THE NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 227
to progress have also been made by those changes in produc-
tive operations introduced by so-called scientific management
—the installation of more efficient processes, routing of ma-
terials and products, elimination of waste, avoidance or les-
sening of fatigue on the part of the workers, and other de-
vices and methods too detailed and too numerous to mention.
[n all of these developments American industry has excelled.
Another set of factors, not without importance, in bring-
ing about increased productivity of American industry re-
lates to the wider general education of the population, to
advances in scientific research, and to the broader dissemina-
tion of information. . .. The organization of research by
aniversities, by privately endowed institutioas, and by private
enterprise has contributed much toward industrial progress.
Within the post-war period the increased collection and use
of business statistics and the more thorough analysis of
ousiness trends have furthered the advance of industry to-
ward a more intelligent control of forces determining its
progress. . . .
Many of these elements in our industrial progress, however,
are not forces which have only recently become effective. We
have had natural resources, internal free trade, and a fairly
wide domestic market during most of our industrial history;
we had them, certainly, in the period from 1909 to 1921, when
productivity per person in manufacturing failed to gain. The
phenomenal increase in manufacturing efficiency has appar-
ently come since 1921. It is worth while to consider the
forces that have caused this recent sudden spurt. . . .
Then the war considerably disturbed industrial technique
and delayed progress for a period, but at the same time new
technological processes and methods were learned as a result
of war experiences, and what is perhaps of equal value, the
importance of cooperation and of having adequate and accu-
rate knowledge of developments was impressed upon the busi-
ness community. The leaders of industry were also the
leaders of that vast cooperative organization by which the
war was carried on. and in that experience they learned that
