Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-03-09
HoiU Does IL Strike You9
War Has Broken Dotpn the Habit
Of SaUing--Nero TnUenfion Needed
to Bring About Economies to
Make Reconstruction Easter
nAN1En WILLARD, president Of

they thr W into the fire under the en-
gine they would reduce the cost of oper-
ating his road $720, 900 a year.
Will they save the shovelful in
twenty?
Hardly.
There never was a time when labor
was less interested in making the rail.
roads success than it is now.
And the Indifference of labor Is not
confined to the railroads.
1t is general. ]. NJ. Keynes. in his
book on THE Economic Consequences
of the Peace" puts IL well.
The economic state of the world be-
fore the war broke out rested upon GER
tain unstable factors, though mankind
believed them stable.
"The war" says Mr.. Keynes. "has
disclosed the possibility of consumption
to all and the vanity of abstinence to
many. The laboring classes
may be no longer willing to forgo so
largely as formerly.
But it is something more than that.
The world has learned that great
catastrophe may wipe out all the pain
full accumulations of society.
Savings are worth only half what
they were when they were made, and
taxes threaten that half.
Our dollars lose value while they are
in our. pockets.
The laboring classes have lost faith
in the directing classes.
Governments failed to stave off a
world catastrophe.
And the managers of industry had to
turn over their properties to govern :
ments in the emergency.
Doubts have arisen which make men
reckless.
The whole process out of which So
ciety was growing richer and the stand =
ard of living was being raised has been
arrested, has been stopped.
And faith in it Is for the time gone.
1t Is not easy to get men to save q
shovelful out of twenty in a moment like
this.
.-...- q q q
A MOTHER psychological factor that
Ais Como is faith in the steady con
quest of man over nature.
The battle between little economies
and mounting costs has been lost by
little economies.
1t is no longer possible to say that
the use of improved machinery, the
saving of the by products, the handling
in larger units, make up for the ex
haustion of the richer lands and the
more easily worked veins of raw ma
! terials.
Before the war little economies were
slowly losing in the race.
But during the war costs suddenly
rose and brushed the little economies
aside.
Men will work their heads off t.
build levees so long as the rising rive
only trickles over them, but when
great rush of water breaks through the.
throw down their shovels.
It Is hard to. make men believe tina
one shovelful of coal in twenty will
stop the rising tide.
WHAT is needed Is not a shoveful IL
w twenty-that is all very well IL Mr.
Willard can get it; but new faith,
new interest in the great business o
| accumulation for the benefit of societ,
as a whole, a new and general sens
that abstinence is not vanity.
Such a new hope cannot be base
upon saving a shove]ful in twenty.
q q
THE worlds faith for more than 10
l. years was built upon the great in
ventions.
Lenine and the British Labor part
leaders are social inventors. They ar
convinced that the hope of the futur
lies in social inventions.
But only IL the limit of great physi
cal inventions has been reached.
Another James Watt would Civ
mankind a new hope that the battl
with nature had been won such as n
Lenine or Henderson can hold out.
One fifth of all the capacity an
| slrnaI orI n
other railroads is devoted to carryin
fuel for the locomotives.
Suppose Mr.. Willard could announc
tomorrow that, for example, by pow
dering coal before consuming it his en-
gines need carry only half as much fu,
as now.
Ten per cent additional capacity {
his train would be available for freigf
or passenger hauling.
This would be not one shovelful
twenty, but ten shovelfuls in twenty.
A revolution would take place in in
dustry.
Men would have new hope.
? q q 9
CUPPOSE Mr.. Willard could an
- nounce that all the railroads of I'll
country could now be electrified.
lnaC WOUlu Hlcuu All tHc CHpdCl'
now devoted to transporting engine fu
could then be devoted to freight, an in
crease in the carrying capacity of Il
roads of 20 per cent.
g 1t would mean more than that, fl
{ if the railroads could be electrified q
industries could be electrified, and the
= would be no need to carry coal to Il
industries.
About half the capacity of the raj
e roads Is devoted to carrying fuel {,
{ themselves and for the industries.
Transportation would at once
e made more efficient for general pu
e poses.
o Mounting costs would be knocked o.
I in single round.
d Men would get over their prese
e reckless mood and believe once mo
y that the great fight of man again
matter was a progressively easier tigh
q 9 q
c ALL that is needed to bring abo
n this revolution is great inventi
that would make considerable part
the power latent in coal available in I
form of electricity.
At present only 10 per cent Of Il