Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1885-04-30
THE CENSUS OF MANUFACTURES.
Gen. WALKERS Defense of the Census of 1880
I'm Lecture mt Boston.

II.
of the Institute of Technology. was
the census as related to manufactures
He began by noting the fact that prior
to the date of independence there were
almost no manufactures in this coun-
try, in the sense in which that word is
now used. Every discouragementh had
been put upon them by the British
government dnring the colonial period
Legal restrictions and prohibitions
were numerous. going even to the ex-
tent Of forbidding the transportation
of certain manufactured goods from
one colony to another Under such a
policy long continued, the United
States, he said, were not prepared.
upon attaining the sole control of
their own affairs, to enter upon manu-
featuring in any extensive way, even
If the capital for such an enterprise
had been at command The growth
OF manufacturing system is n process
which takes generations of time. for
inherited skill and facility of admins
tration have much to do with the per-
fectlng OF such system. But in an
other sense the preparation of the peo-
pie, especially those of the New
England states. had been continuous
one from the original settlement. In
the first place, the New England set
tiers were of that Teutonic race which
has excelled all others in inventions.
10 the great inventions of the world
the Celtic and Sclavonic races have
contributed almost nothing. A COM
petent critic of such matters has said
that of the important inventions he
no OIL, al L
contributed, the cardinal machine,
which was the invention of French
man. This native aptitude for inven-
tion in the New England settlers had
1ull scope given to it in the conditions
of life into which they entered and in
which they SO long continued under
colonial rule. The scheming, calcula-
ting, planning faculties were called
into constant requiston in the pur-
suits OF life in this new country. To
make shifts to save time, to tighten
labor, to cut off corners, and reach re-
suits in the most direct wav, to make
one tool serve three or four
different uses was an everyday prob
lem with every worker in the COM
munity, in whatever line of employ
ment. In every town in New England
daily work was no affair of rou-
tine, but every man was alert, open
eyed and thoughtful as to means and
ends, that wherever it was possible
something might be saved. This hab-
1t and tendency became strengthened
with each succeeding generation, and
at the date of independence the Amer
lean people, though they had yet
acheved nothing on the large scale,
were potentially the greatest manu-
featuring people of the world. The
Yankees OF 1888, equipped only with
the AK and the spade, were more eff
hclcnt race of men than the Flemings,
the french or the English, who were
the great manufacturing people of that
time. That no greater prog fess in
manufactures was made in the United
States during five or six decades fol-
lowing independence than the records
show to have been made the lecturer
explained on the ground that the OPP
portunities of profitable work in agri-
culture so much exceeded those offer
ed in any other country that manufac-
turing enterprises could not stand the
local competition. For farming en-
terprises could afford to pay and did
pay vastly higher rates of interest for
capital and still make a profit than
could manufacturers. Amends were
made to some extent by imposing an
artificial price upon manufactured
goods, by means of a tariff, and the
manufacturing industries slowly
gained, but not with rapidity until the
agricultural lands of the interior
which could be made accessible had
been pretty fully occupied, so fully at
least as to augment in high ratio the