own."

"Certainly, sir. Ours is a delicately balanced economic system. Any
slight change in the economic status of one firm would...."

"Exactly!" Edwin leaned across the desk and glared at him. "I have
just come from a Board of Directors meeting. And it was made known to
us that during the past three weeks our margin of profit has fallen
off by three tenths of a per cent!"

Charles' face turned pasty white. He swallowed and took a deep breath.

"Will that information be made public, sir?"

"Naturally not! But we aren't sure just how long we can keep it a
secret! The fact of the matter is, the IBM says that our profit margin
will continue to spiral downward at a gradually increasing rate unless
some drastic change occurs in our production set-up!"

Edwin leaned back and clasped his hands, composing himself. "The
precise reasons for the existence of the situation are quite obscure.
However, the IBM has informed us that the problem can be remedied if
we make a particular change in our production system, and it has
informed us as to the nature of that change."

He stood up and placed a finger on a capacitance switch. A panel in
the Wall slid back to reveal six sales charts. There were two each
marked _Winter_, _Summer_ and _Spring-Fall_. Three were designated
_marlons_, and three _marilyns_. Each of them showed a red line rising
steeply on the left, levelling out to a perfectly straight bar all the
way across, then dipping sharply again.

"Look here," Edwin said. "These are the sales charts for our six
suits. As you know, we make three different types for marlons, and
three for marilyns. Hot-weather, cold-weather, and medium-weather.
Each suit is designed to last a carefully calculated length of time,
and each consumer need only buy three suits a year. They are exactly
alike except for slight size differences, and because of elastic
fabrics these differences are held to a minimum. With this system the
Textile Industry attained the ultimate in Standardization, the
ultimate in efficiency."

Charles rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Has the IBM suggested any
alternative to our system, any possible change?"

Edwin sat down again, folded his arms on the desk, and scowled.
"That's where you come in! The IBM informs us that there is only one
possible way to stabilize our economy, to raise our profit margin to
its former level--and that is by further standardization!"

Charles raised his eyebrows. "You mean a sexless war