The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-06-29
TO ELIMINATE WASTE
By JSTANDARDIZING
(Literary Digest)


Enormous as the annual waste in
this country through preventable fires,
the Amerlsan Exchange National
Bank asserts that ''it is small compar-
ed with the annual waste resulting
from the reckless employment of cap
ltal in the wasteful production of vari-
Gus sizes and styles of essential like
things" Some progress has, indeed,
been made In eliminating this form
OF waste through standardizing, but
the advance, insists the New York
Bank IN Its June letter, has really
been very slow. We are told that
even simple and moderate extension
of the principle of standardization in
manufacture would release as much
capital for general use as goes in the
savings banks each year. The argu-
lment runs as follows:
The average man understands the
value of saving, because if he sets
he is sure to derive direct benefit.
His interest on saving on a national
scale through reduction in fire waste
and through the elimination of varie-
ties and styles in production is small,
because the benefits to be derived are
| less direct, altho in the long run they
are perhaps more desirable than the
immediate benefits he derives from
the investment of personal capital.
| Under our system. the accumulation
of capital is automatic; even if the
number of individuals who save should
be small the aggregate savings under
the standards of living would perhaps
equal the savings that would be ac-
cumulated by a large number of saw
ers. National habits of saving are
nevertheless to be preferred if for no
other reason than that they tend to
lprevent extravaganza in an age and
time which extravaganza would result
In the retardation of progress.
Popular consent to waste eliminat-
Jon through standardization is essential
however, and it is just as necessary
that the average man be made to un-
Ederstand the advantages of eliminat-
ing waste in this way as it is that
he have the habit of saving. Object
Iors to standardization usually appeal
to the prejudices of the average man;
Ihe is told. for example, that under
standardization the women would all
wear hats of the same design and col
oring; that all clothing would be cut
Ito a uniform pattern and that In a
Ishort time we should be living rout-
, inc existance, moving about In regi-
mented masses and to the best Of time
clocks. The term. standardization, as
it is applied in practice, has no such
Significance as that; in practice its
Significance is largely what the world
implies-dimensiona
The engineers who refers to stand
Iardization-and it is the engineer who
is the principal advocate of the thing
lcalled Standardization thinking of
Ia pipe or bolt on which the threads
, confirm to a fxtlstandard, thus elm
Iinating the necessity for carrying
large stocks of pipes and bolts whose
only difference is in the width or the
idirection of the threads. The manu-
Ifactnrer of mattresses is an advocate
Iof Standardization in bed sizes allows
him to reduce the number of sizes he
must carry in his stock of mattresses.
The same principle runs through all
, industry, and such simple and neces-
sary standardization as here outlined,
if generally followed, would perhaps,
ANNUALLY release as much capital for
employment in other fields as goes in
Ito the savinge bank each year.