92 CHARLES R. FLINT 



widely distributed among widows, orphans and others depend- 

 ent on its dividends for support, and live up to the true mean- 

 ing of the word. 



In studying the evolution of industrial life, we find that 

 combination is coincident with civilization. Savages have 

 little power to combine, because combination depends on 

 trust in our fellowman, and in primitive life it is fear that 

 rules. One of the first steps in industrial evolution was to 

 subdivide production into trades. Each did what he could 

 do best, settling accounts by an exchange of products. Later, 

 those engaged in the same trade formed partnerships, then 

 corporations, and finally consolidations of corporations. 

 Against this march of industrial progress there has always 

 been opposition. There have always been those who, appeal- 

 ing to special interests, to the unsuccessful, the discontented, 

 and the misinformed, have endeavored to obtain political 

 favor by opposing progress, by endeavoring to prevent the 

 natural, and mutually beneficial, co-operation between capital 

 and labor. Centralized manufacture permits the highest 

 development of special machinery and processes. The factory 

 running full time, on large volume, reduces the percentage of 

 overhead charges. Direct sales on a large scale minimize the 

 cost of distribution. Centralization of manufacture and dis- 

 tribution reduce aggregate stocks, and therefore save shop 

 wear, storage, insurance, and interest. Consolidated man- 

 agement results in fixing the standards of quality, the best 

 standards being adopted; in avoiding waste and financial 

 embarrassment through overproduction; in less loss by bad 

 debts through comparisons of credit, and in securing the 

 advantages of comparative accounting and comparative 

 administration. Industrial evolution, which is as inevitable 

 and as unalterable as the law of gravitation, has attained its, 

 as yet, highest development in the United States. Every 

 unprejudiced man must recognize its advantages, and that it 

 is because of them that that country is taking so important 

 a position in the world's markets, increasing its national 

 wealth, furthering its welfare, and increasing the prosperity 

 of its people. 



