Evening star., 1928-11-25
AMERICAN DIVIDENDS
In DECADE OF PEACE
Unexampled Progress Has Been Made
in All Branches of EndeavOr
Since World War.

lIlStedu Ol DeiLlS sawed WIN Single up
right or circular saw, is now handled
almost entirely by machinery with gang
saws; and a provision is made for han
ding the former waste material so that
it Is cut into latns and shingles and
often manufactured into boxes and
many other smaller products Of lumber.
Government Supervisor.
Moreover, with this modern lumber
camp goes Government forester, whose
business it is to see that the waste. in
stead Of being left to catch on fire the
coming Summer and destroy the forest,
| is properly stacked and burned. In
many instances also 1t is part of his
Job to see to it that the land cut over
is properly reforeSted, so that the coun-
try in 80 or 40 years will reproduce as
| much as has already been taken away.
Here again, in the distant lumber
camp, one finds the newspaper and the
radio, so that the men are kept up to
date with the current events G. the
| world
And so one might go on to enumer-
ate the wonderful progress that has
| been made-in the mining industry. for
example, where the mines, instead Of
being superlatively dangerous from fire.
damp and noXiouS gases, are now largely
methods of discovering the ore have
| been greatly improved by the use Of the
| diamond drill and we are reading Of
| late how from the surface of the ground
many metals can be reasonably we'll To-
| Gated by the use of magnetic and elec-
| trio instruments, so that the work has
F.! become much less hazardous and risky
| than it was even 20 years ago.
| No less significant have been the de-
velopments along many other lines. Lei
/ us note particularly machinery and
! power. as these seem to lend themselves
/ to figure more accurately than most
| others. 1t is we'll known that the great
| est contribution that has been made to
modern productive processes by Amer
| ica is that known as interchangeable
manufacturing, sometimes called mass
| production, and known abroad as the
| american system of manufacturing.
This process consists in making all
| similar parts of machine SO close to
given standard as to be interchangeable.
| so that any part of machine can be
removed and another similar part put
in its place. Necessarily such system
/ of production rests uI)on accurate basic
standards Of meas'lrNmcnt and tools OF
| great precision. but the resulting saving
is simply enormous.
Prime Mover Capacity.
DIR. F, r. Low. editor of Power.
! gives the following estimate Of prime
mover capacity actually installed in the
United States. This includes electric
railways, stationary engines. central sta
| tions. some railroads. traction. automo-
biles, etc. The total amounts to 704,-
266. 900 horsepower. DIR. Low remarks:
IF these figures arc correct. there is In
stalled for each unit of our population
prime-mover capacity equivalent to the
ability to produce for each man, wom-
an and child of our population, II they
demanded it. physical service equivalent
to that which could be rendered by loD
slaves To-Day poWer-opeTseou
machinery is doing in these United
states alone more work than could be
nerformed by all the able-bodied men
in the world working like slaves from
sunrise to sunset"
It is a most interesting fact that this
work done by prime-movers IN the
United States is four times as great As
that produced in Great Britain or Ger
MANY and 10 times that produced III
France. 1t is perhaps even still more
noteworthy that the per capita wea!tn
of the United States as contrasteo with
the other countries follows suoStantlaIy
F. |
developments that imply great degree
of industrial adyanc ement 1t seems to
be not at all an accident, but instead
the product Of intelligent fdrward-look-
ing planning.
| It is this very great use Of power that
Is rapidly freeing the millions OF our
ueople from the drudgery OF long nours
of heavy, toilsome labor. Through tne
use of mechanical power we may reacn
a goal of universal well-belng In wnlcn
there may be food and shelter ana
clothing for all. together with no IN,
considerable degree OF menIai ana
spiritual development that VIII spring
| from the leisure acquired.
Somewhat similar results are 70 ne
found in the electric industry as olS.
tinruished from the other forms OF
| noWar-water, coal. gas and OIL.
In 1869 the power at the average
MANS disnosal was six-tenthS OF one
horsenower. ~ Today there is available
! for each worker four ana quarter
horsepower. a mechanical equlvaleAI Oh
some 55 human servants. Inree-
fourths of this power IS 1urnlsheo DS
electricity.
dav are supplied by manufacturing
industry of ] 700 establishments. In
these plants 300, 1000 employees are pro-
ducing annually product valued NJ
S1 SOC, ,OOO. 900. These plants manu1ac-
ture, among other things. hall Dlillon
| incandescent lamps each year IN Amer
ica alone-neariy one-half Of the worlds
output.
Industrial Chemistry.
The productivity of industrial chem-
istry is, If possible, even more startling.
Within the last few years there mas
been a complete Transformation OF our
living. due largely to chemistry alone.
ONLY a few years ago attention was
called to the fact that "the known nj
| trogen resources of the world would not
be sufficient for the agricultural needs
of many more generations. Means
must be devised to supply nitrogen from
| the air. That has at last been done on
a commercial scale. The 1nterrelaClonS
between the products Of chemistry and
those of physics as shown by the use OF
gasoline in the automobile and OF oxy-
acetylene in the welding and cutting Oh
metals are processes of tremendous I'M
prOvement.
Take the rayon industry alone-a sci-
entific fiber manufactured by a chem
ical process. AT the present time 1t has
reached a development comprising IA
establishments in this country, employ
ing more than 10000 people, with q
product valued at more than $4,000, 900.
The total value added to material
passed through the chemical industries
IS estimated by the Bureau Of Census
reports for 1925 at $6.655. SIS 900, and
this exclusive of the increase by metal
lurgical processes. Altogether the prod
ucts of American industries which have
chemical interest amounted in 1925
to 81, ,02l, ,875 ,000-a Stupendous fi@lre.
One may we'll mention in the United
States the telephone and radio. because
here more than elsewhere in the world
has been brought about the greatest
development in these fields, largely