742 . TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS AND THE APPLICATION OF KNOWL- 

 EDGE TO PRACTICAL PURPOSES. 



By Miss Mary White. 



Just now, when the rapid land sales in California are flattering us with 

 a deceptive appearance of unprecedented prosperity, it is necessary to 

 inquire into the true cause and necessary condition of our economical well- 

 being. It is said by some, that our strength lies in our trade. True, our 

 commercial relations are large and important. San Francisco, in the near 

 future, promises to become a second Venice. But trade can no more be 

 the real basis of the prosperity of the State, than it can be the .ultimate 

 support of a human being. 



In the final analysis, the continued economical health of the State, 

 depends upon its power of production. That a nation cannot long continue 

 to exist on an exclusively commercial basis, is a demonstration of history. 

 The doubt of this principle once filled English poorhouses with paupers, 

 and English streets with thieves. It reduced Spain to a state of chronic 

 invalidism, and it cost Venice her life as a nation. And this, not alone 

 because of its bearing on national finance. Large industrial interests, 

 especially the agricultural, give stability to a nation, as industrial employ- 

 ment gives stability to the private character of its citizens. So it is not 

 without wisdom, that the national government encourages interest in indus- 

 trial arts, nor without prudence that our citizens respond to such encour- 

 agement by annual exhibits of local produce. 



Productive labor is favorable to mental health and balance. It brings 

 man into direct contact with the earth, air, and water — the great potential 

 forces of nature. It supplies a want, which seems to be inherent in man's 

 nature — the desire to produce something — to see some material embodi- 

 ment of his thought and labor — in short, the instinct of creation. Hence, it 

 is with a natural pleasure that the farmer watches the growth of his grain, 

 or his hops; the breeder notes the increasing fineness of his stock; the 

 architect sees his building grow in size and beauty under his hand. Such 

 labor not only furnishes an outlet for the expression of man's constructive 

 instinct, but it has a value as an educational power that few realize. The 

 group of industrial arts form a vast training school, whose object is the 

 cooperation of brain and muscle — the natural and harmonious develop- 

 ment of the two sides of our dual existence. 



Industrial labor is thus necessary to man's animal life directly, to his 

 intellectual and spiritual life, indirectly. It does not involve immediately 

 the highest faculties of man, nor does it form the bloom and glory of exist- 

 ence. But so subtly linked are all the varieties of human action, thought, 

 and imagination, throughout the entire range of human activity, the work 

 of the artisan to that of the artist, that no change is possible in one depart- 

 ment of labor, without a corresponding change in others. When we exam- 

 ine the supposed rigid boundary, between even such seemingly far removed 

 extremes, as the industrial and the fine arts, we find it melts away into 

 the indefinite. Were the artist all imagination and intellect, he would 



