Bo INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES
war standards of living and volume of business would be
normal now. Normalcy is a vastly higher and more com-
fortable standard than 1913. We must not judge the state
of business activity by pre-war figures, but by a highly
increased base.
There has been in the past decade an unparalleled growth
of our industrial and commercial efficiency and our conse-
quent ability to consume. I do not refer to that growth of
productivity which should naturally be expected to accom-
pany the increment of 14 millions of our population during
the last decade, nor do I refer to the increase in dollar figures
due to higher prices. . . . But exhaustive study from many
angles of production over average periods ten years apart,
before and since the war, would indicate that while our pro-
ductivity should have increased about 15 per cent., due to the
increase in population, yet the actual increase has been from
25 to 30 per cent. indicating an increase in efficiency of
somewhere from 10 to 15 per cent. . . . We have been able
to add to our standards of living by the more general distri-
bution of many articles which were either altogether luxuries
ten years ago, or which were luxuries to a large portion of
the population. Thus an increased proportion of the popu-
lation are using electric lights, telephones, automobiles and
better housing—and have added movies and what not to their
daily routine. A rough estimate would show that we could
to-day supply each person the same amount of commodities
that he consumed ten years ago, and lay off about 2,000,000
from work.
Some people have looked upon these additions of new com-
modities and services in the daily expenditure of our people
as representing extravagances, but as a matter of fact they
are no entrenchment upon savings. They are the product of
better organized effort.
I wish to impress again that I am not confusing the natu-
ral increment that would arise from increased population, or
not confusing the increased dollar figures due to higher
prices, but that this is an actual increase of commodities and
