SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X. 573 



This wonderful development in labor-saving machines has not tended 

 toward a better training of either man's physical or mental powers. We 

 all agree that it requires some physical strength and some physical exer- 

 cise to run most of the machinery used upon the farms today. However, 

 it has always been one object of the inventor to make the machine as 

 nearly automatic as possible, thus requiring as little attention and as 

 little physical force on the part of the man as possible. "Any child can 

 handle it," is an attractive feature and one much used in the advertise- 

 ment of machines. I would not return to the former days of muscle- 

 straining and back-breaking methods of work, just for the sake of secur- 

 ing more exercise for the body. Even the easiest work upon a farm 

 giives enough physical exercise to satisfy nearly every one, I judge. Wliile 

 the use of machinery makes the labor of the farm less irksome, it does 

 not make it more beneficial to the body. Some muscles may receive little 

 exercise, while others are really overworked. This is not to be wondered 

 at and perhaps can not be remedied very materially, as farm machinery 

 is not intended to be, a.t the same time, gymnasium apparatus for the 

 proper development- of the human body. These statements are not made 

 as arguments against machinery, but to snow the truth of the assertion 

 that machine work does not necessarily train the physical powers of 

 man. 



Likewise, the more automatic the device, the less thinking required on 

 the part of the mian running it. No machine will run of its own accord 

 and the man who gets the best service from it is the man who has 

 mental power enough to see the principle that controls its working. 

 Such a man is greater than the machine, is able to think, and knows 

 when every part is doing its best; he also knows how to remedy the 

 trouble if everything is not doing its best. Many persons do not seem 

 to be attracted by the running of a machine, and while they may be good 

 thinkers in many lines they can not or do not do the thinking necessary 

 to bring about a successful result with the machine. The tendency 

 then is to get a machine that needs little attention and less thought. 

 ■'You push the button", and the machine idoes the rest is the goal of 

 labor-saving devices. 



These things being true, we see that our shops, our homes, our barns, 

 our fields, full of machinery, do not necessarily train man's mental 

 powers. A few, however, have been trained by some means to see com- 

 pletely, to think logically, and to construct things accurately or we 

 could not have these improvements. We call such persons men of 

 genius, but Edison says, "genius is nothing but a capacity for hard 

 work." Not all of us can be Edisons, but all can do some good thinking 

 and get good results from it. 



If you have read the Review of Reviews for December, you may 

 have noticed the article on "Our National Prosperity," during the past 

 ten years and especially during the last year. At no time in our his- 

 toiry have we seen such abundant returns for our labors. In 1890, the 

 value of all farm property was sixteen billion dollars; today, it is 

 twenty-six and one-half billion dollars. In 1890, the value of farm pro- 

 ducts was two and one-half billion dollars; today, it is seven billion 

 dollars. In 1890, the value of farm product? per capita of all engaged 



