18S0.] '^ [Blodget. 



These primary and necessary industries, as they may be characterized, 

 are here as liighly developed in ornamentation and artistic effect as many 

 of tlie more costly textile tabiics. Once established on a basis of skilled 

 artizaus resident here the changes which are required for assimilation 

 with the country are effected easily and without disturbing that basis, or 

 weakening its identity. The German workman is not less a German or the 

 English knitter not less a representative of Englisli sliill because of the new 

 adaptations wliicli he acquires here, or is directed to employ by a proprie- 

 toi- who uses steam power where hand power only was previously employed. 



This age is as luxurious in some of its tastes and demands as any that 

 has preceded it, but iu others it is much more moderate. The costly royal 

 cloths of Spain, rich of themselves and loaded with gold or silver embroid- 

 ery, are no longer demanded by any market ; and it is only in fabrics exclu- 

 sively of silk that such obvious luxury finds an acceptable outlet. But 

 what is wanting on the more costly is more than made up on the average 

 quality of fabrics in universal use. 



The relation of these industries to the prosperity of the cities where they 

 exist, and to that of the nation or country iu which they form a prominent 

 feature of general business, is not less marked now than at any former 

 period. And the adaptations of steam power, which now increase pro- 

 duction enormously without impairing its quality, must invariably accu- 

 mulate wealth more rapidly than was possible before steam was known. 

 The 16,000 looms of Seville constituted a remarkable productive force for 

 the age in which they flourished, and they may well be named with pride 

 by the Spanish minister ; but there are 30,000 looms driven by steam power 

 in Philadelphia, producing a vastlj^ greater aggregate of such fabrics as 

 this age demands ; and though inferior in costliness, it is probable that they 

 are as productive in material wealth to the city as were the looms of that 

 once splendid city of Spain. 



If this is in fact the natural line of movement from one country to another 

 of these greater industries, the matter is worthy of consideration on higher 

 grounds than those which are merely commercial or industrial in the busi- 

 ness sense. The evidence is too strong to admit of doubt that the industrial 

 migrations, taking with them the foundation industries in wool, silk and 

 cotton, have made this city of Philadelphia their chief point of diestination; 

 not exclusively, however, but with a liberal distribution in northern cities. 

 They do not find so much to favor them in the factory towns of New Eng- 

 land, to which only the workmen in like factories iu England or on the 

 continent find themselves adapted. These factories represent a different 

 class, distinctly separated from the aggregations of skilled workmen in 

 Lyons, Paris, Philadelphia and like large cities. They are in some res- 

 pects higher and more advanced developments ; but they rest on a more 

 narrow basis. A factory or corporation may exist for twenty years in one 

 locality without fixing there an associated business which would survive 

 the stoppage of the one mill. But here it is the workmen and their looms 

 that constitute the fixture. The mill and tlie steam power are a valuable 



PIIOC. AMEK. PHILOS. SOC. XIX. 107. J. PlllNTED AUGUST 8, 18S0. 



