Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-15
FOREIGN EXPERTS
DISCOVER" US.
Or. Gay. Director of Eco
nomic Bureau Survey, Tells
of Their Findings.

within the last six or seven years by
foreigners coming to our shores, is re-
ported by DR.. Edwin F., Gay, director OF
research of the National Bureau OF Eco
nomic Research in the preface to a
book prepared by the bureau for COM
mittee headed by President Hoover.
Foreign experts, singly or In groups,
official and unoflcial, technicians and
others from every walk of life. have ex-
amined the national economic scene,
and their reports on the situation, al
though in some respects highly con-
troversial seem in the main to agree,
according to DR.. Gay, on the following
definite aspects:
Unrivaled natural resources
The relative scarcity of labor and pre-
vailing high wages.
Progressive development Of labor
supplementing machinery.
Mass production and mass con-
sumption in our great domestic market.
The high premium on management
and organizing capacity.
The improvement of industrial re-
lations.
The en-mindedness of American
management.
The dominant national trait of
optimism and energy.
Reasons for Advancement
These things, the foreign critics and
observers find are the reasons Tor
American progress and our present-day
world leadership.
The viewpoint Of travellers OF much
earlier period, DR.. Gay finds, has
marked similarity in describing the
spirit of Americans Of those days and
the characteristics which still are ap-
parent in many respects.
A century of our economic history
DR.. Gay notes, reveals certain periods
similar to our experience since 1922.
Four periods of advance have occurred,
two accompanied by new gold dis
coveries. All show marked advances IN
exploitation of national resources. Each
period contributed notable inventions
and methods for supplementing human
labor, and each saw an increase In
wages. In each expanding markets leo
to changes in marketing and credit
organizations, and even more conspicu-
Gus changes in factory organization and
the magnitude of enterprise.
Throughout all the four great waves
of advance. says DR.. Gay, and even in
the troughs between, there always has
been the upward movement Of forceful
effort and optimistic ambition" Fun
damental conditions remain "subStan-
tally unchanged" and there Is an
cessive EMBELLISHMENTS OF economic
growth
He Sees Change Now Going On.
We have always, says DR.. Gay, been
charged with wastefulnesS of our ma
tural resources .as well as of human
life THAT we should permit the rate
of accident and crime to remain so
much higher than in other civilized
nations may spring from the reckless
forcefulness with which we have at
tackled the difficulties of expansion"
he indicates. Signs of change are OBJ
served In the conservation movement
and the safety first" slogan; and there
is indication of another fundamental
change in the newer slogan stability"
While there are many hkenesSeS to
previous phases of prosperity, there
seem now to be new developmentS-new
approaches to problems, DR.. Gay in
dictates. The unprecedented utilization
of power and its wide dispersion by au-
tomobile and tractor is new addition
to our resources. There is new pro-
fessional spirit in business. which
springs from and entails. recognized
social responsibilities.
Strength of Structure Cited.
With the general increase of wealth,
there is new development in the tend
ency of the worker to participate In
property ownership and to share III
management problems Of production.
New heights have been reached in the
great corporate development of bust
ness enterprise and there is apparently a
new public and official attitude toward
this development. OF recent growth.
too is the strength and stability of our
financial structure-both governmental
and commercial, DR.. Gay states.
AS now constituted other than Presi-
dent Hoover, the members OF the COM
mittee are Walter F. Brown, Renick w.
Dunlap, William Green, Julius Klein,
John Lawrence, Max Mason, Adolph C.
Miller, Lewis E. Pierson, John ]. Ras-
kob, A. w. Shaw, Louis J. Taber, Daniel
Willard. George McFadden, Clarence
NJ. Woolley Owen D. Young and Ed
ward Eyre Hunt secretary.
The research work of the national
bureau was made possible through
grants from the Carnegie Corporation
of New York and the Laura Spelman
Rockefeller Memorial.