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 influence
 of free competition were found wanting. . . . During
the war, furthermore, plant capacities were increased considerably,
 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 reorganized,
 excess capitalization reduced, inventories diminished,
inefficient workmen discharged, and costs of operation lowered.

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 processes
 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