They were in need of everything, even of experience and skill to render
their labor effective, and for a long time two out of every three blows
they strike are ill-directed or render no immediate return. Thus they
toil on, needing machinery, power, buildings, everything, to give them
a chance for rapid progress; and even Associationists stand ready to
wonder at their snail-paced advance, or reproach their occasional
failures!
As one Associationist who has given his efforts and means freely to the
cause, I feel that I have a right to speak frankly. I know that the
great number of our believers are far from wealthy; yet I know that
there is wealth enough in our ranks, if it were but devoted to it, to
give an instant and resistless influence to the cause. A few thousand
dollars subscribed to the stock of each existing Association would in
most cases extinguish the mortgages on its property, provide it with
machinery and materials, and render its industry immediately productive
and profitable. Then manufacturing invention and skill would fearlessly
take up their abode with our infant colonies; labor and thrift would
flow thither, and a new and brighter era would dawn upon them.
Fellow Associationists! I shall do whatever I can for the promotion of
our common cause; to it whatever I have or may hereafter acquire of
pecuniary ability is devoted; may I not hope for a like devotion from
you?
_A Prophecy.
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