The Washington herald., 1921-02-15
Federated American Engineering
Societies Utilize Nations Experts
In Drive on Wasteful Production

in the steady elimination of these
wastes. ~.
The primary duty of organized
society is to enlarge the lives and
increase the standards of living of
all the peopIe-not OF any special
class whatever. We are therefore
proposing to make a preliminary
examination OF the volume of waste
in certain industries, the propor-
tions that lie in each field of fault.
And no engineering report is worth
the paper 1t is written upon with
out constructive suggestions in
remedy.
Current FaIIaey.
There is ofttimes a superficial
dismissal of this subject OF maxi
mum production on the assump-
tiop that there are positive limits
in production due to oversupply.
Such assumption has no proper
| foundation in the broad view of
industry as a whole. Too much
economic thought on production has
delimited its boundaries by the i'm
mediate volume of demand of a
thing as the nation ovcrproduction,
| il it produces the right commudi-
| ties. The commodities or services
produced by the whole nation are
capable of absorption by .he whole
nation II they are of the right char
acter. In other words. II we could
attune the whole industrial ma
chine to the highest pitch. agricul-
ture as well as manufacture. an in
creasing production would mean a
directly increasing standard of liv-
ing.
when ten men or 100. 900. 900 men
divide their united output. they can
| by doubling their output have twice
| the amount to divide. The problem
in doubling output is to direct it to
J commodities or services that they
can use. There is no limit to he
increase of living standards except
the limitations of human strain, sci
entifc discovery. mechanical in
ventiOn and natural resources.
Saturation Fear.
1T is true enough that any par
ticular commodity or seyvice can be
overproduced, for each will reach
saturatiOn point in demand when
all the members Of the community
have been supplied. The absorption
of increased productivity lies in the
conversion of luxuries of today into
necessities of tomorrow, and 10
spread those through the whole pop
ulation by stimulation of habit and
AAnnofinn Wheat broad rail
good roads electricity, telephones
telegraphs, automobiles and movies
were once luxuries. They are still
luxuries to some parts of the popu-
lation.
1t is but COrollary that certain
commodities can better be produced
for exchange for commodities from
outside our boundaries of more ap-
propriate character to our needs
Today we have capacity for produc-
tion OF some commodities not only
in excess of our home need, but ever
beyond expert demand under pres,
Cnt financial conditions As a mat.
ter of practical remedy we mus
either recognize these financial re.
lations or alternately abandon somt
part of this kind of production anc
-
of which we are not yet fully sup
piled.
Consumption Limit.
TO put the matter in anothe
way, there is no limit to consurnp
tion except the total capacity L
produce. provided the surplus o
productive power is constant!
shifted to new articles from thos
that have reached the saturatiol
point of demand. For instance, w
have the productive capacit.
wasted today that would rmprov
the housing conditions of our en-
tire people to the level that per
, haps only so per cent of them en-
joy-and at the same time not en-
trench upon our established neces
stiles. l am not suggesting that tn
forces of production can be shifte,
J by imperial direction. The practica
, thing that can be done is to elimi
nate some OF the wastes and misflt
J in our production, and depend upol