But then we shall be told, "destroy _the sophism_; prove that machines
do not injure _human labor_, nor importations _national industry_."
In an essay of this nature such demonstrations cannot be complete. Our
aim is more to propose difficulties than to solve them; to excite
reflection, than to satisfy it. No conviction of the mind is well
acquired, excepting that which it gains by its own labor. We will try,
nevertheless, to place it before you.
The opponents of importations and machines are mistaken, because they
judge by immediate and transitory consequences, instead of looking at
general and final ones.
The immediate effect of an ingenious machine is to economize, towards
a given result, a certain amount of handwork. But its action does not
stop there: inasmuch as this result is obtained with less effort, it
is given to the public for a lower price; and the amount of the
savings thus realized by all the purchasers, enables them to procure
other gratifications--that is to say, to encourage handwork in
general, equal in amount to that subtracted from the special handwork
lately improved upon--so that the level of work has not fallen, though
that of gratification has risen.
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