The Washington herald., 1922-01-06
BILLIONS WASTE
CHIEF U.S.. issue,
SAYS MIR. HOOVER
Consumer Must Have Re-
lief, Secretary Tells
Engineers at Dinner.

VI "ooNCf N0eS
ing billions of loss annually to the
American people, is the most funda--
mental of all problems with which
the nation must deal. Secretary of
Commerce Herbert Hoover declared
last night at a dinner given in his
honor at the University Club by the
American Engineering Council of
the Federated American Engineer
ing societies.
Great distortion between the cost
of commodities to the consumer and
the producer exists. Mr.. Hoover
added, and unless this distortion,
which is bearing heavily on the con-
sumer. can be overcome the Ameri-
can farmer will be reduced to the
status of a European peasant. The
way to a solution for the country.
Mr.. Hoover said. was in the direc-
ton pointed by the findings. re-
Gently completed, OF the American
Engineering Councils committee on
the Elimination of Waste in In
dustry, which, under the chairman
ship of ]. Parke Claiming of New
York, recently completed a national
VI
Dinner Attended by zoo.
About 200 members of the coun-
Gil and their guests attended the
dinner at which Dean. Mortimer z.
Cooley of the University of Michi-
gan, who recently succeeded Mr..
Hoover as president of the council,
presided. The council presented to
Mr.. Hoover a copy of a resolution
passed by it in which he was ex-
tolled for the distinguished sue
cess which has followed him in his
past services to his profession, his
country and mankind"
The resolution expressed the graf
itude of the organized engineers of
the nation over the service of Mr..
Hoover in helping to organize the
council, of which he was the first
president, and recorded appreciation
of ''the rare judgment and vision
with which Mr., Hoover has directed
the initial policies of the council"
Taking 100 as the basis of the
cost in 1913 to the producer and
consumer, Mr.. Hoover said that to-
day the cost to the producer could
be regarded as 100. while the cost
to the consumer has risen to $50 and
even 170. Only through the elimi-
nation of waste, he declared. can the
existing inequalities be wiped out.
Taxation. State and Federal. has
greatly increased the distortion, he
said. He declared that these con-
ditions were not now due to swollen
profits, but to the existence of
aNoidable waste. Economies of
manufacture, tranSporta tion, distri-
button. and other agencies must be
sought. he said. Idle men, he de-
clared, was one of the greatest
causes of waste, because lost labor,
once over the dam. is lost forever.
Electrincation Big Problem.
One of the biggest problems CON-
fronting gthe country. Mr.. Hoover
thoughgt, was that of electrification,
suggesting that the engineers tackle
this problem in the form of a waste
survey. Such a survey, he said, af-
forded at this time the greatest pos
sibilities in the direction of effec-
tive leadership in the elmnation of
waste. He asked the engineers to
take up the problem in a larger
view of electrification. The Proposed
super-powers along the Allan
tic seaboard, in the region between
Boston and Washington was the
starting point, he said, for prodig-
ious development in consolidating
the electrical power of the country
along national lines which would
affect every village and hamlet,
combine into super-power stations
hundreds of thousands of minor
electrical plants, with millions of
horsepower, and result in tremen-
dous savings to industry.
Mr.. Hoover predicted that in this
and other fields the engineer was
destined to be Of ggreat service to
the nation. The engineer he styled
''the worlds greatest realist." The
service to the country during the
first year of its organization was a
small measure. he said. of what tho
American Engineering Council was
bound to accomplish.