Evening star., 1927-09-25

with standards and equipment COM
parable with those of the schools of
technology ard the professional
schools One good school OF busi-
ness does more for wage workers
than 10, 900 agitators.
In the development of any industry
there is always likely to be a limit
ing factor. In the development of
farming in the arid West the limiting
factor is water. There is enough of
everything else to grow 10 times as
much as is grown, but only as much
, of the other factors can be used as
the limited supply of water will per-
nit.
In some overcrowded countries the
limiting factor is land. There is an
oversupply of labor enough to cult.
vate many times as much land as they
have; there are markets; they export
fertilizer materials, but all these other
factors are of very little use when
there is so little land on which to use
them.
In Russia today the limiting factor
is capital. Without capital-that is
equipment-laborers cannot produce
much per man. That is why the Soviet
government is so anxious to buy equip
ment on credit or to borrow money
with which to buy it. In a new and
sparsely populated country with rich
natural resources the limiting factor
may be labor, it may be equipment, it
may be engineering or chronological
intelligence or it may be most any
thing.
In most countries at the present
time the limiting factor is not manual
lah 1ah VII Of oil rII
countries are Overcrowded. Wherever
the moral systems are sound and con-
structive the limiting factor is not
capital. Thrift means accumulation
and investment in productive equip
ment. In all such countries capital
is abundant. Only in those countries
where medieval influences are in con-
troll is there lack of capital. Land
is never the limiting factor in manu-
featuring, because it requires little
land.
Everywhere the factors which limit
the expansion of manufacturing indus
tries are the scarcity of superior in
ventors, investors and organizers.
There must be inventors to devise
equipment that will increase the prod
uct per man. There must be wise
investors TO spend money on equip
are likely to produce more than they
cost. There must be superior organ
izers to bring together the different
kinds of laborers and the different
kinds of equipment in exactly the
right proportions and to get the whole
combination to work harmoniously.
Amy modern country which succeeds
in supplying these three factors in in
creasing abundance will expand it's
industries and employ increasing num-
bers of workers at increasing wages
If there is an inexhaustible supply
of immigrant labor to draw upon, such
a country will merely employ increas.
ing numbers without much increase in
wages. Where the supply of manual
workers is strictly limited, such a
country will pay increasing wages
without much increase in the number
of wage workers.
n this country we nave for a long
time been blessed with an abun-
dance of active inventive talent. Capt.
tai has, as stated above, increased
rapidly. We have had considerable
numbers of shrewd investors, but the
great majority of those who have tried
to invest their own capital have been
exceedingly foolish and gullible. Grad
uaily we are building up the habit of
intrusting our savings to experts who
do our investing for us-that is, we
put them into savings banks, building
and loan associations, insurance of
various kinds, and we are now devel-
oping number of investment trusts.
This means that our savings are more
and more being invested for us by the
experts who manage these financial
accumulations-that is, they will be
invested in enterprises that are likely
to succeed and expand rather than in
those which will fail.
Business, having been respectable,
has not repelled men of enterprise and
constructive imagination. The kind of
men who in previous ages would have
been lured by military glory or the
vision of empire in this country have
been lured into great business enter |
prises. They have supplied the |
scarcest of all factors-namely, organ |
izing ability.
One of the striking results Of this |
combination of factors-namely, in |