THE LOGIC OF FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 57 



son so far as the amount of material wealth created during so 

 short a term is concerned. Nevertheless, if this be so, it must 

 not be forgotten that there have never been in the history of the 

 world such gigantic forces at work, nor so rich and varied a field 

 for their operation. If, instead of standing awe-stricken at the 

 vastness of the results, we contemplate the magnitude and pro- 

 portion of the original factors, we shall cease to marvel. Remem- 

 bering the immense area of the country, the fertility of its soil, 

 the number and riches of its mines, the number and naviga- 

 bility of its rivers, the availability and inexhaustibility of its 

 fuel; remembering the amount of available labor, both human 

 and mechanical the latter representing hundreds of millions of 

 human arms, and the former increased by supplies drawn from 

 the Old World to the extent, also, of millions ; remembering the 

 number and utility of mechanical inventions designed to assist in 

 the production of wealth ; and bearing in mind that during this 

 period the country has been free from war, that she has had to 

 keep neither navy nor standing army when we contemplate all 

 this, instead of losing our mental balance, we shall most prob- 

 ably feel a sense of disappointment that the results are not even 

 greater. If it were possible to estimate the original factors in 

 the production of wealth as they have here existed during the last 

 twenty-five years and calculate the product that should naturally 

 follow, we should more than likely find it greatly in excess of that 

 now existing. 



Who can estimate the influence of inventions alone ? It is 

 supposed that England to-day uses, in steam-power only, a force 

 equal to an army of eight hundred millions of men in the pro- 

 duction and transmission of commodities. These, bear in mind, 

 are men of iron, who never flag so long as fuel is supplied, who 

 never grow weary, who never strike, who work as readily twenty- 

 four hours per day as ten, and whose cost of maintenance is infin- 

 itesimal in comparison to that of men of flesh and blood. 



There was invented in the latter part of the eighteenth cent- 

 ury a machine that has done more for producing wealth than all 

 the acts for fostering trade and developing industries that were 

 ever devised by man. Eli Whitney has done more for the pros- 

 perity of his country than all the tariff discussions before or since 

 his time. The supremacy of England in trade and commerce 

 throughout the world is due more to Watt and Arkwright, to 

 Stevenson and Crompton, than to either Walpole, Pitt, or Peel. 

 Mr. Edison is a greater force in the national prosperity than all 

 the measures for the encouragement of trade passed by Congress 

 during his life-time. The beneficial influence inventions have 

 had on civilization is only comparable to the evil that war and 

 pernicious legislation have achieved. 



