The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-03-02


 It appeared that the four.day from Pucbla, Mexico, to Mexico Cit mounted policemen, with sabrcs up But later, orders were issued to al city and present their pleas for gov man say the other day: We'll be breakfasting in New York and lunching in London and taking din- ner at the Hotel Commodore the same evening after being back from London That is q vision that many are seeing. 1t Is a bad vision. It Is an awful and most impossible tempo. Life has been getting too fast lately.
 T am going to Washington. There was on the train man who travels for metal company. This company, among other things sells copper. Copper was quoted Satur- day at 6 3-4 c. So far as 1 know that Is the lowest price for which 1t ever sold. am told that with the most modern methods available | 1t costs 10 or II cents to produce Q pound of copper. But this man was contemplating travelling by air. plane to make his calls. It seems he has to cut out from New York and go to Chattanooga and New Orleans and Mobile. He has to cover everything east of tho Mis- sippi river. One day he is in Bos- ton and the second night after wards he has to see two or three men in Atlanta.
 Tt is said that a schoolman ought to welcome this increase in speed. But am afraid of 1t. 1 might welcome one trip by air. plane across the Pacific at 500 miles an hour in order to view from the clouds just how far along the Chinese and the Japanese arc in their contest for the control of Asia. But I'm not sure that should like the risk. We are told that the Japanese and the Chinese are both buying American air planes. That might help busi- ness a little; but I have an Idea that the final settlement of the problem will not como immediately even If China and Japan could buy and use all the airplanes In the world.
 More Apparent Than Real
 This terrible increase in tempo Is more apparent than real. We have gone through 0 period of tremendous increase in wealth. A little over two years ago, even the president of the United States thought that we had nearly reached the end of poverty. But 1t was not so. There are some two billions of people on the earth. They can't all become billionaires. They can't all become even mill lionaires. For some 70 or 50 years or maybe e little longer, wealth has, to be sure. been in- creasing. Many are still after the terrible catastrophe of busi- ness the owners of incredible wealth. And there Is no doubt that many of the vast aggregationS of capital will continue. There are many vast aggregatoins of capi- tai that will continue: Public ser- vice corporations, great concentra- tion of wealth in the hands of cer- tain mighty railroad magnates, these and certain similar concerns producers of copper-big steel men-a half dozen other kinds of great captains of industry-such oncerns-while the age of capital ism lasts, will keep most of their holdings for long time yet.
 "But that increase in financial tempo Is running back say 20 years or more-that except for the super genius of finance seems drawing to close. We know of men who were making $5,000, $10,000, SI5,- 900, $20,000, $25,000, $50,O00, $1U,- OOO year as key men for the great manufacturing and financial hous- es. But this breakdown or partial breakdown of our system is nearly at an end. The assistant pur- chasing agent with $15.000 is no more. The ten and fifteen and twenty thousand dollar men with a summer home at Miami, with the wife and young people going to Europe every vacation, there is al- most an end of that.
 For the world is not made of money; and that unprecedented prosperity which gave a car to every family, and two or three to some. and whole flock of Pack ards or Cadillacs or Rolls Royces to others; which stocked every home in this country with all kinds of electrical appliances-including particularly two or three radios in big houses-there is not an end of that yet; but the supply is tre- mendously slowing down.
 Not EnOgus Prosperity.
 Now what hold is not that the machine age was bad or wrong; but that there was not sufficient prosperity to go around. Many people had Fords and Chevrolets and if they lived far out in the country, you might from one point of yiew consider these a necessity. The Ford was the greatest godsend to the country family that was ever invented. And thousands and thousands of people had more cost ly automobiles who could we'll af- ford them. But where the sys- tenn broke down was just in this one main thing in particular. Thou sands bought costly cars who could not afford them. It was the height of the machine age, and they bought other costly things that they agreed to pay for a-dol- lar-down and dollar all their life. They bought costly aluminium. They bought player pianos, very godo things In themselves, for they Increased taste for good music. And everybody admits that we threw our civilization out of bal- anee by multiplying iuxuries b, mass production without increasing wages sufficiently to be able to pay for them,
 "This Is no complaint against great captains of industry for not increasing wages, Wages did go up. Wages were increased more In 2b years than ever before In the worlds history. And it Is mere demosogy to say that wages should have been increased much faster. even pr0diEally. But it ts mere sentimsntaltsm to say that they should have kept pace with mass production. Our American em. ployers were as broad,minded and liberal as any aFeup ef men ans lime ln history employing labor. Int OnIy the fool and the aanli.