The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-02-05
Liberal Viewpoint
By DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

~ history chronicles is the transformation in
the causes of human want and misery
In early days they were due primarily TO
natural causes and to backward technique on
the part of mankind. Man was frequently de-
MED access to fertile and productive areas He
lacked the technical knowledge and facilities to
increase the supply of food, to exploit the min
erals effectively, to create artificial power and
to master the problems of communication and
transportation
Today our misery and sufferings are due pri-
marily to institutional defects and social stu
pldlty. We have developed a simply amazing
chronological facility and incredible supply
OF artificial nonhuman energy Excess food of
all kinds rotS in one area while millions are hun
CRY or starved in some other region in spite of
our highly efficient modern methods of trans
portatlon. Nature can be made more bountiful
and we are able effectively to exploit all types
OF natural resources.
In spite of all this, the world finds itself
in the most ominous depression and crisis of
modern times The problem of man in the fu-
ture will not be the mastery of nature, but tri-
umph over his own stupidity in the field of
social relationships.
/ DR. zimmerman has compiled work (World
Resources and Industries: A Functional Ap-
praisal of the Availability of Agricultural and
Industrial Resources BY Erich w. Zimmerman
| Harper & Bros. So which represents vast in
dustry and contains the most convenient pres
entation of the material resources of the world
He has written a Volume which constitutes an
impressive and fortnight challenge to the cap
italistic order.
This voluminous work is devoted to con-
traSt between chronological progress and Socio-
logical backwardness; a survey of the physical
environments of mankind; an examination of
the agricultural and forest resources of the
world the mineral resources of the EARTH and
the evolution and present status of our more
important industries.
The book most effectively demonstrates the
fact that all of mankind could live with decency
on the basis of our present resources and tech
noogy, were it not for the waste and confusion
introduced by the profit economy and the ma
tional state system. The waste, difficulties and
Implications which result from national boun-
diaries make it necessary that any successful
planning for the future must embody not only
recovery within each existing state, but also in
telligent worldwide economic planning in the
| exploitation of our material resources and our
engineering skill The work is Of very great
value to any one from Bourbon to Com
munst, for it presents with great completeness
and clarity the materials we have to work with,
whatever the future economic system.
president ROOSEVELTS reforestatior4
l. project indicates that he will be much
| interested as his illuStriouS cousin in the prob
lens of conservation His procedure indicates
that he will adapt his project to the newer
| pnllOSopny OF forest economy.
In the days of Theodore Roosevelt and Gift.
ford Pinchot the conservation and forestry
movement appeared chiefly as a defensive cru
SADIE against wanton and anti-social waste =.
the hands of INSCRIPTIONS pirates of profit.
Today, while Ee recognize the necessity of
safeguarding against waste, the program of up
to-date forestry emphasizes the desrability of
scientific planning, in cooperation with similar
forecasting and control in the fields of industry
and agriculture. We can no longer muddle
| through without formulating a definite policy
on national scale Mr.. Pack has written
lucid and forceful volume forestry, An Eco
nomic Challenge BY Arthur Newton Pack.
Macmillan Company. S125) reviewing the his
tory Of our inadequate forest policy and rec
ommending the adoption of national planning
on scale equal to the present emergency.
Mr. Cooke has rendered a distinct service to
| the millions of American users of electrical
power There has been plenty of available in
formation with respect to the annual cost of
generating and transmitting electrical current,
which amounts to about $100O,000000 in price
annually in this country Yet there has been
very little information available as to the spe-
ciflc cost to the customer in distributing the
current to the ultimate consumer
We have known that the bill for distribution
totals another billion dollars. but We have pos
seSsed little information to its specific di-
visions and ALLEGATIONS. These facts are now
admirably assembled in the symposium edited
by Mr.. Cooke, which includes an excellent chap.
ter on the comparative costs of distributing eiec-
trio current in Ontario what Electricity Costs
in the Home and on the Farm Symposium
edited by Morris Llewellyn Cooke. New Re-
public, Inc, SD.
The book provides plenty of information to
substantiate the thesis that the case for the
public ownership of power plants can be based
more forcefully upon the evils of holding COM
panies than upon the charges of the actual oper-
ating companies which furnish the current. In
short. the main enemy of private ownership is
less business enterprise than it is anti-socal ex-
ploitation by finance capitalism.