Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1915-08-27
VALUE OF PLANNING.

II and wonderful people in many
ways. They examplify, in their ire
mendous successes along certain lines,
the highest development in the prac-
tice of some of the principles of effic-
iency. In planning, however, they are
pathetically deficient. II is charac-
teristic of them to plunge recklessly
ahead, intent upon today's immediate
advantage, and forgetful Of tomorrow.
They are inclined to trust to luck or
ingenuity rather than to planning.
They found and inherited a CONT
nent surprisingly rich in natural re-
sources. Because they have not
planned for tomorrow, they have
wasted far more of their forest
wealth than they have used. They
have depleted the soil, and have al
lowed millions of acres of it to be
washed away and carried into the
sea. They have swept out of exist
ence uncounted wealth in inland fish
cries, game birds, and enormous
herds of buffalo, antelope, elk, moose
and deer. They have, by wasteful
methods Of mining, rendered inacces-
sible millions of dollars worth Of coal
and other minerals, and have waste
fully burned up incalculable values
in natural gas and petroleum.
This same deficiency in planning
has characterized their railroad con-
struction, canal digging, location and
construction of factories, of CONNER
cial edifices and homes.
Their cities have sprung up without
plans, and they are now compelled to
reconstruct them along saner lines,
with enormous expenditures of mon
ey.
Because the American people do
not plan, they have unsightly railroad
yards, defacing water fronts that
ought to have belonged to the whole
people. In some cases they have been
obliged to purchase from private cor
porations at huge prices, plots need
ed for parks, bathing beaches, and
recreation piers.
Walk abroad anywhere in America
and you will see tremendously expen-
awe works Of reconstruction carried
on because the original work was not
intel!igently planned. If you are OBJ
servant and thoughtful, you will also
see unspeakable wastes of time, eff
fort, money, and material that must
go on indefinitely because there was
no plan in the beginning and il is now
forever too late.
In their personal lives also, as we'll
as their national, municipal and bus
mess affairs the American people are,
more than any other civilized people,
deficient in planning.
Our boys and girls are born into
badly planned homes; insufficiently
nourished on account of badly
planned meals; undisciplined because
there is no definite plan for training
them; sent to schools where they are
put through an inefficient routine in
stead of being educated according to
plans founded on their future needs.
Men and women take up occupa-
tons for which they are untitled, be-
cause, instead of planning for the flu
ture, they drift into the first work
that offers.
tkn L.
mediocre progress fall far short of
their possibilities because, through
lack of planning, they have wasted
large per cent of their time. Con-
trast all this regrettable inefficiency
with the remarkable results attained
when even little intelligent planning
is done. Our transatlantic steamers
depart from New York and Liverpool
at a definite time with scarcely var
iation. They transport hundreds, and
even thousands, Of passengers and
crew on each trip, in safety and COM
fort, ministering to them en- route
with all the punctuality and attention
to detail of our finest hotels. Almost
without fail they arrive on time at
their destination after crossing three
thousand miles Of ocean.
Such efficiency can be accomplished
only by the most careful planning of
every detail of machinery, stores, e.
quipment, service, navigation, fuel,
tools, instruments and implements, in
such a way that everything is on
hand, ready for use, at the exact time
needed.
A high school course is another ex-
ample of planning. Every hour, or
even half hour, Of every day for four
years is planned in advance for the
student so carefully that the entering
should he desire to do so,
could, by consulting the school cal
endar, foretell exactly what he would
be doing, barring accidents, in any
hour of the school day, on |