Montana labor news., 1933-01-05
TECHN0CRACY?
Head of New York Labor
Temple Explains New
Theories in Christian
Century Article.

WHERE can l lind out more abouf
democracy? This has beer
the recurring theme of the multitude
of inquiries addressed to me since
my article in The Christian Century
for November 16. In the brief time
since hat article appeared "Tech-
nocracy" has changed from a wore
known only to the initiate to one
on the tongues of literally thousands
of Americans. 1t has already sup
piled the meat for many a sermon
and the demand for speakers anc
writer's upon it far exceeds the sup
ply.
Naturally such startling facts anc
conclusions could not pass unchal-
lenged, and they have not. The at
tack upon the technocrats is now
gathering force. In answer to the
favorable articles appearing in the
New Outlook November and De
cember ~issues), the New English
Weekly, Living Age December is
sue) there are severely critical com
ments in Steel December 5 issue)
The Iron Age December 1 issue)
and particularly in the New York
Herald Tribune in its issues of De-
cember 10, 16, II and IS. The fight
is on. And it is being waged very
largely by those who believe in the
essential soundness of the present
industrial order and who sense in
Technocracy a new foe of ~unpredict-
able strength. This is a little sur
prising, for many Of us had expected
the attack to come instead from the
economic radicals. But before APP
praising the merit of that attack
let us be clear about Technocracy
itself.
A Coined Word.
Technocracy is a word coined some
years ago by a California engineer
to describe a new system and philos-
ophy Of government in which oui
economic affairs should be managed
by the technicians, that is, the tech
nically competent persons, in the
interest of society as a whole. II
the year 1920 a number Of engineer;
together with physical and socia.
scientists formed a voluntary anC
private organization for the purpose
Of studying, as Howard Scott, the
director puts it, "the functioning Of
the social mechanism on the North
American continent"
In this original group were such
well known men as Charles P. Stein
metz, the electrical wizard; Basset'
Jones, electrical engineer; Richard 0
Tolman, of the California Institute
of Technology; Frederick Lee Ack-
erman, architect; Thorstein Veblen
an unorthodox economist, and Others
rating high in the scientific anC
technical world. These men havC
been working at their self-imposeC
task during the past decade or more
and have added to their number unit
now there are several hundred 10
Gated in all parts Of the world
Finding this esoteric name Tech,
nocracy at hand, this research grouI
have applied it to themselves anC
have also used it to designate The
body of fact and philosophy which
they have built up in their researches
In other words, Technocracy is botf
the name of a group and the body
of fact and conclusions it is build,
ing up. There are five points il
Technocracy's system which deserve
special attention.
Economic Measurement.
First, there is a definite attempt
to make a truly scientific approach
to the economic problem. To quote
Howard Scott, "Technocracy makes
one basic postulate: that the phe-
nomena involved in the functiona
operation of a social mechanism are
metrical." Shorn of the big words
this means in plain English that il
is possible to deal with the perplex'
ing economic facts just as science
has already dealt with the facts o.
physical nature; that is, that the
changes taking place can be meas
ured. Approaching the economic
problem in this way it follows thai
all processes of evaluation are al
once ruled out, for value has NJ
metrical equivalent. Instead Of deal
ing with value as classical economists
have done Technocracy looks upor
all organic and inorganic mechan
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