ed, in the past, to a
very small minority of each community. An aristocracy or plutocracy has
taken charge of domestic and foreign affairs, and has made the decisions
on which community well-being has depended. With the advent of "popular
government" certain of these decisions have been turned over to the
masses of the people or have been seized by them. The essential economic
decisions, however, are still made by the owners of private wealth. If
there is to be an organization of economic society that will function
successfully and autonomously, the knowledge on which the decisions
affecting economic policy are made must be public property. Until that
step is taken the economic life of society will be directed by the
chance desires of those who own the machinery of production.

Social students will accumulate knowledge and reach deductions, but that
is not enough. The task is not completed until the results of their
researches are common property.

Recent inventions and discoveries make the distribution of knowledge
comparatively easy. Cheap paper, rapid printing, the newspaper, the
magazine, the book, have all facilitated the scattering of information
to those who could read, and in the western world this is more than
nine-tenths of the adult population. For those who cannot read, the
camera is an educational power. The machinery for public education--the
schools, the press, the lecture-platform, has grown within a century to
a point that renders possible the speedy distribution of knowledge to
the most remote parts of the world. One of the greatest single steps in
the reconstruction of the economic life of the world is the use of this
machinery to distribute such information as is essential to a clear
understanding of the economic problem and the normal course of its
development.

9. _Next Steps_

Accept the foregoing analysis, and what lies immediately ahead of
society?

1. The socialization and persistent distribution of extant knowledge.

2. A decision with regard to the next great social experiment.

3. The selection of the group best able to carry through this
adventure.

4. The preparation of this group for its task.

5. The placing of the task upon their shoulders, and the backing of
them with every possible assistance.

The working out of the detail of this program is far afield from the
purpose of the present study, which must confine itself to the problems
of world econ