FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 95 



and progress in the arts of transportation. The etfect of this new sj^stem 

 of things with production on a large scale, steam as a motive power for 

 factories and a division of labor between man and man and also between 

 regions has been undoubtedly to greatly increase the prosperity of all 

 members of society. Any principle, however, may be overdone and over- 

 emphasized. The physical world is not based upon a single law of matter, 

 nor is the industrial world in its just equilibrium when it is based upon 

 a single economic principle. I do not propose to belittle the great gains 

 which have come io the world through specialization and production on 

 a large scale but if we cultivate this principle alone and too continuously 

 we are liable to neglect the Avide range of arts which require skill and 

 manual dexterity rather than mass production and we are also liable to 

 neglect the proper correlation of industries necessarj- to a well balanced 

 industrial society. It is possible that in setting aside one region for 

 manufacture and another for agriculture and in the consequent movement 

 of goods back and forth we have come to do more shipping and counter- 

 shipping than is really profitable. 



In America specialization by regions has always been strongly marked 

 both in the extractive and manufacturing industries and nowhere have 

 these twin handmaids of society been so sharply divided from one another. 

 The history through which our country has passed, involving the early 

 populating of an Atlantic strip of country and tlie gradual westward 

 pushing of the frontier of settlement has brought it about that the more 

 intricate manufactures which normally appear only in an economic 

 society of some maturity and resource were first rooted in the east. The 

 west became accustomed to look to the east and to know the qualities 

 and brands and firm names of the east. This industrial geography in 

 which the west and the south have been largely agricultural and the north- 

 east manufacturing has compelled the farmer to sell in a distant market 

 and buy from a distance and a considerable fraction of his energy has 

 been devoted to paying the costs of transportation and middlemen. We 

 appear in this country to go on the assumption that other things being 

 equal we should buy from the largest center of i)roduction. Should it 

 not be rather that, other things being equal, we should look for our 

 supplies as near home as possible. 



I have no doubt that every day many car loads of goods enter this State 

 and are distributed to all parts of it, coming from distant producing 

 regions, while at the same time car loads of practically the same goods leave 

 the State to seek distant markets. We often buy and sell in New York where 

 we might Avith more profit buy and sell with our neighbors. If Michigan 

 people knew^ more about what Michigan produces and would patronize 

 themselves, where price and quality permitted, they would greatly advance 

 the prosperity of the State. Within "reasonable limits, I think, our policy 

 should be to send out of the State as little as possible of new materials, 

 as much as possible of completely elaborated products. Thus saving for 

 ourselves as many as jtossible of the profits of the correlated steps in the 

 production of goods. We need to mingle more thoroughly in every com- 

 munity the necessary elements of a normal industrial society. 



In pursuing this policy it is manifestly necessary to make a wise 

 selection of industries. The location of suitable raw materials and motive 

 power, of an adequate labor supply and of shipping and banking facilities 



