Industrial Combination and the Standardization of Production
A profusion of styles and brands of goods was one of the characteristics of pre-war individualism. The American manufacturer did not force American consumers to lie in an iron bed of Procrustes of standard dimension, but he furnished them with iron, brass, and wooden beds of manifold sizes and designs. American producers did not prescribe an unvarying color scheme, for the American householder could choose among more than one hundred shades of house paint. The variety of design in ordinary articles gave full opportunity for the satisfaction of the most fastidious tastes; the discriminating judge of chairs had 5i8 patterns of piano stools and a countless legion of ordinary chairs from which to make his choice; the connoisseur of plows and cultivators could undoubtedly find the style dictated by his own individualistic notions from the varied assortment displayed by the agricultural implement dealers; and anyone who was particular about the appearance of the interior of his house could spend his lifetime in examining samples of wall paper. From the cradle to the grave, from the many varieties of cribs and baby carriages to the profusion of styles in burial shrouds and coffins, the American consumer has been unrestricted in his choice. Lack of standardization is found chiefly in manufactured products, where variety can be introduced at the whim of the manufacturer. Definite grades have been established for the basic raw materials like wheat, cotton, wool, lumber, coal, and iron, where style and appearance are not important, and where the commodity is evaluated by physical and mechanical tests. As the raw material emerges into the field of finished products, however, it breaks up into many brands differentiated from each other by the intangible and aesthetic qualities of shape, color, and design, which cannot often be reduced to a single mechanical standard. It is true that standard bolts and screws are used in the manufacture