XXII 
AMERICAN PREFACE. 
Observe that in this, the greatest of the agricultural States, a 
trifle more tlian one-lialf of the employed population is engaged in 
agriculture, vvhile a trifle less tlian one-third is engaged in trade 
and transportation, and in manufaeturing, meehanical, and mining 
Industries. To-day agriculture holds the same commanding position 
in Illinois that it once held in Pennsylvania and New York. But 
this will not always be ; manufactures will gradually come to the 
front in Illinois as elsewhere. Why, indeed, should not the larger 
part of the surplus food produced by Illinois farmers be consumed 
in Illinois, as it might be if she had a large manufaeturing popula 
tion? Were the manufactures of Illinois as well developed, in 
Proportion to her agriculture, as tliey are in Massachusetts, her 
population would be to-day 10,000,000. Would that be the worse 
for the farmers? Or, take a European comparison wliich has 
already been used: Switzerland, with 15,223 square miles of 
territory, much of it waste, had, in 1870, a population of 2,669,- 
147, or somewhat more tlian that of Illinois with 55,405 square 
miles of territory. Thougli she is without a port, the commerce of 
Switzerland, as previously stated, has long been, in proportion to 
her population, larger than that of any of her Continental neigk- 
bors, mainly because of the great skill and taste of her workmen 
industrially educated. If Switzerland, in the lieart of Europe and 
with enemies all about her, can make such a record, what may 
not Illinois, in the lieart of America and surrounded only by 
friends, accomplish, if she will? 
Skill and taste are the product of education in the main: tliey 
are cosmopolitan, can make tkemselves as much at home in one 
place as in another ; tliej’ certainly do not prefer a sterile to a fertile 
soil,— Switzerland to Illinois. Among all the kinds of manufac 
tures wdiich involve skill and taste, and do not require water-power 
for tlieir cheap production, there undoubtedly are many kinds well 
adapted to the climate and other local conditions of Illinois. 
Whether tliey are ever successfUlly prosecuted in Illinois, will 
depend largely on whether the State does what has proved so 
efficient in Switzerland and iii so many other parts of the world, — 
whether the State gives her people a suitable education for the 
development of their skill and taste.