Industrialism; V. O. Watts

in the hands of a few who use this power with little regard for the welfare of others. Those making the charges de mand increasing government ac tion to punish and prevent these alleged offenses against the com mon weal. Unfortunately, all too many Americans are ready to cast their ballots for the prosecution Dr. Watts is Director of Economic Education, Northwood Institute, a business-oriented col lege with campuses at Midland, Michigan; West Baden, Indiana; and Cedar Hill, Texas. when they enter the polling booths on election days. Yet, nearly all Americans show by their daily conduct that they really like what modern industry - big and little - does; and the vast majority of mankind look to the most industrialized, free-en terprise nation-the United States - as a Mecca which they would like most of all to visit and if possible make their permanent home. Most people, worldwide, for ex ample, like what modern industry produces. From chewing gum to cameras, from aspirin to auto mobiles, they buy .machine-made goods. Moreover, they buy, often and abundantly, the products of the free-enterprise elite, that is, the products of the industrial gi ants; and they generally buy with confidence that they will get a fair deal. Similarly, where they can, millions of housewives go to the 211 212 THE FREEMAN April supermarkets, chain stores, and big department stores for the nec essaries of life, as well as for thousands of comforts, gadgets, and sundries from toothpaste to tissues, from soap to stockings, and from vitamins to vacuum cleaners. And when shoppers go to small stores, or dealers, they usu ally buy goods that big companies, in some way or other, have helped to make.

Millions of these customers also earn their wages and salaries in the employ of the biggest manu facturing, commercial, and finan cial firms where free-enterprise in dustrialism is supposedly doing most to turn them into dehuman ized robots. Fully one-fourth of the working force of the United States prefer the wages, working condi tions, and "fringe benefits" of the big employers; and I never met any of these who seemed ashamed of his employer. On the contrary, they generally appear proud to be associated with one of these out st.anding enterprises. More millions of Americans, in cluding millions of employees and customers, also invest their sav ings in the stocks and bonds of these big companies. Or they put their money in banks, insurance companies, and other agencies which buy the securities of big companies in the belief that these are likely to be especially safe and profitable ways to invest the funds entrusted to them.

Big Businesses Foster Small Businesses Millions of small businesses buy, sell, and service the products of the biggest industrial companies; and hundreds of thousands of small producers act as suppliers for the "big boys." For example, the United States Steel Co. buys from 50,000 small and medium size concerns and sells to 100,000 more. Thus, small and medium-size es tablishments do most of the busi ness in the United States, the world's most industrialized coun try. A firm with less than 500 em ployees is a small or medium-size business by U.S. standards. Such firms, together with farmers and the self-employed, account for two thirds or more of the total work force outside of government serv ice. The fact is that big business gives rise to smaller businesses. So the "Big Four" in the automo bile industry create opportunities for many thousands of dealers in cars and accessories, car "laun dries," and garages, and the big oil producers and refineries create opportunities for more thousands of service stations. Furthermore, the growth of big business provides the jobs, income, and materials necessary for new enterprises to 1973 INDUSTRIALISM: FRIEND OR FOE? 213 develop and market new products.

Some of these may rise from a basement or garage to skyscraper status; but they all start small, and most of them remain small. Without large-scale industrialism and big business, in fact, America would be still in the horse-and buggy age, and so too·would be the rest of the world. The industrial giants - railroad companies, pro ducers of steel, aluminum and cop per, auto manufacturers, produc ers of farm machinery and chem icals - these built the foundations of our modern economy, and they are still maintaining our unprece dented affluence. We should remember, too, that mass merchandising is essential for large-scale industry. The great selling organizations - mail-order hou~es, department stores, chain stores, and supermarkets - have brought down the costs of trade as the great industrial organiza tions have reduced costs of extrac tion, transportation, and process ing. These "distributors" are as truly productive and as necessary for economic progress as the mines and factories. The same may be said for finance. Without large scale banking, investment, insur ance, and brokerage there would be neither large-scale merchandis ing nor large-scale output of goods to market.

