The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-03-10
INDUSTRIES COMING OF AGE
By Rexford Guy Tugwell. Har-
court. Brace and Company.
Reviewed BY CY OGDEN.

DROF. TUGWELL is one of grow
ing body of economists who are
trying to save capitalism by pretend
ing that it can be abolished without
a revolution. The theories of this
group have been analysed by Com
rade Foster in the March issue of
THE Communist" where he showed
that their real aim is to liquidate the
class struggle and to persuade the
workers to accept capitalist rationale
zation with it's accompaniment of
lower living standard for the masses.
Tugwell tries to achieve this end by
concentrating on the one factor of in
creasiRg production and soft. pedalling
all the factors of disintegration which
accompany it. In the increasing
productivity of American industry he
finds evidences of new industrial
revolution which will sweep away all
the economic troubles of the world
and which without political revolu-
ton will bring about everything that
the social revolutionists are striving
for. He marshals statistics of the
Departments of Labor and Commerce
to show that there has been an in
crease of 26 percent in production
per worker since 1914 and of AZ per-
cent since 1899. Significant ac-
compartments of this increase he con-
siders to be the continued lowering
of the level of prices and the growth
of the total income of the country
which has almost doubled since the
year 1909.
The reason for this growth in
productivity, Tugwell decides, is the
application of. scientific management
to industry-the introduction Of the
belt, the Improvement in the layout
of factories, the better use of power
and personnel. The persons respons-
ible for all this are the engineers and
the plant managers, and it is they
who will be the basic factors in the
coming industrial revolution. NOT
the workers-for they are becoming
less and less important in production
They are merely "an inferior machine.
because they seem cheaper, and are
rapidly being displaced" (page 229).
In fact Tugwell thinks that the ortho.
dox economists have given labor too
important a part in the productive
system. Instead of the old formula
which recognizes four factors in pro-
duction, namely land, labor, capital,
and management he offers a new
formula which recognizes only man
agement, machinery, materials, and
forces.
He is somewhat vague about what
is going to happen to the workers
IN this new society. Apparently he
thinks that they will be absorbed by
management. At least they will
identify their interests with manage
ment. The old conflict between labor
and the capitalist will disappear, for
management will gradually squeeze
out the shareholder entirely and all
that will be left in industry will be
management end labor, both working
together in happy family and shar-
ing among themselves the products OF
industry.
The purpose of this little utopian
picture is of course to encourage
class collaboration. To bring about
the unity of personnel and manage
ment it is necessary that they begin
to work together. The best way to
do this, he thinks, is through the
company union--which he misnames
the industrial union. The craft
union, he admits, is an iquated, altho
not because it is an ineffective, organ
for the class struggle, but because
there are no common interests be-
tween workers on different jobs. The
company union is better because
when the workers become re-
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