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... Ay," continued he, with a sigh, "machinery will be the ruin of us all one day or other. ... I call machinery, whatever helps us to make things easier or better than we could do with our naked hands; whether it be a spade or a pickaxe, a hammer or a chisel, or the great steam engine that sets all the cotton-winders machines a-going. ... 27
"Theres no factory that can go alone," replied Hopkins: "there are always men and women, ay, and children too, wanted to manage the machinery. ... "—"Fewer, no doubt," said Jackson, "by just the number thrown out of work by the new or improved machinery. ... "You never think of the increase of work at the factories in consequence of the new machinery; and of the number of people in the end employed in them. ... "—"Lookye, goody, added he; "not only is this large family of yours supplied with food and clothing by machinery, but some of them may owe their very lives to it; for they might have died from want, had there been no factory here. ... "—"And he was right," continued Hopkins; "theres no reckoning up the good that comes of machinery one way or other. ... Because we can make goods cheaper, and all on account of the superiority of our machinery. ... How, then, can machinery prevent labour? ... "They have," replied Hopkins; "they are always after copying our machinery; but John Bull is a shrewd fellow, and contrives to keep a-head of them all. He has a quick insight and a ready hand, and is for ever inventing something new to improve his machinery, and get the work done better or cheaper than his neighbours, so as to be able to undersell them. ... Why, if machinery drove people away to foreign lands, or starved them at home, there would be a decrease instead of an increase of people, would there not? ... "—"Talk till doomsday," replied Jackson, "you will never persuade me, that when the master manufacturer hits upon some new devise to improve his machinery, its with an eye to the good of any but himself. ... And I have told you, over and over again, (but I cannot hammer it into your head,) that the way to make things cheap is to produce them by machinery. ... You well know theres a much greater demand for cheap than for dear goods; and, in order to satisfy so great a demand, more and more must be made, and more hands taken in at the factory; till, in the end, many more come to be employed to manage the machinery than there was before to do the work without it. ... "I found it rather hard at first; but he helped me on with it by an explanation now and then; and its there I learnt all the good that comes of machinery, and the folly and wickedness of opposing it. ... —"Here it is," returned Hopkins, producing the volume on the results of machinery. ... "Here," said he, "they are talking of a poor ignorant people called the New Zealanders, who had no machinery whatever; scarcely so much as a tool to work with. ... 47
"The New Zealanders live exactly on the opposite side of our globe; and, therefore, very seldom come near us; but, when they do come, they are acute enough to perceive the advantages which machinery has conferred upon us: and the great distance, in point of comfort, between their state and ours, principally for the reason that they have no machinery, while we have a great deal. ... 49
"And, do you know, Jackson, that, if you read the history of England, you will see that, once upon a time, (its ages ago; before any factories were set up,) England was no better off than New Zealand; so you see what we have gained by our machinery. ... The rioters were always put down, sooner or later: some were hanged, others transported, and the improvements in machinery went on all the same.
Approximate Word count = 5941
Approximate Pages = 23.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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