MECHANICAL ENGINEEIUNG. 39 



tion; Just as the social organization of the Middle Ages was adapted to 

 the simple industrial conditions of that time.* Henry Dyer's 'Evolu- 

 tion of Industry'! traces this process of solution of these problems, so 

 far as solved to date, in a most interesting way. ITis conclusion, that the 

 mechanical development of the past century is a necessary element of 

 the evolution of society, as well as of the industries, is as sound as is 

 his deduction that the problems of the twentieth century should be 

 solved in such manner as to insure a final evolution of an ideal, discreet, 

 wise, prudent, pleasant and righteous life, which shall conform to the 

 ideals of the scholar, the gentleman, the seer and the poet. On the 

 organization of the mechanical industries largely depends the future of 

 the world, and in this evolution of a finer and better life, through indus- 

 trial and social evolution, the influence of one such man as Dolge, at 

 Little Falls, N. Y., and of one such firm as the famous Patterson's at 

 Dayton, Ohio, tells more powerfully than all polemic discussion. 



Thus the organization of the workshop and the humanizing of the 

 workman, as Ashbee denominates it, may be expected to proceed to- 

 gether. J 



The noble view of the Bishop of Durham, as expressed a few years 

 ago, may well be taken as the enunciation of the problem and the pur- 

 pose of the coming centuries :§ 



"Manufactures, trade, commerce, agriculture, if once the thought of personal 

 gain can be subordinated to the thought of public service, offer scope for the most 

 chivalrous and enterprising and courageous. It can only be through some misap- 

 prehension that it seems nobler to lead a regiment to the battlefield than to 

 inspire the workers in a factory "ivith the enthusiasm of labor." 



He anticipates, nevertheless, that the time is coming, surely if 

 slowly, but possibly quickly, when the Great Industry will be "made to 

 contribute to the material and moral elevation of all who are engaged 

 in it, not as separate or conflicting units, but as parts of the social or- 

 ganism." 



In his remarkable little book, ^Our Country,' Dr. Strong, fifteen 

 years before its close, affirmed that the later years of the nineteenth 

 century constitute a 'focal point' in history, and are second only in im- 

 portance to "that which always must remain first, viz., the birth of 

 Christ." He goes on to say in his introduction: 



"Many are not aware that we live in extraordinary times. Few suppose that 

 these years of peaceful prosperity, in which we are quietly developing a conti- 

 nent, are the pivot on which is turning the nation's future. And fewer still 



* 'Die Quintessenz der Socialen Fragen.' 



t 'The Evolution of Industry' -. By Henry Dyer, C.E., M.A., D.Sc, New York 

 and London, Macmillan & Co., 1895. 



i 'Workshop Reconstruction and Citizenship.' 

 § Economic Review, October, 1894. 



