Evening star., 1927-09-25

Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University

We're in the depth of poverty; after
few years they moved on into better
quarters as relatively prosperous
working people. The incoming stream.
however, was so large as to keep ths
reservoir full, sometimes more than
full. Nevertheless. millions of these
individuals moved on to better quar-
ters and into a state of relative COM
fort. This, / repeat, was no small
| achievement for our industrial system.
What the restriction of immigration
has done has been merely TO reduce
the volume of the incoming stream.
This has made it possible for our
economic system to accomplish some
what more visible results. The proc
ess of promotion of the recently ar
rived immigrants to better positions
and a higher standard of comfort has
gone on at an even higher rate.
We come again to the question:
Why have our industries been able to
employ. at advancing wages, such
large numbers of workers? When we
answer this question we shall have
an answer 10 both the questions pre-
viously raised. First; Why are we
prosperous? Second: Why have SO
many immigrants desired to come?
The first and obvious answer is that
our industries have expanded so
rapidly as to create an active demand
for more and more laborers. When
this demand increases more quickly
than the supply. wages rise: when the
supply increases more rapidly than the
demand, wages fall. That is really all
there is to il so far as the first answer
is concerned.
THE next question is: Why have our
industries expanded? Industries do
not expand of themselves. they do
not sprout up out of the ground, they
do not rain down from the sky. They
expand because vast amount of high
intelligence is massed upon industrial
problems. 1t is this massing of intelli-
gence that explains most great ma
tiona1 achievements. Germany. under
the Kaisers, succeeded in massing her
best intelligence on military problems,
with the result that these problems
were solved and the most efficient
fighting machine that the world has
ever seen was built England has
massed her best intelligence on gov.
ernment problems, both at home and
in the colonies, with the result that
the English government is probably
the most effective machine for social
control the world has ever seen. This
things, but has succeeded in massing
its best intelligence on industrial
problems, with the result that we have
built the greatest industrial machine
that the world has ever seen.
We mey have neglected a number of
other things: nevertheless, 1t is an
achievement not to be ashamed of.
For the first time in the history of
the world the masses are living in
a state of universal physical comfort,
and the vast majority of them have
something more than is necessary for
physical comfort. To have developed
the fine arts to a high state of per-
lection and left the masses in misery
may be something for country to
be proud of. To have lifted the mass
es out of misery into comfort, even
though the fine arts are somewhat
neglected, is also thing to be proud
of. To achieve both results at the
same time would be to have built a
civilization which the world has not
yet seen. That double achievement
remains for the future.
The next question is: How have we
managed to mass so much high INTEL
igence on industrial problems? There
are several answers to that. In the
first place, under our democratic tra-
ditions. We do not regard one use
full occupation as less honorable or
genteel than another. Business has
been quite as respectable as scholar
ship or any of the learned professions.
In a country where business is de-
spised or business men contemptu-
ously spoken of as the bourgeOfsie
it would be difficult to get fair share
of the best talent to go into business;
il would be diverted toward the more
genteel, the more ornamental occupa-
tons. In the second place, we have
had for some decades a system of pop
ular and universal education. and in
our system of education we have not
despised utilitarian ends. In this re-
spect we have developed the first and
greatest resource of any nation, its
man power.
To take what would otherwise have
been an unskilled and relatively un
productive laborer and make him into
a skilled and highly productive labor
er is not only to improve his economic
condition but also to increase his pro-
ductive capacity and make him