l8 FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



Needless to say, we have thus far only begun to ex- 

 plore the possibilities of domestic production. 



In the main the economies of factory production, 

 which are so obvious and which have led economists 

 so far astray, consist of three things: (i) quantity 

 buying of materials and supplies; (2) the division of 

 labor with each worker in industry confined to the 

 performance of a single operation; and (3) the use of 

 power to eliminate labor and permit the operation of 

 automatic machinery. Of these, the use of power is 

 unquestionably the most important. Today, however, 

 power is something which the home can use to reduce 

 costs of production just as well as can the factory. 

 The situation which prevailed in the days when water 

 power and steam-engines furnished the only forms of 

 power is at an end. As long as the only available form 

 of power was centralized power, the transfer of ma- 

 chinery and production from the home and the indi- 

 vidual, to the factory and the group, was inevitable. 

 But with the development of the gas-engine and the 

 electric motor, power became available in decentral- 

 ized forms. The home, so far as power was concerned, 

 had been put in position to compete with the factory. 



With this advantage of the factory nullified, its 

 other advantages are in themselves insufficient to off- 

 set the burden of distribution costs on most products. 

 Furthermore, even these advantages are not as great 

 as they seem. What is saved through minute division 

 and subdivision of labor tends often to be nullified by 

 the higher costs of supervision and management. And 



