[v7 J 
it has still considerable lee-way to make good in this direction if it is to remain in 
existence, or whether, again, it should change its entire policy to meet the new 
conditions that have arisen. In addition to this, it should be possible for the 
industrialist himself to follow the course of developments outlined, and to decide, 
on the evidence submitted, what direction his own manufacturing and financial 
policy should take. 
Amidst a great diversity of movements, all contributory to economic pro- 
gress or its opposite, two main tendencies have been slowly coming into realisation 
in industry : 
(a) large-scale production, and, accompanying it, co-operation among 
producers ; 
(b) price stabilization and control. 
The emergence of the large-scale manufacturing unit was inevitable, granted a 
steady increase in the wealth and in the population of the world. The demands 
of a population of many millions are more difficult to meet than the demands of 
a small number of comparatively affluent residents enjoying special privileges 
through position or through inherited wealth, and the population reached now 
by the manufacturer, owing to improvements in communications and g greater 
diffusion of profitable activity among every class, coincides with the entire 
population of the country. The policy of selection can no longer be carried 
rigidly into practice ; the manufacturer must cater for the multitude, and meet 
demands which increase in complexity as standards of material well-being rise. 
It is unnecessary for us to go into detail regarding the sociological factors 
which have enforced mass-production on standard lines ; innumerable text- 
books deal with the subject, and the reports of recent commissions from the 
United States show how far these factors have been instrumental in changing 
not only our attitude to life, but also an entire industrial complex. The large- 
scale manufacturing unit came into existence to supply a standard article in 
immense quantities at a low price, at least as far as goods of everyday consump- 
tion were concerned ; Processes were standardized, designs standardized, materials 
purchased on a standard specification, costs standardized, and selling prices 
brought into exact relation with the costs of production; machinery was installed, 
wherever possible, to deal with the article in all its stages—at first under human 
control, but, in its final stages, wholly automatic in operation. The justification 
of such a system could scarcely be found at first in quality of workmanship, variety 
of design or beauty of product, but in low price and rapid delivery. In a later 
stage of development, some effort has been made to obtain something better 
than standardized designs and materials, but the problem of keeping prices low 
has, in the majority of such cases, still to be solved. 
B