The Wilmingtonian., 1882-10-07
The Value of Industry &.

Il hS Va
1t is quite within mudern oimes that, by
observation and experience, the knowledge
has been acquired fora comprehensive and
philosophical conception of the Importance
of industry as a necessary condition in the
evolution of human society. The pos tion
of man in the world, and his social destiny,
could not be understood until, by expert
ence, the data necessary for arriving at
philosophical eneralzation concerning it
were obtained, any more than the position
of the world itself in the solar system could
be known until, by the same proc IS, the
data needed for its comprehension had been
gathered.
The brilliant results whith have followed,
in modern times, from the Inauguration of a
scientific method Of inquiry, though per-
haps more apparent in the physical sciences,
are of no less value in the department of So
GEOLOGY The field of social science has
been opened, and the method has been indi-
Gated by which the complex questions of so
cial progress can alone be studied with pos
itive and nduring results With the grow
ing PERCEPTION the relativity of all knowl-
edge, mankind has become aware of the in
ter-dependence of the sciences, and that
upon indnstry-upon onrahility to -madifx
the conditions in which we are placed-can
we alene depend for our advance in the path
of progress
In the study of industry, and of its effects
upon the greater part of civilization, and
also of the effects produced upon industrial,
political and other causes, the United States
offer a most important and suggestive field.
In the first place, our history is complete;
the beginning of the nation dates from def
nate historical period, and the foundation of
its industry is not lost in the obscuring
mists of tradition. Then, again, the political
y
ity, and the necessities of thenew conditions
of its settlement, all conspired TO make
try is ofnecessity the foundation of all prog
ress in civilization.
In the influence of the United States in
modern times, America appears destined tc
perform similar office for the world that
the discovery of the country in the fifteenth
century did for the knowledge of mankint
concerning the form of the world, and it'
position in the solar system At the periot
of the settlement of the country, the indus
try of Europe had begun to feel the infiu
ence of the increased knowledge of the
world gained by the nterprising spirit o
navigation. which during the proceeding
century, had supplemented the discovery o
America by the circumpavigation of tn
world, and of the new spirit of independ
ence and investigation which, thus brilliant
Iy vindicated in the domain of physical re
search, excited the minds of all those VIII
were not drugged by superstition, or boun
helplessly by tradition, to apply the sam
methods to the existing conditions of thei
religious their social, and their political oil
ganizatons. AS with all movements of ad
vancing social organization, the commence
ment was made in the popular disconter
with the existing conditions, before it foun
an expression in the literature or the polit
cal action of the times. 1t was the popula
demand for books which stimulated the il
vention of printing, as it was the spirit {
the times to which Luther gave expressio
which made the reformation possible; an
later, when Voltaire, in his historical work.
made the first expression in literature of th
Importance of studying the opinions and tn