Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1933-01-05
TechnOcrdcy is
Popular Thought


sense. is a research organization.
founded in 1920, composed of sclen-
fists. Technologists. and others. to
collect data on the functioning of
social mechanism in North America
and to compare it with other con-
tinental areas of the world. is be-
ing given much thought and pub
Iicity Magazines and newspapers
are devoting considerable space to
it's discussion with both favorable
comment and adverse criticism.
Technocracy. as known today would
assure much leisure for everyone
in America with only $50 hours OF
labor per year per individual.
The present economic depression
is concentrating the thought of
many for methods to help overcome
the present state the masses of peo
pie find themselves in. The Literary
Digest this week makes the follow
ing comment on Technocracy:
Technocracy is all the rage.
ALI over the country it is being
talked about, explained, wondered at,
praised, damned.
1t is found about as easy to explain
at least by the average editor as
the Einstein theory of RELATIVELY.
Perhaps that is because it is COM
bination of several things. The basic
idea now being advanced by its spokes-
men is that the advance of the ma
chine age is forcing overproduction and
underemplOyment at such a rapid
hot inHn CT ri a
civilization with its tremendous bur-
den of money debt is bound to collapse
within a very few years unless we
change the whole scheme of things
And this doesn't mean merely social
| ism or even Communism. In the
words of Howard Scott, whom we may
call the Lord High Technocrat, il
means complete abolition of the
price SYSTEM which would include
the end of all banks, all philanthropy
''all bonds, and other instrumental
ties of debt"
In a narrower sense, Technocracy
to quote Mr.. Scott again, lis a re
search organization, founded in 1920
composed of scientists, technologists
physicists, and biochemists." Thi
group, of which Mr.. Scott is the lead
er, was organized to collect and col
late data on the physical functionin'
of the social mechanism on the Nortl
American continent, and to portra.
the relationship of this continent ant
the magnitude of it's operations il
quantitative comparison with othe
continental areas of the world"
Technocracy, explains Mr.. Scott il
his Living Age article, which he call
the only official statement, is estab
fishing a new technique in socia
mensuration, "that is to say, a process
for determining the rates of growtl
of all energy-cOnsuming devices with
in the limits of the next most prob
able energy state" Mr.. Scott is gen
orally credited with originating tn
new theory of energy determinants,
although press investigators hav
traced the basic idea back to the lat
Thorstein Veblen.
The Technocracy group are nov
carrying on what they call an "Ener
gy Survey of North America" whicl
has been given room in Columbi
University, and is furnishing employ
ment to a number of otherwise jobles
craftsmen.
The TechnOcracy argument is tina
technology has so outdistanced GU
whole political, economic, business
and social set-up that the only saliva
ton is to scrap everything and tur
the control over to the technologists
There will be an entirely new unit @
value based on energy consumption
Amy unit of measurement under tech
biological control would be a certifica
ton of available energy converted.
But when it comes to explaining ho'
the change is to be made, Mr.. Scot
becomes rather more vague than usu
al. As he puts It: ''TechnOcracy pro
poses no solution, it merely poses tn
problem raised by the technologics
. introduction of energy factors in
modern Industrial social mechanism
But it is explained by this gentle
r man in Harper's Magazine articl
that we are standing on the threshol
of what is simultaneously opportul
5 ity and disaster" On the disaste
side, ''the mills of the gods hay
ground almost their allotted time, an
! they have ground exceedingly fine
Machines Displace Workers.
1.-The spectacle of a New Jerse
rayon factory now being designed
run eventually without human 'labo
save for one man at the switchboar
:, is more than warning Of further VI
employment, more than notice
, competitors that a rival has lowere
& his production cost to minimum"
4 1t is proof, in Mr.. Scott's mode
8 way Of putting it, that "the banker
the industrialists, the Marxists. tt