Bo INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
war standards of living and volume of business would be 
normal now. Normalcy is a vastly higher and more com- 
fortable standard than 1913. We must not judge the state 
of business activity by pre-war figures, but by a highly 
increased base. 
There has been in the past decade an unparalleled growth 
of our industrial and commercial efficiency and our conse- 
quent ability to consume. I do not refer to that growth of 
productivity which should naturally be expected to accom- 
pany the increment of 14 millions of our population during 
the last decade, nor do I refer to the increase in dollar figures 
due to higher prices. . . . But exhaustive study from many 
angles of production over average periods ten years apart, 
before and since the war, would indicate that while our pro- 
ductivity should have increased about 15 per cent., due to the 
increase in population, yet the actual increase has been from 
25 to 30 per cent. indicating an increase in efficiency of 
somewhere from 10 to 15 per cent. . . . We have been able 
to add to our standards of living by the more general distri- 
bution of many articles which were either altogether luxuries 
ten years ago, or which were luxuries to a large portion of 
the population. Thus an increased proportion of the popu- 
lation are using electric lights, telephones, automobiles and 
better housing—and have added movies and what not to their 
daily routine. A rough estimate would show that we could 
to-day supply each person the same amount of commodities 
that he consumed ten years ago, and lay off about 2,000,000 
from work. 
Some people have looked upon these additions of new com- 
modities and services in the daily expenditure of our people 
as representing extravagances, but as a matter of fact they 
are no entrenchment upon savings. They are the product of 
better organized effort. 
I wish to impress again that I am not confusing the natu- 
ral increment that would arise from increased population, or 
not confusing the increased dollar figures due to higher 
prices, but that this is an actual increase of commodities and