Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 654]

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History University of Illinois

million subjects subsisting on black bread and a morsel of cheese. On the contrary, we think the many may be directly reached, individually taught, and placed on a higher and nobler plane in the scale of humanity and of enlightened society. All about us, manufacturers and employers of mechanical labor, in general, are complaining of the gross want of drill in their professions, of a great number of those whom they employ. Can nothing be done to remedy the defect? We think there can be, and it is this class that the undersigned propose to reach by the institution which they ask your Honorable Body to establish. So of the farmer. His sons can read and write, in fact possess a good common school education. Can nothing be done still farther to qualify them for the most useful pursuits of agriculture? We think there can; be. Congress evidently thought that both the agriculturalist and mechanic might be individually reached, educated and elevated, and themselves and the State thereby benefited, and it is with this view that the undersigned now ask your Honorable Body to establish, in Chicago, a distinct institution in which whatever pertains to the mechanic arts may be taught. They desire it not as citizens of Chicago, nor because it will especially benefit that place, but because they firmly believe it will be most for the interests of the class of mechanics throughout the State. They entertain no jealousy towards any other locality, and they have none but feelings of the utmost respect and kindness towards the friends of agriculture. But let it be recollected that whatever benefits the mechanic, benefits the farmer. With more mechanical skill, the farmer gets a better machine or implement, and at a lower price. With the advance of knowledge, competition increases, more and better labor is performed, in the same time, and there is also a greater consumption, because more use for the products of the soil. So, on the other hand, the prosperity of the farmer conduces to the wealth of the manufacturer and mechanic, jf With success in agriculture, more and better implements are in demand, and as the farmer's means increase, so will his wants be multiplied; let there be, then, no rivalry between him and the mechanic. Their true interests are inseparable— neither can suffer without also occasioning injury to the other.