AMERICAN POTTERY. 



of development, and ultimately to become extensive exporters, 

 not only of crockery, but also of those porcelain wares which em- 

 body artistic excellence, and sometimes the triumphs of genius 

 for fictile design. So far every advancing step in the industry on 

 our soil has been rapidly upward. Already the inventive talent 

 of our countrymen has very largely substituted labor-saving ma- 

 chinery for the toil of human hands so prevalent in Europe, with 

 the immediate effect of greatly cheapening cost in production, and 

 thus placing American manufacturers more nearly upon an equality 

 of competition with the long-established factories in the Old 

 World, based on low wages. In the production of several classes 

 of wares an overwhelming advantage has been gained in this way. 

 An instance of this appears in the fact that porcelain door-knobs 

 have fallen in price at the pottery works from $12 to $3 per thou- 

 sand. Other hardware trimmings are now sold for less than one- 

 quarter of the price they brought from 1845 to 1848, when the 

 duty was much lower than it now is. With growing experience 

 in business, and with improved methods in manufacture, results of 

 such kind will be multiplied, until expansion of demand and 

 domestic rivalry shall so permanently and comprehensively achieve 

 cheapness as to shut out foreign competition, besides giving us a 

 large export trade. Then we shall not need to go to Minton, Rol- 

 lins & Co., of Great Britain, in order to procure tile pavement 

 for our public buildings, as we had to do for the new capitol 

 at Washington. But without Protection to home industry, we 

 would have to buy from England not only tiles, but even the ma- 

 terial for our national flag, as used to be the shameful case. 



