626 



MACHINERY. 



procure a machine, which, with the aid ot one, will 

 do the work of the twenty, nineteen, of course, 

 must be deprived of employment. When this 

 takes place on a small scale, the inconvenience is 

 not great. The little labour that is turned out of 

 its accustomed channels, is almost immediately ab- 

 sorbed by other employments. Every trace and 

 vestige of evil at once disappears. When, however, 

 the experiment is made on a grander scale, when 

 a great number of machines, superseding the ne- 

 cessity of a vast quantity of human labour, are 

 suddenly brought into use, the consequences are 

 more serious. A multitude of labourers are, at 

 once, thrown out of work. They find it difficult 

 to obtain other employment, and in fact are, in 

 some measure, unfitted for it by their previous oc- 

 cupations. They have no resources but their 

 labour. Their daily wages supply their daily sus- 

 tenance. Want of work instantly reduces them 

 to beggary; and sometimes, under these circum- 

 stances, their distress is great. The same effect is 

 produced by over-production. A farmer may grow 

 as much in one year, as he can dispose of in two. 

 A manufacturer may, in like manner, have a super- 

 abundant stock of goods on his hands. Neither 

 will be likely to go on producing at the same rate 

 as before. Some of their workmen must be dis- 

 charged; and then the same consequences follow, 

 as upon the introduction of labour-saving machines. 

 These consequences will be imperceptible, if the 

 over-production be slight and partial ; but if it be 

 great and general, they will be plainly seen and 

 deeply felt. Sometimes both the causes we have 

 mentioned concur. Machinery substitutes bodies 

 of iron, with souls of steam, to do the work of 

 living men ; and the prospect of immense gain 

 stimulates production to such an excess, that the 

 markets of the whole world are glutted. This was 

 the case with the cotton manufacture in 1825. Al. 

 most the whole of the machinery employed in this 

 manufacture, has been in vented within the last fifty 

 years. When it had been introduced into general 

 use, the same effects upon human labour followed, 

 as in the case of the printing-press. The price of 

 cotton fabrics was reduced. The demand for con- 

 sumption increased, and the supply was extended 

 to meet the demand. Some, who had been accus- 

 tomed to spin and weave at home, lost their work ; 

 but a greater number found employment in the fac- 

 tories. On the whole, the number of persons em- 

 ployed in this business, instead of diminishing, 

 considerably increased. The inventions of 1816 

 had a great effect upon this state of things. Among 

 other improvements, the power-loom was intro- 

 duced. Requiring only the superintendence of a 

 single individual, it performed the labour of num- 

 bers. Then, to use the language of another 

 writer, "on every hand the living artisan was driven 

 from his work-shop, to make room for a speedier 

 inanimate one. The shuttle dropped from the 

 fingers of the weaver, and fell into iron fingers, 

 that could ply it faster." These improvements in 

 machinery, of course, occasioned a good deal of 

 inconvenience and distress among the workmen ; 

 and before these evils could be wholly cured by the 

 natural operation of the causes which produced 

 them, a heavier calamity was to happen. The 

 manufacture, aided by the new inventions, went on 

 with unabated, with increased activity. The 

 disproportion between the cost of production and 

 the price of the manufactured article, gave im- 

 mense profits. Millions were added to the millions 



already in vest id in the business. The production 

 of the raw material kept pace with the extension 

 of the manufacture. At length, the supply fur 

 exceeded the demand. The warehouses of the 

 world were filled. Prices suddenly fell to half of 

 what they were before. Multitudes were ruined. 

 Thousands of families were reduced to beggary. 

 Some manufacturers discharged a part of their 

 workmen, while they retained the rest at reduced 

 wages. Many ceased to struggle with the adverse 

 torrent, and discharged all their hands, and shut 

 up their factories. The distress that ensued may, 

 perhaps, be imagined. We are not competent to 

 describe it. To aid the conception of our readers, 

 however, we will quote the language of one, who 

 was an eye-witness of a scene of distress, occa- 

 sioned by a similar, but slighter cause. 



" Within a small distance of my house," says 

 this person, "is a large manufactory, the machinery 

 of which extends nearly half a mile. I passed by 

 it one morning, after its operations were suspended, 

 and was exceedingly affected by the sight. A little 

 while before, it was all animation and industry, af- 

 fording honourable means of livelihood to many 

 thousands of my fellow-creatures. The silence 

 that now pervaded it spoke more eloquently and 

 impressively to my heart, than any language could 

 possibly do ; it was the silence of unmingled deso- 

 lation. I visited a row of houses occupied by the 

 workmen. The doors were used to be open, in- 

 viting the eye of the stranger to glance, as he went 

 along, at their neatness, cleanliness, and felicity. 

 Little groups of healthful children were accustomed 

 to appear about the cottages, full of merriment and 

 joy; and the inhabitants, strong and healthy, saluted 

 you as they went by. But the scene was lament- 

 ably changed. The cottages were closed. The 

 inhabitants could not bear to have it known that 

 they were stripped of their little ornaments. No 

 children played about the doors. The very plants 

 that were trained up in their windows, had pined 

 and died. One man only appeared, emaciated and 

 ghastly, a frightful spectre, as if the sepulchre had 

 sent forth its inhabitants, to fill with terror the 

 abodes of the living." 



It is not at all wonderful, that distress so sore 

 as this should drive men to do what afterwards they 

 are sorry for. Extreme misery impairs the moral 

 sense. The distinctions of right and wrong are 

 apt to be obscured and lost sight of, in the tumult 

 and tempest of passion. Resentment is almost 

 always blind. Its violence generally expends itself 

 on the apparent cause of injury; while it seldom 

 reaches the real cause. It so happened in this 

 case. The labouring classes cried out against 

 machinery, and some statesmen, too, joined in the 

 cry, when the principal source, by far the most 

 fruitful source, of calamity, was an imprudent and 

 excessive production, stimulated by high prices. 

 Even this, however, is but a transitory evil. The 

 bright and cheering beams of prosperity are inter- 

 cepted only by a temporary eclipse. They are not 

 quenched. They are not extinguished. When 

 production ceases to be profitable, a part of the 

 industry employed in it will be withdrawn. When 

 other employment is found for it, the distress will 

 vanish. And this will take place in a longer or 

 shorter time, according to the circumstances of the 

 nation, and the amount of labour thrown out of 

 employment. If machinery bear a part in occasion- 

 ing distress, it also helps to remove it. If over- 

 production do not irritate the wound, it will soon 



