THE RISE OF A NEW PROFESSION 261 



and busy contented women. Into the enjoyment of the fruits of their 

 labors we have all of us entered. 



The Age of Mechanism 



The second industrial movement of the period we are considering 

 centered upon the task of providing an adequate mechanical equipment. 

 Its purpose was to develop inanimate sources of power, by means of 

 which the burden of physical toil could be, to some extent, lifted from 

 human shoulders. 



Accordingly, the second act transfers the scene of industry from the 

 field to the factory. The first billet of Bessemer steel was produced in 

 America in a little furnace at Wyandotte, near Detroit, in 1864. The 

 first band-saw was brought from Paris to New York in 1869. The first 

 middlings purifier was built in Minneapolis in 1870. The twine-binder 

 was invented in 1874. In the wonderful Centennial year of 1876, there 

 was given to the country the telephone, the incandescent light, the 

 typewriter and the first steel-frame building. Since those years, the 

 American farmer has come into the possession of a well-nigh perfect 

 equipment of agricultural implements. Our factories have been filled 

 with machinery, our offices with appliances, and our stores with furnish- 

 ings, until it is generally conceded that no people of the world excel the 

 Americans in the use of mechanical facilities. 



The Age of Administration - 



And now that these achievements are no longer in their origins, and 

 the issues called up by them are recognized as virtually settled, and 

 there is no longer any opposition to try men's souls in establishing and 

 defending them, a third great industrial problem can be seen to emerge 

 and become the center of interest. This is the question of administra- 

 tion. Upon this generation is laid the task of discovering, testing and 

 establishing in general use those methods of organization and manage- 

 ment by which the great productive agencies now within the possession 

 of industry can be united, subjected to proper control, stimulated, 

 guided, inspected, instructed and rewarded, to the end that they may 

 serve society with efficiency. In short, the problem is that of originating 

 and formulating a science of administration which shall comprise those 

 basic principles and practical policies required for the guidance of great 

 affairs. 



Self-Made Men 



This administrative phase of our industrial evolution has, of course, 

 already a history of value, and this history is concerned with the doings 

 of a very interesting generation of men. For years the United States, 

 with its enormous domestic market, its ample capital, its freedom from 

 tradition and its colossal daring, has been perhaps the most favorable 



