Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Article on Machine-Breaking: In Answer to Swing
But if the steward was an obstinate person, and had an anti-machinery maggot in his head, he might reply, that ifeach servant could do twice as much as before, it was evident only half the number would be wanted, and therefore half must be either sold to the, Midianites, or left to perish inkthe desert, which would be very hard upon the individuals. To which his master would reply, that if the gift of doing double work should fall on all of them at once as from the clouds, there might be some po'ssibility of a part of them being an encumbrance but if there was any thing gradual in the Operation, he, the master, would be answerable for work springing up for them as fast as. They could find the means of doing it, and that not a hoof should be left behind in consequence of improvements in the method. And if the master. As there appears no reason to doubt, was fond of seeing every body satisfied about him, he would take an Oppor tunity of representing to his people and followers, that'it-would be hard if the improvements did not in some degree turn to the advantage of every one of them - that if there was more com by ploughing than by digging, there must needs be better feed ing for themselves, their wives, and their little ones and that if cloth was easier made and more abundant, it was scarcely possible that the result should not be that the children would come by three shirts a-year instead of two. There would be no doubt that a principal portion of the advantage would fall to the share of the rich master and his immediate relatives; but it would also be certain, that the servants down to the lowest would be better and not worse for the alteration, and that they whould be unreasonable if they raised a-hue-and-cry against the c ange.
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