What is so obviously true of Europe is also true of the remainder of the Western world, though to a lesser degree. The economic, social and cultural life of civilization has passed beyond national boundaries. Until this fact is recognized, and until some organization is created with a jurisdiction as wide as the problems at issue, misunderstanding, conflict and catastrophe will continue to occur.
5. Building a Producers' Federation
The first step in economic reorganization is the recognition or establishment of local district, divisional and world groups of producers affiliated along the lines of their economic activities. This is a simple acceptance, in social terms, of the economic forms that have been evolving since the industrial revolution.
The second step in economic reorganization is the recognition or establishment of local, district, divisional and world federations of the local, district, divisional and world industrial groups. This second step must be taken in order that there may be some authority competent to deal with those problems which are common to two or more of the groups in question.
There are two general types of problems that the federations of industrial groups will be called upon to handle:
1. Those problems involving inter-relations between the various producing groups, such as the factory workers, transport workers, agricultural workers and the like, that must exchange their products and receive from one another the materials upon which existence depends.
2. Those problems which are common to all producing groups simply because they are common to men and women who are trying to live and to function together. The water-supply, roads, education, are questions of this type.
Problems of the second sort, and the issues raised by them, cannot be entered upon at this point. The same federal authority that is charged with the control over inter-industrial problems will likewise charge itself, in each instance, with these common questions not immediately related to industry.
This is not an attempt to under-estimate the importance of non-industrial problems, but to confine attention, for the moment, to matters directly related to production, with the conviction that when a mechanism is developed capable of handling the industrial problems there will be less difficulty in taking care of those not so closely related to industry.