Page:Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects.djvu/58

50 moral lever, by which, like Archimedes of old, we may seek to raise the world.

There is at the present time a very gratifying circumstance in connection with the extension of machinery; namely, the large remuneration which operatives who work machines actually receive compared with those who perform hand labour without the help of machinery. I would here mention, with reference to the amount of wages paid to the operative, that it does not depend solely on the master manufacturers of this country, but is governed in some measure by what is paid by the manufacturers of other countries who are in competition with our own. When I was in America in 1853, I found that the American operatives received somewhat more wages than are paid in this country; but they worked much longer hours, although the climate, during some parts of the year, is so unfavourable. These longer hours enable the American manufacturer to turn over his capital more frequently.

This question of increased production, with which we, as mechanical engineers, are so identified, is so entirely dependent upon the power of the people to consume, that I hope I shall be excused in adverting to it. Our yearly exports now amount to about a hundred millions sterling, having doubled in a short time, while our home