The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-11-22
Licking Our Chops Outside Show Window

The American economic philosophy has been
every man for himself and the devil take the hind
ermost" This seemed to work we'll for a century of
pioneering development, but the devil seems to
be getting the leaders well the stragglers in the
economic procession.
THE bigger they are, the harder they fall" So
says Stuart Chase in Illuminating article on "Over
production: the Enemy of Prosperity in Harpers
Magazine.
Overproduction stares us the face from the old
est to the American industriesfrom the grow
ing of turnips to the manufacture of the latest eight
cylinder cars.
The agricultural surplus is running the farmer and
bewilderng the farm board The automobile plants of
the country in 1929 could turn out 100000 cars
yet only 62s5OOO bought in the whole world
But 100000 Americans bought new for the first
time in 1929 1-,~
We can make 9OOOO0OOO pairs of shoes in the
country each year, while but 3OO,OO0OOO are bought
Oil production runs SO per cent ahead of consumption
today. We produce $50 10000 tons of coal in the
United States, but we can market only 5O0OO0,OOO.
Our wooden mills can manufacture $1,750,OOoO0O
worth of material, but can find market for but
s656O0OOOO worth. Our machne-tool factories have
been running IS per cent basis for decade
And so on.
interest to Chases proposals, for they represent the
words of man of wisdom, information, and candor
They are not the political "boloneye of admins
traton spokesman on prosperity. Chase makes it
clear that in the first place, the problem is much
one of underconsumption as of overproducton.
Some industries, like automobiles, shoes, and
wooens, equipped to produce more than We
sensibly could purchase whatever the and dis
ribution of the national income. But, by and large
we could give the overproduction octopus body blow
if the consumer had sufficient income to meet his
real needs.
Today. the average consumer is not paid wages
which enable him to live with decency. Half of his
already squeezed dollar goes to pay advertising and
other selling costs, much of which devoted to in
ducng him to buy goods he does not need styles
and the like.
If we paid real living wages and at the time
limited the purchases of the masses to those things
which they vitality need and could be sold without the
present frenzied advertising. most of factories
could be set humming But all this requires industrial
planning on national scale
In my judgment the only final way out lies
through planned production. We have got to scrap a
large fraction of lassez fare and deliberately orient
productive capacity to consumption needs. There
unquestionably is much to be said for deliberate
nationwide fostering of high wage policy, and a
better distribution of income
Chase concludes that any President who achieves
this reform will go echoing down the aisles of his
tory of those who served his country greatly
did Washington or Lincoln"
We shall go Chase one better. If any great social
engineer in the White House scientifically solves our
national production and consumption problems with
out involving us in revolution and Communism, his
achievement will make the Father of His Country and
the Great Emancipation seem petty pikers by com
parison.