o constant, as well
as so light, with far more bodily exercise than formerly when sitting in
one position over the needle, and the wages were paid so punctually,
with no mean attempts to cut us down on the false plea of imperfect
work, that I came insensibly to the conclusion that a vast benefit had
been conferred on the sex by its introduction. Yet the apprehensions
felt by all sewing-women, when the new instrument was first brought out,
were perfectly natural. I have read that similar apprehensions were
entertained by others on similar occasions. When the lace-machines were
first introduced in Nottingham, they were destroyed by riotous mobs of
hand-loom weavers, who feared the ruin of their business. But where,
fifty years ago, there were but a hundred and forty lace-machines in use
in England, there are now thirty-five hundred, while the price of lace
has fallen from a hundred shillings the square yard to sixpence. Before
this lace-machinery was invented, England manufactured only two million
dollars' worth per annum, and in doing so employed only eight
thousand-hands; whereas now she produces thirty million dollars' worth
annually, and employs a hundred and thirty thousand hands. It has been
the same with power-looms, reapers, threshing-machines, and every other
contrivance to economize human labor. I am sure that my brother would be
thrown out of employment, if there were no steam-engine to operate the
foundry where he is at work, and that, if there were no sewing-machines,
my sister and myself would be compelled to join the less fortunate army
of seamstresses who still labor so unrequitedly for the slop-shops.

To satisfy my mind on this subject, I have looked into such books as I
have had time and opportunity to consult, and have found evidence of the
fact, that, the more we increase our facilities for performing work with
speed and cheapness, the more we shall have to do, and so the more hands
will be required to do it. The time was when it was considered so great
an undertaking for a man to farm a hundred acres, that very few persons
were found cultivating a larger tract. But now, with every farming
process facilitated by the use of labor-saving machines, there are farms
of ten thousand acres better managed than were formerly those of only a
hundred acres. There would be no penny paper brought daily to our door,
unless the same wonderful revolution had been made in all the processes
of the paper-mill, and in the