Page:Quarterlyoforego10oreg 1.djvu/301

Rh and strength of mind and moral force, that there was in it before the corporations had drawn off from the healthful pursuits of the country life, the young women of the country. And I believe, Mr. Chairman, that he was right."

Mr. Deady, president of the convention and mover of the motion under discussion, said, great deal has been said about bringing capital into the country and encouraging enterprise. How much better will we be off then than now? Contrast your own condition with the countries that have manufactories scattered over them. They have millions of wealth, and millions of poor human beings degraded into the condition of mere servants of machinery, overtasked and overworked, and seething in misery and crime from the age of puberty to the grave. Enter in imagination if you will one of those giant factories, so common in old England or in New England. See that hive of human beings with scarcely room to breathe, keeping time to the revolutions of the never ceasing unwearied machinery, and notice the sunken eye, and the collapsed chest, and the mournful sense of servitude legible on every limb. Contrast their condition with the condition of your people, breathing the pure air, with the canopy of heaven for ventilator, and then tell me with whom is the preference? Every one must admit that the preference is with us. And why? It is with us simply for the reason that we yet retain our individual independence, and have not become absorbed by these institutions which dwarf the energies of the body and the soul. I am not in favor of encouraging a fungus growth of improvement in this country."

While provisions for the unlimited liability of the individual stockholder was not incorporated in the constitution a very strong array of inhibitions to prevent the use of public funds for corporations for internal improvement was put in. And yet new conditions developed a new attitude, and led to a different policy though the old constitutional provisions remain. In 1870, state bonds were voted for a canal and locks company. Anticipated proceeds from the internal improvement