capital is the chief journeyman.
The tonnage OF the country runs to large ships
the ships of the Allan Line are now twice
as large as ten years ago. Monster hotels are
closing the doors of the smaller taverns of for
mer times, and many guest of the gilded pal
ace has regretted the hearty greeting, the COSY
tireside and the generous cheer of the old time
inn. Stewards marble pile on Broadway takes
the place, for it does the business, of a
hundred frst-class shops of twenty years ago.
And the progress in this direction is in course
OF constant acceleration; nor is the tendency
confined to material things. This tendency is
seen too in the strong and almost irresistible
current that is setting from the States to the
federal center. Power, influence and authori
ty are seating themselves more and more firm.
ly at Washington. The state. are becoming
relatively less aud the General Government
more important. The time was. when few if
any positions, except the first ID the country
were held in higher esteem or were moro eager
ly sought for than some under the State gov
ernmeuts; as when two Senators of Maine and
among the abiest and most popular she has
ever had, Messrs Paris and Shepley, resigned
their places in the Senate to occupy seats on
the bench OF the Supreme Court, or as when
Silas Wright and VIM 81. Seward regarded
the Governorship of New York as only less in
Importance and honor than the Presidency it.
self.
The Lecturer considered at some length the
explanation or cause of this tendency, finding
it, in larger and general sense, in the working
OF law of unity and simplicity which is COM
ing to be recognized as permanent and univer-
sal. The economy and perfectness of work
which are reached only through division of
labor, are being demonstrated. The law which
declares the success of the best is but another
statement of the law ofthe survival of the tittest
He who can do the best work will find the most
work to do, and the methods and rules by
which 1t can be done best will survive and sup
plaEt those by which it is done second best,
and as in material lines so in moral and relig-
ious; the single, central, essential truth is de-
manded, while mere crotchets and metaphysics
are at discount. The tendency of the age is
intensely catholic, seeks resemblances and har-
m,nies and abhors dscods.
Touching the third question, or what the ten
denotes to Capitalization import, Mr.. Wash
burn referred to the views Of different persons
and classes on this subject. By some it was
held that these tendencies came of an imperfect
and taipted civilization, whose ultimate and
Dot distant failure is postulated; that the move
ment Is one of heat and waste, unhealthy, dis
turbing, wears upon the bodily health, over
strains the intellectual faculties and blunts the
moral sense; that it indicates that simplicity,
honor, frugal'ty. contentment, temperance,
purity and religious earnestness are giving place
to less worthy traits habits and qualities; that in
the rural communities, the district school, the
town meeting and the village church have lost
something of their pristine importance and in
terest, while in the city changes for the worst
even more marked were going on; and so they
long for the good old times, SO innocent, SO
picturesque and so happy.
Considerable space was given to this aud
cognate questions by the Speaker whose dis
cussion led up to an unwillingness to believe
that tendency was false one which, regard
ing the material world, has in agriculture in
creased the volume and quality of crops; in
manufactures has improved the quality and re-
duced the cost of fabrics; that has facilitated
the interchange of commodities and promoted
intercourse among meu; which in the political
world has removed discussion from the COM
mon level of slang and personalities to the
region of principles and large practical issues,
and has banisbed in morals and manners SO
many Of the coarser habits and degrading prac-
tices of an earlier time; has made intemper-
ance disreputabe and driven il into shanties
and dens; in the literature of the million has
given the author of Jack Shepard lower place
than Dickens, Thackeray and George Eliot;
for the protection OF society and the relief of
misfortune has made the whipping post give
place to the Reform School-filled up the dun
geon and built over it Home for Orphans
replaced the gbbet by an Inebriate's Retreat
and where once stood an armory has erected
General Hospital.
On the whole the lecturer found no occasion
for dependency in the undoubted tendencies
to Capitalization. He saw in them not portents
of evil but harbingers of good, not predictions
of death but prophecies of a better life, and
was content to resi- in the confidence that the
law which governed them was, in the words of
Bacon, ''the harmony of the Universe
The lecture proved very interesting and the
attention of the audience was held throughout.
1t was, perhaps, the most carefully prepared
essay yet delivered in this course.