period of "ripening" that intervenes between the first raw stage of the product and its finished shape, and reducing the aggregate stock of goods necessary to be carried for the supply of current wants, whether in the raw or in the finished form.' Standardization means economy at nearly all points of the process of supplying goods, and at the same time it means certainty and expedition at nearly all points in the business operations involved in meeting current wants. Besides this, the standardization of goods means that the interdependence of industrial processes ia reduced to more definite terms than before the mechanical standardization came to its present degree of elaborateness and rigor. The margin of admissible variation, in time, place, form, and amount, is narrowed. Materials, to answer the needs of standardized industry, must be drawn from certain standard soiu^es at a definite rate of supply. Hence any given detail industry depends closely on receiving ita supplies from certain,
Well ihown In the cnse of whut and flour ; but Uie like la tnu 03 regarda the sUMsko of other commodltlea carried b; produmi^ jobbera, Tetailera, and cooBiuners.