486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ers, and in this way has cheapened production by rendering of value 

 the intermittent labor of whole families as it could be spared, and 

 when it could be easiest applied. In this respect tlie sewing-machine 

 has been the reverse of the former handloom. The machine-workers 

 have prospered because they could take the new invention into their 

 houses without diminishing its force. The handloomers were supei- 

 seded because the steam-shuttle could not be made a domestic imple- 

 ment. 2. The eminent suitability of female labor to the sewing-ma- 

 chine has secured a class of workers who have had the strongest mo- 

 tives to apply whatever skill and industry they possessed to increase 

 ihQiv piece-work wages by the extent and efficiency of production. It 

 maybe added, indeed, that the great results which have been obtained 

 are amonsr the most cogent illustrations which can be found of the 

 magical influence of payment by results, that is to say, of payment by 

 the piece ; for, happily, no other mode of payment has been possible 

 for sewing-machine labor. 



The lesson of the whole of this gratifying and hopeful history is, 

 as we said at the outset, that the methods of most efficient production 

 are those which necessarily contain within themselves the methods of 

 most effectual and beneficial distribution : in other words, if we under- 

 stand and apply thoroughly and truly the conditions which most 

 cheaply, rapidly, and constantly produce wealth, we also, and as a 

 necessary and ^:ari ^5s5m consequence, understand and apply the con- 

 ditions which insure the distribution of that wealth among all the 

 parties concerned in the most just and beneficial manner. So far, 

 philosophers and philanthi-opists have spent their energies in the wrong 

 direction. They have sought for artificial means of what they con- 

 sidered more equal distribution of the products of industry, failing to 

 see that in the circumstances and conditions which render industry on 

 the largest scale most productive there are native and inherent forces 

 which link together production and distribution at every step. 

 TJie Economist. 



