DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 99, 18 July 1927, Page 3

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

BISCUIT CUTTER CIVILIZATION (Copyright, 1927. J charge is brought against America that it represents a biscuit-cutter civilisation. That is, that goods which are manufactured, as well as the minds of people generally, are in a set form. There is too much unanimity and sameness about life, and not enough individualism. Well, the biscuitcutter idea lias something to be said in its favour. It means standardisation °‘ products. It means that parts shall be made by machinery, and shall be an interchangeable nature. Almost all the reduction in price and the enormous product of our concerns have been due to the elimination of waste and expense by standardisation. , x . _ In newspaper columns it is said that in five years the industrial output hiw increased 40 pei cent. One manufacturer says: One man working Steadily for einht hours used to turn out 60 pieces an hour, or 480 a day. He got 65 dollars a week. Then we put in machines. We have 30 men on the job. and we put out 14,000 pieces a day.” This story has been multiplied by many. Cotton seed, once a waste product, has been used in many ways. In Wisconsin they are making Paper from peat Because of this standardisation, and our immensely increased products, we have become the wealthiest nation in the world. ‘ c are producing not only surplus cotton and wheat, but surplus industria Products, and '\e have a surplus of money. We are richer than ever was a nation before We own 20,000,000 motor-cars, millions of homes, and we travel and live luxuriously-. Arthur D. Welton, in an article in the Burroughs magazine, says that it is estimated that the earnings of American corporations for 1026 exceed seven billion dollars. Savings deposits in banks are twice as much as they were 20 years ago. We are supplying the with capital. New York has effectively challenged the financial leadership °t London. Our people now hold bonds to the extent of six billion dollars, fhd the foreign indebtedness to the United States is now in excess of sixteen billion dollars. , ~ . . , Mr. Welton says: “The fact is that America is not country in the world, but richer than any country was before, and it is destined to become still richer.” The hiscuit-eutter civilisation, reduced to its lowest terms ® imply as that our people have learned to co-operate and to save waste, as well as utiliEe the torces of Nature. So. after all, the biscuit-cutter civilisation has somethius to be said in its favour.