Evening star., 1933-05-14

reason but to press its claims insistently." This
is the last sentence of "The Industrial Disci-
pline," by the new Assistant Secretary Of Agri-
culture, for some time professor of economies
at Columbia University. It Is a sentence which
should be well considered as text for phi
1osophy in these days when 1t is so easy TO give
way to despair and panic Prof. Tugwells COM
parison of liberals and radicals is also some
thing which should be pondered The essen
tial contrast between the liberal and the radical
view of the tasks which lie before us Is that
liberalism requires this experimenting and that
radicalism rejects 1t for immediate entry on the
revolutionary tactic. Liberals would like to re-
build the station while the trains are running;
radicals prefer to blow up the station and fore
20 service until the new structure is built
Any social theorist must talk and write
with the sense Of tremendous forces at WORK.
we talk and write against time and against the
opposing pressures Of stubborn privilege ON one
side and dark. destructive intention on the
other"
That the cure for the machine age Is more
machinery is Prof. Tugwells idea. He believes
that mechanical effort is burden 70 men"
that industry will become more mechanised.
and that industrial discipline must teach
adaptation to It, A serialization of machines,
in stabilized industry, will take product
through all stages from raw material 70 mn
ished goods, without any or with very little,
human Intervention" The greater production
which will result from more and serialized ma
chimes will not be too great. because there can
not be overproductioE while many human
beings have unsatsfied needs. 1t is easy to un-
derstand that machines do not suffer fatigue
from long hours and that human workers do.
that time released from labor through the ma
chine may be employed valuably in self-devel-
opment through education and avocational en-
ployment but it is harder for the lay mind to
comprehend how industry can replace WORKERS
by machines and still pay the workers who are
replaced the high wages necessary to enapie
-
closely reasoned discussion o. his subject ooes
much to explain this puzzle. His suggestions
include the recognition of the fact that men
will still have to do the thinking. that the nelo
of the expert in industry and in social useful
ness can be greatly enlarged. that industrial
democracy might bring into industrial control
a combination of technical and labor groups
. His last chapter, Government and ndustry'
offers as q possible program for a dlsclpnneo
industry of the future, Federal planning au-
thority vested in some governmental agency
And though businesses cling to the ideal OF
keeping the Government out OF business. they
expect protection from 1t whenever disaster
threatens" The outline Of procedure for
FeGeral planning agency would include ID
survey of normal needs for the commodity, 2)
a survey OF the means of producing it and the
costs involved and 90 the setting OF price
calculated to bring just enough of it inte the
market" It is pointed out that such plan
must be gradual and must safeguard pubic
Interests also that it would not be easily accom-
plished because Of legal and administrative
problems to be met The Industrial Dtsci-
pline" is written with great clearness and It's
scheme of development is logical and free from
digressions 1t is bocis which causes much
reflection.
THE GREAT ILLUSION: 1888 BY Norman
Angell New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
THE first edition Of this book appeared IN
. ] 1907 and In It Norman Angel sounded
warning that a European war on large scale
would have disastrous consequences. so disas-
trous that It hardly seemed possible that the
nations would be 80 foolhardy as to permit
war He said that military victory cannot
bring economic advantage that the wealth and
trade Of a vanquished enemy cannot be taken
by the victor and that the outcome OF war
can only bring dislocation OF all the factors IN
the life of both sides. The outcome OF the
World War has shown that he was entirely
sound in his forecast. The present edition con-
tains most of the material of the first, with
additions which make application Of his ideas
to the present world economic situation.
FROM CHAOS TO CONTROL. BY Sir Norman
Angen New York: The Century Co.
lAVING seen his worst fears fulfilled In the
World War and its consequences Sir Nor
man Angel is now valiantly trying to pick up
the pieces. He puts the responsibility for chaos
today and says: IF the multitudes cannot dis
tinguish in the policies presented to them be-
tween folly and wisdom, science and quackery,
the efficient democratic control of our increas-
ingly complicated economic apparatus becomes
impossible" In spite Of the defects of democ-
racy he believes that escape is not by the route
of dictatorship, that democracy is inevitable,
but that the collapse Of the democratic
method" need not be inevitable. The ultimate
responsibility he pushes further back and
blames organized education for its failure to
prepare those in its charge to understand the
new kind of society which the last half-century
or SO has brought into being" One of the most
disastrous results of this failure he says. Is that