FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. 119 



Chairman: There is a (lentleman that wishes to get the picture of 

 the Horticultural Society in front of this building directly after we close 

 at noon. So if you will all please come down together and get this official 

 picture. I also wish to say that the Societj^ will meet in the Gymnasium 

 tomorrow instead of in this room or in room 109 as stated in the program. 



The next subject will be the Standardization and Transportation by 

 Charles J. Brand, former chief of Bureau of Markets. 



Mr. Brand: 1 want to apologize for writing my paper. But it was 

 impossible for me to prepare myself to speak on the subject without hav- 

 ing it written out. 



Standardization is an absolutely essential basis of progress. This is 

 just as true of industry, education, and every other field of human en- 

 deavor as it is of agriculture. In the development of the production 

 of any commodity, whether of the soil or of manufacture, if large scale 

 output is to be achieved, standards become a necessity. 



In industry, standardization means the reduction in number of pro- 

 cesses of manufacture to a few specific kinds, and a reduction in the 

 number of products to a few definite types. 



During the first year of our participation in the World War, when 

 shipping was so pitifully short due to an insufficient production, sub- 

 marine activities and extraordinary demand, one of the men from the 

 United States Bureau of Markets was commissioned and sent to France 

 to see what could be done to reduce the number of tools that were re- 

 quired to be transported and kept account of in connection with the 

 Army's mechanical equipment. He found nearly forty different types 

 of hammers in use, wrenches and files galore, and so with other types of 

 equipment and supplies with the result that transportation facilities 

 were more or less gummed up and stock keeping and other related work 

 made to be of wholly unnecessary difficulty. 



Standards are of many kinds, depending upon the subject matter 

 involved, but generally those that occur to use are of two great classes, 

 at least so far as they relate to product: 



First. Those based upon inherent character whether of quality, con- 

 dition or quantity. 



Second. Those adopted by law, custom or convenience for utilitarian 

 or other purposes. 



Standardization in its greatest development is of relatively modern 

 growth. Every step of progress has been made in the face of opposition. 

 The syndicalism that became apparent in England in the cotton industry 

 during the period of the Industrial Revolution was nothing more or less 

 than opposition to standardization then being effected by the introduc- 

 tion of spinning and other machines. Here, as in every other case, the 

 fundamental operation of economic law won the fight for standardiza- 

 tion. 



An interesting case of opposition to standardization with respect to 

 railroads recently came to my attention; known as the Erie Railroad 

 war of 1853. During the period prior to the Civil War there was a 

 great diversity in the gauge of railroads, and as a consequence, such a 

 thing as a through train was almost absolutely unknown. This was 

 particularly true as to roads leading to the West. The change of gauge 

 at the then small town of Erie, Pa., forced all passengers from New York 

 to Cleveland to change at Erie. The result was that Erie did a thriving 



