but when Cuba sends iron ore to the United
States, or when Brazil ships coffee to Europe, or when England sends
coal to Italy, the distances are considerable and the means of efficient
transport are correspondingly important. The same thing holds true of
the marketing of finished products. Many of the goods turned out by the
present-day industry--particularly machinery--are very bulky and heavy.
Each of the manufacturing nations sells its goods, not only within its
own borders, but at the ends of the earth. The transport of goods thus
becomes supremely important.

The transport of goods and of people is only one aspect of the work
coming under the direction of the transport and communication board. In
addition, there would be:

1. The postal system, which is already on a world basis.

2. The express system, which is really only a branch of the postal
system, and which is also on a world basis at the present time.

3. Telephone, telegraph and wireless machinery, which are in their
very nature wider than the boundaries of one nation, and which are
to-day among the chief means of holding the people of the world close
together.

The mechanism of transport constitutes a vast net-work of
inter-relations that have been carried farther toward a world basis than
any other phase of the world's economic life. The nature of ocean
transport, of the postal service, of the express service and of the
telephone and telegraph made this inevitable. The inventions and
discoveries of the past century have worldized transport without the
necessity of any intervention from a producer's society.

While the work of the transport and communication board would be of
vital consequence, it would be relatively simple, in that it would
involve little innovation, but rather the unification and co-ordination
of existing agencies.

7. _The Exchange, Credit and Investment Board_

Many economic writers have characterized the processes of exchange as
"non-productive" activities, nevertheless, under the present economic
order they lie closer to the seat of power than any other single group
of activities. The rise of the banker to his present commanding position
is due, primarily, to his control over money, and to his power to issue
or to withhold credit. A producers' society may lay far less emphasis on
money and its derivatives than does the present system, yet the money
function will remain and the money forces will doub