Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

and nature of credits to be granted in the future. Aside from the action of this Board, a similar process is normal for all bankers and business men in whose hands lies the extension of credits and has been rather rigidly followed. Care should be taken, however, not to abuse this power. Credit should be extended sparingly, if at all, to those whose purpose is either speculation or the making of unnecessary articles of consumption. Those who are producing the necessities of life and those whose products tend toward the improvement and development of society, should be protected in their credits and encouraged in the continuance and expansion of their business. It is practically impossible to lay down fixed rules to cover individual cases. Discretion must be used, but the general principles are clear.

Again the Government should adopt the policy of meeting its own obligations as promptly and satisfactorily as possible. The delays in government payments from mere careless use of red tape have at times caused serious embarrassment to loyal citizens striving to serve their country well. Especially should it incur as few new obligations as may be without neglecting the expenditures usually necessary for the proper protection and care of the people of the country. Here again the remedy may be abused. The Government must in no way neglect to protect its citizens and the general safety and welfare; but it should cut its costs to the limit by clearing the ranks of the employees of unnecessary placeholders, and it should increase the value of the officials whom it retains by the adoption of such methods as shall stimulate them to their utmost efficiency. Both government and private individuals should be thrifty. This does not mean that we should not avail ourselves of improvements leading toward a better civilization; it does mean that we

should stop foolish waste and extravagance. Great savings can be made by more careful study. Often the most nourishing as well as the most enjoyable foods are among the cheapest; often the most serviceable and beautiful clothing is not the most expensive. We should not deprive ourselves of healthful and needed recreation, but many of our enjoyments demand useless extravagance in money and in an expenditure of energy that could be much more wisely employed.

Again the inflation of the currency can be controlled through increasing the normal demand for it by the development of business and production, its diversion into these channels having the same effect on prices as an actual cutting down of the amount in circulation. In practically every line of business there has been until recently a decided falling off in the productivity of the individual workman. The reasons for this are various, but the testimony as to the fact is practically universal. The average output per man per day has in many instances fallen from 10 to 20 per cent, sometimes to an even greater degree. The increased demand on the part of many of the workers for a shorter work day has led to the same result-a lessened production. Doubtless within reasonable limits and with an average of perhaps an eighthour day or a 44-hour week, a shorter day for labor is desirable, but the number of hours should vary more or less in accordance with the nature of the industry, as well as with the needs of production. The greatest output per workman in the long run means a process that will keep the workman in his best health and intelligence, and keyed up to his best work. His returns will eventually depend upon his product, and to cut the work day below what will enable him to develop himself most efficiently is waste, just as is the extension of his working day until his

energies flag. There can be little doubt that intelligent and willing cooperation between employers and workmen could increase our output to a large degree, sometimes to as much as 40 or 50 per cent, with benefit to all parties concerned and to the community at large. As already pointed out, enormous waste has come from strikes and lockouts, the indirect evil results of which are usually greater than the direct losses to employers and workmen; and closely allied to this is the inefficiency attendant upon a condition of continued unwillingness and dissatisfaction among the workmen. Perhaps in no other way can proper increase in output be brought about than by the employment of some of the methods of cooperation between laborers and employers indicated in another chapter. Increased output, more than any other single factor, will lessen living costs.

On the whole, then, for the individual probably the best remedy for the high cost of living, a remedy immediately available to all, is a conscious effort to increase one's productivity through greater efficiency and to lessen one's unnecessary and wasteful expenditures.

XII

COMPETITION AND BIG BUSINESS

JUST as the war created new demands and raised new questions in business life, so the close of the war brought up new problems of business as well as the old problems in a new setting. Of these the most significant concern our domestic production and distribution. Important as may be the discussions concerning foreign trade, the fact is often overlooked that our proper share in international commerce is only a drop in the bucket when compared with the magnitude of our internal trade. It must be remembered that the annual value of domestic products sold in our home market, was, immediately before the war, about $35,000,000,000. This sum is seventeen times greater than our customary export trade, and is twice as large as the total exports of all the other countries of the world. If we would convince ourselves of the transcendent importance of this trade it is enough to recall that the value of articles manufactured in one pre-war year in Greater New York was about equal to the annual value of the export trade of the nation.

What is the outlook for export trade? To answer this question we must ask and answer another. What is to be the attitude of our government towards "Big Business"? Shall we adopt a policy of encouragement based upon practical expediency, or shall we continue the course, too much pursued in recent years, of placing unnecessarily vexatious restrictions upon legitimate enterprise-a policy

which, whatever its professed motive, springs largely from sectional jealousy and a spirit of revenge for past abuses committed by a few great corporations? The modern attitude of American legislators toward Big Business found its chief expression in the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. For some thirty years this law has been in force, and from the many suits brought under its terms it is easy to understand the abuses at which it was aimed. With admirable conciseness the National Civic Federation, in an introduction to a volume on "The Trust Problem," has summarized the evils usually charged against large combinations:

(1) Competition between the States to make laws governing incorporation more and more lax.

(2) Power to exploit both the producer and the consumer, by depriving them of a competitive market, thus making the prices of the raw material unduly low and those of the finished commodity unduly high.

(3) The holding company, which leads to concentration of power, sometimes perilous, in a few hands, and which conceals such an exercise of this power.

(4) Unfair methods of competition, as illustrated by the selling of goods in a given locality, where a competitor is operating, at prices below cost of production until the local competitor is ruined, and by the selling of one variety of goods at less than cost for the purpose of driving from the field a rival who produces chiefly this variety.

(5) Restraint of trade, as illustrated by the refusal to furnish goods at prevalent trade rates to merchants who buy anything from rival producers, or who refuse to maintain list prices, as required by "sellers' agreements";

"The Trust Problem." Replies of 16,000 representative Americans to a Questionnaire sent out by the Department of Regulation of Industrial Corporations of the National Civic Federation. New York, 1912,

« НазадПродовжити »