The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 19th, 1925. ECONOMICS AND A POLICEMAN.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 June 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 19th, 1925. ECONOMICS AND A POLICEMAN.

In discussing economic forces and comparing them to a policeman, an American commercial journal makes the following remarks regarding a subject which is now of quite universal thought. Tho paper says: “The public, apparently gave scant attention to a conference or symposium held recently in New York City between representatives of labor and of capital, the latter involving directly more than a billion dollars. Yet this meeting, and others that are to follow, will have a bearing on national and international trade that may affect the whole world price fabric. The subject of discussion, led by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, was the elimination of waste in industry. By this is not meant the mere savings of material, in the ordinary sense of the word, but the very much larger problem of co-ordination of industry, the co-operation of labor and capital and like problems. As an example the Secretary pointed out that tho strangulation of industry due to the shortage of cars a few years since had cost a sum estimated to be larger than the national debt. Now such losses had been largely eliminated and co-operative efforts by the railroads

;ini] other industries have worked boneticiul changes. Indeed, the railway? are now carrying :< Imuteeii per ccnf increase in freight without tiny material imTojiHt* in gross opot'iitiug cxponsos* Another six-aker uas William Breen, head of the powerful American Fedcralinrt of habotir. lie felt- tint increased prod act inti could la- accomplished witliottt, aifectiug payrolls. Answering him, (ieranl Swope, president of the Cleneral Electric .Company, said that Mr (ireen had not pone far enough. (Irenter elfieieney in protlnetion with eonse(|iient lower prices would actually make possible a higher Ki ttle of wattes. 'I hat sounds like good sense, lor the simple reason that the more goods there tire to exchange, each doing his share to bring them into Ixhtig, the more general prosperity there must he. Mr Hoover has spent much time and effort itt this cause. His department has made numerous reports affecting many classes of manufacture. 'Hie result has been the adoption of standards, the elimination of unnecessary duplications of styles and patterns, and a. consequent Having to the public. In his New York address lie again emphasised that he- wits not referring so much to the waste within the control of individuals. Nor was he concerned, as he aptly put it, with wastes that- are to he corrected by the ten commandments or any legislative extension thereof. You cannot catch an economic force with a policeman, in Mr Hoover’s way of thinking. The type of waste he had in mind can lie cured only by <o-ordi-nated action in an industry, itself or with other industries. He related numerous instances of efforts in several industries to standardise practices and eliminate waste, how the variety of sizes had poen reduced in number in certain lines and a standard set, and how the highly seasonal character of building has been reduced, extending the construction season to cover the full twelve months. Following out this practice would decrease the cost of homes in the long run. reduce unemployment, and bring many other benefits, he said. “Ho would he a rash man,” Secretary Hoover continued, “who would state that we are finally mitering the industrial millennium, hut there is a great ray of hope that America is finding a solution of greatest of all her problems, that is. a method by which social satisfaction is to he attained with the preservation of private industry, of initiative, and full development of the individual. It is idle to argue that there is at times no conflict of interest between the employee and the employer. But there aro wide areas of activity in which their interests should coincide and it- is the part of statesmanship on both sides to organise this identity of interests in order to limit the area of conflict. There is an identity of interest in waste elimination. In all this setting it has become far more possible to deal with the problem of waste elimination than ever before in our history, for cooperative action is easier to summon today than ever liefore, and certain of action. To deal with waste by such action is to strengthen these very foundations of better relationship between employer and employee." All this is the very antithesis of the theory that the more limited or expensive the production of commodities may be, the greater will he the participating share of those who are making them. That doctrine has been tried. It has failed ignominously, and usually in the demonstration that if tilings become too expensive to buy, they will not bo bought at all—which means that those who make them will lie partially or wholly idle. And so far as America and England, and one or two other comparatively high priced countriefl are concerned it has an additional and important meaning. The manufacturer who pays his workman a quarter or a shilling to make an article, can afford theoretically, to sell that article at a j

lower quotation than the manufacturer whoso wage scale is higher in money terms. But if the better paid workman produces two or three articles to the lower paid workman’s one, then competition becomes easy. That is why wage countries are able to do world trade against underpaid labor. In the struggle for markets this fact counts tremendously, and it will be a blessing if labor can be brought to see it. Their interests are at stake as much as those of the employer, for continuity of jobs linds its origin in this circumstance. Mr Hoover may he. right in asserting that you cannot catch, an economic force with a policeman, hut it is equally true that an economic force acting as a policeman can direct the trade traffic of the world as easily, and surely as his humanized prototype in tho middle of a busy street crossing guides and controls the stream of activity that Hows past him.