THE NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 228
also been described with special emphasis on the changes in
the attitude of industrial leaders toward new principles and
theories as to adjusting wages.! At the risk of repetition,
it may be recalled, however, that the two most revolutionary
changes in industrial thinking along these lines consisted
of the assumptions: (1) that rates of pay of industrial
workers might be indefinitely advanced provided
labor and other costs of production were not increased or
profit margins reduced to the danger point, and (2), that
high wages were an essential part of a program which had
for its object the establishment and maintenance of indus-‘rial
prosperity.
Some discussion has also been necessary as to other
causes of our remarkable gains in industrial efficiency, but
this has been very limited. On this point, Dr. E. Dana
Durand, Professor Paul H. Douglas, and Professor R. G.
Tugwell have made exceedingly valuable contributions, and
have pointed out the fundamental and secondary causes
which have been at work.2 The whole movement has also
been most soundly and effectively summarized by Mr.
Woodlief Thomas of the Division of Research and Statislics
of the Federal Reserve Board, in a paper submitted
at the meeting of the American Economic Association in
Washington in December. 1927. In this connection he
sa1d +3
Our vast and diversified natural resources have played an
important role in this nation’s industrial development. It
t See Chapter V.
2 See E. Dana Durand, “Commerce Year Book, 1926,” pp. 13-24; Fifteenth
Annual Report of the Secretary of Commerce, 1927, pp. XXVII- XXXIV; Rexford
Guy Tugwell, “Industry’s Coming of Age,” Harcourt, Brace & Co., New
York, 1927; and Paul H. Douglas, “Proceedings of the American Academy of
Political Science in the City of New York,” XII (July, 1927), “The Modern
Technique of Mass Production and Its Relation to Wages.”
8 Woodlief Thomas, “The Economic Significance of the Increased Efficiency
nf American Industry,” The American Economic Review, Vol. XVIII, No. 1—
Supplement (March, 1928), pp. 122-138: Pub. by the American Economic Assofi1ation
