Evening star., 1927-05-05
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

1t is natural to expect the National
Chamber of Commerce to discuss Big
Business" in it's annual conferences,
and many specialists in various
| branches Of the subject have talked
/ interestingly in the sessions of this
week. They talk about exports and
imports, about banking and discounts,
credits and relations between capital
and labor. Dry as dust to innocent
bystanders,
But the one big Business" superior
to all others combined was discussed
by DR.. s. S. Huebner, professor of
insurance, University of Pennsylvania.
1t was not insurance that he used to
overwhelm his hearers. but the cash
value of an insurable asset worth
81, 400, 900 900 900. That is the capital
value of humans in the United States,
and without that as a foundation all
other commercial values would be
wiped out, for it is human labor which
creates all capital. Counting the sale
value of what humans produce an
nually at 31a per cent on the in
vestment, that makes the capital
value of these humans S2,400,0O0, ,00O,-
900.
x X X X
All the live stock, exclusive of
mated as worth $5,S07,104. 900. The
total value of all kinds of assets in
America, exclusive of humans, Is
1920, 900 900 900, but humans are worth
at market price nearly eight times
the total of all other capital in Amer
lea. Furthermore u am not now quot
ing DR.. Huebner but the World Al
manac), the value of all assets of all
nations of Europe, exclusive of hu-
mans, is about $575, 900, ,00O-but
American men, women and children
are worth more than four times as
much, on strictly cashwith-order
basis-"cash -and-carry system" or Pig
gly-Wiggly, or what you will.
** X 4
Now, a leak is a serious waste
which must be stopped in any busl-
ness. If a grocery be leaking be-
cause it's scales are out of order, the
defect viii be repaired. If a bank be
careless in collecting interest (if such
q leak be imaginable), the directors
are going to cashier the cashier. IL
a stethoscope detects a leaky valve
| in the human heart the doctor puts
in a new washer" and looks serious,
although the leak might not exceed a
quart in a year. But the leak in this
human So, ,400, 900 900 900 asset goes on,
year after year, in the preVentable
losses OF humans by disease and accl-
dent, or by poverty and hunger, or
even by ignorance of nutrition and IN
feCtion or how TO exercise and how to
breathe pure air.
II some MusSolini should ever wake
! to such Wastrel management, he Would
| issue q decree that would jail all doc
| tors and sanitation engineers and busl-
f,Y4 I,n
| law" preVentable diseases as severely
as war and fire and crime have been
"outawed" by the most pacifistic re-
| formers. Who knows but that that IS
what the National Chamber of Com
merce is preparing to advocate al the
next session Of Congress? 1t certain
| lv has cause to "view with alarm
| such a, waste of assets in national
| administration whose Keynote Is
economy!
1t must not be assumed that TINS
huge valuation of the $2,400 ,O0000V V,oOo
asset is fanciful or poetical. Everybody
knows that no price mark can be at
tached to the sentimental value of
loved ones. 1t is not figuratlVe re-
| turn to the human auction block, Tor
the experts to measure in dollars the
| investment value of a human. Chem
| lists have often weighed the ingredi
ents which make UP a human body,
and found that, at market price, al
most any average sized man could be
composed for about $90-or is it only
80 cents? But who has ever made q
man out of such ingredients? In Chi
cago last week some scientists mixed
some plain hens eggs with 10-min-
ute flow Of ultra violet rays of the
! 10 a1r1 led o.
chicks, who not only were like the
wise child who did not know its own
father, but which actually had no
| father. See what a botch they
made of it! Each fatherless chick had
| five hearts and only one eye! No ul-
tra-violet ray can pinch-hit like that
in creating our $2.400,000, 900, 900
J human asset; we are having enough
botching of humanity already. This