Evening star., 1932-12-18
TECHNOCRACY is OFFERED
AS CURE FOR DEPRESSION
Rule of Technicians Would Be Substi-
tuted in Social, Political and Economic
Fields-Planning Is Main Theme.

| washington DV mall. IN Lne IeVeltC
heads Of elated inventors who could
only explain their inspired ideas in per-
son. and in the pockets Of Congress
men. Many were inspired by, and par
TALLY intimated. the Fascisn of Italy
or the Communism of Russia. Many
have been original-very original. They
have been coming to Washington from
West and East from North and South
The devices have become increasingly
numerous and the people have become
increasingly liable to entertain them
This country is in mood to try some
thing" The counsel of desperation
goes pretty far up. A very recent caller
upon the writer of this article was a
man who is a director and official of
many important corporations. banks
canvaSsed and dismissed a dozen sug-
! gestions for ending the depression, this
| perfectly conservative business man
proposed that the Government should
buy up excess stocks of cotton, wheat
and corn, and sink them in the sea, or
| burn them, in order to raise the price
| of the remainder. When suggestion
like that comes from such source as
! that, one feels that the country, the
! masses who are less informed economi-
cally, are willing to try anything"
Because many Of the devices have
had to do with currency, and because
the writer of this article once COM
posed a chapter on currency and on
the currency fight of the 1905, which
! became text in colleges. and for some
other reasons. it came about that some
| persons in Washington began to steer
| the starry-eyed enthusiasts with new
ideas toward my office 1 suspect it
| was at first a time-sav device; later
! it became a bit of friendly humor. At
| ell events. have had to dissect a good
| many white rabbits" This experience,
! coupled with finding most of them
| stuffed with sawdust, has now made
me unduly skeptical about new ideas,
whether ones in the field of currency
or proposals for the reorganization Of
society.
May Be "White Elephant"
Decidedly I do not wish to damn
technocracy' by Classifying it with
be a white horse or a white lion. And
one must include the possibility that
if We should adopt it, it might turn
out to be white elephant.
The proposers of "technocracy" are
men of the highest standing and most
, highly trained telligence-engineerS
University. The principal one is a
comparatively young engineer, named
Howard Scott. The chief current source
Of information about ''technocracy" is
the Outlook, the magazine edited by
eX-Goy All Smith, IN the November
and December numbers of which
'tachnocracy" has been authoritatively
explained. Il should like very much
to know just what Mr.. "Al' Smith
himself thinks about a new device
which proposes to wipe out of existence
Mr.. Smith has one of the best brains
in the current world; most sincerely I
should like to know whether he really
thinks that two or three years from
now America will be governed by
"technocracy.'
have said that the two Outlook
articles explain" "technocracy." They
co not. fully. I have read them pains
takingIy, and am still not able to Wis
ualize just what is to be the form of
social and political organization in the
United States in year or two after
"technocracy" has done away with all
we now know.
"Technocracy" apparently is to be a
form Of government. That goes with
the "ocracy' part of the word. Just as
democracy means government by the
many, and aut-ocracy government by
one, so, apparently does 'technocracy"
means government by the technical ex-
perts, the technologists, the men who
understand machine production, the
scientists of machinery.
Well there are good many men in
the United States who understand ma
chinery. What I can't gather is just
what ones of them are going to run
,try of iS fn
be in the White House, which one in
the Speakers chair. I assume that
these institutions, the presidency and
Congress. are to be preserved-though
my reading of the authoritative Out
look articles leaves me little in doubt
about that too. There is an implica-
ton that the function of running the
country is to be taken over by the pre-
else group of engineers, some SO in all,
who, during the last 10 years have been
working out, SO to speak. the technique
of democracy" One gathers they are
all up there in the Columbia University
laboratory, ready and waiting to take
over the Government. Well I hope to
be in Washington on the day when the
"technocrats' turn Jack Garner out of
the Vice Presidents chair, and Frank
lin Roosevelt out of the White House,
and Hiram johnson out of his Senate
seat-how Hiram will roar! That alone
will be worth coming far to see and
hear.
U. S. Has Too Much Machinery.
I seem still to be jeering at tech
nocracy," though I wish not to. Per-
hapS we can make a more serious ap-
proach by trying to explain what the
new kind of government is to be. The
f,,, do. to1 ,r -,
than enough machinery in the United
make all the goods we can possibly use.
What is needed, therefore, is a gov
ernment which shall say just what
goods shall be made and who shall
make them, and how they shall be dis
tributed. The Outlook article de-
clares that 100 men in modern plants,
working steadily, could produce all the
bricks the country needs" So, appar-
emily, "technocracy" would name the
100 men, and tell every one else to
desist from making bricks.
"Technocracy" is to be, apparently,
sUperpoWer which shall figure out how
many shoes We need, or how many we
ought to be allowed to have; just how
many hats and houses and automobiles.
"Tecfnocracy" will have that many
where they shall be made and how they
shall be distributed
incidentally, "technocracy" says that
owing to the advance of automatic ma
chinery. all the goods we need can be
made by each man working four hours
a day for four days a week. But what
If some stubborn devil, some modern
Sam Adams or Patrick Henry, insists on
going ahead and working five hours a
day? What will "technocracy" do to
him? Bchead him, presumably
These suggestions are confessedly in
adequate, very inadequate, as an ex-
position Of what "technocracy" is. On
that side. the affirmative, constructive
side. the authoritative statement of
'technocracy" seems itself unclear.
But about one thing "technocracy"
is in no doubt "Technocracy" is going
to do away utterly with everything we
now know of political organization, So
cial organization, business organization.