Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-05-01
Resources
BY WILLIAM HINES

Nikita Khrushchev and his friends
in the Kremlin won't like 1t. but the
fact Is that the Marxian-Socialist.
pie-in-the-sky ideal Of abundance
for all in a classics society" has
virtually been achieved already. And
even worse. it has come true right
here in these capitalistic United
States.
This is the conclusion reached by
J. Frederic Dewhurst and associates
in a new ]. 148-page study Of Amer
ica's Needs and Resources" under
written by the Twentieth Century
Fund of New York. The volume,
published yesterday. brings up to
date a similar study made eight
years ago.
Much Of the information In the
Dewhurst report is a projection Of
trends into the future. Thus. its
validity cannot be checked for
number Of years-in some few cases.
for a century. But the findings of
the staff that compiled the book hold
out great hope for the America OF
tomorrow. At best, the outlook is
for the enjoyment of rising living
standards in time of peace; at worst,
hope is bright for unprecedentedly
high production in event of war.
Needle for Khrushchev
But the great lesson brought out
by the study is that free enterprise
has stolen communism's major sales
pitch. AS Frederick Lewis Allen put
it five years ago. in discussing in
Harper's the rise Of American pro-
ductivity and living standards
Thus is Marxism COMPOUNDED
not by dogma, but by the logic Of
advanced industrialism itself; or. to
put it another way, by capitalism
turned to democratic aims"
And as the Dewhurst staff ex-
presses it
"Of all the great industrial ma
tons. the one that clings most
tenaciously to private capitalism has
come closest to the socialist goal
of providing abundance for all in O.
classics society"
At the present period in our de-
velopment, DR.. Dewhurst says, our
primary resource is our technology,
which Is advancing with giant
strides. He predicts there will be
no slackening of the pace, even over
longer period than any of us will
live through. A century ago. the
average worker put in a 70-hour
week and produced SO cents worth
of goods and services per hour. To-
day, the average week is 10 hours
and the average output per worker
per hour Is $3.50. This means
that the same number of workers
now produce just little over four
times as much in goods and services
as their predecessors did in 1850.
Less Work, More Goods
Then the report takes a look
ahead for almost a century. II
present productivity rates continue.
the authors find, by 1850 we will
be producing as much in single
7-hour day as we now do in 40
hour week. If things are handled
properly. this should mean less
work land more leisure) and far
more comforts for every American.
And. of course, there will be more
Americans to enjoy these benefits.
In q way, the United States seems
to be only on the threshold of this
new technology. Fifty years ago
we dressed ourselves in natural
fabrics from the backs of animals
and from plants. Today, synthetics
are taking over Anyone so young
he doesn't recall an old-time grocery
probably has grandmother around
who will be glad to describe the
limited variety of edibles available
year-round in the markets Of the
early 1900s.
One of the most easily overlooked,
but most basic, technical changes in
this country has been in the field of
agriculture. In 1900, nearly two
fifths of all Americans farmed for
a living, and nearly three-fifths
lived in rural areas. Today, farm
ers make up only one-eighth Of the