inery has some value as junk, then whatever the owner can
get by disposing of the plant constitutes a sum the interest
on which constitutes a cost of producing goods in this mill.
It is a sum which the plant owner foregoes as long as he
refrains from selling the plant. He can afford to use it in
production as long as the price of the product covers the
cost as thus defined, but must stop when it ceases to do so.

_The Importance of Delay in the Closing of Marginal
Establishments._--Now, this process looks as if, by the closing of
mills that are distanced in the race of improvement, labor must be
forced out of the subgroup. So it would be if the reducing of the
price to its new static level were an instantaneous operation and the
inferior mills were, in the same instantaneous fashion, compelled to
close their doors. These, however, are gradual operations, and before
they can possibly produce their full effects, influences will have
been set working which will counteract the expelling tendency. We have
cited as such an influence the general growth of society in numbers,
wealth, and consuming power, making it possible for a group, when an
economical change has taken place, to produce and sell more goods than
before and to keep its accustomed force of labor in order to do so.
There are certain more specific influences which have a similar effect
and render it as unnecessary as it is useless to attempt to resist the
course of improvement.

_Centralization of Business an Effect of Progress._--From the facts
here cited it appears that conservatism of the kind that resists all
changes condemns an _entrepreneur_ to destruction. He must keep in a
moving procession in order to survive. As the essential thing which is
changing is the price-making cost of goods, the _entrepreneur_ must
see to it that in his establishment cost declines. While this does not
necessarily mean that every such establishment needs forever to grow
larger, since there are local conditions in which relatively small
shops may be economical enough to survive, yet those which cater to
the general market and directly encounter the competition of the great
producing establishments must, as a general rule, have the advantages
of great size in their favor, or sooner or later be crowded out of the
field. Many of the smaller ones fall by the wayside, and the business
they have done passes to their already large rivals. Wherein the
advantages