Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-15
BY WILLIAM RUFUS SCOTT.

~ one respect. It plans on a ma
tional scale for the entire indus
| trial activity Of the country instead OF
| leaving each industry to scramble along
regardless of the general welfare.
The great business imagination Ct
| President Hoover already has grasped
the possibilities in such a program and
there is evidence that not only he but
| leaders of American industry fully ap-
preciate the advantages national plan
ming gives any country's economic life,
for steps have been taken to put the
United States abreast of the idea on a
modified scale.
To depict adequately the magnitude
of the idea imagine in Washington
National Economic Planning Board
whose function would be to fix the rate
Of expansion of all branches OF Amer
lean industry, agriculture, transporta-
ton, mining and the like.
Plan Covers Five Years.
The Russian planning scheme does
not stop with the current year; 1t covers
Swear period with the intention of
merging it into a l5-year period. For
the present 5-year period the develop
ment of Russian industry calls for
budget of about $4,000, 900, 900 and the
first years operation Of the plan indi-
Gates that the expected rate Of progress
has been exceeded with likelihood that
the total will be surpassed before 1888
when the period ends.
However. If the United States adopted
the same kind of national planning the
budget would so. far overshadow the
Russian figure as to stagger the imagi-
nation because American industrial ac-
tivity is so far ahead of Russia's.
National planning as practiced in
Russia embraces not only production
but distribution: 1t determines wage
levels in all industries and the prices
Of finished goods to consumers; it seeks
to avoid excess output in any line; in
short, the whole commercial field of the
nation is surveyed regulated and CO.
ordinated according to an estimated
rate Of speed and accomplishment. The
! aim is to eliminate waSteful competi-
ton, overlapping, SURPRISES. panics and
other occurrences upsetting or disastrous
to industry.
No such planning is possible now In
the United States, because the Gov.
eminent has no such strangle held
upon industry as is maintained in Rus
STA, while the dominant idea in America
has been to prevent monopoly through
antitrust and similar laws and to keep
competition alive in every branch OF
industry.
Hoover Seeks Safeguards.
But President Hoover has instituted
| efforts to prevent in American eco
| nomic life the crises listed above and
! to forestall some or all of the common
/ dangers of prosperity. He is actively
seeking ways of preventing hard times
by such proposals as extensive govern
mental building in slack seasons and
w oin m
! cause of periodic slumpS and panicS
| and how to avoid them. The new Farm
Board Is a move, in one sense, toward
| national agricultural planning.
There can be no co-ordinated national
| planning here until basic changes are
| made in laws and basic changes occur
IN American viewpoints about such
concentrated authority, yet the tend
ency lately is plainly toward unification
| in the many mergers now going on in
industry in forming powerful combina-
! tions in finance, in consultations OF
railroad systems and soon. This shows
| the alertness of American captains of
industry to modern conditions, espe-
cially to the new aspect Of foreign
| competition.
Are the masters Of Soviet Russia
more original and smarter than the
leaders Of other nations in adopting
national planning first? Not at all.
BY virtue of the 1917 revolution Rus
sia's slate was washed clean, and Soviet
leaders were free to adopt any ideas
| around the world and found planning
practiced by every large industry, espe-
| cially in the United States. Their
smartness consisted in applying the
| i6ea to whole nation.
| No other advanced nation is in a
| position to do this without drastic re-
| organization in government and in
dustry even If it were desired to do
so. Nevertheless other nations can and
do approximate the idea. Germany and
other European nations and Japan are
awake to the situation. The great car
tells formed in Europe and many other
signs point to national planning in a
| limited degree and to the determine
ton to end haphazard, Small-scale di-
rection and production.
| The chain store idea in America Is Al
approximation of the national planning
system. Underlying the chain store is
the opinion that national distribution
| provided for by central buying body
which operates on vast scale will and
does save many costs encountered by
| individual communities having stores
independent Of all other communities.
Plan Necessary in Russia.
This, however, is puny effort COM
pared to planning for the whole COM
mercial life of a nation. The fact that
| Russia since its revolution made itself
the owner Of the land and resources, of
| manufacturing and retailing, and the
arbiter of wages, gave the opportunity
to experiment; more than that, it made
national planning necessity.
Under the 5-year plan a division is
made of heavy and light" industry.
The former includes production of raw
materials, and such lines as mining, oil,
manufacturing of bulk and heavy prod
ucts, etc. Extensive development of
electrical power comes under this CLASH
| f1cation. In the light industry division
are all those commodities used IN every
| day life such as clothing, canning, con-
fecticnery, tobacco, and on through a
long list known to all consumers.
Where does the United States figure
in the Russian program? Soviet leaders
| frankly admit that Russia will be
| strained to furnish all the capital
! needed for the Swear plan although
they are ready to go ahead on a CASH
paying basis of buying in the United
States and other nations If that is
! the only way out.
Contracts involving millions of dol
lars already have been let in the United
States by Soviet agencies for materials
needed The chief need is machinery.
Russia wants to have its own factories
rather than to buy finished products
/ abroad. Fords exertions in Russia, for
example, will be limited to showing
| the Russians how to build and operate
! automobile factories, although during
| the development stage he also will sell
| to Russia some thousands Of cars,
trucks and tractors.
The Swear plan contemplates a
Russian output Of about 100000 cars
and trucks by 1888. When 1t is stated
that Ford's production for one month
alone this year, August, was 205, 900
units. 1t can be seen by this one meas