The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-16
A Timely Editorial
That 30-Minute Day Is Far Off
 (Kanaas City Starl

It is an interesting dream of Henry Ford's tha some day we may be able to manufacture all the ne- cessaries of life with an average of half an hours work for each one of us. Interesting as a dream. But just at present We need to get down to brass tacks and do our days work in the old-fashioned way, just as Henry Ford's own employees do. The half hour day is not so close as to prevent MT. Ford in his own operations from requiring a full days hard. driving work for full days pay.
 Until recently no reliable data were available as to the country's production. People had their own ideas whether the need was for more production to increase the standard of living, or whether it was for more equable distribution. But with the experience of the in- come tax, and the more careful census investigations, it has proved possible in the last few years to find out just what the situation is. There IS no longer any excuse for guess ing.
 It has been discovered that the average per capita income for the ten years ending in 1918 was in the neighborhood of $350, on the basis of the purchasing power of the 1913 dollar.
 That is, if the entire product were divided up, without taking out taxes, or money for the extension of industry, or profits, or the high CT salaries paid executives, there would be only $350 a year apiece.
 With deductions made for taxes. and for the normal extensions of our industrial plants. and with high CT salaries for the directors of in- dustry which even Russia has found it necessary to pay, evidently the average family income would be whittled down to an uncomfortable point.
 These figures are the result of elaborate studies by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which was organized to dig out this essential information. It is con- trolled by a board of trustees that includes labor leaders and well known economists as we'll as busi- ness men. It has had 8 competent staff of investigators at work. These men attacked the problem from two sides. Part of them un- dertook study of all tne available income information. The rest studied the figures on production. The two lines of study produced all most identical results. The differ ences were less than 5 per cent.
 It is impossible Tor anyone to study the results of this elaborate set of investigations without real izing that the great trouble today, the fundamental trouble. lis insuf- ficient production. We must pro- duce more before we can materially raise the standard or living.
 That means more intelligent and effective organization of industry. It means constant progress in in vention. It means intelligent, hard work on the part of managers and employees alike.
 All progress has come in this way. With no specsacufar develop ments this advance has been steady, as anybody can see by comparing standards of living today with those of thirty years ago. Several economic investigations have shown that under normal conditions the increase in production over increase in population has been about one per cent year fo rthe last gene ration. The increase has been re- flected in the general prosperity of the people.
 What is needed is further ad- vance along the lines shown by ex- perience to be practical. Mr. Ford's picture of what may happen hun dred years hence may be delightful. But if we let it divert us from the job in hand of plugging along and earning the best living we can by hard work and thrift, we shall lose out.
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