Making no claim to being a professional economist, I feel, in submitting the suggestions of this paper about several phases of what I believe to be the world's most important economic problem, that I should submit such credentials as I have in explanation of my temerity.

Entering the employ of Cupples and Marston, Saint Louis, in January, 1867, at the early age of seventeen, I became a member of the reorganized firm of Samuel Cupples and Company at the age of twenty-two. From shortly after that time until I retired from business in 1896, a period of nearly twenty- five years, I was practically the manager of this company, which, in addition to representing as agent a large number of manufacturing concerns, was itself part or entire owner in several important manufacturing enterprises.