"There is no insurmountable problem ahead of the American people. We can have prosperity just as soon as we are willing to go after it. It isn't necessary to wait a single month for Europe. Forget the German indemnity. Never mind what the League of Nations does or doesn't do. As for Congress, let Congress go ahead and talk; it doesn't matter. All that we need in order to get prosperity is sufficient natural wealth, sufficient skill, sufficient industrial equipment, sufficient labor power, and intelligent direction. We have all of these things except the last, and there is no reason under the sun why we can't have that as soon as the technicians decide to get together."
Howard Scott is Chief engineer of the Technical Alliance, a new organization, with very modest headquarters at No. 23 West 35th Street. (New York City) It is not a business or commercial organization. It does not intend to direct any special enterprise. It is exactly what its name implies: an attempt to get the technical men of all branches of American industry together.
"What for," I asked Scott?
"To find out what the American people want," he answered, "and get it for them."
The answer was simple and inclusive but why the technical men? Are there no other interests to be consulted?
"The technicians, Mr. Scott explained, are the only group who know how people get things. They are not the only producers, but they are the only ones who know how production is accomplished. Bankers don't know. Politicians and diplomats don't know. If these fellows did know, they would have gotten the wheels started before this. They all want production − everybody does; but those who have been running things don't know how to run them, while those who do know how have not so far considered it their business."
It took a long time to get even that much from Howard Scott. It is evident that newspaper men rank in his eyes somewhere along with financiers and diplomats. He is an engineer, and wouldn't argue. He would answer a question if he had an answer, but if he didn't have it, he would express no views. There are no two "sides" to any questions in the minds of engineers like this. If they have the answer, there it is. If they haven't, the only thing to do is go and get it. The fact that the answer is still unknown doesn't permit the assumption that there is more than one.
Although the Technical Alliance has just been formed, Mr. Scott has been working at the project for several years. Not trying to get the engineers together − that is not an engineers method of forming an organization. He has been gathering data and making charts showing just how industry has been carried on today; and so far as he could, he has been calculating the percentage of waste.
"The whole problem may be stated," he said, "as the problem of elimination of waste, but waste to an engineer has a different meaning than it does to the general public. People generally think of waste only in terms of potato peelings or of spending money for what they hanker for, instead of for what they think they ought to buy. If the elimination of that kind of waste could solve the problem, China should be the richest country on earth today; but the engineer recognizes exhaustion of any natural resource is a waste."
"If we could eliminate idleness and duplication of effort," he said, "we may have immediate prosperity − such prosperity as the world has never known. If we could find a way then to husband our natural resources, we may make that prosperity permanent."
"Can the engineers and technical men do this?" I asked.
"If they can't," he answered, "nobody can. Inasmuch, however, as that is only one thing they are trained to do, the problem doesn't seem difficult. The simple fact is that they have not tackled the problem up-to-date. They have been trying, with gratifying success, to eliminate idleness and duplication of effort within the various industries in which they have been employed, but so far they have not thought of American industry, which means, practically, that they haven't thought as engineers."
"The time has come, however, when the engineer must do exactly that. We are reaching a crisis, and the technicians are the only people who can find out what to do. They must survey the country, tabulate its resources, discover its possibilities in natural and human power, uncover the present wastes and leakages, and work out a tentative design of coordinated production and distribution."
"And suppose you draw up a seemingly workable plan," I asked. "What are you going to do with public opinion?"
"It is all a technical matter," he said. "It makes not the slightest difference whether the public knows about it or not. The steam engine didn't need a press agent. The Einstein Theory doesn't require any special legislative enactment. If the only people who can bring order to our present industrial chaos find out exactly how to do the job, we needn't worry about the next step."
"Won't you run against some political difficulties?" I asked.
|
