Within five
years--not quite a century ago--these two men were putting in forms
which could be seen, ideas which brought our countrymen large measures
of both weal and woe. In 1790, Samuel Slater, once an apprentice to
Strutt and Arkwright, built the mill at Pawtucket which taught Americans
the art of cotton-spinning; and before 1795, Eli Whitney had invented
the gin which easily cleansed the cotton boll of its seeds, and so made
marketable the great crop we have spoken of. Many men have made more
noise in the world than Slater and Whitney; few if any can be named
whose peaceable hand-craft has done so much to give this country its
front place in the markets of the globe.
Let me come nearer home, and as I take my seat let me name a son of
this very town who loved hand-craft and rede-craft, and worthily aided
both--Isaiah Thomas, the patriot printer, editor, and publisher,
historian of the printer's craft in this land, and founder of the far
famed antiquarian library, eldest in that group of institutions which
gave to Worcester its rank in the world of letters, as its many products
give it standing in the world of industry and art.
Mindful of three such worthies, it is not strange that Salisbury,
Washburn, Boylston, and many more have built up this high school of
handicraft; it will be no wonder if others like minded build on the
foundations which have been so fitly laid.
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