The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-12-19

on the steam engine.'
 Modern industry" Scott wrote Hs operated under the price sys- tenn and to be successful 1t must do one thing; 1t must make q profit and pay h return on money invested. The amount of prof, depends upon the quantity of goods that can be sold. That is the rea- son for the incessant cry for trade expansion at home and abroad The producer has found that his profit increases if he cut the cost of production and that the surest way to do this Is to produce on as large Q scale as possible = with machines.
 "A producer does not install machines in order to give his em- ployes more leisure; he uses ma chimes because they multiply many times over the output of which his employees were capable and at a faster and much cheaper rate."
 The profit, Scott charged, was not spent on the public but was reinvested in production" and machinery, has to increase al compound interest rate to pay for the river of money being in- vested in 1t"
 Such rapid production increase has been impossible and the result. he said, has been that debt in- creased faster than production and i've approach a point where the whole concern goes to pieces" He cited bond borrowings by utili- ties and railroads which will be paid 50 years from now but which will pay for machines and raw materials used now and consumed or obsolete before the bonds fall due.
 And as instances of technology's s effect on consumer buying power he cited New Jersey rayon plant being designed for operation by only one man; the steel, flour mill- ing, and automobile industries with growing production figures and declining employment figures.
 What does price mean in q country where 0.44 of 8 single pound of coal can do the work that the average man can do Tn eight Iours?". Scott asked. Tt Is plain that we must get for our selves q new set of standards"
 That standard must be based on energy, Scott wrote. Physical wealth, under his system, is to be measured not in labor. goods or money but in terms of energy With discovery of that truth the bankers, industrialists, marxists facists, economists, soldiers and politicians are things of the past, he said.
 Energy is defined as the capac- ity for doing work. Through cx- penditure of energy we convert all raw materials into the products we consume. All forms of energy may be measured in units. A dol lar may be worth 50 much today and more or less tomorrow, but a unit of work or heat is the same in 1900 or 2000. A pound of coal is always pound of coal, but the weight of a dollars worth of coal is seldom twice the same.
 We have heard a great deal in the past year or two about under consumption. but 1t has occurred to only a few that 1t isn't what a people produce that measures their wealth, 1t is what they consume. Wealth is the conversion of avail able energy into useful forms. be 1t potatoes, shoes, or electric light. The process of being wealthy con- sists in using up -- not wasting the products which through the use of energy we are able to make"
 But despite these facts, the na- ton, Scott said, "has strained it. self almost to the breaking point to maintain the price system. Such a system cannot much longer en- dure. If we allow ourselves to drift for another two years as we have the last three we shall have some 20,000,0O0 unemployed" That Is 8,0O0,000 more than the total estimated unemployment this ypar