§ 19. #Remedies for seasonal fluctuations.# But of late there has been a growing hope that an answer may be found to this economic riddle of the Sphinx. A number of different measures are being experimentally tested and applied. Many years of effort will be required for the perfecting of these plans separately and collectively. Some of these plans may be here indicated, however briefly. To remedy seasonal fluctuations within the establishments output may be regularized by taking orders in advance; by producing various products successively in the same factory; by overcoming weather conditions as has been done successfully in brick and tile making, ditch digging, and building operations; by transferring workers from one department of an establishment to another; by improving the employment departments so as to build up a more stable force, thus reducing the great expense of "hiring and firing" and the loss through training "green hands"; by varying the length of the working day while keeping the same working force throughout the year; by coöperating with other industries to build up a regular working force and transferring it from one establishment to another with seasonal changes. Of great aid in a number of these measures is a broader industrial training for the workers, making them more able to change from one occupation to another. For this purpose every period of unemployment and of temporary shortening of the working day ought to be used as a time for trade education, by the recently devised and successfully applied "short-unit courses for wage-earners."[13]