same federal authority that is charged
with the control over inter-industrial problems will likewise charge
itself, in each instance, with these common questions not immediately
related to industry.

This is not an attempt to under-estimate the importance of
non-industrial problems, but to confine attention, for the moment, to
matters directly related to production, with the conviction that when a
mechanism is developed capable of handling the industrial problems there
will be less difficulty in taking care of those not so closely related
to industry.

6. _Four Groups of Federations_

The issues arising between industrial groups, and those problems common
to all groups, will best be handled by federations having a
jurisdictional scope parallel to that of the separate groups of which
the federations are composed. If these component groups are local
economic units, the federation will be local in character. If they are
district economic units, the federation will have a district as its
sphere, and so on. By this means, there will be created a series of
federations or joint organizations, beginning with the federation of
local economic units, and ending with a federation of world industries.
Throughout this enlarging series of federations the principle of local
autonomy will be maintained in all of its rigor, and no matter will be
referred to a federation that can be handled by a local group. At the
same time, the principle of federal authority will be asserted, and
those matters that concern the welfare of more than one group of
parallel jurisdiction, will be referred automatically to the federal
authority under whose control the group in question falls.

The most elemental of the federations would be the local producers'
federation, which would correspond, quite accurately, to the town or the
city of the present day, save that its size and character would of
necessity be much better regulated than the character and size of the
present-day town or city. The modern city has been built as a
profiteer's paradise. From the construction of houses to the erection of
office buildings, the one foremost question: "What per cent will it
yield?" has been the guiding principle behind city construction. The
local industrial federation will have, as its chief task, the provision
of a living and working place for people, hence the character of the
industrial community will be determined with a view to the well-being of
the in