The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-03-03
PLAN PROVIDES
BOLD ATTACK
ON DEPRESSION
More Wages, Job Insurance
and Less Profits Urged
by Manufacturer.


NEW YORK, March 3.-This
country stands at the Threshold
Of advances in the field of consump-
ton as outstanding as were those
Of Mccormick and Edison in the
field Of production, Samuel S. Fels,
Philadelphia manufacturer, says in
the Survey Graphic for March.
IN inVenting the machine and
releasing the non-human energies
We employ in production, every
known resource of nature. every de-
vice. of science and engineering has
been resorted to. We have had no
such explorations of the backward
field Of consumption" says Fels.
Looking toward the future, Fels
says:
We may hold TO our present cor
porate operation Of the means for
production. We may cling to profit
as o force in making the wheels OF
industry go round.
But just as we are beginning
to Schallenge the private absorp-
ton of the land values that come
from the natural growth of COM
muhties, so we may come to chal-
lenge the devolution into private
fortunes and capital accounts of so
large a share of the current in
come from the manufacture and
sale of consumers goods.
Shrinkage in Markets
AT this point the problem of the
distribution of wealth in our day
takes on dynamic significance. 1t
has to do with the stream of cur
rently created wealth and with a
new force which may be laid along
side the profit motive.
'dhis comes down TO low wages
and insecure wages, and how to
Supplant them by substantially
higher, more secure wages and by
low prices-in order that workers
may enhance their effective pur-
chasing power and, as a result, their
enjoyment of life. That enhanced
demand would itself come full circle
and like a drive-Wheel make for
employment all down the line"
Pointing out that during this de-
preston reduced wages has meant
a staggering shrinkage" in domes-
tic markets, Fels comments that 'it
scarcely is believable that business
leadership is so stupid as to miss
the point, although it may not be
prepared as yet to act on it,"
Bold Attack Urged
AS first steps toward improvement
Fels recommends measures for sta
bilizing and spreading work and I'M
employment insurance. But in adj
dition he sees a need for holder
and more fundamental methods of
attack on the problem of consump-
ton.
He suggests:
The same rewards that Ford re-
ceived will be found waiting for pio-
neers in supplying improved hous-
ing to the millions. 1t has been es-
timated that a third of American
families live in structures which are
not only largely untouched by those
domestic convenienceS which we
like to think of as the setting for
American family life but which are
actually inimical to health and de-
cency They should be discarded
like the diet of beans and salt pork
that made for scurvy."
OF homes already supplied with
modern convenience S plumbing,
telephones, washing machines, re-
frigerators-Mr. Fels says: These
are only the first of the domestic
installations which will go with the
new consumption if we have but the
talent to provoke, sustain and sup
ply it,"
More Wages; Less Profits
Summarizing Mr.. Fels says:
A shorter work week at the same
weekly wages, giving opportunity
for employment to more people and
stretching the national pay roll
would make a practical start in
striking a new balance between
producers money and consumers
money, and hence between produc-
ton and consumption.
Higher wages, SteaQler Work ana
unemployment insurance; the con-
Structive use of public credit
smaller margins and larger scales
through which as we have seen
industrial gains may melt into
higher wages and lower prices; the
new domestic installations which
will go with the new consumption;
mass credit. mass distribution, all
these will help throw the balance
over.
But these are not enough; pro-
fits themselves must be scaled down
if the earnings of our new produc-
ton are to be distributed where
they. will sustain and stabilize in
duStry and agriculture.
only with more and steadier
wages to spend can the vast body
of workers be in position to re-
spond to the natural call to use
and consequently to buy; and hence
to do their important part in
striking an equilibrium with the
new forces for production"
Cooking utensils are now being
mape in colored aluminium