802 THE INDUSTRIAL GROUP 



Our second main position is that as we advance from lower to 

 higher stages a better man is required. What is essential in a higher 

 stage is not a later period of time but a greater control gained over 

 nature by man. The purpose of our economic activity is to gain 

 subsistence through control over nature, and just in proportion as we 

 gain more abundant subsistence through increased control over 

 nature we may be said to advance to higher stages and phases in our 

 economic life. 



Our third position is that there are those who in their life do not 

 keep pace with the general industrial movement. They are left 

 behind and, unless special measures are taken to prevent it, a period 

 of rapid movement means a relatively large number who are unable 

 to adjust themselves to conditions. 



Our fourth main position is that the movement in our economic life 

 has continued for thousands of years and that those who are most 

 advanced economically are separated psychologically by thousands 

 of years from those living in the earliest conditions. They are the 

 descendants of generations of men who have had all this time for 

 adjustment, an adjustment secured very largely by natural selection. 



If we reflect upon the change from the agricultural stage to the 

 handicraft stage it will help us to understand these psychological 

 features in industrial evolution. The handicraft stage is one in 

 which man gained a greater control over nature, first, through the 

 larger use of tools of a higher kind; second, through greater wealth 

 accumulation with a devotion of a larger part of this wealth, par- 

 ticularly in the form of capital, to the preparation for future needs; 

 third, through closer association with his fellows. Let us examine 

 in its implications each one of these three methods by means of 

 which nature has, to an increasing extent, been subjugated. The use 

 of more tools of a higher kind means more complex brain operations. 

 As we go forward in our industrial life an examination of the features 

 of this life shows clearly that the man who is fully equal to it has 

 to meet increasingly severe mental tests. Next we observe that 

 a greater degree of self-control is required as a condition of success 

 in a higher stage of economic life. Wealth must be accumulated not 

 for immediate consumption but for future consumption. This means 

 abstinence and self-control. It has been found necessary to pay 

 some men of a low type twice a day in order to induce them to 

 continue their work. A man of an advanced economic type will 

 make an effort now without the slightest thought of reaping the fruit 

 of the effort inside of ten years. The closer association of man with 

 his fellows is one of the means whereby we gain increased power over 

 nature; and as our efforts in production advance associations of an 

 economic character continually become larger and closer. This 

 means the ability to work for others steadily and persistently in 



