An influential factor in the development of manufacturing was the invention of steam power. The industries that use machines were forced out of the homes and into the factories. There was no alternative. The steam driven machines produced goods so cheaply that the hand power, or home machine could not earn its owner a livelihood. Thus the factory system developed, partly because of the mechanical necessity of concentration where the power from one engine could by the use of shafts and belts be made to run a great number of machines, and partly because of the natural tendency of the man with the most money to acquire possession of the factory and have others work for him. Later the invention and perfection of the electric generator and motor made possible the distribution of power and the machine, with its motor attached, again became feasible for individual ownership. Difficulties, however, exist. These difficulties are the present capitalistic ownership of the material and machines, a lack of properly organized coöperatively conducted sources of power, present land ownership, house arrangement, and of getting this power to the worker; and what is of much more moment, the complete possession by capitalistic interests of the entire system of trade or distribution from the great railway combination to the retail shop, through which the individual worker must market his products. _Wage-slavery Doomed._ The ideal--and as I believe--an attainable ideal in a large number of Roadtown manufacturing industries is coöperation in the use of land, machines, power supply and transportation of products, and individualism in the actual operation of the machines and working the land. This will forever solve the labor question by abolishing the wage-system. Let us look at the details as they will be worked out in the Roadtown. The first essential in such a system of coöperative individual producers is power. For this the Roadtown will have to compete in the markets of the world. Roadtown will possess great advantages in this respect where it passes water power and coal fields and can buy them. Roadtown power plants, coöperative stores and cooking plants, will be located where railroads, canals or rivers cross the Roadtown, when practicable, to save the double handling and freight on coal. Otherwise the coal will be loaded into Roadtown cars by steam shovel and hauled at night to the power houses where the monorail coal cars will be dumped directly into the stoker reservoirs. The same heat will be used for generating power, heating the building, cooking the food and for whatever other purpose heat is required and the chimneys of Roadtown will be miles apart. There will be no wagon haulage of fuel in Roadtown life. Other sources of power, such as water, wind or waves, when developed will become available for the Roadtown.