specialist, producing a surplus of his one product, but dependent upon
numerous other persons for most of the things which he personally
consumes. To-day, for example, there are numerous individuals raising
cattle, the hides of which are to be made into shoes; other
individuals are perfecting means of transportation so that those hides
may be carried to market; still other persons concern themselves only
with the building of factories or with the manufacture of machines
with which to work those hides into shoes. These various individuals
and groups may never see each other, nevertheless they aid one
another.

The secret of this often unseen and unconscious coöperation is that
there are individuals who specialize in the work of connecting up, or
coördinating, the other factors which are necessary to the production
of shoes. These individuals, about whom we shall have more to say in
the next chapter, constitute an important economic group. They
coördinate, in the example given above, the cattle grower, the
railroad manager, the tanner, the factory builder, and the
manufacturer, and thus make possible a kind of national or even
international coöperation which would otherwise be impossible. Those
whose function it is to promote this coöperation are, therefore,
indispensable factors in modern production.

72. GOVERNMENT A FIFTH FACTOR IN PRODUCTION.--A cursory examination of
modern industry would convince the observer that land, labor, capital,
and coördination are important factors in production. There is, in
addition, a factor which is so fundamental, and of such essential
value, that it is sometimes overlooked altogether. This is the work of
the government in protecting productive enterprises. Government aids
in production by suppressing theft, violence, and fraud; by allowing