The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-10-15
THE SHAME OF IT.

THE SHAME OF IT.
The puttering about Of our Chest
brains' in search for the causes of
unemployment, the most critical of a
long series Of social wrongs and iniqui.
ties would be laughable were not the
situation anything but a laughing mat
ter.
1t is impossible to form an adequate
conception Of the hideous farce and
the CHASTITY tragedy that characterize
the social system under which we live,
and about all that our chest brains"
have to offer is meaningless jargon
about the workers getting too much TO;
their services, Of silk shirts and "fliv-
vers' and like absurdities.
Here, at the present time, we have
unparalleled famines, in which millions
perish, and coincident with these cal.
antilles a deliberate decrease in pro-
duction on the part of those who con-
troll industry.
This world could be fabulously rich,
1t has such means to create wealth that
there need not be a poor man or wom-
an on the face Of the earth. And yet,
through the failure of our chest
brains' to properly discharge the one
function that is demanded of them, the
vast majority of mankind is afflicted
with the curse of poverty, and many
actually die of the pangs Of hunger.
In his recently published work. Major
Douglas draws attention to the "slow.
ing down" that is practiced by manu-
facturers.
processes and discoveries of i'm
mense value,'' he says, "have been
willfully stifled because it did not suit
producers to modify or increase their
product. Any practical business man
will know of cases-probably dozens of
cases.' If he does not, he can. be en-.
lightened if he will apply to the United
States Bureau of Standards
One Of America IS foremost industrial
engineers has declared that the indus
trial efficiency of the United States
twas about 5 per cent in 1872 And
Major Douglas remarks: "He was un-
der no delusion as to the cause Of this;
it was because it did not pay those in
control of the industrial process to
make it any higher.''
SO that, according to these authori-
ties, the United States, the most pro-
gressive of industrial countries, is pro-
ducing only twentieth part of what
it could produce were it organized for
the common good!
Major Douglas estimates that, were
scientific methods fully utilized,
something over three hours work per
head per day, on the part of all adults
between IS and IS years, would be am
pie for the purpose Of meeting the con-
sumption and depreciation of all the
factors of modern life, under normal
conditions and proper direction.''
Instead Of which, such as the chaoti.
middle due to incompetence, and such
the waste of labor in the form of un.
employment, misdirected effort and
cultivated idleness, that children are
dragged from school at an early age to
toll, and men and women drudge eight.
ten and twelve hours day and whole
multitudes die Of starvation, and in the
most advanced countries three fourths
OF the people struggle along on the bor-
der-line of restitution.
Verify, the record of modern indus.
.trialism, with its philosophy of "get-
ting everything possible while the get:
ting is good" is shameful to the las.
degree, and no one has fathomed the
depths Of its dishonor.
And because its record is wholly
shameful and dishonorable, there ~
neither hope nor expectation of any
thing good coming of a conference made
up very largely of the "best brains,'
who propagate and profit through the
existing monstrous situation.