The Connecticut labor news. (New Haven, Conn.) 1921-1925, 1921-07-08
SURRENDER CONTROL
OR LOSE DIVIDENDS.
WALL ST. IS WARNED
Practical Economist Says So-Called
Capitalists Are Ignorant of
Actual Conditions

| Washington, July 8.-The only in
dustry which has right to survive
these times is the industry which is
run on the principle of production
and service, and the only practical
trolled by the men who know how to
run the machine: We must get down
to simple, human understanding if
American industry is to survive This
is the opinion advanced by Charles
Ferguson of New York, a noted econ
omist and student, and author of sew
eral books, who knows finance and
Wall street methods better than most
| men. His view of the industrial situa-
| ton was outlined in an interview pub
llshed in recent issue of the New
York World
"Our so-called capitalists" said Mr..
Ferguson, ''are blind. They can not
see this wonderful organism which
they imagine they own. They lack
faith. They are devoid of knowledge.
Therefore, they do not understand the
principle of credit and they can not
read history. Wall street is illiterate
But the light is getting so strong that
some Of them must begin to see things
Practical Men Needed
Mr.. Ferguson was asked to give his
Views on the railroad situation In ad-
dition to being an economist, student
and writer, Mr.. Ferguson is a me-
chanical engineer and says he knows
how to run locomotive engine, but
|added that if he wished to keep a loco
motive running he would hire a regu-
lar engineer. He would follow ex-
actly the same course if running the
whole railroad.
eff we are dealing with a locomo-
tive, we first call for an engineer and
we ask him just one question. We
ask: What can you do?' If his an
swer to that question is satisfactory,
we give him the job, and the locomo-
tive engineer does not fail. But when
somebody proposes to run a whole
flock of railroads for us, we forget to
ask that fundamental question. We
ask, instead, How much money have
you got?' and if he can show sufic-
lent bankroll we put the railroads in
his hands. Is it any wonder that the
locomotives are run we'll, while the
railroads as whole are failures?"
The whole railroad problem, Mr.
Ferguson believes, will be solved |
when we obtain men to operate them |
who know the business, know how to
run them like an engineer runs his |
locomotive.
Financier Must Abdicate
Il tell them down in Wall street,"
said Mr.. Ferguson, that the only in
dustry which can survive these times |
is the industry which is run on the |
principle of production and service |
But the actual control of industry
these blind men still hope to vest that |
control in the investors and fnanciers |
the only practical government of in
dustry is controlled by the men who
know how to run the machine. The |
engineer, not the fnancier, must sit
at the head of the table when the
directors meet hereafter
When asked if this meant that the |
fnancier must abdicate, Mr. Ferguson
replied:
He must abdicate a power which
he only imagines that he has. He
doesn't run industry today. The best
he can do is to let it run and the
worst to interfere with it's being run
And today, happily, he has no choice,
for he can not hang on to his author
ity and his dividends too. He must
let one or the other go. And despotic
as some American fnanciers have
seemed to be, anyone who really
knows them knows just what they
eventually will do. They will relin-
quish their authority to the engineer
and be satisfied with clipping cou-
pons."