Evening star., 1932-12-18
EY MARK SULLIVAN.


TNHIS article is going to talk, not
too dOgmatiCally, about the de-
pression-specifically about how
Il the depression may be expected
to end and what will come after
More narrowly. the main purpose is tc
Clarifya curious new idea called tech
nocracy," about which there is already
much print and talk, and about which
I suspect, everybody will be talking
shortly. 1t is an alluring word and
even more alluring as an idea 1t is
taking hold on peoples imaginations
Ike Halley's comet, or, more accurately
like a promised day Of millennium.
A little While ago an organization in
New York which serves newspapers all
over the country received a telegram
from Pacific Coast editor saying
Technocracy is the biggest new
thing in the United States. Please wire
thousand words on it
To the head of the neWsgathering and
feature-supplying organization in New
than any other new word that hasn't
got into the dictionary yet. He had
never heard Of it. No one in his office
had heard of it. After some milling
about he found a writer with nothing
to do for the moment and sent him out
to collect as much information about
'technOcracy" as would consume a
thousand words.
Way Out of Slump.
"Technocracy," according to the pro-
posers OF the idea-and they are very
thoughtful men Of high standings
the way we are going to get out of
this depression. According to them, the
only possible way out. And "technoc-
racy" Is more than that. 1t is q new
form CT social and political organiza- =
ton which. so its advocates claim. IS
going to displace our present system
dlSplaCe it utterly, and very SOON
The writer Of this article wishes. at
the outset. to disavoW belief in tech
nocracy or any interest in it except
a3 it is one of those novel ideas with
q mystic-Sounding name which sweep
over the country once in so often.
Ny own notion about how this de-
preston Is going to end is that ii Will
end in the good old-fashioned way, just
as previous depressions have ended,
without any revolution / think this
depression will end in due course and
that subsequently there will be a new
cycle of prosperity, and that throughout
1t all this country will continue to be
the same old U. S. A-the same old
country, and pretty good country at
that.
There are some men still living in
America who were active in business in
the early 1905, and lived through that
depression. One is Mr. Andrew Mellon
now Ambassador to Great Britain. be-
fore that Secretary Of the Treasury
and before that a banker and business
man in Pittsburgh for close to fifty
years. heir to a business and banking
dynasty. Mr.. Mellon can give the tes-
timony Of living witness to what the
depression of the 1870s was like, and
how it ended.
To those to whom Mr.. Melons ex-
perience and wisdom are not available
in conversation. there is a recently
published book about some ether lead
erS OF business, which VIII serve the
same purpose. Mr.. Burton Hendricks
biography Of Andrew Carnegie. tells
what happened to Carnegie in the 1870s,
and also what happened to Henry c.
Frick.
Carnegie Bought Iron Mills.
The panic of 1873 and the six years
It lasted, struck Carnegie as it struck
everybody else, disaStrouSly. Carnegie,
salvaging as much OF his fortune as
he could, devoted it to buying iron mills.
The process of acquiring an iron mill
at that time could hardly be called
buying" AS it was put by CarnegleS S
lawyer, James A. Reed father of pres
ent Senator David A. Reed of Pennsyl-
vania), In 1873 and 1874 you couldn't
give an iron mill away But in 1889
there was such a furious market for
iron and steel that all the mills in
America were unable to supply the de-
mand. And Carnegie was very rich
man.
Similarly, Henry Clay Frick. Frick,
country was earning $1,000 a year as
bookkeeper in the famous OVerholT
Distillery, south of Pittsburgh. Frick,
without any money, started in to buy
coal land for coke It didn't take any
money to speak of. Wherever Frick
could borrow S1oO from friend or rela-
tive he did so. Wherever he could
sign a note or a mortgage he did that.
He became the largest owner OF coal
land for coking purposeS) In Western
PENNSYLVANIA. And coke, which could
not be sold for 80 cents ton in 1873,
was insufficient to meet the demand at
So a ton in 1881. And Frick was a
very rich man.
All this is recited merely to say that
the conviction of the writer OF this
article is that the present depression
will come to an end about the same way,
and that it will be followed by q new
burst of prosperity, extremely actlVe
business and rising prices. (Parenthet-
ically, somewhere in the United states
there are men. now unknown, puylng
up various commodities at present
prices. who will emerge as the FrlckS
and Carnegies and MELONS of the next
period of prosperity. and many other
men who will be the minor men OF
wealth. .,..,
In short. the present writer THINKS
this depression will end in much the
same way as the one of the 1ofOo dio'
and as every one preceding that olo,
and as every one since that did-Wlth
some modification. to be sure. and with
much change. But decidedly without
revolution political, social or economic,
peaceful or by force.
There are many who believe other
wise. some of them eleVated in the
world of business, as well as the world
OF thought.
From soon after this depression be-
gan. prophets of social revolution have
been manv, advocates of the necessity
of revolution. believers in the inev-
liability of revolution. A year or two
ago most of their prediction was in
the terms of ''plan'-RuSsia had re-
Gently embarked upon a hVe-year eco
nomic plan" and in America many sus-
ceptible minds were infected by the
idea. America must have plan be-
came almost a slogan. There was an
eruption of magazine articles about
.'planning," and books and newspaper
items and lectures about it.
Just now the new wave Of talk, drop
ping the plan" idea is about tech
hocracy."
Dissects "White Rabbits
I do not want to jeer at the new idea.
4 am conscious of a prejudice in the
direction of skepticism about new
ideas in this field, bias toward belief
that the old repeats itself. My skep-
ticism about the untried is explainable.
For some three years certain relation
ships I have in Washington have put
me in the role of kind of unofficial