228 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
much could be gained by joint effort toward an end. In a 
number of cases old theories regarding the beneficent influ- 
ence of free competition were found wanting. . . . During 
the war, furthermore, plant capacities were increased consid- 
erably, in most cases with modern equipment. As a result, 
complaints are still heard of the excess capacity of industry— 
overcapitalization in a physical sense, altho perhaps not in 
a financial sense, because much of the cost of installation was 
charged off during and immediately after the war. The 
cumulative effect of these factors—and of others such as the 
increased literacy of the population, expansion in available 
information, prohibition, and curtailed immigration during 
the war—was further delayed by the industrial depression of 
1921. During this depression, however, plants were reor- 
ganized, excess capitalization reduced, inventories diminished, 
inefficient workmen discharged, and costs of operation low- 
ered. 
Thus was inaugurated the recent pronounced movement 
toward increasing productivity, and the cumulative force 
of all of the factors working toward that end became at 
once effective. Immigration restrictions and prohibition, 
which became operative about that time, may also have been 
factors. 
Abundance of investment funds at reasonable rates was 
also an important contributing element. This made it easy 
to purchase machinery, to expand plants, where necessary to 
substitute new and more economical equipment for obsolete 
or obsolescent equipment, and to experiment with new proc- 
esses and products. I venture the assertion that one of the 
most important factors in the growth of American industry, 
particularly in the past five years, but also in earlier periods, 
has been the boldness exhibited by the American business 
man in scrapping old equipment and methods and trying new 
ones, and the ease with which he has been able to obtain 
funds to finance these operations. . . . 
One of the striking features of the economic situation in 
this country during recent years has been the high level at