The Connecticut labor news., 1923-12-01

tor mass production.
 "Fhe economics of production costs which the mass production of Amer ica insures and the security of em- ployment which this enlarged com petition for workers services itself assures, is the base on which IS sus.. tained the constantly rising tide of American production and d1strlbu- ton.
 "The effect of American economies and the increasing scale of produc- tion and distribution and consump- ton on which human opportunity and earnings rest, Is written not only in the aggregate of national wealth created, but in the increase in only the last 10 years of savings accounts in this country from six billion dol lars to fourteen billion dollars, and of national bank rsources from six billion to seventeen billion.
 But if you ask what evidence we have that Americas great wealth and earnings are fairly and justly ap- portioned among our people, we have some measures that indicate the an- swer may be straightforward and with a national pride. There are figures of average earnings per worker in the manufacturing indus try, showing average increases per capita of 100, and then again 200, and then still again 300 per cent, during the progress of this industrial development. Is 1t not reasonable to assume that the very existence of the great volume of factory produc- ton aid the great flow of distribu- power are widely distributed, Tn the bopHc of millions or,J millions of corr sumers? No such volume could be marketed were the ability to buy con fined to the fortunate wealthy few
 "Now, if those indicators show the magnitude of Americas industrial leadership; if those tests indicate as we'll a social system in which the general level of possession is clearly rising and secure, then they suggest deeper meaning, which carries an accent of almost startling signifi- canoe
 We have taught for generations, and it is undoubtedly the truth, that poverty, itself, is the major cause of sickness, suffering, and sometimes death; and more, that poverty is the mother of criminals, and Restitution the incentive to crime. For centuries, the effort of the world has been to re- duce and to eliminate poverty, from which spring crime and social degen- eratlon. In furtherance of the effort for this attainment there have been lconstructed social theories of experi- mentation which, in actual practiie, have only written an added chapter of human misery and disappointment Progress Already Made Is Clear. Does 1t not make you catch your breath that, here in America, Ameri- can individualism has written story of social progress and individual ac- complishment which may prove the very outposts of the social advance which will eliminate entirely the age- old horror of Restitution? So clear Is this progress written in America, so Iclear the acceleration of advance in the security of individual living in the American home, that 1t requires not so much .thoughtless daring as accu- rate appraisal of national progress to forecast that America is within strik- ing distance of accomplishing the ut ter and absolute elimination of pow erty, the quest of many centuries of social effort It is within the possi- bilities that this may now be actually attained within a single decade, or at most single generation.
 The glory of America may rest in history that, through it's own po1iti- cal, social and industrial philosophy and practice, America achieved the utter defeat of poverty and destitu- ton, and charted the course for the world to follow in making secure and, high the general level of human hap piness
 Tk fiji L i layed or defected by ignorant or law, on which must rest the advanc- those violations of economic law be- cme social injuries that wrk their harm across every threshold.
 There would thus be social injury when organizations of workers, by power of combination, bar the adap- tation of labor-saving machinery, or put restrictions on individual effort or accomplishment during hours ot albor, or force the dead level of com pensation which destroys the incen- tive to superior individual perform ance.
 There would thus be social injury if the directors and managers of in dustry, by combination or agreement, defeat the economic pressure for energy and economy in administra- tion, or by such combination levy an unfair toll on the processes of commerce.
 Wage scales, and business earn ings, forced py arbitrary power, out of step with the advancing front of healthful industry, would play part in holding back the day when Amer ica may proudly challenge the world to find within it's borders poverty or Restitution which is not the fault solely of criminal or mental defect.
 Interference Holds Us Back.
 There would be also social injury when political or governmental au- thority in ignorance or in malice