350 [Assembly 



they can emulate the examples of those who have gone before them ; 

 nor can they otherwise expect to add to the stock of improvements 

 or inventions already made. The great object, indeed, to be de- 

 sired in the progress and advancement of the Mechanic Arts, is of it- 

 self sufficient to cause every individual of the profession to enlist his 

 best energies in its behalf. It is in affect, by the multiplication and 

 perfection of the various instruments and machines employed, so to 

 reduce in the event the amount of manual labor required for man's 

 comfort and sustenance, as to restore him, in a measure, to his primeval 

 condition. At first he was permitted to live on the spontaneous pro- 

 ductions of the earth, and these were abundant and satisfactory. And 

 if he should be enabled, by his discoveries and inventions, to approxi- 

 mate in any degree to that state once more, it will be one evidence 

 among others, that he is fulfilling the object of his mission in the 

 world. 



It is a ftitile and idle objection urged by the untutored and ignor- 

 ant, that the introduction of machinery is attended with injury to 

 the working classes, diminishing their chances of employment, and 

 lessening the price of labor and the amount of wages. So far, in- 

 deed, as respects the precise manner in which they had been previous- 

 ly occupied, this is, doubtless to a great extent, true. There will be 

 no need of the same number of operatives in the way in which they 

 had before been engaged, when machinery is substituted to do a much 

 larger proportion of the same kind of work ; the services of one in- 

 dividual, with the aid that he shall in this manner receive, being ren- 

 dered equal to what had been done previously by many. But, then, 

 it must be borne in mind that machinery, by doing a much greater 

 quantity of work, lessens the price of the manufactured material ; 

 and in the same, and still greater ratio, increases the demand for its 

 use. Besides, the very construction of the machinery requires the 

 services of a great number of operatives, who had, it may be, until 

 then remained idle, and those who may for a season be thrown out 

 of employment, will be soon necessarily occupied in a different and 

 more profitable manner. In fact, it has been found that in every in- 

 .stance where machinery has been introduced, it has invariably increas- 

 ed the demand for operatives and has raised the price of labor ; so 



