
public needs must be, is frequently left with small lots of goods on its hands
by changes in taste, unseasonable weather, and various other causes. These it
has to dispose of at a sacrifice just as merchants often did in your day,
charging up the loss to the expenses of the business. Owing, however, to the
vast body of consumers to which such lots can be simultaneously offered, there
is rarely any difficulty in getting rid of them at trifling loss. I have given
you now some general notion of our system of production, as well as
distribution. Do you find it as complex as you expected?«
    I admitted that nothing could be much simpler.
    »I am sure,« said Dr. Leete, »that it is within the truth to say that the
head of one of the myriad private businesses of your day, who had to maintain
sleepless vigilance against the fluctuations of the market, the machinations of
his rivals, and the failure of his debtors, had a far more trying task than the
group of men at Washington who nowadays direct the industries of the entire
nation. All this merely shows, my dear fellow, how much easier it is to do
things the right way than the wrong. It is easier for a general up in a balloon,
with perfect survey of the field, to manoeuvre a million men to victory than for
a sergeant to manage a platoon in a thicket.«
    »The general of this army, including the flower of the manhood of the
nation, must be the foremost man in the country, really greater even than the
President of the United States,« I said.
    »He is the President of the United States,« replied Dr. Leete, »or rather
the most important function of the presidency is the headship of the industrial
army.«
    »How is he chosen?« I asked.
    »I explained to you before,« replied Dr. Leete, »when I was describing the
force of the motive of emulation among all grades of the industrial army, that
the line of promotion for the meritorious lies through three grades to the
officer's grade, and thence up through the lieutenancies to the captaincy or
foremanship, and superintendency or colonel's rank. Next, with an intervening
grade in some of the larger trades, come the general of the guild, under whose
immediate control all the operations of the trade are conducted. This officer is
at the head of the national bureau representing his trade, and is responsible
for its work to the administration. The general of his guild holds a splendid
position,
