nts realize that the crisis confronting the
capitalist world is a serious one. Informed men like J.M. Keynes and
Frank Vanderlip believe that the situation is perilous. While many
persons see that something is wrong, and while some see what is wrong,
there is a great diversity of opinion as to the remedies that should be
adopted. What most of the writers fail to see, or at least to realize,
is that economic organization is the basis--the only possible basis--for
the reconstruction of the world.

The time has passed when political readjustments will meet the world
situation. The events accompanying the industrial revolution have
hammered the world into a closely knit economic whole, and until this
fact is understood, and made the basis of world thought and world
building, there can be no permanent solution of the world's problems.

The present chaos in world relations cannot be met and settled by war,
legislation, diplomacy or any similar means. All of the steps in these
fields imply some adjustment of political relationships, and it is the
economic institutions rather than the political institutions of the
world that are in need of constructive effort.

If a town is suffering from a break in the water-main, there are two
things that may be done! The old pipe may be patched or a new pipe may
be put in its place. It is sometimes possible for the engineers to patch
the old main temporarily, while they are getting in a new one. The same
situation confronts the people of the world. Their economic life is
disorganized and chaotic. Shall it be reorganized along old lines,
slightly modified in the light of experience, or shall it be built on
fundamentally different lines?

[Footnote 3: "Engineering is the science of controlling the forces and
of utilizing the materials of nature for the benefit of man, and the art
of organizing and directing human activities in connection therewith."
(Resolution of the Engineering and Allied Technical Societies in
creating the Federated American Engineering Societies. "Waste in
Industry" 1921, p. IV).]

III. ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS

1. _The Social Structure_

When a town or a city decides to repair a water system or to replace an
old system by a new one, the plans are made and the work is carried on
in accordance with the soundest principles known to the engineering
profession. There are communities which neglect their water systems, and
which suffer accordingly. But for the mos