But is this affluence provided by modern ind ustry too costly in terms of the human spirit and in dividual dignity? Does mass pro duction turn human beings into materialistic, standardized robots? Mass Production Means Mass Prosperity True, "mass production" means standardization of products and methods, and this mass production implies amass market. It is pro duction for "the masses." At first thought - without looking at the facts - this seems to mean stan dardization of people - turning them into faceless non-persons. Yet, this mass production by way of standardization is precisely what the communist rulers of Russia and China want for their subjects because lit means mass prosperity. What big concerns arise in free dom to serve only a wealthy few? In freedom, big business must pro duce mainly for factory workers, farmers, stenographers, school teachers, bookkeepers, sales clerks, mechanics, waiters, government employees, carpenters, and plumb ers, along with other modestly paid producers and their dependents.

These buy most of the products of industry because they get most of the total income of this nation. And let us not forget that the pensioners and "reliefers" also have radios, TV sets, and· drip-dry 214 THE FREEMAN April shirts, along with the necessaries of life. If any American goes bare foot, it is from choice, not neces sity, for our mass production has made shoes so abundant that Americans commonly give away or throw into the trash cans better shoes than the shoddy new foot wear the victims of Communist "planning" can buy in their dingy shops. But besides an abundance of the necessaries and comforts of life, and besides the great variety of recreations and entertainments, free-enterprise industry and busi ness provide the high purchasing power and leisure necessary for cultivation of the arts and litera ture, for schooling and research, for books and free lectures on ev ery conceivable subject. They pro vide these on a scale never known before the advent of modern indus trialism, and have made them avail able even to the poorest of our pop ulation.

The victims of communist rule covet these fruits of free-enter prise capitalism; and their rulers try hard to establish the same great industries and marketing or ganizations that we have in the United States. And they do get a certain bigness and large-scale in dustry . But their industries, big and little, lack efficiency; and lack ing efficiency, they progress only at a painfully slow rate - and I do mean painfully. Consequently, com munist countries lag behind the U.S., economically, as far as they did 30 or 40 years ago. But we come back to the ques tion: does mass production and mass prosperity produce a mechan ized, standardized, collectivized, materialistic people? Industry Fosters Personality In the answer to this question we find a strange paradox. In freedom, mass production actually person alizes - individualizes - both con sumer goods and the uses we make of them. It con'tinually creates a greater variety of occupations and greater opportunity for individ uals to choose the kind of work and working conditions which best fit their particular interests and abilities. It provides increasing opportunities for intellectual and artistic pursuits, for extending each person's circle of friends, for increasing awareness and sensi tivity, that is, for the development of personality. In short, modern free-enterprise industrialism re duces the amount of drudgery, the long hours of monotonous, mind dulling toil, and the subsistence levels of poverty which .held the vast majority of mankind at a near-animal level of mind and spirit for untold aeons of the past.

It enables humans to become per sons.

1973 INDUSTRIALISM: FRIEND OR FOE? 215 Furthermore, it is the oppor tunity for individuals to satisfy a vast variety of tastes and pursue countless individual interests - in tellectual, artistic, literary and so cial, as well as recreational-that provides the drive and enterprise which in freedom gives rise to rapid economic progress, with its mass production and giant busi ness organizations. Look in on any typical American assemblage - a roomful of stu/ dents, a concert audience, a crowd of diners - what do you see? Out side the ranks of the few militant revolutionaries, it is hard to find two persons dressed in any way alike. Similarly, if you ask Ameri cans about their life experiences and expectations, their work and their leisure pursuits, you will find individual variations too numerous to list. Where else but in highly indus trialized America, the land where most of the giant businesses arose and flourish, will you find the va,..

riety of consumers' goods offered for sale, the variety of jobs, the variety of leisure pursuits, the proportion of the population in col leges and universities, the amount and variety of scientific research, the wide circles 0 f friends pos sessed by everyone who wants them, the amount of travel, and the widespread awareness of hu man problems and opportunities? And, insofar as other nations per mit freedom for private enterprise, they correspondingly provide op portunity for development of more humane and individualized person alities. Communism Standardizes and Dehumanizes This points to a seldom-noted paradox: When they gain power, as in Soviet Russia and Red China, socialist authorities impose on their people, by force, the very same mass production methods which they say make robots of workers in capitalistic countries. In fact, they often carry the stan dardization much further than in capitalistic countries and in more burdensome fashion, as, for ex ample, in use of the manual labor of women street sweepers and con struction workers. But despite thefts, loans and subsidies from capitalistic countries, and despite ruthless coercion to get labor and capital from their subjects, they fail to achieve the prosperity nec essary for individualized living except for a small minority of privileged bureaucrats and their favorites of the moment (ballet dancers, mistresses, champion ath letes or chess players, and a few scientists) .

