INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION 801 



psychological method is likely to yield the richest returns. It is my 

 purpose now and here simply to throw out a few suggestions which 

 go to prove that we cannot understand industrial evolution unless we 

 give careful consideration to psychical forces at the same time. 

 These considerations, it is hoped, will throw some light upon a correct 

 solution of important industrial problems. 



The fact of the evolution of industrial society is generally recog- 

 nized, although its implications are not a part of our familiar know- 

 ledge. A study of the history of industrial society reveals clearly 

 that we have passed through various stages. It is not necessary 

 when we say this that we commit ourselves to any particular theory 

 of stages. According to the old and well-known classification man- 

 land has gradually progressed from the hunting and fishing stage to 

 the pastoral stage, from the pastoral stage to the agricultural stage, 

 and then has passed through the agricultural stage to the handicraft 

 stage, and finally to the machine stage of production. Each one of 

 these economic stages has, of course, a subclassification into phases. 

 This gives us simply a general line of industrial evolution and does 

 not imply that every portion of the human race must pass through 

 the same stages and the same phases of evolution within the stage. 

 It would take an undue amount of space to enter into a discussion of 

 the scientific arguments and reasons for the position that this classi- 

 fication is sound. It seems necessary, however, on account of the 

 limitations of the human mind, to divide our industrial evolution, 

 which has a history of thousands of years, into periods in order to 

 help us arrange our facts systematically and accumulate knowledge. 

 We find men in historical periods living in each one of these stages. 

 Each stage has in its full development characteristics of its own 

 distinguishing it from the preceding and likewise from the following 

 stage, when we consider these also in their full development. Be- 

 tween the stages at their culmination we have the transitional 

 periods where one gradually changes into the other. No one will 

 deny that the handicraft stage of the Middle Ages is radically different 

 from the industrial life that we live now. Now, it is precisely when 

 we consider our industrial evolution psychologically that we find the 

 most meaning in the division of our economic or industrial life for 

 the two terms here are used interchangeably - - into stages and 

 sub-stages, designated as phases. As we pass from stage to stage 

 and from phase to phase in the stages we notice certain changes in 

 those habits, mental traits, and characteristics which lead to success. 

 We have a certain psychical type of man corresponding to every 

 phase in our industrial evolution. Where an individual has this 

 psychical nature he is in harmony with his environment. The 

 absence of this psychical nature results in disharmony and lack of 

 adjustment. This is our first main position. 



