THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK. 457 



The q-acstions which naturally next suggest themselves, and in fact 

 are being continually asked, are : Is mankind being made happier or 

 better by this progress ? or, on the contrary, is not its tendency, as 

 Dr. Siemens, of Berlin, has expressed it, " to the destruction of all of 

 our ideals and to coarse sensualism ; to aggravate injustice in the dis- 

 tribution of wealth ; diminish to individual laborers the opportunities 

 for independent work, and thereby bring them into a more dependent 

 position ; and, finally, is not the supremacy of birth and the sword 

 about to be superseded by the still more oppressive reign of inherited 

 or acquired property ? " 



That many of the features of the situation are, when considered 

 by themselves, disagreeable and even appalling, can not be denied. 

 When one recalls, for example, through what seemingly weird power 

 of genius, machinery has been summoned into existence — machinery 

 which does not sleep, does not need rest, is not the recipient of wages ; 

 is most profitable when most unremittingly employed — and how no one 

 agency has so stimulated its invention and use as the opposition of those 

 whose toil it has supplemented or lightened — the first remedial idea 

 of every employer whose labor is discontented being to devise and use 

 a tool in place of a man ; * and how in the place of being a bond-slave 

 it seems to be passing beyond control and assuming the mastery ; 

 when one recalls all these incidents of progress, the following story of 

 Eastern magic might be almost regarded in the light of a purposely 

 obscured old-time prophecy. A certain man, having by great learn- 

 ing obtained knowledge of an incantation whereby he could compel 

 inanimate objects to work for him, commanded a stick to bring him 

 water. The stick at once obeyed. But when water sufficient for the 

 man's necessities had been brought, and there was threatened danger 

 of an oversupply, he desired the stick to stop working. Having, how- 

 ever, omitted to learn the words for revoking the incantation, the 

 stick refused to obey. Thereupon, the magician in anger caught up 



* The following is one striking illustration in proof of this statement : After the 

 reaping-machine had been perfected to a high degree, and had come into general use in 

 the great wheat-growing States of the Northwest, the farmer found himself for ten or 

 fifteen days during the harvest period at the mercy of a set of men who made his neces- 

 sity for binding the wheat concurrently with its reaping, their opportunity. They began 

 their work in the southern section of the wheat-producing States, and moved northward 

 with the progress of the harvesting ; demanding and obtaining $2, $3, and even $4 and 

 upward, per day, besides their board and lodging, for binding; making themselves, more- 

 over, at times very disagreeable in the farmers' families, and materially reducing through 

 their extravagant wages the profits of the crop. An urgent demand was tlius created 

 for a machine that would bind as well as reap ; and after a time it came, and now wheat 

 is bound as it is harvested, without the intervention of any manual labor. When the 

 sheafs were first mechanically bound, iron wire was used as the binding material ; but 

 when a monopoly manufacturer, protected by patents and tariffs, charged what was re- 

 garded an undue price for wire, cheap and coarse twine was substituted ; and latterly a 

 machine has been invented and introduced, which binds with a wisp of the same straw 

 that is being harvested. 



