St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-06-26
THE PRIMAL. nuRsE

Whether ones mind is so framed that
it can or can not accept as true the eX-
pulsion of ADAM from Eden under the
perpetual labor. either mind can plainly
perceive that man has ever been evad-
ing the doom, and never so successfully
and so universally as i'll these latter
days of the nineteenth century. If
one still accepts that narration of
mans creation and fall as a
revelation of absolute truth, he
must see in all these ingenious
devices of his fellow men, to save HIM
self and his fellows the effusion of
sweat in gaining the. i daily bread, some-
thing irreverent and violative of the
divine will and judgment. If one has
escaped from those early teachings of
the absolute verify of every word be-
tween the lids Of the sacred book and
has come to look on the story of the gar
den as the answer some contempIative
soul made to itself of the eyer-purSuing
question of Whence and Where and
Why, he will be the reader to see in the
fruits of inventive genius which save
labor, facilitate production and cheaper
cost, the best blessing humanity has
given to man and the strongest evidence
that we are working OUT here slowly,
painfully, but surely, some vast design
whose beginning and end are beyond
our ken, but whose ultimate and benef-
icent purpose we cannot doubt.
From the first development of inyen-
ton in the prehistoric savage who in
vented the bow and arrow, and thus
saved himself and his long posterity
from getting their daily meat by labor
involving greater muscular exertion, to
the latest device secured by letters
patent for diminishing the quantity of
labor needed in the production of any
thing men want, mankind has been
obeying the impulse which in nature
finds EXPRESSION i'll the law that motion
runs on the lines of least resistance. He
has been constantly engaged in nullify-
ing the edIct of Eden with magnificent
success. He has met the ever-increas-
ing demands OF all augmenting popula-
tloD. i'll itself tending to enhance cost,
with machinery which multiplied the
productive capacity Of the workman,
with the resultant of Increase of supply
and decrease of cost.
Surveying the past, and from what
man has accomplished forecasting the
future, it is not difficult to trace in it
design whose ultimate purpose is con-
dition of man when he shall be able to
obtain the maximum of life'S material
needs and comforts with the minimum
expenditure of labor. More and more
will man subject the forces of nature to
his control, compelling them to take his
place IN the labor of construction; and
more and more will his fertile brain
bring forth the appliances for the utili-
cation of these forces. Lower and lower
will be the costof production. less and
ever less will be the quantity of manual
labor required i'll it. and ever widening
will grow the capacity to buy and con-
sumo these products.
If this is the purpose of the great De-
signer of the Universe-and who can
doubt it?--how. saerilegIous are all these
efforts of men to impede the progress
of the movement by obstructive trade
laws and attempted monopolization of
product that cost may be enhanced for
their profit. They are none the less
criminal that they are in the long run
abortive, because, meantime, they rob
men of opportunities for their best de-
,nIo