250 LAND AND LABOR. 



The reply will be, that by the operation our people 

 get their sugar and molasses cheaper. 



Cheap sugar and molasses are not the vital wants 

 of society ; nor is cheapness the great want in any 

 other thing. The primal requirement of the masses 

 is that employment which is to be found only in the 

 liberal supplying of their own necessities and comforts. 

 The strife for cheapness has proved the national curse. 

 Cheapness and poverty are inseparable, and are al- 

 ways found associated with idleness and competition. 

 But constant employment, liberal compensation, and 

 comfort, are the blessed trinity of true social and in- 

 dustrial economy. 



As with sugar and molasses so with iron, with tex- 

 tiles, and many other things. 



But a loud cry will go up that foreign commerce 

 will be destroyed. 



Well, what would be the harm done if it were de- 

 stroyed ? Has it ever proved an unmixed blessing to 

 us ? It certainly is not the chief want of man, and 

 it would not be difficult to show that it has been far 

 more of a curse than a blessing. But it would not 

 destroy commerce ; it would simply change its char- 

 acter. Whilst for every dollar lost to foreign com- 

 merce, there would be ten dollars added to home 

 trade. This point has been sufficiently discussed in 

 another chapter. 



Both social and national prosperity is to be found 

 only in the development of our own industries, and 

 the employment of our own people. This can be best 

 done by the full and complete adoption of all of the 

 most effective and perfect devices for the use of me- 



