212 Evohition of the Mechanic Arts. 



additional crime, another injustice, can be committed 

 against land and all that concerns agriculture and its true 

 prosperity, nay, is being committed at this time, the 

 evidences of Avhich are being written all over tlie face of 

 the lands of our fair country, built into our cities from 

 foundation to turret-stones, stamped indelibly upon our 

 political, moral and religious life, formed into the very 

 intellectual substance of our people, and co-ordinated "with 

 our entire civilization. I refer to that use of tlie machim ry 

 of transportation by land and by sea, by railroad and by 

 steamship, through which the agricultural interests of Kew 

 England, of the East, and of the occupying race of men 

 and their civilization, are being destroyed, and inferior 

 aliens in race and civilization are being put in possession in 

 their places. Already destruction has begun to reach as 

 far West as Micliigan, where land valu' s have seriously 

 declined ; and it is destined to continue its westward march 

 across the continent, unless we promptly learn the true 

 lesson of the use of machinery in relation to land and its 

 products. It is this desolation of the land and the masses 

 that is enriching the few the railroad kings. 



As to manufactures, a similar principle holds good, but 

 wnth variations peculiar to that branch of industry. Thvis, 

 machinery and invention may be used in su(;h a Avay as to 

 consume and destroy wealth elsewhere and otherwise pro- 

 duced; but inevitably the effect of their proper use is to 

 increase wealth understanding that wealth means weal; 

 that it is not confined to movable capital ; and particularly 

 that it includes the labor of the wealth-})roducer, who is the 

 mechanic, or has to do with the mechanic arts. 



The answer to the second question, then, must be that 

 inventions have benefited the laboring classes, most where 

 justice most prevails, and least Avhere it least prevails. 

 Consequently, we find that in such countries even as Eng- 

 land, it is doubtful if they have benefited the entire labor- 

 ing class affected by the ])articular machinery and invention 

 considered, though individiud benefits have been realized.. 

 \n America, it is certain that the cotton-gin strengthened 

 slavery, degraded the laborer, utterly demoralized the 

 owner of the cotton-gin, mentally, morally and politically, 

 led up to rebellion, and still promotes disorder, cruelty, 

 and, in the last analysis of cause and effect, even whole- 

 sale tyranny and murder. An essay might well be written 



