WHAT IS THE IDEA?<br />We have only started on our development of our country?we have not as yet, with all our talk of wonderful progress, done more than scratch the surface. The progress has been wonderful enough?but when we compare what we have done with what there is to do, then our past accomplishments are as nothing. When we consider that more power is used merely in ploughing the soil than is used in all the industrial establishments of the country put together, an inkling comes of how much opportunity there is ahead. And now, with so many countries of the world in ferment and with so much unrest every where, is an excellent time to suggest something of the things that may be done in the light of what has been done.<br />When one speaks of increasing power, machinery, and industry there comes up a picture of a cold, metallic sort of world in which great factories will drive away the trees, the flowers, the birds, and the green fields. And that then we shall have a world composed of metal machines and human machines. With all of that I do not agree. I think that unless we know more about machines and their use, unless we better understand the mechanical portion of life, we cannot have the time to enjoy the trees, and the birds, and the flowers, and the green fields.<br />I think that we have already done too much toward banishing the pleasant things from life by thinking that there is some opposition between living and providing the means of living. We waste so much time and energy that we have little left over in which to enjoy ourselves.<br />Power and machinery, money and goods, are useful only as they set us free to live. They are but means to an end. For instance, I do not consider the machines which bear my name simply as machines. If that was all there was to it I would do something else. I take them as concrete evidence of the working out of a theory of business, which I hope is something more than a theory of business?a theory that looks toward making

CHAPTER I THE BEGINNING OF BUSINESS
CHAPTER II WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT BUSINESS
CHAPTER III STARTING THE REAL BUSINESS
CHAPTER IV THE SECRET OF MANUFACTURING AND SERVING
CHAPTER V GETTING INTO PRODUCTION
CHAPTER VI MACHINES AND MEN
CHAPTER VII THE TERROR OF THE MACHINE
CHAPTER VIII WAGES
CHAPTER IX WHY NOT ALWAYS HAVE GOOD BUSINESS?
CHAPTER X HOW CHEAPLY CAN THINGS BE MADE?
CHAPTER XI MONEY AND GOODS
CHAPTER XII MONEY?MASTER OR SERVANT?
CHAPTER XIII WHY BE POOR?
CHAPTER XIV THE TRACTOR AND POWER FARMING
CHAPTER XV WHY CHARITY?
CHAPTER XVI THE RAILROADS
CHAPTER XVII THINGS IN GENERAL
CHAPTER XVIII DEMOCRACY AND INDUSTRY
CHAPTER XIX WHAT WE MAY EXPECT