76 WILLIAM FRANKLIN WILLOUGHBY 



ever, seem extremely probable. Should, moreover, the time 

 ever come when there will be an integration of industries, as 

 well as an integration of related branches of an industry, the 

 railroads of the country would furnish the connecting links 

 binding the different departments together. 



It would be a hardy prophet who would seek to follow out 

 all the consequences of the continued operation of this ten- 

 dency. Especially would it be futile to attempt to weigh the 

 social effects that would result from the concentration of such 

 enormous power in the hands of a few individuals. Of one 

 result, however, we may speak with comparative certainty. 

 Each step in the direction of integration implies a lessening 

 of possible friction and a substitution of a direct for a more 

 indirect method, and both of these mean greater economy and 

 increased efficiency of production. With this will also come 

 an enormous strengthening of control over the factors of in- 

 dustrial operations. That the greater control resulting from 

 the concentration of industry would have as one of its most 

 important consequences the steadying of production and the 

 resulting lessening of industrial depressions, so it is believed 

 that the far greater control that will follow from integration 

 cannot but work in the same direction. Here, however, we 

 are treading upon more uncertain ground. The causes of in- 

 dustrial depressions are too complicated and too little un- 

 derstood to permit of confident statement. 



In conclusion, it is of not a little interest to note how per- 

 fectly this tendency towards integration fits in with the theory 

 of evolution as applied to industrial progress. Evolution as a 

 method of progress, stated in the simplest terms, may be said 

 to be the differentiation of functions and the concomitant 

 integration of parts. With the rise of the modern industrial 

 system began that differentiation of function which is known 

 as division of labor. Particular duties or operations were 

 assigned to particular units. In the beginning this was the 

 most important feature of the changes that were taking place. 

 With this diffusion of duties largely accomplished, there now 

 rises, as the factor of prime importance, the second element 

 of evolution, that of integration, by which the various inter- 

 dependent parts are being knitted together into a more har- 

 monious whole. 



