88 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



of attaining it. 1 Moreover, the use of machine power has made 

 it possible for many now to devote themselves wholly to intel- 

 lectual pursuits without involving either the enslavement or the 

 degradation of others. 2 



Looking at the question from the standpoint of the whole 

 social body, there can be no other conclusion than that the use 

 of machinery, by increasing the supply of utilities and by making 

 utilities more accessible, 3 has opened the way to a greater number, 

 not only to live and to work, 4 but to develop themselves and to 

 make the most of themselves which their inherent qualities 

 may allow. 



1 To-day the world obtains commodities of excellent quality at prices which 

 even the preceding generation would have deemed incredible. . . . The poor enjoy 

 what the rich could not before afford. What were the luxuries have become the 

 necessaries of life. The laborer has more comforts than the farmer had a few 

 generations ago. The farmer has more luxuries than the landlord had and is more 

 richly clad and better housed. The landlord has books and pictures rarer, and 

 appointments mo*re artistic, than the king could then obtain. CARNEGIE, "The 

 Gospel of Wealth," p. 4 



2 If every instrument, at command, or from foreknowledge of its master's 

 will, could accomplish its special work ... if the shuttle would weave, and the 

 lyre play of itself ; then neither would the architect want servants, nor the master 

 slaves. ARISTOTLE, " Politics," Bk. I, sec. 4 (translation by Edward Walford) 



8 There is no fact in modern history more easily demonstrated than that the 

 products of steam-driven machinery are mainly consumed by the common people 

 the masses. GUNTON, "Principles of Social Economics," p. 147 



Quand je vous ai prouve, messieurs, que 1'introduction des machines expedi- 

 tives, telles que le moulin a farine, ne diminue pas les moyens d'existence de la 

 classe laborieuse, et n'a que 1'inconvenient, assez grave a la verite, de changer 

 la nature de ses occupations, je n'ai pas completement rendu justice aux machines. 

 Le fait est que, dans la plupart des cas, elles sont favorables aux ouvriers memes 

 dont elles semblaient supprimer le travail. Tout procede expeditif, en reduisant 

 les frais de production, met le produit a la portee d'un plus grande nombre de 

 consommateurs. L'experience prouve meme que le nombre des consommateurs 

 s'augmente dans une proportion bien plus rapide que la baisse du prix. J. 1 >. S.\ v, 

 " Cours complet d'economie politique," Vol. I, p. 193 



4 In der Behauptung, dass die Maschinen viele Arbeiter brotlos machen, liegt 

 etwas Wahres aber noch mehr Irriges. In gewissen Fallen werden allerdings 

 viele Arbeiter infolge einer neu eingefiihrten Maschine brotlos, aber ganz falsch 

 ist die Ansicht, dass die Bevolkerung iiberhaupt durch Kinfiihrung des Maschinen- 

 wesens vermindert werde. Die Ausdehnung des Maschinengebrauches ist sogar 

 eine der Hauptursachen der gestiegenen Bevolkerung gewesen, denn dadurch 

 wurde die Erzeugung von Nahrungsmitteln, Kleidern und anderen Giitern so 

 vermehrt, dass viel mehr Menschen erhalten werden konnen. Nicht bloss eine 

 allgemeine Vermehrung der Bevolkerung hat in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten 



