INTRODUCTION

in the increased productive efficiency of industry. This
remains to be done. A basis has, however, already been
laid down for such a constructive program by recent
agreements between organized labor and industrial management.
 Industry itself has been firmly committed to the
new wage theories. They are now passing from a status
of theoretical acceptance to one of practical application.
Both theoretically and practically they are supported by
enlightened public opinion.
Aside from wages, the new industrial revolution has
also developed fundamental problems of its own. The
unprecedented machine which has been created must be
coordinated in its workings. Not only must production
and consumption be properly adjusted in individual industries,
 but industry as a whole must be coordinated, either
through its own action or by public agencies, so that it
may be stabilized, and recurrent periods of retardation
and unemployment prevented. This is a vital problem and
must be dealt with in a constructive way as soon as possible.

SANCTIONS, SOURCES AND PROBLEMS
This, in brief outline, is the background from which the
present work has proceeded. In carrying it forward, reliance
 had to be placed mainly upon periodical literature
and other purveyors of current history. The extraordinary
industrial revolution through which we have been passing
has been so recent that statistical data, precedents, and
enlightening comment have been mostly restricted to these
sources. Only four general studies have recently been
published in book form, all of which are very valuable
contributions to the subject.! Current governmental pub-1

 “Industry Comes of Age,” by Prof. R. G. Tugwell (Harcourt, Brace &
Co., New York, 1927); “American Presperity,” by Paul M. Mazur (The
Viking Press, New York, 1928); ‘““The American Way to Prosperity,” by
Gifford K. Simonds and John G. Thompson (A. W. Shaw & Co., Chicago and
New York, 1928); and “The American Omen,” by Garet Garrett (E. P.
Dutton & Co., New York, 1928).