Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-08
NEW YORK'S LIFE
HINGES ON 30 MEN
Half Hundred Control City's
Nerve Structure, in Be-
lief of Stuart Chase.
BY Consolidated Press.


NANTUCKET, Mass, September T.
''In New York City," observed Stuart
Chase, the author, who happened to be
in Nantucket, there are 10 vital
municipal nerves, most of them ex-
posed, which could be severed by
strike or an earthquake. They are the
water supply, gas, electricity, sewage
disposal garbage disposal, milk supply.
subwayS, telephones, underground
steam and the bottle-neck OF railroads
into the town. And If any one OF them
is severed the city practically faces
disaster.
"There are in charge of these nerves
a few key-technicianS, each OF whom
understands his own particular job; but
there is no board which controls all
An expert engineer has told me that
bv calling out so men you could
paralyze the life of the city.
1.-The ticklish situation in which New
York finds itself is merely typical OF
situation prevailing throughout the
country. This is where modern special
ization and reliance upon machinery
have brought us"
Book Tells of Cataclysm.
The cataclysm on the edge Of which
New Workers, in particular, live as
NeapoJitans live on the edge OF
Vesuvius, is a possibility so capable OF
becoming some day fact that NAT.
Chase has written around IL pooH
called Man and the Machine. one
gathers that so long as the various
SadQets of the municipal mechanism
works the American city rolls on as
merrily as a car climbs hills; but tnaC
the instant the municipal mechanism
is thrown out of gear the american
city is like a motorist, supperless ana at
night, in a car with an empty gas taaH
and a broken axle 80 miles from tne
nearest garage in the WHO'S Oh tile Ae"-
lucky mountains.
Since II one may change metaphors
IN Naples or the middle OF the Ken
4mckv nnolntains-Mr. Chase has dis
covered the thin hair by which the
sword of Damocles hangs over America
he ought to look satuine. He doesn T.
He looks keen, wind-tanned ana pos
sesed of an irresistible sense of humor.
But he is dead serious about how ma
chimes may stop everything by simply
I'm regard to this machine age" ne
went on. st don't line up with the
calamity howlers on the one SIDE nor
with the Utopia boys on the otner. A1tef
nrettv intensive study of the subject,
brought more misery than JOY to oate.
mt the balance is shifting. We are
getting over the robot stage, as in the
early cotton days of England when
worker was truly a slave 10 ms ma !.
chine Today it is largely matter OF
setting dials. but you must be intelA-
gent and skilled in order to set them.
Faced by Three Dangers.
GAS see it. we moderns are faced
nv three great and imminent dangers.
T'hR first is that of another war pc
Assseen first-class powers; the second Is
that of the disappearance OF natuIai
resources, and the third Is that OF tecn-
biological Nervousness, which Is !usC as
roughly. the tenuous technologlcaA
thread on which the life OF an Ameri-
can city depends.
nervousness is due to the terr1nc raIe
at which specialization is gong on.
Each technician is cooped UP In ms
own little bailiwick. with no one III
general charge of all the oalllWlckS 70
tie up the processes. sent up
modest howl in my book for a CO.
ordinating group to chart and map the
municipal nerves of New York Guy,
for example, and for education IN the
schools to teach future citizens Wna1
they are up against. SUCH educa.
tion would teach school children apout
the delicacy of the structure wnlcn
supplies them with their daily neces-
stiles. If they understand TINS struc c-
ture and its delicacy, they can later
on bring public pressure to bear 10
aafesuard the structure itself.
"The phenomenon of technical
4enuousness is seen al through the coun-
trv. New Bedford was paralyzeo by
strike last year just because the whole
town lives on cotton mills. Througn-
out the United States there are nun
dreds of these one-industry towns.
There is no reason why we Snoulo not
have a national co-ordinating group 10
care for such emergencies as strike
mr. an earthquake can bring, and to keep
the economic show going. My idea Is
not that men would be better oil II
they abandoned mechanical devices:
whst I advocate Is the co-ordlnated
CONTROL by men of the mechanical
devices which supply their cities with
life and the means Of livelihood. 1 am
not in favor, either, of jamming human
beings into cramped quarters just TO
make room for more machinery: new
York City, for instance, Is going beyond
all rhvnoe and reason. There's no COM
fort nor tranquility in 1t. Whole areas
of buildings ought to be torn down 10
let in some fresh air, and to let out
the gasoline fumes that now nno smell
ter In the citizens lungs.
"In short. as a Nation, we need more
understanding of our age, which Is that
of machinery. We need also new
type of statesman-a man VINO is IesS
q politician and more OF an engineer.
Copyright. 1927
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