The great progress of the century has been in the enlarging of the conceptions of management to a point where it is now generally accepted in this country-although the principles are by no means always followed-that industry does not exist merely to make things to be sold, but has to do with both the creation of wealth and its distribution.

That is to say, industry now exists-in theory and to some extent in practice-as a large public service and not as a private perquisite. The older forms of industry have remained, but the objectives are new. And these new objectives have taught us to develop and to use in a big way the inventions that from time to time have come forward. To me, all the mechanical developments of the century are not very important as compared with the knowledge we are gaining of how to use everything in the public interest while preserving the full advantages of individual initiative. For otherwise the facilities of industry might be only a curse instead of a blessing. (page 67)

The pioneering spirit-the spirit of intense individualismwhich has distinguished every step of America's progress was probably due in part to the nature of the country and in part to the character of the early settlers. This spirit carried over into industry and it was a child of necessity. The necessity was born of law; although, as usual, when law steps into the field of economics, the results were exactly opposite to those which had been contemplated. Great Britain, with the intention of preventing the Colonies from gaining an economic independence, strictly prohibited the entry into this country of machinery or the models or specifications of machinery. This prohibition extended to the setting up of many kinds of manufacturing, particularly the making of iron. The laws threw our forefathers on their own resources. Almost every farm and village had its own contrivances and devices, and back to them may be traced many of our best modern industrial practices. For many years I have been collecting examples of ingenuity in the home and village industries of the early days, and some of them are very remarkable. "Yankee ingenuity" is not just a phrase-it is a fact. Developing out of this ingenuity, forced by necessity, came a remarkable line of American inventors. Other countries have produced research students and scientists, but we have produced a unique list of inventors-Franklin, Whitney, Morse, Fulton, Bell, Goodyear, McCormick, Howe, Westinghouse, Edison, and many other men whose contributions have been of such importance that simply as individuals they must be ranked among our great national resources. (page 71)