126 Transactions of the American Institute. 



ADDRESSES 



AT 



THE THIRTY- SEVENTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF THE 

 AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



OPENING ADDRESS. 



BY HON. H. GREELEY. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: In this metropolis of the commerce of 

 the New World, the American Institute uplifts the banner of labor 

 and of creative art. We are here distinctively as the champions and 

 representatives of labor, as employed and exemplified in agricul- 

 ture, in manufactures, and in mechanics. We are here not to place 

 labor in antagonism to trade, not to afSriii its ability to dispense 

 with the vivifying agencies of commerce; v/e are here only to assert 

 and maintain that production is primary to and more important 

 than distribution — that to produce is more necessary, more vital 

 than to exchange, and should have the first consideration in all 

 generous and beneficent public policies. The American Institute 

 maintains the essential harmony of all useful pursuits, the neces- 

 sary and natural relation of S3'mpathy, cordiality and mutual sup- 

 port, between all these beneficent creative interests. We affirm that 

 commerce should be the servant or ally, not the master, of indus- 

 try, and that the policies of governments and the efforts of states- 

 men, philanthropists, rulers, and all wise men, should be guided and 

 governed by this fundamental truth. We would have trade flourish, 

 but only so fast and so far as shall minister to the thrift and well- 

 being of labor. This exhibition testifies that industry has another 

 and nobler function, than the mere satisfaction of animal appetites 

 or material wants. We hold that labor is fundamentally the edu- 

 cation of the race, the elementary mainspring of its progress from 

 savageism up to the very highest condition of civilization and 

 enlightenment. Even though we were to admit that a people 

 might more advantageously, that is with greater material profit, 

 satisfy their wants by following only one branch of industry — say, 

 timber-cutting or corn-planting — and by exchanging its products 



