Evening star., 1939-12-30
Mass Production Key
To Vast Prosperity,
Hopkins Declares
Commerce Report Like
Economic Text Book
OF New Deal
"A, the Associated Press.

~ tHe ASSOCldteu FEcSS
Harry l.. Hopkins, in his first an
nual report as Secretary Of Com
merce, said today the Nation could
build tremendous prosperity by ex-
tending its mass-production tech
nique toward lowering the prices Of
power homes and other essentials.
Secretary Hopkins. the former W..
P. A. boss, drafted into his report,
written from the sickbed that has
confined him for months, virtual
economic text book of the New
Deal.
His main thesis was that the old
prejudice against Government tin
kering- with economics permitted
business to drag itself to the brink
of collapse in 1888, that since then
New Deal spending and reform have
revived business, and that the 1887
recession was caused by misuse,
rather than use, of the spending
device. Mr. Hopkins. close friend
of President Roosevelt, declared I'VE
have only begun to fulfill the un-
limited promise of America
Co-ordinated Efforts Urged.
If only business, labor and the
Government could work together to
make things cheaper and more eff
cient. he said, fulfillment is ahead.
Labor, he explained, should strive
for better annual wages and per-
NIT reasonable hourly rates to IA
cilitate efficient production.
Secretary Hopkins asserted that
rate reductions under the Tennes-
see Valley Authority had proved his
theory by causing an 88 per cent
increase in the use of electricity in
the valley within a few years. Most
of the 25,OO0,O 900 American families
with incomes of less than $4,000 a
year, he added, might buy homes If
some one would build them to sell
for $4,000 instead of $4,000 and up.
ITO look at the problem from the
point of view of prices" ne wrote,
rather than income, a vast poten-
tial market awaits further progress
in the application of mass produc-
tlOn technlQueS.
If it were feasible to reduce elec-
trio rates through the Nation to
the levels now prevailing in the
Tennessee Valley region, the demand
for electricity would so expand as
to require an investment, in gener-
ating and transmission facilities, in
wiring and appliances, of billions
of dollars.
Thus in these two fields (power
and housing) alone we have a fore
seeable investment frontier of tre-
mendous dimensions awaiting the
successful adaptation of modern
technology to supply present needs.
Additional billions of investment
would be required by the industries
which serve those directly involved.
The release of potential consump-
ton through lowering of costs and
prices can open the floodgates of
investment"
I Mr.. Hopkins argued that new in
vestments present as profitable a
frontier to which the Nation can
escape from depression as the West
ern geographical frontiers to which
people once went when times were
hard.
Tracing New Deal spending. In
which he was once key figure both
as an theological sponsor and as an
active practitioner through w. P. A.,
Mr.. Hopkins said recovery since 1888
had proven its wisdom. He blamed
the 1887 recession on payment of
the soldiers bonus in 1896. The
bonus money, he argued. caused too
big bulge in spending and the next
year there was an economic let
down.