The river's power has not changed; but the
inventive, creative genius of man has been applied to it, and new and
astonishing results are produced. With man himself this change has been
even greater. In proportion to the population of the country, we are
daily dispensing with manual labor, and yet we are daily increasing the
national production. There is more mind directing the machinery
propelled by the forces of nature, and more mind directing the machinery
of the human body. The result is, that a given product is furnished by
less outlay of physical force. Formerly, with the old spinning-wheel and
hand-loom, we put a great deal of bone and muscle into a yard of cloth;
now we put in very little. We have substituted mind for physical force,
and the question is, which is the more economical? Or, in other words,
is it of any consequence to the employer whether the laborer is ignorant
or intelligent?
Before we discuss this point abstractly, let us notice the conduct of
men. Is any one willing to give an ignorant farm laborer as much as he
is ready to pay for the services of an intelligent man? And if not, why
the distinction? And if an ignorant man is not the best man upon a farm,
is he likely to be so in a shop or mill? And if not, we see how the
proprietors of factories are interested in elevating the standard of
learning, in the mills and outside. But they are not singular in this.
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