The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-08
P LUMb PLAN FOR ALL INDUSTRIES
 ID BE SUBMITTED
sy Associated pr,s,

Washington. January IA Plumb plan for ali American industry, modelled after the plan of the same name for the rail- roads, has been prepared and is expected to be publicly announced soon.
 Copies of the plan. captioned, An In- dustrial Programme by Glenn E. Plumb, are being circulated in Washington and some of them have been received in gov ernment circles.
 Briefly the plan proposes for all Amer ican industry the system of tri-partite railroad control advanced some time ago with the backing of the great brother hoods, and which it has been announced would be made an issue at the elections.
 It proposes practically the same di- vision Of representation for capital, labor and the public
 Industry is classed into four divisions in this way:
 l. Those individualistic in ownership and operation, Including the farmer and the small artisan, contractor and manufac- turer who is both capitalist. laborer and consumer.
 2 All industries formerly gindividuaiis- tic, but which through organization have
  from labor and concerns itself only in di- rection and supervision of production, in which it engages the efforts of others who have no share in ownership
 8 Industries "based upon grant from society in the shape of a franchise, grant or privilege or monopoly. In tnis oi- vision are included all public service cor pcrations except those engaged in inter state commerce. and all industries en-
 
 These latter are described as including mines, gas and water power.
 {. Railroads and commercial transpor- tation facilities The plan explains that these are considered separately from the public service facilities embraced in the third division because the former are under local control, created by local au- thorities and. sunject to local regulations
 FUNDAMENTAL INTEREST
 The fundamental interest in these in dustries. the Plumb plan declares, "is the need of society for the products of that industry or the service which it rem ders, that calls the industry into being In the first two classes where society has made no grant the free working of the law of supply and demand protects the public interest"
 Public interest is defined in the p,Nn as follows:
 It is the right of the public to obtain better, cheaper or more products or service as the progress of the arts per- nits the making of more or better goods or service at a, lower cost of prodsc- ton The constitution denies the power of the public so to- exercise it's power or regulation as to deprive the owner of the property of his investment, actually. hon estly and prudentIy made, or of fair return on such investment. If society pays more than this amount which the owner retains as a profit, society pays more than it lawfully is required to pay and the owner receives more than he is lawfully entitled to receive ..This.'' says the Plumb plan. intro duces perpetual conflict between society in the exercise of this public regulation, and the agent it has created for it's serv- ice and results in supplying luxuries and procuring greater revenue for those who benefit in these exactions." Under the heading Rights of Labor the plan declares that the measure of what a workman shall receive depends entirely upon the amount in value of service which he renders. He is entitled to receive an equivalent amount in value of the services of others The wage sys- tenn disregards this human right