REPORT OF MR. HINTON.
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tered to excel in what each produces. It is of vital importance to the world at larsre that this should be done.
O
The introduction of steam machinery into industry has, without doubt, added greatly to the power and comfort of mankind; but in its onward progress it has left behind, or destroyed, some things that it would have been well to retain; and, among others, the artisan, thoroughly master of his craft in all its parts. One-branch hands are in the majority to-day—quick at a single thing only, as making the head of a pin or the handle of an iron shovel.
It is not at all surprising that there are so many empty- headed and shallow-pated men in each community, who are so conceited as to think they have nothing to learn. This dwarfing of mental powers engenders a whole train of evils. Opeii the closed mines of the workman’s brains, and he becomes at once a thinker for himself, his work a pleasure to himself, and his life a blessing to all with whom he comes hi contact. Thus, if Austria should apparently lose money in her immediate efforts to elevate the taste and aspiration of her people, ere long it will return to her with compound interest.
The Exposition itself will have a great effect upon the nation. The native artificers, manufacturers and designers, have been able to compare the work of all the world with their own. In making this comparison they will have learned many lessons, and the varied literature the Exposition has called forth carries to their homes the ideas of men trained to observe and to report upon their observations. They must have noticed the general average ability of nearly all the European countries, in the staple manufactured articles m every day use, such as calicoes, boots, woollen cloth, etc. This is owing to the general acceptance of the same kind of machinery to perform the work. No sooner is a labor-saving machine invented in one country than it is copied entire, or m its essential parts, and used in every country where it is deeded.
America and England have supplied the rest of the world ^ffh more practical help in this way than all the other Wations put together; yet with all this start, the other Nations are creeping up to these in industrial progress.
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