m mature men who have been
trained to work there. They are movements of _labor_ which do not, in
the main, involve any considerable moving of _laborers_ from group to
group. The sons of the men in the subgroup A do not all succeed to
their fathers' occupations, but many of them enter _A'_, _A''_, and
_A'''_, so that labor moves from the lowest subgroup to higher ones.
Such a transfer of labor entails few hardships for any one, and in
general it is to be said that all the movements of labor and capital
which are occasioned by quantitative changes in the supply of these
agents are of this comparatively painless and frictionless kind. About
changes caused by new methods of production there is a different story
to tell. The transformation of the world does not go on without some
disquieting results, however inspiring is the remote outlook which
they afford. The irregularity of the general movement, the fact that
it goes by forward impulses followed by partial halts, is a further
serious fact. Hard times present their grave problems, and we need to
know whether it is necessary that dynamics--the natural and forward
movement of the industrial system--should produce them. This problem
is for later consideration.

_Movements caused by Changes in the Processes of
Production._--Mechanical inventions are typical movers of labor and
capital--constant disturbers of what would otherwise be a
comparatively tranquil state. Dynamos for generating electricity and
devices for conducting it to great distances from its sources have
done much to rearrange the society of a score of years ago, as
economical steam engines had done at an earlier date. Every device
that "saves labor" calls for a _rearrangement of labor_ in the system
of organized industry.

In a perfectly static condition there would be, as we have seen, a
standard shape for all society, which means a normal apportionment of
labor and capital among the producing groups and subgroups and also
among the local divisions of the general area. The elements would
subside to a state of equilibrium and become motionless, as water
finds its level and becomes still in a sheltered pool. The body of
fluid takes its standard shape and retains it, so long as no
disturbing force appears. Now, society would have such a standard
shape and would require, in the absence of dynamic changes, a
relatively short time in order to conform more or less closely to it,
if it were not for the unnatural app