SECTION HEADINGS
[Chapter I. The New Economic Life]
1.[ The Historic Present.]
2.[ Economic Needs.]
3.[ Worldizing Economic Activity.]
4.[ The Basis of a World Program.]
5. [The League of Nations Failure.]
6.[ Axioms of Economic Reorganization.]
[Chapter II. The Economic Muddle]
1.[ Bankruptcy and Chaos.]
2.[ Localized Problems.]
3.[ World Problems.]
4.[ Competition for Economic Advantage.]
5.[ Distribution of the World's Wealth.]
6. [The Livelihood Struggle.]
7.[ Guaranteeing Livelihood.]
8. [Distribution and the Social Revolution.]
9.[ A New Order.]
10. [The Basis of World Reconstruction.]
[Chapter III. Economic Foundations]
1. [The Social Structure.]
2. [Specialization, Association, Co-operation.]
3.[ Three Lines of Economic Organization.]
4.[ Economic Forms.]
5.[ Limitations on Capitalism.]
6.[ The Growth of Capitalism.]
7.[ Effective Economic Units.]
8.[ Classes of Economic Units.]
9. [The Ideal and the Real.]
[Chapter IV. Economic Self-Government]
1. [Maximum Advantage.]
2.[ The Essentials for Maximum Returns.]
3.[ Centralized Authority.]
4. [An Ideal Economic Unit.]
5. [Rewarding Energy.]
6.[ The Ownership of the Economic Machinery.]
7.[ Economic Leadership.]
8. [The Selection of Leaders.]
9. [The Detail of Organization.]
10. [The Progress of Self-Government.]
[Chapter V. A World Producers' Federation]
1.[ World Outlook.]
2. [The Need of Organization.]
3.[ Present-day Economic Authority.]
4. [Federation as a Way Out.]
5.[ Building a Producers' Federation.]
6. [Four Groups of Federations.]
7. [The Form of Organization.]
8. [All Power to the Producers!]
[Chapter VI. World Administration]
1. [The Basis for World Administration.]
2. [The Field of World Administration.]
3.[ Five World Problems.]
4.[ Work of the Administrative Boards.]
5. [The Resources and Raw Materials Board.]
6. [The Transport and Communication Board.]
7. [The Exchange, Credit and Investment Board.]
8. [The Budget Board.]
9. [The Adjudication of Disputes Board.]
10.[ The Detail of World Administration.]
[Chapter VII. Trial and Error In Economic Organization]
1.[ Trying Things Out.]
2.[ The Capitalist Experiment.]
3. [The Cost of Experience.]
4. [Education.]
5. [Pacing the Future.]
6. [Accumulating Social Knowledge.]
7.[ Conscious Social Improvement.]
8. [The Barriers to Progress.]
9.[ Next Steps.]
10. [The Success Qualities.]
[Chapter VIII. Economic Liberation]
1.[ Why Organize?]
2.[ Freedom from Primitive Struggle.]
3.[ Freedom from Servility.]
4.[ Wisdom in Consumption.]
5. [Leisure for Effective Expression.]
6. [Culture and Human Aspiration.]
[What to Read]
THE NEXT STEP
I. THE NEW ECONOMIC LIFE
The knell of a dying order is tolling. Its keynote is despair. Gaunt hunger pulls at the bell-rope, while dazed humanity listens, bewildered and afraid.
Uncertainty and a sense of futility have gripped the world. They are manifesting themselves in unrest, disillusionment, the abandonment of ideals, opportunism, and a tragic concentration on the life of the moment, which alone seems sure. The future promises so little that even the most hopeful pause on its threshold, hesitant, and scarce daring to penetrate its mystery.
The war showed the impotence of the present order to assure even a reasonable measure of human happiness and well-being. Of what profit the material benefits of a civilization that takes a toll of thirty-five millions of lives and that wrecks the economic machinery of a continent in four short years? Yet the failure of the revolutionary forces to avail themselves of the opportunity presented by the war proved the unreadiness of the masses to throw off the yoke of the old régime and to lay the foundations of a new order. The world rulers painted a picture of liberated humanity that led tens of millions to fight with the assurance that victory would make that hope a reality. The workers yearned for the social revolution and for the establishment of the co-operative commonwealth with its promise of equality and fraternity. But the events that staggered the world between 1914 and 1920 shattered both ideals.