State has increased to 1,457,351; of whom 19,000 gained their livelihood on the sea, 67,550 by tilling the soil, and

279,380 by mechanical industry, — being an increase, in ten years, of 1,500 farmers and farm laborers, 3,000 mariners, and 63,000 engaged in manufacturing pursuits.

The annual value of farm produce amounted to $32,192,378, against $21,556,162 in 1855,- an increase of $10,636,216 in fifteen years.

The value of industrial products was $553,912,568, against $266,000,000 in 1860. Deducting the value of the raw materials, we have, as the actual net profit of the manufacturer, including wages, $219,498,586 in 1870, against $125,000,000 in 1860, an increase of $94,000,000, or 6 per cent., with an increased number of mechanics and operatives of only 29,3 per cent.

75

This large and increasing army of artisans and laborers is silently but surely moulding the destiny of the State, and changing the character and habits of our people. They contribute to the general comfort and well-being; they provide for our simplest wants and necessities, as well as minister to taste and refinement; the peace and security of the household, as well as the honor and dignity of the nation; the development and diffusion of knowledge, by the means of communication and transportation from one part of the country to the other, are becoming more and more dependent upon their enterprise, skill, and integrity.

It is to this swelling multitude of toilers that we, as an Association, owe one of our greatest responsibilities. They

are the producers, and by their labor comes the increase. It is not a matter of argument that success in business depends upon the manner in which it is conducted; but it is equally true, that good policy and sound judgment both dictate that, in a manufacturing community, every reasonable effort should be made to elevate the moral and social standard of those who toil. It will bring its compensation in the additional security of life and property; in an increased production, and consequent gain in wealth; and in a greater stability in the condition of the community, which arises from and grows with the general happiness, contentment, and well-being. But should that standard be suffered to abate, the evils to be precipitated upon us will be bitter, and our regrets unavailing.

The developments of improved processes, and the creation of new branches of industry, or radical changes in the methods of business, will sometimes work temporary embarrassments and losses to other interests or communities.

We cannot escape the inevitable consequences if we try. We may seek to control, we may guide them somewhat, but the revolution goes on, and there is nothing left for us but to abide the result, and adapt our methods of life and business to the new order of things.

Consider the case of Nantucket, for an example of the effect of the development of new and improved processes, and the want of diversity in her industrial interests. Thirty years ago one hundred whalers were owned and fitted out at the island; to-day, not one. Then, all was bustle and activity about her wharves and yards; now, her wharves are

falling to decay, her factories and buildings have been profitably removed to the mainland. She made whaling the one pursuit upon which her prosperity depended; a few experiments in a chemist's laboratory, changes in the means of transportation, and the oil wells of Pennsylvania, have done the work. Her population has diminished fifty per cent., being scarcely more than at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, and all for the want of a varied industry.

Out of these considerations, and the ineffectual effort to comprehend them, arise the vague notions that prevail concerning the relations which ought to exist between the employer and the employé, or, as it is incorrectly stated, between labor and capital; for there is scarcely an employer or manufacturing company in the State that is not just as dependent upon the capitalist as the humblest laborer, while they are the first and greatest sufferers from whatever causes create unnecessary apprehension and alarm. Upon this question some well-meaning persons, and others whose intentions are not so good, have for years endeavored to create an issue under the name of Labor Reform.

We cannot permanently improve the condition of any class from without. Reforms, to be radical and successful, must be from within; the application of the remedy must be internal and not external. No legal enactments can effectually correct abuses which arise from the prevailing habits and customs of the people, and which are not themselves amenable to law. Intemperance and vagrancy will never be removed from our midst by the operation of law, while it is considered social to

drink intoxicating liquors, and reputable to traffic in them as a beverage. No abundance of wages, or shortening of the hours of labor, can be productive of good to those with whom abundance is the incentive to extravagance, and leisure the opportunity for indolence, license, or excess.

Labor is the normal state of man's condition, and from it cometh health, plenty, and peace.

Whoever, being in health, labors not, is a drone; yet probably there never was a time in the history of this country when there was a greater disinclination to work at good, honest, productive toil than there is to-day. The spirit of unrest is deep-seated and wide-spread. It possesses both the thrifty and the thriftless: the one it urges to self-denial and the sacrifice of present comfort or enjoyment, that, sometime in the distant future, there may be realized the dream of an existence without labor; the other, while repining at his own ill fortune and the success of his neighbor, is only stimulated to work by his urgent necessities.

The causes which have led to this state of things are various: the convulsions and unsettling of established business relations, which have been so marked since the outbreak of the Rebellion, and were a natural consequence of a period of war and unreconciled peace; the spirit of speculation, destructive to the spirit of industry, and which is always produced by an unsettled state of values or credit; and, lastly, by a general individual prosperity, which is more widespread than is commonly admitted or even believed.

But, whatever the causes, or whatever the influences they

may exert upon human nature, it is the fact with which we have to deal, and for which we must devise a remedy. A series of resolutions which were recently adopted by a Labor-Reforma Convention, commenced with this proposition:

Poverty is the great fact with which the Labor movement has to deal." This statement ontains nothing new, as the amelioration of the ecolidia of the pourer and destitute Classes has always been the special scatirule of good government; but lit disregards in its statement other great fact, that, in this carry, and more party in this State, unjes I ANC all cases where as the rest of natural cluses, patirty is almost always the

eng of indolence,

or intemperance. Indeed, iv. be difficult to ind a case of want and destitution, in via the primary use was not one of these three.

The first is not indigenous to our peopic: whatever else y be said of them, a want of activity is said to be laid to their charge. Ignorance is almost entirely an importation ; and intemperance, though common to all grades of society, is more generally prevalent among the foreign population.

In 1855, the number of persons in the Commonwealth who could neither read nor write was 27,539, or 2.25 per cent. of the population. In 1865, the number had increased to 50,110, or 3.95 per cent. of the population. This large number of illiterate persons was divided as follows: males, 19,134; females, 30,976.

Number of American birth, including children of foreign parentage: