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87 


BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 
•«• 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


TECHNOCRACY 

PART  I. 

Human  Instincts  in  Reconstruction: 
An  Analysis  of  Urges  and  Suggestions  for  Their  Direction. 

PART  II. 

National  Industrial  Management: 
Practical  Suggestions  for  National  Reconstruction. 

PART  III. 

Ways  and  Means 
To  Gain  Industrial  Democracy. 

PART  IV. 

Skill  Economics 
For  Industrial  Democracy. 


WORKING  EXPLOSIVELY 

A  Protest  Against  Mechanistic  Efficiency. 


WORKING  EXPLOSIVELY 

VERSUS 

WORKING  EFFICIENTLY 


By  William  Henry  Smyth 


N, 


IS  WEALTH  MORE  PRECIOUS  THAN 
HUMAN  PERSONALITY? 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


Reprinted   from   the    Gazette,    Berkeley,    California 
Copyright,   1920,  by  W.   H.   Smyth. 


Technocracy 


PART  I. 

Human  Instincts  in  Reconstruction. 
An  Analysis  of  Urges  and  a  Suggestion  For  Their  Direction. 

By  William  Henry  Smyth 

Note — The  author  shows  that  the  forces  of  the  four  great  human 
instincts — to  live,  to  make,  to  take,  to  control — are  as  essential  in  mod- 
ern social  life  as  at  any  time  in  the  past.  But  all  of  these  urges  in  a 
living  democracy  should  be  controlled  without  being  controlled.  To 
achieve  this  seeming  paradox  we  must  have  a  great  national  purpose,  and 
unselfish  leadership  such  as  could  come  through  a  National  Council 
of  Scientists. 

Mr.  William  Henry  Smyth  has  been  in  general  practice  as  a  con- 
sulting engineer  since  1879.  He  is  the  inventor  of  many  machines  and 
mechanical  devices,  including  a  system  of  raising  water  by  direct 
explosion  on  its  surface,  the  device  being  known  as  the  "direct  explo- 
sion pump."  He  has  been  an  engineering  expert  in  many  patent  cases, 
and  is  a  frequent  contributor  to  technical  journals.  As  well  as  a  pioneer 
in  mechanics,  Mr.  Smyth  is  a  pioneer  in  economics.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  leading  scholarly  associations  in  that  field,  including  the  Amer- 
ican Economic  Association  and  the  Royal  Economic  Society  of  Great 
Britain. 

Parts  I,  II  and  III  appeared  originally  in  "Industrial  Management" 
of  New  York.  The  concluding  PartIV  has  not  heretofore  been  published 
and  will  appear  exclusively  in  The  Gazette. — Editor. 


Instincts  Control. 

Instincts  are  the  most  persistent 
human  urge  factors.  Seemingly, 
they  are  less  subject  to  change  than 
even  the  most  unchanging  aspects 
of  our  physical  environment. 

The  Instinct  to  Live  (self-preser- 
vation) is  as  dominating  today  as 
in  the  days  of  our  cave-man  an- 
cestors; the  Instinct  to  Construct 
is  as  persistent  in  Man  as  in  the 
beaver;  the  Mastery  Instinct  (desire 
to  control  others)  is  as  vital  as 
ever;  the  Thievish  Instinct  (desire 
to  acquire  and  hoard)  shows  no 
change,  and  is  the  same  old  urge 
as  that  disclosed  by  the  pre-man 
stores  of  insects,  birds  and  various 
animals. 

Indeed,  without  these  primordial 
urges  Man  could  not  have  developed, 
and  the  loss  or  atrophy  of  any  one 
of  them  would  probably  mean  the 

H  6 
<=> 


rapid  extinction  of  the  race.  Thus  it 
would  seem  that  our  fundamental 
instincts  are  essentially  necessary  to 
human  continuance — at  least,  to  our 
social  existence.  So  let  us  look 
once  more  at  these  vital  factors,  in 
the  light  of  recent  events,  in  order 
to  see  what  part  they  now  take  and 
are  likely  to  play  in  our  future  social 
economy. 

Brute    Force. 

No  lesson  of  the  war,  probably,  is 
more  obvious  or  more  clearly  de- 
fined than  the  rapid  trend  toward 
Skill  as  a  predominating  and  con- 
trolling factor  in  our  immediate  so- 
cial development. 

Recorded  history  and  archaeologic- 
al investigation  confirm  the  sugges- 
tion that  in  the  matter  of  economic 
control  of  human  activities  and  their 
products,  the  possession  of  this  con- 
trol has  oscillated  to  and  fro  under 


TECHNOCRACY 


the  influence  of  one  or  other  of  the 
instinctive  urges,  so  that  character- 
istic types  of  men  secured  alternate 
mastery. 

Starting  in  the  pre-human  period, 
before  the  dawn  of  definite  self-con- 
sciousness, and  continuing  during 
eons  in  the  twilight  of  human  intelli- 
gence, raw  brute  force  must  have 
been  the  dominating  economic  factor. 

The  influence  of  Skill  during  this 
period  was  practically  negligible,  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  it  affected  indi- 
viduals. Of  this  the  huge  prolonga- 
tion of  the  unchanging  "Stone  Age" 
is  sufficient  demonstration. 

Contest  With  Cunning. 

The  gradual  growth  and  rapid 
culmination  of  the  Skill  factor  is 
an  important  consideration  in  our 
present  inquiry  and  likewise  in  our 
Social  Reconstruction  problems.  For 
while  Purposive  Skill  is  of  slow  de- 
velopment Purposive  Cunning,  on  the 
contrary,  is  inherently  otherwise. 
Indeed,  Cunning  and  Purposiveness 
both  imply  mental  alertness  and 
hence  are  in  some  wise  synon- 
ymous. 

For  these  reasons,  in  the  early 
stages  of  human  development,  raw 
strength  and  animal  cunning  must 
alone  have  contended  to  satisfy  the 
other  instinctive  urges — to  live,  to 
control — practically  uninfluenced  by 
the  relatively  modern  urge  of  Pur- 
poseful Skill. 

Doubtless  this  simple  conflict  (of 
raw  strength  and  brute  cunning) 
waged  with  varying  results,  slowly 
oscillating,  age  by  age  and  race  by 
race,  in  favor  of  one  or  other  human 
type  as  environmental  conditions  or 
racial  admixtures  gave  one  or  other 
the  advantage  of  circumstance. 

And,  as  Economics  implies:  the 
usages,  laws,  and  institutions  where- 
by a  community  endeavors  to  or- 
ganize its  methods  and  means  of 
living:  those  whose  activities  char- 
acterize the  times  initiate  and  ad- 
minister its  economics. 

Age-Long   See-Saw. 

So,  with  these  age-long  oscilla- 
tions of  control  types,  economic  in- 
stitutions necessarily  underwent  like 
changes,  conforming  to  _the  dom- 
inating human  characteristics  of  each 


Age  and  Nation.  That  they  did  so 
oscillate  and  economically  conform, 
in  the  vaguest  dawn  of  human  be- 
ginnings, is  the  teaching  of  archae- 
ology. 

During  the  past  few  thousand  years 
the  contest  of  Strength  and  Cun- 
ning is  shown  by  reliable  historical 
records  to  have  oscillated  with  com- 
parative rapidity  between  one  and 
the  other  extreme — including  consid- 
erable periods  during  which  Strength 
and  Cunning  unified  control  by 
union  of  Church  and  State. 

Prior  to  the  immediate  present  was 
a     transition     stage     caused     by     the 
gradual    weakening    of    the    bond    be- 
tween    Church     and     State,     with     a 
coincidental     shifting     of     control 
favor    of    Cunning    (under    a    changed 
and    relatively    modern     guise     repre- 
senting     the      instinctive      Urge 
Take)    expressing    itself    as    Commer- 
cialism.     With    this    change    came 
consequent     modification     of     usages, 
laws,    and    institutions    appropriate    to 
its     highest     expression — Capitalism— 
capitalistic   economics.     The  result  of 
this '   last     oscillation     of     control 
favor    of     (acquisitive)     Cunning    was 
that     Germany    became    a    nation    of 
slaves,   England   a  nation   of   paupers, 
France  quit  breeding,  and  the 
States    went    wealth    crazy! 

Challenge   by   Purposive    Skill. 

The    war    represents    the    conclusive 
termination    (in    this    period)     of    the 
age-long    contest    of    Force   and 
ning— for    the    control    of    men,    and 
tbo    products    of   their   activity. 

But   this   last   and   most   spectacu!; 
conflict    is    complicated   by    the   intru- 
sion   of    the    most    modern    and    most, 
rapidly   developing    factor-  Organizes 
Purposive    Skill. 

Here,    then,    Skill    enters    the    arena 
with  a  challenge  to  both  earlier  con- 
testants—for    the     prize     of     human 
control,    and    mastery    of    the    social 
machinery;  enters  that  contest- 
than    the   race   itself— the    struggle 
satisfy    the    primordial    instinct 
Live— to  Control — to  Take. 

Strength  vs.  Cunning  vs.  Skill. 

Thus  the  contest  has  become  a 
triangular  fight  between  the  Strong, 
the  Cunning,  and  the  Skilful;  a  fight 


TECHNOCRACY 


in  which  raw  brute  force  is  a  par- 
ticipant of  rapidly  diminishing  im- 
portance— a  modified  continuation  of 
the  old  time  bloody  contest,  for  a 
humanly  undesirable  outcome. 

Cunning-control  is  today  the  vic- 
tor, and  in  possession  of  the  spoils— 
the  financial  wealth  of  the  world. 
But  all  the  evidence  points  to  a 
short  enjoyment  and  a  losing  fight 
against  the  organized  forces  of  Pur- 
poseful Skill. 

Creaking   Capitalism   Cracking. 

Capitalism — under  war  stress — 
shows  convincing  evidence  of  in- 
adequacy. The  non-effectiveness  of 
money  and  credit  wealth  has  be- 
come so  obvious  as  to  procure  the 
enactment  of  "Work  or  Fight"  laws. 
Thus,  into  the  discard  went  our  pre- 
war money  evaluation  of  men  to  be 
substituted  by  a  standard  which 
measures  millionaire  and  hobo  alike 
in  accordance  with  their  relative 
skill. 

Our  pre-war  faith  in  the  mysteri- 
ous Magic  of  Money  too  received  a 
staggering  shock  when  all  the  pri- 
vate fortunes  enmassed  and  all  _  the 
billions  of  national  credit  combined 
utterly  failed  to  add  a  single  pound 
of  much  needed  sugar  to  our  limited 
supply,  necessitating  the  "two  pounds 
of  sugar  per  person"  apportionment 
-a  commonplace  vulgar  fraction 
measure  applicable  to  Financial 
Potentate  and  Weary  Willie — alike! 

Producer  Versus  Parasite. 

On  broader  lines  also  the  evidence 
points  the  same  way:  purposive  skill  is 
inherently  productive,  while  purpose- 
ful cunning  is  naturally  parasitic. 
Then,  the  capability  of  cunning  to 
rule,  and  the  continuance  of  its  suc- 
cess in  controlling  others,  resides  in 
and  depends  upon  the  stupidity  and  il- 
literacy of  the  governed:  mystery  and 
magic  are  its  weapons — equally  in  the 
realm  of  modern  Finance  as  in  the 
ancient  Theocracies. 

Skill  implies  the  reverse  of  all  this, 
for  skill  is  intelligence  physically 
manifested.  It  is  knowledge  of  Na- 
ture's Laws  utilized  dexterously — and 
the  spread  of  scientific  information 
characterizes  our  age.  Thus  as  the 
bulwarks  of  cunning-control  crumble, 


\JL 

- 


the  weapons  of  skill  are  multiplied  and 
perfected. 

So  the  outcome  seems  a  foregone 
conclusion. 

With  this  outcome,  our  methods 
of  life  will  necessarily  change.  Capi- 
talistic customs,  laws,  and  institutions 
will  be  substituted  by  others  differing 
as  widely  from  those  with  which  we 
are  familiar  as  the  motor  ideas  and 
ideals  of  purposeful  cunning  differ 
from  those  of  purposeful  skill. 

"Work  or  Fight"  Lesson. 

Peradventure,  the  "Work  or  Fight" 
and  the  "2  pounds  of  sugar  per  per- 
son" measures  are  tonic  foretastes  of 
the  coming  Skill-Economics. 

Obviously  we  are  in  transition  to  a 
new  social  order. 

The  signs  of  the  times  portend  the 
dethroning  of  decadent  acquisitive 
capitalism  and  the  crowning  of  pro- 
ductive skill— Autocrat  of  the  new 
Age — Artizanism. 

This  change  has  been  in  dubious 
process  for  years;  the  War  has  merely 
speeded  its  progress  and  made  the 
outcome  practically  inevitable.  But, 
whether  it  be  brought  about  by  evolu- 
tion or  revolution,  or  whether  it  comes 
in  clean-cut  aspect  or  befogged  by  ir- 
relevant social  factors  and  forces,  it 
is  in  no  sense  a  rational  or  final  so- 
lution of  our  "social  problem." 

In  any  event,  should  Artizanism 
come,  it  will  be  merely  another  social 
spasm,  probably  shorter  than,  but 
equally  as  futile  as,  our  present  world- 
wide finance  madness. 

Instincts  Not  A  Rational  Basis. 

While  it  is  conceivable  that  human 
societies  could  be  organized  upon  and 
with  any  one  of  the  stated  basic  In- 
stincts as  dominant  factor  and 
raison  d'etre;  it  is  practically  certain 
that  any  such  national  society  would 
be  quite  ineffective,  and  transient.  For 
obviously  it  would  not  and  could  not 
satisfy  even  our  present  limited  intel- 
ligence, our  rational  imagination,  or 
our  modern  spiritual  ideals. 

No  very  extended  analysis  would  be 
required  to  show  the  validity  of  this 
proposition.  The  past  has  already 
demonstrated  the  insufficiency  of  so- 
cieties based  upon  the  Mastery  In- 
stinct— Autocracy.  The  present  amply 


4 


TECHNOCRACY 


nrovcs  the  failure  of  the  Acquisitive 
Instinct  as  a  social  basis — Plutocracy. 
A  moment's  thought  will  show  that 
a  society  based  upon  the  Making  In- 
stinct would  simply  crumble  in  its 
formative  process  under  the  demands 
of  our  complicated  modern  mental 
make-up,  for  clearly  this  instinct  pro- 
vides inadequate  Human  scope — and 
hence  presupposes  parasitism  in  even 
more  extended  form  than  that  of  ac- 
quisitive Capitalism.  And  —  worse 
than  all — a  society  based  upon  the  In- 
stinct to  Live  and  Propagate,  would 
return  us  at  once  to  the  brute  state 
from  which  we  have  arisen  through 
ages  of  struggle,  strife,  and  bloodshed. 

Control  Without  Control. 

Still,  it  is  apparent  that  the  basic 
instincts  which  urge  "to  live,"  "to 
make,"  "to  take,"  "to  control,"  are  as 
useful,  yes,  are  as  essential  in  and  to 
modern  social  life  as  they  have  been 
in  all  the  past.  But,  while  all  are 
necessary,  no  one  of  them  constitutes 
a  proper  basis — law  of  operation — for 
a  rational  human  society  organization. 
They  are  factors,  necessary  and  desir- 
able contributary  parts,  no  one  of 
which  is  inherently  adapted  to  func- 
tion as  the  machine's  unifier,  its  strain 
and  speed  equalizer — its  control  ele- 
ment. 

Thus,  the  determination  of  a  suit- 
able character  of  "control"  element  is 
seemingly  the  crux  of  our  social  prob- 
lem; the  problem  of  controlling  with-  . 
out  control,  that  old,  old  paradox: 
Freedom  made  effective  by  restraint — 
a  paradox,  however,  which  the  war 
may  have  resolved  for  us,  by  demon- 
strating its  non-existence. 

It  has,  in  somewise,  answered  our 
troublous  question  by  clear  definition 
in  the  statement  of  the  Nation's  ob- 
ject in  going  to  war. 

The  war  has  answered  the  question, 
in  another  aspect,  by  the  Nation's 
adoption  of  the  method  (forced  upon 
it  by  logical  compulsion)  whereby 
success  was  achieved. 

"To  make  the  World  safe  for  De- 
mocracy" is  the  clearest  and  most  uni- 
versally accepted  statement  of  our 
purpose  in  going  to  war — Self-govern- 
ment for  Nations,  Self-government  for 
Individuals. 


Concept  of   Control. 

Control  by  others,  then,  is  antitheti- 
cal to  the  ideals  for  which  we  have 
waged  this  last,  the  greatest,  and, 
it  is  hoped,  the  final  bloody  contest  for 
Self-government. 

Control  is  equally  antithetical  to  our 
Ideals  of  Self-government  whether  the 
control  is  exercised  by  "others"  char- 
acterized by  the  Instinct  to  live  and 
breed — the  Masses;  or  whether  the 
control  is  exercised  by  "others"  char- 
acterized by  the  Instinct  to  Make — 
the  Skilled  Artizan;  or  whether  the 
control  is  exercised  by  "others"  urged 
by  the  Instinct  of  Mastery — the_  Em- 
ployers; or  whether  the  control  is  ex- 
ercised by  "others"  under  their  domi- 
n  at  ing  Acquisitive  Instinct -- the 
Financiers. 

Indeed,  the  concept:  control  by 
"others,"  is  an  idea  inherent  in  and 
appropriate  only  to  now  discredited 
Autocracy — a  concept  which  the  War 
has  rendered  an  obsolete  ideal — if  we 
are  yet  intelligent  enough  to  profit 
by  its  costly  teaching. 

Discard  Cave-Man  Control. 

To  be  rationally  consistent  this 
"control"  concept  should  be  as  ab- 
sent as  it  is  obsolete  (in  fact  and 
effect)  in  our  inevitable  reconstruc- 
tion. 

This  Autocracy  "control"  concept 
must  be  thrown  in  the  discard  where 
we  have  dumped  the  European  auto- 
crats whose  ideal  it  was — if  our  recon- 
struction efforts  are  intended  to  pro- 
duce a  rationally  organized  Modern 
Human  Society;  a  Society  founded  up- 
on the  Ideals  consecrated  by  the  life 
blood  of  our  bravest  and  best. 

But  our  age-long  familiarity  wjth 
"control  by  others,"  in  our  halting 
progress,  from  brute  beast  to  modern 
Man,  has  so  deeply  ingrained  in  our 
mental  fiber  this  stone-age  concept  as 
to  make  it  almost  impossible  for  us 
to  even  conceive  the  idea  of  a  society 
lacking  this  cave-man  spiked-club 
element. 

Yet,  no  fact  and  lesson  of  our  par- 
ticipation in  the  War  is  more  clear 
and  free  from  doubt  than  the  spon- 
taneous acquiescence  by  the  people  of 
the  United  States — rich  and  poor,  arti- 
zan  and  laborer,  alike — in  self-control, 
self-repression,  self-dedication  to  the 


TECHNOCRACY 


united  will  and  unified  purpose  of  the       ingly      difficult      problems      of      long 

standing,  the  solution  has  evaded  us 
by  reason  of  its  very  obviousness. 
Such  a  unifying  factor  has  always 
existed  in  plain  view — unutilized  in 


Nation. 

Purpose. 
No    lesson    of    the    War    is     more 


significant    than:      Given    a    National  its    proper    function    of    Social    Strain 

Purpose,    intelligently    comprehended  Equalizer.      Indeed,    this    urge    factor, 

and      acquiesced      in — only      unselfish  more     even     than     the     Instincts — "to 

Leadership     is     needed,     and     neither  Live,"     "to     Make,"    "to     Take,"     "to 

control     by     force     nor     control     by  Control" — is    the    most    universal    and 

cunning   is    necessary    to   bring   about  most   humanly  characterizing   trait   of 

the    unification    of    effort    needed    to  that    most    marvelous    complex— Man. 


accomplish     the     Nation's     Objective. 

The    significance    of    this    lesson    is 

the     utter     irrationality     of     national 


Desire   to   Know. 

I    refer    to    Curiosity — curiosity    ra- 


control    in    the    hands    of    any    class  tionahzed    into    Desire    to    Know, 

characterized      by      self-centered      in-  Desire     to     Know,     while     equally 

stincts,    or    that    strength    or    skill    or  urgent     for     gratification,     inherently 

cunning    should    be    dominating    fac-  lacks    the    undesirable    and    inappro- 

tors    in    the    social    structure.  priate     qualities     which     render     the 

Though      none      of      these      factors  other    human    Instincts    unsuitable    as 

should     dominate,     each     and     all     of  organizing   and   strain   equalizing   fac- 

these    vital    and    necessary    elements  tors   in    the   social   structure.     Also   it 

should    have    free    scope    for    the    so-  possesses      qualities      and      attributes 

cially       effective       outflow       of       its  which    make   it   peculiarly   adapted    to 

particular    expression    of    life    energy.  perform     the    rationally    harmonizing 

Second   only   in   significance   to    the  function    so    irrationally    assumed    in 

acquiescence   and   co-operation   of  the  all    earlier   social    organizations   under 

united     people     is     the     method     irre-  the    guise    of    Forceful    and    Cunning 

sistibly    forced    upon    the    Nation    by  Control. 


the    logic    and   necessities    of    its    stu- 
pendous   War    problem. 

First   Real    Nation. 


Desire  to  Know  is  as  imperative 
in  its  demands  as  any  of  the  self- 
centered  motor  Instincts — to  live,  to 
make,  to  take,  to  control — but  it  is 


This     most    modern     economic    m-  impersonal;   while   it  is  as   aggressive 

titution,    and    the    unified    co-opera-  as    other    Instinctive    Urges,    charac- 

tion    ot     the    united    people,    are    the  teristically  its   energies   and   activities 

two   outstanding   lessons   of    the   War  are    directed    at    Nature,    not    in    ag- 
gression on  human  opponents;   hence 

Taken     together,     they     point     sig-  it    engenders    no    human    strife;    and 

mficantly     to     the     solution     of     our  while    it    drives    furiously,    it    drives 

social    problem— the    lacking    element  none    but    its    possessor— in    the    pur- 

which    should   and    could    consciously,  sujt    of    Knowledge 

deliberately,   and    rationally   unify   the  Desire    to    Kno     '  while    profoundly 

basic    instinctive    urges    into    an    har-  interested     in     all     that     pertains     to 

monious    direction    of    national    effort  Human    Life    and    living_to    eugenics 

and    so    produce    a    humanly    efficien  and     radal      development-character- 

national    orgamzation-the    first    real  istica]ly   its   possessor  would   risk  his 


Nation    on    earth! 


own  life  in  the  pursuit  of  Knowledge. 


! 


The   lacking  element?— the   element  Desire    to    Know,    though    urgently 

which  is  adapted  to  assume  the  func-  interested    in    Nature's    Laws    and    in 

ion    and    position    to    be    vacated    by  all   that   concerns   the   correct   making 

he    obsolescent    autocratic    concept—  and    constructing    of    things,    charac- 

rbitrary    "control"— the    element    ca-  teristically    lacks    desire    to    make    or 

pable     of     controlling     without     con-  construct    things,   but   seeks    only  sys- 

trol,    of    making     Freedom     effective,  tematized    concepts    of    Knowledge. 

Democracy    a    living   fact    as    well    as  Desire    to    Know,    while    deeply   in- 

a    noble    Ideal!  terested    in    all    that    pertains    to    the 

In    this,    as    in    many    other    seem-  desirable  things   of  the  world  and   to 


TECHNOCRACY 


economic  affairs,  characteristically 
lacks  the  thievish  impulse — the  In- 
stinct to  Take,  to  acquire  physical 
possession:  supremely  acquisitive  it 
craves  only  to  acquire  Knowledge. 

Desire  to  Know,  while  surpass- 
ingly Masterful,  desires  no  mastery 
of  Men;  it  craves  instead,  God-like 
insight,  pre-vision,  prophecy — power 
in  the  boundless  realms  of  Knowl- 
edge. 

Leadership. 

Here  then  is  an  indomitable  CJrge 
lacking  all  the  inappropriate  qualities 
of  the  strife  producing  Autocratic 
Force-and-Fear  Control  motor  con- 
cept of  Social  Organization,  and 
possessed  of  all  the  unifying  quali- 
ties of  .Social  Leadership. 

A  Human  Society  or  Nation  is 
sanely  designed  and  rationally  or- 
ganized on  correct  principles  only 
when  it  has  a  Purpose,  and  (as  in 
the  case  of  a  well  considered  ma- 
chine) only  when  full  cognizance  is 
taken  of  all  its  contributory  elements, 
together  with  their  essential  func- 
tions and  their  proper  co-ordination. 

A   National   Objective. 

A  truly  efficient  National  Organi- 
zation would  facilitate  (not  suppress 
or  prohibit)  the  expression  of  all 
inherent  Instinctive  Urges,  rational- 
izing their  outflowing  life  energy 
(by  sane  institutional  conventions) 
into  unification  in  a  fully  pre- 
determined National  Purpose. 

In  a  crude  but  clearly  perceptible 
manner  the  United  States,  during  the 


War,     gave     suggestion     of    such     an 
Ideal    Social   Arrangement. 

It  had  a  defined  and  universally 
accepted  purpose: 

Its  Scientific  (Desire  to  Know) 
Men  and  its  Scientific  Societies  were 
(more  or  less)  organized  into  a  Uni- 
fying and  Advisory  Board  to  formu- 
late and  suggest  methods  and  means 
for  sane  living  and — to  accomplish 
the  predetermined  purpose  of  the  Na- 
tion. 

We  have  accomplished  the  object 
of  the  War: 

We  have  made  the  World  safe  for 
Democracy. 

Now,  let  us  inaugurate  a  Demo- 
cracy— a  Democracy  with  an  object 
for  its  existence — a  Democracy  with 
a  Purpose. 

By  the  peril  to  its  life,  the  Nation 
has  been  shocked  into  momentary 
sanity.  Let  us  while  still  rational, 
rationally  take  to  heart  the  lessons 
which  the  War  has  taught  at  so 
staggering  a  cost: 

First:  The  need  of  a  National 
Purpose;  a  purpose  based  upon  peace 
and  rational  Human  Development; 
a  purpose  as  inspiring  and  as  unify- 
ing as  War  for  Democracy,  and  as 
high  as  our  highest  Ideals  of  Life. 

Second:  The  need  of  a  Supreme 
National  Council  of  Scientists — 
supreme  over  all  other  National  In- 
stitutions— to  advise  and  instruct  us 
how  best  to  Live,  and  how  most  effi- 
ciently to  realize  our  Individual  and 
our  National  Purpose  and  Ideals. 

But,  First  and  Last,  a  unifying  Na- 
tional Objective. 


Fernwald,  Berkeley,  December,  1918. 


IS   IT   RATIONAL  TO   BASE   HUMAN   SOCIETY 
ON  ANIMAL  INSTINCTS? 


Technocracy 


PART  II. 

National  Industrial  Management. 
Practical  Suggestions  for  National  Reconstruction. 

By  William  Henry  Smyth 

NOTE: — After  outlining  and  characterizing  the  great  economic  drifts 
in  the  national  developments  of  the  past,  the  author  declares  that  during 
the  period  of  war  the  United  States  has  developed  the  new  form  in  gov- 
ernment for  which  there  is  no  precedent  in  human  experience.  He  calls 
this  "Technocracy" — the  organizing,  co-ordinating  and  directing  through 
industrial  management  on  a  nation-wide  scale  of  the  scientific  knowledge 
and  practical  skill  of  all  the  people  who  could  contribute  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  a  great  national  purpose.  Carry  this  new  form  of  government  into 
the  days  of  peace  and  we  will  have  industrial  democracy — a  new  common- 
wealth.— Editor. 


Economic  Drifts. 

The  United  States  is  obviously  in 
social  flux,  in  unstable  economic  equili- 
brium— in  transition.  Customs  and 
usages  which  a  few  years  ago  received 
universal  approval  and  legal  sanction 
are  now  punished  as  crimes.  Eco- 
nomic expedients  which  but  yester- 
day were  deemed  irrational  imagina- 
tions of  Utopian  visionaries  are  today 
accomplished  facts.  And  in  every  di- 
rection immemorial  methods  and  time 
honored  social  processes  have  lost 
their  sacrosanctity. 

Like  ocean  streams  enfolding  in 
mass-flow  all  this  whirling  confusion 
of  economic  cross-currents,  legal  revo- 
lutions, and  social  agitations,  there  are 
to  be  observed  certain  super-control- 
ling drifts. 

Centralization   of   Government. 

Concentration  of  Wealth. 

Unification  of  Mechanical  Industries. 

Force,  Wealth,  Industry. 

These  great  economic  drifts  indi- 
cate the  mass  resultant  of  myriad  in- 
dividual activities  expressing  that  pe- 
culiarly human  quality  which  has  made 
man  the  dominating  animal  factor  on 
earth — unquenchable  desire  to  con- 
trol— the  Mastery  Instinct.  And  what 
is  more  important  in  the  present  con- 
nection, these  super-controlling  social 
drifts  also  indicate  the  only  directions 
possible  for  the  social  expression  of 
this  indomitable  human  urge: 


Direct  control  of  men  by  force  and 
fear — exemplified  in  Centralization  of 
Government;  indirect  control  of  men 
by  controlling  their  products — shown 
in  Concentration  of  Wealth;  mutual- 
ized  control  (i.  e.,  utilization)  of  Na- 
ture— expressed  in  Unification  of  Me- 
chanistic Industries. 

Conflicting  Ideals. 

In  these  various  forms  of  social  ag- 
gregations there  are,  broadly  speak- 
ing, but  three  human  types  involved: 

The  type  characterized  by  aggres- 
sive physical  strength;  the  type  char- 
acterized by  alert  mental  cunning;  the 
type  characterized  by  purposive  skill. 

Of  these  the  last — the  purposive 
skill  type — is  significantly  modern, 
brought  into  social  prominence  by 
that  most  stupendous  social  factor, 
experimental  science,  science  which  is 
the  effective  cause  and  basis  of  this 
era  of  invention — our  industrial  age. 

A  triangular  conflict  of  ideals  of  life 
and  of  social  purpose  has  thus  been 
inaugurated;  a  conflict  which  ac- 
counts for  and  is  expressed  in 
our  "social  unrest,"  "conflict  of 
capital  and  labor,"  our  "social 
problem"  and  "reconstruction."  The 
strife  for  supremacy  of  social  ideal 
and  community  purpose  thus  indicat- 
ed, is  co-extensive  with  the  human 
race;  its  most  spectacular  climax  is 
the  World  War.  And  notwithstand- 
ing the  many  confusing  forms  and 
many-sided  aspects  which  this  world- 


8 


TECHNOCRACY 


wide  human  struggle  presents,  it  is, 
of  course,  at  bottom  the  ages  old  con- 
test of  Slavery  and  Liberty,  Bondage 
and  Freedom. 

The  Golden  Age? 

Our  answer  to  this  old  but  ever  new 
problem  will  determine  whether  our 
industrial  age  will  progress  to  a  so- 
cial condition  of  individual  freedom  to 
which  nothing  in  the  past  is  compar- 
able, or  whether  our  time  shall  be,  to 
future  generations,  the  Golden  Age! — 
the  highwater  mark  of  human  liberty 
— the  age  of  a  noble  but  a  futile  fight 
for  a  great  ideal — Democracy. 

Club  Economics. 

In  simple  cave-man  times  the  boss- 
parent,  quite  naturally,  made  and  ad- 
mmistered  suitable  primitive  eco- 
nomics— with  his  persuasive  club  as  a 
very  practical  emblem  of  authority. 
Under  this  raw-force  regime  the 
weaker  "fagged"  for  the  stronger;  and 
the  doings  and  havings  of  the  "rags" 
made  life  more  likeable  for  the  force- 
ful. 

As  the  procreator  of  his  subjects — 
and  superior  in  strength  during  most 
of  their  lives — the  "ownership"  of 
them  and  theirs  by  the  boss-parent 
was  as  "natural"  as  any  other  obvious 
fact;  and  chattel  slavery  as  necessary 
as  parent  ownership  is  self-evident. 

Mystery  Economics. 

Then,  Miracle-Fire-Maker  and  Ani- 
mal Breeder  came  along,  and  dis- 
turbed many  of  the  time  honored  and 
well  established  customs — playing 
havoc  generally  with  club-economics. 
By  his  wonder  working  magics  cun- 
ning Miracle-worker  put  the  fear  of 
gods  (more  potent  than  physical 
strength)  into  the  heart  of  simple  old 
skull-cracker  parent-god.  So  Miracle- 
worker  waxed  fat,  and  in  his  turn 
initiated  and  administered  suitable 
economics — fire  worship  and  mystery- 
economics,  otherwise  Theocracy. 

With  theocracy  came  the  greatest 
of  all  social  revolutions;  the  dethron- 
ing of  brute  strength  and  the  crown- 
ing of  mental  alertness — Cunning. 
This  marked  an  epoch  in  human  his- 
tory, in  man's  upward  progress  as 
a  social  animal.  Also  it  marked  the 
beginning  of  control  of  men  (and  their 
products)  through  man's  instinctive 


fear  of  the  unknown — the  Rule  of  the 
Cunning. 

Force-Mystery-Economics. 

With  varying  fortunes  force-eco- 
nomics and  cunning-economics  con- 
tended for  supremacy  till  in  compara- 
tively modern  times  autocracy  was 
found  an  effective  compromise.  In  this 
most  practical  arrangement,  the  (by 
that  time  conventionalized)  parent- 
god  received  his  authority  from  the 
All-powerful  God-of-Magic.  So  was 
initiated  modernized  force-mystery- 
economics.  And  the  human  race  has 
as  yet  found  no  more  efficient  means 
for  the  control  of  organized  society 
than  force-mystery-economics;  meth- 
ods, means,  and  institutions  which,  but 
superficially  modified  since  old  Miracle 
worker's  day,  still  function  in  our 
twentieth  century  (autocratic  and 
democratic)  customs,  usages,  conven- 
tions, and  legalized  economic  systems. 

Working-by-proxy-Economics. 

In  cave-man  economics,  the  real 
function  of  the  club  or  the  purpose 
of  Club-er  was  not  to  incapacitate 
Club-ee,  but  to  induce  the  latter  to  do 
and  supply  the  matters  and  things 
which  otherwise  would  require  greater 
and  more  constant  expenditure  of  ef- 
fort on  the  part  of  the  economist,  than 
the  semi-occasional  swing  of  his  skull- 
cracker. 

Old  Skull-cracker's  motives  (though 
more  crudely  expressed)  were  the 
same  as  mine  are,  in  the  employment 
of  my  cook  and  my  gardener,  that  is 
economy  of  effort  on  my  part;  other- 
wise working-by-proxy. 

But  the  club-economic-system  was 
essentially  wasteful  and  inefficient;  its 
operating  expenses  were  outrageously 
high,  notwithstanding  the  low  cost  of 
raw  (human)  material.  Indeed,  the 
system  was  apt  to  defeat  its  own  ends, 
especially  in  those  strenuous  days, 
when  zeal  commonly  outran  discre- 
tion. 

Doers  and  Suppliers. 

Thus  mystery-coercion  represents 
an  enormous  economic  advance  over 
raw  physical  force.  Fear  of  unknown 
but  awesome  consequences  for  failure 
to  do  and  supply  matters  and  things  is 
fully  as  effective  as  the  club — and  be- 


TECHNOCRACY 


9 


yond  measure  less  wasteful  of  Doers 
and  Suppliers.- 

So  i.  is  quite  natural  and  inevitable 
that  crude  force  methods  and  pro- 
cesses of  economic  control  should 
lose  favor  in  competition  with  mystery 
economic  systems.  And  long  race  ex- 
perience has  proved  that  a  judicious 
combination  of  club  and  mystery 
(otherwise  force  and  cunning)  makes 
for  the  highest  degree  of  efficiency  in 
a  Working-by-Proxy  economic  sys- 
tem. 

Proxy-Beneficiaries. 

Such  economic  systems,  however, 
obviously  imply  direct  or  indirect 
slavery — ownership  of  the  body  or 
control  of  the  mind  of  the  proxy.  And 
for  the  latter  the  mystery  method  is 
peculiarly  adapted  and  most  satisfac- 
tory. 

For  self-evident  reasons,  control 
over  another's  mind  is  more  effective 
and  economical  than  property  owner- 
ship of  his  body,  taking  into  con- 
sideration the  practical  responsibility 
which  the  latter  entails.  So  quite  na- 
turally, direct  ownership  of  Proxy  by 
the  economical  Worker-by-proxy  gives 
place  to  customs,  usages,  and  conven- 
tions (economics),  facilitating  control 
over  the  results  of  Proxy's  activities. 

Then,  too,  complex  division  of  labor 
and  specialization  render  chattel  slav- 
ery impractical,  indeed  unworkable,  in 
a  society  highly  organized  for  pro- 
ductive industry.  So  an  ideal  work- 
ing-by-proxy economic  system  would 
permit  complete  physical  liberty  to  do 
and  to  make,  while  arranging  appro- 
priate usages,  customs,  and  laws  which 
automatically  transfer  ownership  of 
the  matters  and  things  done  and  made, 
from  the  doers  and  makers  to  the 
proxy-beneficiaries. 

.     Economic  Science? 

The  difference  between  modern  and 
primordial  economics  is  not  in  idea  or 
purpose,  but  only  in  added  obscurity 
of  method  and  in  greater  complexity 
of  detail.  Incidentally,  also,  it  has  be- 
come evident  that  "economics"  is  not 
a  "science"  in  any  proper  sense,  but 
a  variable  system  of  community  us- 
ages intended  to  facilitate  the  pre- 
dominating social  activities.  And, 
hence,  to  be  workable  an  "economic 
system"  must  be  in  keeping  with  the 


activities  which  characterize  the  times. 
In  cave-man  times,  the  boss-parent 
and  his  club-men  had  to  make  cave- 
economics.  A  system  initiated  by  the 
"fags"  would  have  been  obviously  un- 
workable. The  priesthood  had  to 
initiate  and  administer  theocratic  eco- 
nomics. And  so  on,  through  the 
various  changes  in  social  organization: 
Those  whose  activities  characterize 
the  times  must  initiate  and  administer 
its  economics. 

Economic  Experiments. 

Raw  force  has  been  relegated  to 
the  economic  backwoods — to  the 
facially  infantile  tribes  of  darkest 
Africa,  and  to  the  social  usages  of 
our  anachronistic  "criminal  elements," 
the  yegg,  the  thug,  the  gun-fighter, 
the  strong-arm  gangs  of  the  under- 
world of  modern  organized  society. 

Theocracy,  with  its  crude  cunning, 
its  childish  terrors  and  its  dazzling 
promises  of  future  (super-mundane) 
rewards,  has  practically  vanished  as  a 
recognized  dominant  social  factor — a 
fading  shadow  of  ancient  greatness. 

Autocracy,  that  cunning  combination 
of  force  and  fear  economics,  has  just 
now  been  dumped  into  the  scrap-heap 
of  out-worn  social  expedients,  at  the 
cost  of  the  most  atrocious  and  blood- 
iest of  all  wars,  and  the  flower  of  the 
World's  Manhood. 

Plutocracy,  with  its  autocratic  capi- 
talistic economics  (while  weakened 
and  shaken  by  the  shocks  and  stresses 
of  the  World  War)  is  still  a  virile 
contestant  for  the  throne  of  World 
Dominion. 

Strength,  Skill,  Cunning. 

Economics  efficient  for  autocracy 
must  necessarily  differ  from  eco- 
nomics appropriate  to  theocracy;  and 
these  would  differ  from  economics 
suitable  for  plutocracy;  and  these 
again  would  'differ  still  more  from 
economics  appropriate  to  and  efficient 
for  Industrial  Democracy.  In  brief: 
Force-economics,  Cunning-economics, 
and  Skill-economics  must  necessarily 
differ  as  widely  as  the  essential  dif- 
ferences between  the  basic  qualities, 
Strength,  Cunning,  Skill. 

Hence  any  attempt  to  organize  or 
"re-construct"  a  social  aggregation 
with  these  three  basic  human  traits 
as  contemporary  economic  bases 


10 


TECHNOCRACY 


means  simply  continual  social  warfare; 
a  war  which,  sooner  or  later,  must  be 
decided  by  victory  for  the  Strong,  the 
Cunning,  or  the  Skilled — unless  human 
ingenuity  can  devise  a  form  of  society 
which  will  permit  and  facilitate  the 
full,  unified,  and  socially  useful  expres- 
sion of  these  three  irrepressible  forms 
of  life  energy. 

Mechanized  Industry. 

Thus  we  return  to  the  three  great 
social  drifts: 

Centralization  of  Government; 

Concentration  of  Wealth; 

Unification  of  Mechanistic  Indus- 
tries.. 

Of  the  first  two  little  need  be  said, 
for  they  are  familiar  racial  experi- 
ences. But  the  last — the  mechanizing 
of  life — is  quite  otherwise;  hence  it  is, 
if  for  no  other  reason,  the  most  sig- 
nificant factor  to  be  taken  into  account 
in  the  social  problems  with  which  we 
are  now  confronted — our  problem  of 
economic  reconstruction. 

And,  truly,  our  modern  mechaniza- 
tion of  human  life  is  a  most  dubious 
social  experiment — a  danger-fraught 
development — a  dynamitic  racial  ad- 
venture. 

Modern  Science. 

Back  of  the  mechanizing  of  human 
functioning  is  that  greatest  of  all  mod- 
ern marvels — experimental  science. 

Science  has  brought  about  a  pro- 
found revolution  in  our  mental  atti- 
tude toward  life,  and  in  our  methods 
of  dealing  with  nature.  It  has  swept 
into  the  discard  practically  all  our  pre- 
vious notions  regarding  ourselves  and 
our  relations  to  the  laws  of  nature — 
to  Universal  Reality.  It  has,  at  the 
same  time,  debased  man's  pride  in  the 


dust  of  humility,  and  glorified  intelli- 
gence and  human  worth  to  God-like 
heights. 

Science  is,  of  course,  the  effective 
cause  of  our  present  mechanistic  de- 
velopment— with  all  its  physical  bene- 
fits and  all  its  spiritulil  horrors;  for 
science  knows  neither  morals  nor  eth- 
ics, and  is  equally  potent  for  social 
"bad"  as  for  social  "good." 

Science  works  just  as  effectively  in 
criminal  hands  as  in  thos,^  of  a  saint. 
It  is  an  impersonal,  ethically  neutral 
force  and  factor  so  potent  that — even 
in  the  chaotic  condition  in  which  it 
now  exists — it  has  brought  about  a 
world  revolution  in  man's  mental  out- 
look and  his  physical  activities,  both 
individually  and  collectively.  Indeed 
it  has  shown  to  man  a  new  Heaven, 
a  new  Earth,  and  a  new  Hell. 

Our  social  Heaven  we  have  yet  to 
construct,  but  the  World  War  is  suf- 
ficiently impressive  proof  of  what 
social  Hell  can  be  wrought  by  Science 
in  the  hands  of  self-interest. 

Past  and  Present. 

As  the  result  of  modern  science, 
the  present  time  is  without  precedent, 
hence  no  valid  analogy  exists  or  can 
be  imagined  between  an  economic 
system  appropriate  to  our  science- 
taught  mechanistic  age  and  earlier 
economic  systems  suitable  to  condi- 
tions of  life,  the  warp,  woof,  and  pat- 
tern of  which  were  Mystery,  Magic, 
Chance. 

That  no  helpful  comparison  can  be 
made  between  the  past  and  the  pres- 
ent would  be  completely  true,  were 
it  not  that  our  science  teachings  affect 
but  the  thinnest  superficial  layer  of 
our  conscious  thinking,  while  the 


There  is  a  serenity,  a  long  view  on  the  part  of  science,  which  seems 
to  be  of  no  age,  but  to  carry  human  thought  along  from  generation  to 
generation,  freed  from  the  elements  of  passion.  Every  just  mind  must 
condemn  those  who  so  debase  the  studies  of  men  in  science  as  to 
use  them  against  humanity  and,  therefore,  it  is  part  of  your  task  and  of 
ours  to  reclaim  science  from  this  disgrace,  to  show  that  she  is  devoted  to 
the  advancement  and  interest  in  humanity  and  not  to  its  embarrass- 
ment and  destruction.  The  spirit  of  science  is  a  spirit  of  seeking  after 
truth  so  far  as  the  truth  is  ready  to  be  applied  to  human  circum- 
stances. 

From  President  Wilson's  address  before  the  Academy  of  Lincei  in 
Rome. 


TECHNOCRACY 


11 


fabric  of  our  thought  processes,  our 
familiar  customs,  our  current  usages, 
our  economic  institutions  remain  prac- 
tically unchanged — our  racial  heritage. 
But,  even  so,  the  unceasing  con- 
flict of  past  and  present,  of  slavery 
and  freedom,  of  bondage  and  liberty, 
of  error  and  truth,  goes  ever  on  and 
on — a  blood  soaked  path;  a  path  of 
misery,  strife  and  disappointment, 
though  hopefully  ever  upward  toward 
our  ideal — Industrial  Democracy  with 

*  personal  freedom  for  Self-realization. 
Mental  Inertia. 
Without  a  concurrent  change  of 
economic  institutions  appropriate  to 
the  amazingly  rapid  psychical  devel- 
opment and  refinement  of  our  modern 
ideals — brought  about  by  the  advent 
of  science — the  realization  of  these 
ideals  will  be  impossible.  And  sorrow- 
fully we  recognize  that  man's  instinc- 
tive resistance  to  change  of  old  estab- 
lished modes  of  thought — howsoever 
irrational — makes  progress  in  this  di- 

K-ection   seem   almost  hopeless. 
Familiar  Fallacies. 
Most    reluctantly    are    familiar    fal- 
acies    relinquished,    indeed,    we    hang 
on    to    them    with    irrational    tenacity 
ages  after  their  unworkable  character 
has    time    and    again    been    tragically 
demonstrated. 

As  in  our  bodily  functions  and  skele- 
tal frame  there  still  persist  the  char- 
acteristics of  our  Saurian  primordial 
ancestry,  so  ancient  modes  of  thought 
live  unnoted  in  our  present  day  think- 
ing processes;  and  our  social  institu- 
tions represent  the  seemingly  out- 
grown superstitions  constituting 
man's  mental  heredity  during  every 
past  age  since  the  infancy  of  the 
human  race. 

"Gott  mit  tins." 

Medievalism  characterizes  our  sa- 
cred and  secular  institutions  and 
energizes  our  customary  actions. 
Demonology  is  practically  as  prev- 
alent as  in  the  past;  unnoted  in 
ourselves  but  easily  perceived  in  the 
"Gptt  mit  uns"  attitude  of  the 
Kaiser. 

We  ^  pray  for  health,  heedless  of 
nature's  laws;  we  pray  for  long  life 
while  disregarding  the  simple  rules 
of  right  living;  we  beseech  forgive- 


ness of  "sin"  while  making  sin 
profitable  by  deliberate  legal  enact- 
ment. In  a  world  filled  to  over- 
flowing with  all  good  and  humanly 
desirable  things  to  be  had  for  the 
striving,  we  economically  steal  from 
our  industrious  neighbors;  like 
paupers  we  beg  "God"  for  vicari- 
ously earned  joys,  for  unearned 
prosperity,  and  for  all  other  forms  of 
undeserved  "good  fortune;"  and  like 
pert  children  we  urge  silly  advice 
on  our  man-made  Providence,  for 
the  conduct  of  common  human  af- 
faiis,  which  we  are  too  lazy,  too 
stupid,  too  self-indulgent  to  bring  to 
desired  outcome  by  our  own  effort. 

The  God  of  Chance. 

Important  departments  of  life  and 
the  distribution  of  the  products  of 
industry — trade,  speculation,  oppor- 
tunity, recreation — involve  large  ele- 
ments of  "luck,"  for  by  grotesquely 
solemn  "laws"  the  issues  are  left 
to  the  "God  of  Chance."  Just  pre- 
cisely as  in  the  old  days  when  mo- 
mentous matters  were  settled  by  the 
entrails  of  sacrificial  animals. 

The  killing  of  President  McKinle} 
by  a  madman  "caused"  the  depre- 
ciation in  the  value  of  stocks  to  the 
extent  of  thousands  of  millions  of 
dollars;  the  San  Francisco  calamity 
— which  rendered  half  a  million  hu- 
man beings  homeless— -"made"  for- 
tunes for  the  owners  of  and  specu- 
lators in  suburban  property;  the 
Titanic  disaster  threw  a  hundred 
millions  of  wealth  (others'  products) 
into  the  hands  of  a  school-boy,  and 
with  it  control  over  the  lives  of 
thousands  of  human  beings;  and  eveu 
the  supreme  tragedy  of  a  World 
at  War  is  the  prolific  "cause"  of 
transforming  hundreds  of  mediocre 
men  into  multi-millionaires — and 
hence  into  powerful  social  factors 

Diabolism. 

All  this  represents  kindergarten 
thinking,  primitive  and  childish  ^  as 
nursery  prattle  of  prixies  and  fairies, 
Aladin's  lamp,  and  all  the  other 
forms  of  Old  World  superstition  and 
diabolism,  worthy  only  of  the  in- 
fancy of  the  race. 

Were  it  not  that  these  grotes- 
queries  characterize  our  "economic 


12 


TECHNOCRACY 


and  finance  system"  and  our  solemn 
Professors  soberly  teach  them,  they 
would  be  utterly  incredible  in  this 
Age  of  Science  and  Mechanics. 

But,  as  already  indicated,  our  "eco- 
nomics and  finance"  are  merely  sur- 
vivals from  pre-science  times;  an  in- 
heritance from  the  days  of  wizardry 
and  witchcraft,  mystery  and  magic. 

Our  quaint  "economics"  and  queer 
"finance"  are  as  anachronistic,  as 
inconsistent,  and  as  ineffective  in  this 
Mechanical  Age  of  Industrialism,  as 
astrology  would  be  in  an  astrono- 
mical observatory,  alchemy  in  a 
chemical  laboratory  or  "perpetual  mo- 
tion" in  a  machine  shop. 

Scientific   Foresight. 

Imagination  based  on  science  en- 
ables us  to  foresee  the  oak  in  the 
acorn — coming  events  latent  in  pres- 
ent happenings.  But  so  strong  is 
custom,  so  firm  is  the  grip  of  the 
past,  so  compelling  is  the  obses- 
sion of  ancient  superstitions,  that— 
with  all  our  lately  acquired  capa- 
bility for  rational  scientific  thinking 
— only  the  tragedy  of  the  accom- 
plished fact  has  sufficient  power  to 
jolt  our  sluggard  wits  into  momen- 
tary activity. 

Ten,  fifteen,  yes,  twenty-five  years 
ago,  it  required  no  more  intelligence 
to  foresee  the  present  war  than  to 
anticipate  a  crop  in  the  Fall  from 
seed  sown  in  the  Spring. 

Even  less  scientific  imagination  is 
now  needed  to  foretell  a  condition 
of  social  disintegration,  one  more  wide- 
spread and  disastrous  than  the  War, 
as  the  logical  and  inevitable  outcome 
of  our  irrational  and  antiquated  so- 
cial conventions — our  "economic  and 
financial  system." 

Taking  Instinct. 

If  taking— by  force  or  diverting  by 
cunning,  in  whole  or  in  part — the 
product  of  another's  effort,  without 
adequate  equitable  return,  be  accept- 
ed as  a  valid  social  principle  of 
action  between  individuals,  it  must 
be  equally  good  and  proper  as  be- 
tween social  groups,  as  between  na- 
tions. 

But  however  disguised  in  smooth 
sounding  phrases — the  "chances  of 
business,"  the  "profits  of  trade," 
the  "opportunity  of  others'  misfor- 


tune," the  "prize  of  the  victor,"  the 
"fortunes  of  war,"  the  "right  of 
might" — taking  expresses  the  par- 
asitic and  predatory  instincts.  And, 
called  by  whatsoever  name  or  how- 
soever disguised,  taking  others'  mak- 
ings by  force,  or  diverting  others' 
products  by  stealthy  cunning,  inevit- 
ably involves  unending  strife;  strife 
within .  the  group  and  recurring  wars 
of  nations — strife  to  settle  the  rela- 
tive strength  or  cunning  as  between 
individuals,  and  wars  to  determine 
the  relative  might  of  nations. 

Predatory  Economics. 

Our  "economic  system"  is  essen- 
tially autocratic  in  means,  in  method, 
in  objective.  Being  a  left-over  from 
an  Age  of  Predatory  Autocracy, 
necessarily  its  ideals  are  materialis- 
tic— its  motor  instinct  and  urge  im- 
pulse being  self-centered  "greed  and 
grab."  Naturally  its  means  are  force 
and  cunning  and  its  methods  are 
ruthless,  for  its  object  is  power- 
power,  irresponsible  and  absolute. 

Our   Modern   Ideals. 

If  we  are  to  remain  true  to  our 
ideals — ideals  which  the  flame  of  war 
has  illumined  to  our  normally  pur- 
blind spiritual  insight — our  course 
is  determined.  We  have  no  choice 
but  to  choose  freedom:  pioneer  a 
virgin  trail,  slash  a  course  unblazed 
by  history,  uncharted  in  race  experi- 
ence— a  courage  testing  National  Ad- 
venture. 

The  race  has  never  before  been 
confronted  with  a  situation  in  any 
way  analogous  to  the  one  in  which 
we  now  find  ourselves,  nor  a  prob- 
lem the  like  of  that  which  we  are 
now  compelled  to  solve;  yes,  and 
solve  correctly,  if  we  would  avoid 
distintegration  into  social  chaos — 
overwhelmed  by  a  science-made 
Frankenstein. 

Science  Is  Dynamitic! 

Science  has,  however,  put  into  our 
hands  an  instrumentality  of  such 
immeasurable  potency,  that,  used 
with  intelligent  courage,  we  may  con- 
quer all  our  difficulties,  surmount  all 
our  social  obstructions. 

But,  Science  left  to  chance,  or  in 
the  hands  of  unintelligent  self-interest, 


TECHNOCRACY 


13 


e 

E 


a 


the  chances  are  it  will  work  untold 
social  calamity. 

There  are  so  many  roads  to  go 
wrong,  and  only  one  way  to  go  ri^ht. 

To  leave  a  force  and  factor  of 
such  supreme  social  significance  ;ind 
potentiality  as  Science  in  its  present 
condition — socially  uncontrolled  and 
unorganized  for  the  commonweal — 
is  more  crassly  unintelligent  than  to 
permit  fused  and  capped  dynamite  to 
be  scattered  around  promiscuously, 
to  the  chances  of  any  carelessly  or 
maliciously  applied  spark. 

(A  striking  and  significant  parallel- 
ism to  the  thought  here  expressed 
was  subsequently  voiced  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson  in  one  of  his  speeches 
at  the  Versailles  Peace  Conference: 

"Is  it  not  a  startling  circumstance, 
for  one  thing,  that  the  quiet  studies 
of  men  in  laboratories,  that  the 
thoughtful  developments  which  have 
taken  place  in  quiet  lecture  rooms, 
have  now  been  turned  to  the  de- 
struction of  civilization? 

'The  enemy  whom  we  have  just 
overcome  had  at  his  seats  of  learning 
some  of  the  principal  centers  of 
scientific  study  and  discovery,  and  he 
used  them  in  order  to  make  de- 
struction sudden  and  complete;  and 
only  the  watchful,  continuous  co-op- 
eration of  men  can  see  to  it  that 
cience  as  well  as  armed  men  are 
ept  within  the  harness  of  civiliza- 
tion.") 

Democracy. 

In  the  rough,  Democracy  is  the 
ule  of  the  mob,  the  rule  of  the 

asses,  the  rule  of  the  majority — the 
ule  of  un-intelligence.  But  even  so, 
t  is  better  than  any  form  of  govern- 
mental control  based  upon  self-inter- 
est— not  excepting  "Beneficent  Autoc- 
racy." 

Humanly  bad  and  socially  ineffi- 
cient as  it  may  be,  and  has  been,  De- 

ocracy  alone  encloses  and  fosters 
he  living  germ  of  freedom — self-  gov- 
ernment. 

But,  during  the  scant  two  years  that 
we  were  at  war,  no  ordinary  or  ac- 
cepted definition  of  Democracy  could 
make  that  term  descriptive  of  the 
United  States;  indeed,  under  the  life 
threatening  stress  of  a  World  War, 
our  great  but  chaotic  nation — in  self- 


preservation — ceased  to  be  a  Democ- 
racy! 

Transformation. 

In  that  remarkable  war  transfor- 
mation, we  certainly  did  not  become 
an  Autocracy;  even  less  so  a  Plutoc- 
racy; and  least  of  all  a  Theocracy.  In 
fact,  during  this  thrillingly  interesting 
time,  the  United  States  developed  into 
a  form  of  "Government"  for  which 
there  is  no  precedent  in  human  ex- 
perience. 

National    Industrial    Management 
— Technocracy. 

The  characterizing  peculiarity  which 
rendered  our  great  country  unique — 
during  this  period  of  national  stress — 
and  not  only  unique  but  uniquely  ir- 
resistible, was  the  fact  that  we  ra- 
tionally organized  our  National  Indus- 
trial Management.  We  became,  for 
the  time  being,  a  real  Industrial  Na- 
tion. 

This  we  did  by  organizing  and  co- 
ordinating the  Scientific  Knowledge, 
the  Technical  Talent,  the  Practi- 
cal Skill  and  the  Man  Power  of  the 
entire  Community:  focusing  them  in 
the  National  Government,  and  apply- 
ing this  Unified  National  Force  to  the 
accomplishment  of  a  Unified  National 
Purpose. 

For  this  unique  experiment  in  ra- 
tionalized Industrial  Democracy  I 
have  coined  the  term  ''Technocracy." 

It  was  but  an  experiment — a  forced 
one — to  meet  an  exceptionally  serious 
emergency;  and  like  most  other  ex- 
perimental devices,  it  doubtless  was 
far  from  perfect  in  many  ways  and 
details.  Still,  as  it  seems  to  me,  it 
presented  an  important  suggestion,  the 
germ  of  a  novel  and  significant  idea— 
a  pioneer  idea  in  the  ancient  art  of 
government. 

Dog-Eat-Dog. 

Until  appropriate  economic  institu- 
tions and  instrumentalities  are  avail- 
able, humanly  effective  Industrial  De- 
mocracy must  remain  an  unrealizable 
ideal,  a  theory  unattainable  as  a  work- 
a-day  principle  of  social  life,  and  for 
the  efficient  distribution  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  toil,  upon  which  human  life 
rests. 

The  practical  working  out  of  our 
present  efforts  in  this  direction,  has  so 


14 


TECHNOCRACY 


far  only  resulted  in  a  frenzied  scram- 
ble for  wealth,  place,  power — a  brut- 
ish-instinct-scramble, in  which  greed, 
cunning,  and  lust  for  human  mastery 
are  the  urges;  "dog-eat-dog"  the 
"practical"  ideal;  and  mystery, 
medievalism,  law-loaded-dice  and 
chuck-a-luck  instrumentalities  the  con- 
trolling factors. 

The  Greedless  Scientist. 

In  this  weird  social  (?)  conglomera- 
tion how  incongruous  seems — and,  in- 
deed, is — the  greedless  scientist,  who 
seeks  but  to  learn,  to  comprehend,  and 
to  co-ordinate  the  laws  of  nature;  and 
who  cares  naught  for  human  mastery. 
In  this  frenzied  scramble  for  science- 
created  wealth  what  earthly  chance 
has  its  real  creator — the  scientist? 

Practically    none! 

None,  unless  he  sells  himself  into 
virtual  slavery;  unless  he  debauches 
his  truth-seeking  to  the  interest  of 
those  who — more  "practical" — devote 
their  energy  and  cunning  to  the  "prac- 
tical" enterprise  of  gaining  power  by 
securing  control  of  wealth.  And  yet, 
the  United  States  is  characteristically 
a  nation  of  technologists — scientists, 
inventors,  workers  in  and  utilizers  of 
the  raw  materials  and  the  forces  of 
nature.  Not  only  are  we  instinctively 
mechanistic,  but  we  are — by  heritage, 
by  force  of  circumstance,  and  by  tra- 
dition— born  lovers  of  personal  free- 
dom. Freedom  is  our  ideal — self- 
government. 

Prior  to  the  War,  our  de-humaniz- 
ing ideal  was  Mechanistic  Efficiency, 
under  its  soul-searching  stress  was 
born  a  Humanly  Effective  Nation. 

Our  Costly  Lesson. 

With  all  these  considerations  before 
us,  and  our  fleeting  glance  at  the  pos- 
sibilities of  socially  unified  skill,  tech- 
nology, and  science,  how  worse  than 
foolish  to  revert  to  our  pre-War  "dog- 
eat-dog"  practices  and  practical  (?) 
ideals. 

Instead  of  so  doing,  would  it  not 
be  well  to  take  to  heart  the  lessons 
forced  upon  us  at  so  stupendous  a 
cost  of  life  and  human  misery? 

Would  it  not  be  wise  statesmanship 
to  experiment  further  on  the  lines  of 
direction  into  which  we  were  forced 
by  the  compulsions  and  stresses  of 
War? 


Reconstruction — With  a  National 
Objective. 

The  War  is  over — won! 

We  are  now  facing  the — in  reality- 
more    stupendous    problems    of    social 
reconstruction. 

For  the  War,  we  enlisted,  conscript- 
ed, commandeered  all  our  men  who  by 
natural  aptitude,  and  by  personal  in- 
clination,  were  adapted  to  the  require- 
ments of  war.  We  organized  and  co- 
ordinated them  for  the  intended  pur- 
pose; we  trained  and  exercised  their 
bodies  and  their  minds  to  meet  known 
and  unknown  trials;  we  energized 
their  loyalty  to  the  Flag — the  Com- 
monweal; we  stirred  their  personal  de- 
votion to  the  Nation's  ideals;  we  en- 
thused their  wills  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  unified  Will  of  the  Nation 
-the  National  Objective. 

Rationalized  Industrial  Democracy. 

No  need  is  there  to  speak  of  the 
result  of  this  Unification  of  National 
Spirit  and  National  Purpose — the  War 
is  over;  won! — gloriously  won! 

