No attempt has been made to describe a cost system for a particular business──principles only have been considered in this discussion. Proper application of these principles, however, will result in a practical system for any manufacturing business. The exact manner of applying these principles──the detail──depends on the nature of the business; the results desired are the same in all lines. Physical conditions, nature of the product, the policy of the management, the manner in which the business is conducted──all of these factors must be studied and given due consideration in outlining the system. Then the most simple system that will produce results is best, but in the effort to make the system simple, _necessary_ details should not be overlooked. It must be remembered that in a comparison of details of cost, increases are more quickly located than if the comparison refers to finished work. [Illustration: PART OF THE INTERIOR OF THE GENERAL STORES OF THE SANTA FE AT TOPEKA Showing Arrangement of Racks and Shelving for Holding Materials, and Longitudinal Disposition of the Bins Enabling the Foreman, from His Office at the End, to Command a View of the Whole Floor. Courtesy of the Engineering Magazine.] MACHINE SHOP MANAGEMENT MANUFACTURING =Manufacturing Conditions and Developments.= Millions of dollars are annually spent in building new factories. Other millions are spent in equipping them with the best machinery that trained and experienced men have been able to devise. Still more millions of money are annually paid to the officials who manage and the employees who man these enormous manufacturing plants. Why? Why could not these expert employees labor in their own homes or their individual shops, and produce the manufactured goods without all these enormous expenses? What are the necessities which impel men to spend these vast sums of money in erecting, equipping, and operating these immense plants? Casually considering the question, the _factory_ or _manufacturing plant_ does not seem to be a real necessity. A large force of employees working under a single management does not seem to be the most economical method of producing the desired goods. Certainly every man is free to choose his own particular line of work; and there are many persons who, seeing a large force of employees giving their entire life work to the enrichment of successful manufacturers, while the employees themselves work long hours at hard and laborious tasks and fare so poorly that they are seldom enabled to save any considerable portion of their wages, not infrequently ending an industrious life in poverty and want, are led to believe that the factory is not a necessity or even a benefit to mankind, but rather a means for reducing the individual worker to a condition of grinding servitude, voluntary perhaps, but often the result of dire necessity.