The reason for the continued de privations and standardized ways of living for the masses in com216 THE FREEMAN April munist countries should be obvi ous. Centralized planning, imposed by legal force, suppresses indi vidual experimentation, reduces in dividual incentive, and denies indi vidual responsibility. Indeed, sup pressing individual freedom to ex periment is precisely what social ists mean by "planned production." Communists regard people as no more than complex machines to be manipulated by physical means as are inanimate tools. Or they look on the proletarian masses as rather dull-witted creatures to be fed, stalled and herded about as domesticated animals. Therefore, although communist governments impose on their subjects much standardization and some mechani zation, they so dehumanize their people that they lose the individual enterprise necessary for mass prosperity and general economic progress. They have achieved a measure of techn.ical ("material") progress; but they provide less op portunity for developing individual talent, person~lity, character, and intellect than prevailed three gen erations ago under czarist rule.

Despite the standardization of machines, materials, and gadgets, free-en.terprise industrialism pro vides increasing opportunities for "the masses" to develop, individu ally, the highest human qualities. This freedom for individuation in these United States is precisely why we have so much big indus try, big business, mass production, mass prosperity, and mass oppor tunity. It releases human energies and imagination which are the driving and directing factors in progress. Why Communist Economies Are Backward Under socialism and commu nism, on the other hand, the "plan ners" dictatorially restrict indi viduation of products and personal pursuits. As a result, they fail to develop the mass production and universal affluence which they so much covet and try to produce without regard for human life and human dignity. It is under social ism, or communism, therefore, that we find the actual concentra tion of power and rampant abuses of power. Only under socialism or communism can the few force the rise of great industries to serve their whims about what standard ized goods their subjects should have, including the weapons for imperialism, war, and their own enslavement.

For these reasons, the victims of this concentrated power remain poor - drably dressed, badly housed, misinformed, restricted, standardized, materialistic and col lectivized. As a consequence, their masters must maintain mine fields, grea t walls, and millions of armed ~ 1973 INDUSTRIALISM: FRIEND OR FOE? 217 guards to keep their people at home. If we can understand these facts and the reasons for them, perhaps we can enlarge the freedom for en terprise which this and other "capitalistic" nations have so well demonstrated is necessary for all truly human e'humane") progress. Freedom Depends on Understanding I say we can "enlarge freedom" advisedly; and I mean that we can enlarge it everywhere tha~ humans congrega teo Complete freedom is as unat tainable as complete understand ing. In fact, we gain in freedom freedom from trespass, freedom from infringement of individual rights - only as we progress in un derstanding of human. nature, hu man conduct, individual rights and individual responsibilities.

How many Americans, for ex ample, understand that minimum wage laws restrict the freedom of our young people and the less skilled adults? And how much thought do we give to the demoral izing effects of this tragic denial of opportunity to bear and dis charge self-responsibility? We know that "unemployment" - useless or destructive dissipation of human energies - demoralizes its victims. But how often do we hear or read of anyone relating the sudden rise in teenage unemployment, especially among black teen agers, to the hikes in minimum wage rates in the past 20 years in this country? Yet, that relation is clear and obvious; and time and time again, research has verified it as well as any cause-and-effect relationship can be demonstrated in human af fairs. We hear and read that "welfare" is demoralizing millions of our fel low citizens. But how often do we stop to think that the confiscation of some two-thirds or more of business profits by taxes is re stricting the freedom of every competent employer to offer jobs to unemployed job-seekers?

I repeat: in freedom, industri alism provides increasing oppor tunity for humans to develop mor ally, intellectually, physically, and esthetically; and this freedom is far from complete in these United States or anywhere else on earth. But although it is an unattain able ideal, it is imperative that man pursue it. For that pursuit re quires of us the pursuit of under standing that is the very well spring of all human progress. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understand ing. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. ~ Right Congregation, Wrong Sernlon JOHN C. SPARKS IT WAS Sunday morning in church. The sermon was over. "The Price of Waging Peace" was a timely topic, for on the previous evening at seven o'clock the undeclared war between the United States and North Vietnam formally came to an end. It was evident that the pastor had prepared well, and his delivery was flawless. His sincerity was in disputable. He talked of the need to work harder at peace ~ to love one another more - to bring more trust of others into our lives. He exhorted us to "pay such a price"