Montana labor news., 1934-06-28
America Could Produce
Good Life for All Under
Capitalists, Study Shows

WASHINGTON (FP)-Is a good life
possible for all members of society IN
der the capitalist system in the United
States? That is about the size of the
question which the Brookings Insti-
tuition posses and attempts to answer in
an ambitions statistical study, the first
part of which has just been published.
In the book "America's Capacity to
Produce" (597 pages, $3.50, Edwin G.
Nourse, director of the study, points
out that even in the peak year 1929,
by utilizing all available productive
sources, $15,0O0,OOO,OO0 of additional
national income could have been rea-
lized, an increase of 10 per cent in
total productivity.
This increase would have enabled
us to add goods and services to an
amount OF $726 on the 1929 price level
to the consumer qualifications of
every family having an income of
$500 or less in that year." the Brook
ings researchers conclude. 1--WE could
have produced $6O8 worth of addi-
tional well-being for every family up to
the $1,000 level. Or we could have
brought the 1914 million families whose
incomes we're less than $1,000 all up
to that level" Ali family incomes be-
low the $500 level could have been in
creased AZ per cent, they point out.
Making the comparison with crisis
years rather than with a boom year,
the study indicates hat in 1882 and
1888 production was only 90 to 90 per
cent of that for 1929, and that an in
crease Of practically 100 per cent would
have been possible in the later years.
"Is there an adequate reason to sup
pose that the economic activities Of our
people could be organized on a sus-
tanned level which would permit ample
food, adequate clothing, comfortable
housing and a reasonable minimum Of
education and recreation for all mem
bers of society? 7" That is the question
which the whole study sets out to an
swer, and the first volume proves sta
tistically that there is nothing lack
ing in Americas resources and produc-
tive capacities to realize such results.
At the close of the book, the obvious
question is asked: "What is there in
the organization or f%unctioning of our
economic system" to prevent the at
tainment of the general betterment
which is shown to be possible?
The reader is left in suspense for
the answer just as in a serial thriller.
Subsequent volumes will continue to
explore the question, we are told.
These voumes will deal with Americas
capacity to consume, money problems,
and diagnosis and possible prescrip-
tons" in the fourth and last volume.
Instead of the well-being for all
that technical productive capacity
could make possible, we have surplus
and wasted wealth in the control Of a
few and mass misery for millions Of
the actual producers. That the very
structure of capitalist society creates
this condition is nowhere admitted in
the book. On the contrary, an ap-
proach is declared possible which re-
jects revolutionary suggestions" and
seeks economic regeneration under an
economic organization not basically
different from that to which we have
been accustomed in the United States"
This approach is that of Rexford G..
Tugwell and other "brain-trusters" Of
the new deal" For the answer as to
whether it will work, we don't have to
wait for later volumes. History is Civ
ing it day by day as the new deal" I'M
folds, with wealth still firmly in the
hands Of the few, and a miserable, bare
subsistence the lot Of the many.