our day
statisticians were able to tell you the number of yards of cotton,
velvet, woolen, the number of barrels of flour, potatoes, butter,
number of pairs of shoes, hats, and umbrellas annually consumed by the
nation. Owing to the fact that production was in private hands, and
that there was no way of getting statistics of actual distribution,
these figures were not exact, but they were nearly so. Now that every
pin which is given out from a national warehouse is recorded, of course
the figures of consumption for any week, month, or year, in the
possession of the department of distribution at the end of that period,
are precise. On these figures, allowing for tendencies to increase or
decrease and for any special causes likely to affect demand, the
estimates, say for a year ahead, are based. These estimates, with a
proper margin for security, having been accepted by the general
administration, the responsibility of the distributive department
ceases until the goods are delivered to it. I speak of the estimates
being furnished for an entire year ahead, but in reality they cover
that much time only in case of the great staples for which the demand
can be calculated on as steady. In the great majority of smaller
industries for the product of which popular taste fluctuates, and
novelty is frequently required, production is kept barely ahead of
consumption, the distributive department furnishing frequent estimates
based on the weekly state of demand.

"Now the entire field of productive and constructive industry is
divided into ten great departments, each representing a group of allied
industries, each particular industry being in turn represented by a
subordinate bureau, which has a complete record of the plant and force
under its control, of the present product, and means of increasing it.
The estimates of the distributive department, after adoption by the
administration, are sent as mandates to the ten great departments,
which allot them to the subordinate bureaus representing the particular
industries, and these set the men at work. Each bureau is responsible
for the task given it, and this responsibility is enforced by
departmental oversight and that of the administration; nor does the
distributive department accept the product without its own inspection;
while even if in the hands of the consumer an article turns out unfit,
the system enables the fault to be traced back to the original workman.
The production of the