r
consideration of this question.

[150] W. J. Ashley, in an article in the _Economic Journal_,
December, 1910, entitled "The Statistical Measurement of
Profit," reveals the many serious problems involved in the
measurement of profit--when no prior preparation (such as
the compulsory standardization of methods of accountancy)
has been undertaken. The question of profit measurement he
aptly states as that of finding out "what the suppliers of
capital to business concerns get in the long run over and
above the capital they actually put in them" (page 549).
Unless prior preparation is undertaken for the purpose in
hand, it is probable that his conclusion does not overstate
the difficulties much, if at all. He writes, "Modern 'trust
finance'--the finance of great new industrial combinations,
creates difficulties in the way of gain statistics that will
tax the highest skill of the economist and accountant--if,
indeed, they are not insuperable" (page 549). There would
appear to be no good reason, however, why prior preparation,
such as is suggested, could not be undertaken; nor would
that task be one of extreme difficulty.

CHAPTER XIII--A CONCEPT OF INDUSTRIAL PEACE

Section 1. The hope for industrial peace in the United
States.--Section 2. A policy of wage settlement composed out of the
principles already set forth.--Section 3. What results might be
expected from the adoption of these principles as a
policy?--Section 4. The matter of economic security for the wage
earners likely to be important for industrial peace. Hardly
considered in this book. The question has been presented to the
Kansas Court of Industrial Relations.--Section 5. Certain new ideas
concerning industrial relationship have come to stay. They indicate
the probable current of future change.

1.--The hope that a policy of wage settlement for industrial peace may
be adopted by consent, rests upon the supposition that there exists in
the United States to-day a considerable measure of agreement upon a
practicable ideal of industrial society. To put the matter more
expressly, if half of the community sincerely believed in a policy of
the greatest possible freedom of individual enterprise, and the other
half were ardent believers in the desirability of a socialist state, the
hope of the adoption of a policy of wage settlement would be fatuous.

It may seem to many that this necessary measure of agr