Supposing that such a development were possible, what would be the effect of it upon the situation of banking? It would presumably render unnecessary the present arrangements between individuals and industrial groups which are undertaken for the purpose of carrying on production by the use of credit, and of distributing the output of industry to the various consumers who may or may not be willing to absorb it in the proportion in which it has been created. The view that banking in the abstract is not a necessary occupation, but is one of those "middleman enterprises" which may theoretically be dispensed with, is probably as tenable as any other of the elements of the theory of government activity or interposition in industry. It should be observed, however, that the gradual elimination of banking as an element in economic organization depends upon the substitution of something else which will take its place and will perform a similar service - always assuming, as already stated, the existence and probable increase of division of labor. That something which must thus be supplied is clearly an ability to adjust production to consumption, and to distribute the productive forces of society among the objects to which they are to be assigned in such a way as to bring about an even balance. Reduction of the importance of banking will be deferred, therefore, until such time as absolute knowledge of consumers' tastes, preferences, and disposition to purchase can be obtained, and until some overruling authority is able to force industry into the channels which are necessary to produce commodities in these relative proportions and to keep industrial activity out of all others. That this is a state of things which is likely to be so long deferred that it may be expected from the human standpoint never to take place, would seem to be an accurate conclusion, and accordingly the inference must be drawn that banking is, in the ordinary sense of the term, a permanent element or factor in economic life as we know it. It is not likely that an increase of state activity or the growth of socialistic practices will in any considerable degree dispense with banking as a means to the proper conduct of economic activities of society. Rather is it true that a continued evolution of the state and an increase of its functions will be successful about in the proportion in which an active and effective credit and banking system is employed for the purpose of guiding, directing, and determining the lines along which such state activity can well be directed. The probability would seem to be that banking, far from declining in importance or being discarded, will become a more and more important industrial agency.