The true northerner., 1878-08-16

nave rendered Transportation OF t00d
and all other commodities possible, and
have given employment to four times
the number of persons displaced by
their invention. The railroads have SO
extended communication and facilitated
transportation that it has enabled mil.
Hons of persons to engage in agriculture
who otherwise could not have done so
without burying themselves in remote
and almost inaccessible solitudes The
invention of farming machinery, in con-
junction with the railroads, has incrcas.
ed the means of cultivating the vast
area penetrated by the railways. To.
gether they have reclaimed the wilder
ness of waste, making it remuncrative
to labor, and contributing to the per-
sonal and national wealth. At this
moment more than half the people of
the United States live by agricultural
labor. The farms feed the nation and
furnish S500,000,0O0 of products tor
sale to other countries. This is possi-
BILE only because of the use of machin.
cry. Abolish machinery and the area
of land under cultivation would be re-
duced one-half, if not more. Abolish
railways at the same time and bread
would reach comparatively famine
prices. One great advantage Ameri-
can labor enjoys is an abundance of
cheap food. The sewing machine and
the cotton and wooden mill have in like
manner resulted in the production of
cheaper and better clothing, and SO
vastly has the consumption of clothing
increased that there are more persons
now engaged in the manufacture of
these articles than there would be if
there were no machinery. The manu-
facture of the machinery itself has open.
ed new branches of industry, giving
employment to thousands of workmen.
Half the coal mined in the United
States is employed to run labor. saving
machinery; to destroy such machinery
would be to close half the coal-mines
in the country. The invention of ma
chinery in Notwithstanding has
quadrupled the consumption OF boots
and shoes, and proportionately increased
the labor employed in producing the
materials needed in the business. With
out labor. saving machinery the pro-
duction of iron and steel would largely
decline, throwing out of employment
the immense army of skilled wolkmen.
and remanding civilization to the rude
product of the roadside blacksmith. shops.
We might illustrate the absurdity
and Inconsistency of this demand for the
destruction of labor-saving machinery
by reference to every machine invented
or used. Each is benefaction to la.
Dor; it admits reduction in the hours
Of human toll it reduces the cost of
every production of labor; it increases
from six to hundred fold the quantity
of the things consumed. Measuring ali
the necessities, comforts, and luxuries
of life by the standard of the product
of days labor, it gives in exchange
for that days labor an Average of fifty.
fold more than would be possible in the
absence of labor.saving machinery. The
American people as whole are work.
men, engaged in producing, and the use
of this machinery marks the difference
in the moral, phy steal and social condi.
tion of the people of this country, and
of the rude, uarbarous, and torpid races
who reject such machinery as the inven.
tions of evil.
Returning to what We said il the be.
ginning, human wants keep steady pace
with the means of gratifying them ex.
penditures generally follow close upon
the means of expenditure, and the aver
age man generally finds a want that
calls for all the means he can command.
We are all consumers to the extent of
our means, aud nothing is more difficult
than for men and women once accus
toned to the qualification Of certain
wants to yield them conten:edly. Tax
ing days wages as the test of our
means to crafty our wants, any change
10 the cost Of production which reduces
the quantity of bread one half which
limits our clothing in quantity and
quality two.thirds which cuts off re
morselessly all the little comforts, pleas.
ures, and enjoyments; which limits the
dimensions and furnishing of our homes
to minimum, and at the same time
reduces the demand for our labor, and
reduces its product, would be a calamity
hardly less endurahle than q return IN o
rude barbarism which American civil.
zation had hoped to have left behind
forever. Yet the abolition of labor.
saving machinery would have such eff
fects, directly, Immediately, and ever
more oppressively than we have stated
and the workingmen of this day anc
generation are making that demand;
demand for return to squalid poverty
and ill.con6itioned Wretchedness