As  we  enlisted  all  those  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  destructive  functions 
of  War,  let  us  now  systematically 
unify  those  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
constructive  functions  of  Peace — our 
scientists,  our  technologists,  our  in- 
ventors, indeed,  all  who  by  natural 
aptitude  and  personal  inclination  are 
specially  fitted  to  deal  with  the  social 
and  constructive  problems  of  peaceful 
industry;  nationally  unify  them  and 
their  accomplishments  for  the  Com- 
monweal. 

Let  us  organize  our  scientists, 
our  technologists,  our  exceptionally 
skilled;  let  us  commandeer,  conscript, 
enlist,  their  loyalty,  their  devotion, 
their  enthusiasm,  their  intelligence, 
their  interest,  their  talents,  their  ac- 
complishments for  the  purposes  oi 
Peace  and  the  realization  of  a  Noble 
National  Purpose. 

Let  us  rationalize  our  Industrial  De- 
mocracy! 

Public  Service  First. 

We  are  up  against  the  problem  oi 
national  reconstruction;  let  us  not 
tinker  with  futile  details — let  us  na- 
tionally Re-construct. 

Such  a  national  co-ordination  oi 
Science  and  Technology,  as  is  here 
suggested,  would  produce  and  consti- 


TECHNOCRACY 


15 


tute  a  living  and  Social  life-giving  Na- 
tional Reservoir  of  Science — practical 
and  theoretical;  a  Technical  Army  de- 
voted to  Peace  and  Construction. 

It  would  constitute  a  National  Army, 
from  which  alone  Private  Interests 
could  draw  their  needed  scientific  and 
technical  personnel;  personnel  whose 
loyalty  is  primarily  to  the  Common- 
weal— the  Nation;  the  Nation  of  which 
they  are  honored  Public  Servants. 

This  is  the  exact  reverse  of  our  pres- 
ent unpatriotic,  un-democratic  order 
and  organization.  Yet,  such  an  intim- 
ate, but  subsidiary,  relation  to  public 
service,  as  is  suggested,  would  liberate 
not  hamper  individual  energy  and  free- 
dom of  private  enterprise,  for  it  would 
permit  the  free  expression  of  self- 
interest  unified  in  the  commonweal. 
Also  it  would,  without  conflict,  fa- 
cilitate the  full  and  socially  useful  out- 
flow of  the  three  vigorous  forms  of 
life  energy — Strength,  Skill,  Cunning. 

Industrial  Apex. 

From  this  co-ordinated  Army  of 
Science,  Technology,  and  Skill  should 
be  selected  (by  a  process  of  realized 
capability  and  recognized  social  worth) 
a  representative  and  comprehensive 
National  Council  of  Scientists  as  Man- 
aging Directors — our  Supreme  Social 
Institution. 


This  National  Council  should  be  the 
apex  of  the  Nation's  Industrial  Man- 
agement. It  should  constitute  the 
Leadership  of  our  thus  rationalized 
Industrial  Democracy. 

Purpose. 

But  this  reconstruction  —  revolu- 
tionary as  it  doubtless  will  appear  to 
many — is  only  preparation  for  our 
National  Task. 

It  would,  indeed,  make  of  us  an  or- 
ganized human  aggregation — a  unified 
social  machine,  capable  of  intelligent 
self-conscious  national  life;  and  then 
comes  the  question: 

For  what  worthy  purpose  have  we 
constructed  this  huge  highly  organized 
Human  Instrumentality? 

This  problem  a  Nation — no  less 
than  an  individual — unescapably  faces, 
the  instant  it  has  become  really  self- 
determining. 

It  is  the  Nation's  first,  its  final,  its 
only  problem — the  final  problem  of 
human  existence. 

And  this  all-important  matter,  every 
Nation  (like  every  individual)  must 
settle  for  itself — settle  between  itself 
and  Universal  Rationality:  The  ob- 
ject of  the  Nation's  being;  its  con- 
scious Rational  purpose — its  National 
Objective. 


Fernwald,    Berkeley,    January,    1919. 


SHOULD  THE   DESTINY   OF  THE   NATION 
BE  LEFT  TO  CHANCE? 


Technocracy 


PART  III. 


Ways  and  Means 
To  Gain  Industrial  Democracy. 


By  William  Henry  Smyth 

NOTE: — In  the  two  preceding  essays  Mr.  Smyth  forecasts  a  new  form 
of  government  that  he  calls  "Technocracy" — National  Industrial  Man- 
agement. This  article  discusses  ways  and  means  to  develop,  guide  and  di- 
rect purposive  industrial  democracy  and  so  usher  in  a  new  commonwealth. 

The  author  suggests  three  practical  thoughts  for  economic  reconstruc- 
tion: That  permitting  chance  to  influence  our  lives  and  conditions  means 
ignorance.  That  the  flow  of  time  is  not  reversible — the  future  cannot  help 
the  present.  That  cause  and  effect,  not  whim,  is  the  law  in  nature's  pro- 
cesses.— Editor. 


Social  Structures. 

Democracy  and  Autocracy  are  the 
antitheses  of  social  organization  and 
express  opposite  underlying  principles 
of  human  interaction. 

The  structural  details  of  any  human 
contrivance — whether  Mechanical  or 
Sociological — must  be  in  keeping  with 
its  underlying  idea.  Change  in  prin- 
ciple necessarily  entails  functional  re- 
organization— reconstruction. 

Hence,  ways  and  means  that  have 
proved  effective  for  autocracy,  or  that 
long  usage  has  shaped  to  facilitate 
its  aims  and  outcomes,  must  needs  be 
not  only  unworkable  in,  but  subversive 
of,  democracy.  So  it  will  be  helpful 
in  our  quest  to  keep  constantly  and 
clearly  in  mind  the  differences  be- 
tween these  mutually  exclusive  no- 
tions of  Government. 

Autocracy. 

Probably  the  most  radical  difference 
between  these  two  forms  of  social 
structures  is  the  assumed  sources  from 
which  each  gets  its  authority. 

Autocracy  derives  its  powers  from 
"God."  This  assumption  pre-supposes 
inherent  social  distinctions  between 
individuals --occult  privileges  con- 
ferred upon  some  to  control  the  acts 
of  others.  But  effectively  to  control 
acts  makes  requisite  control  of 
thoughts,  for  consecutive  thought 
necessarily  precedes  purposive  action. 

Thus  Autocracy  implies  a  "God- 
given"  right  of  censorship  over  other 
men's  physical  and  mental  function- 
ing. Hence,  it  also  pre-supposes  the 


non-neutrality  of  Nature  —  cosmic- 
favoritism;  for  clearly  nature's  "God" 
could  not  look  with  favor  upon  dis- 
obedience or  lack  of  submission  to  the 
•  mandates  of  His  authorized  agents. 

A  social  organization  framed  upon 
this  general  idea  implies  constructive 
details,  i.  e.,  customs,  laws,  institutions 
— economics — comprising : 

1.  A  Supreme  Control  element,  de- 
riving its   authority  from  and  respon- 
sible only  to  a  super-mundane  source. 

2.  Social     instrumentalities     to     en- 
force obedience — physically  coerce  hu- 
man actions,  and  super-naturally  con- 
trol men's  thoughts. 

3.  A  descending  series  of  conferred 
authority   starting   with    the   "God-ap- 
oointed    Ruler"   and   ending   with    the 
popular  "masses"  void  of  rights. 

Thus  ^the  measure  of  efficiency  in 
this  social  system  is  the  absoluteness 
of  control -- completeness  of  en- 
forced obedience  in  act  and  subservi- 
ence in  thought  to  the  "God-inspired 
will"  of  the  Autocrat  and  his  Agents. 

Democracy. 

Democracy  derives  its  authority 
from  Man.  This  pre-supposes  general 
intelligence  sufficient  at  least  for  self- 
conscious  Individual  wants  and  Mass 
purposes,  with  freedom  for  their  pur- 
suit; thus  it  assumes  super-mundane 
non-interference  with  human  wants 
and  purposes,  and  a  rational  Cosmic 
Order  corresponding  or  co-ordinated 
to  human  intelligence  in  suchwise  as 
to  be  knowable  and  responsive  there- 
to. 
A  social  system  based  upon  this  gen- 


TECHNOCRACY 


17 


eral  idea  implies  constructive  details 
in  consonance  with: 

1.  The  neutrality  of  nature. 

2.  Inherent  individual  rights  flowing 
from  the   facts  of  rational  human  ex- 
istence. 

3.  Equality  of  individual  rights. 
Thus  the  measure  of  efficiency  in  a 

Democracy  is  to  be  gaged  by  the  com- 
pleteness of  individual  freedom  of 
thought  and  liberty  of  action  in  rela- 
tion to  each  other  and  of  access  to 
nature's  stores,  resources  and  forces — 
freedom  and  liberty  being  based  upon 
rationality  as  determined  by  work- 
ability in  the  production  of  general 
human  happiness,  prosperity  and  op- 
portunity for  self-development. 

Autocracy  is  based  upon  the  idea 
of  the  essential  manship  (i.  e.  man- 
likeness)  of  "God"  and  the  inher- 
ent unrighteousness — irrationality — of 
Man. 

Democracy  is  based  upon  the  idea 
of  the  essential  God-ship  (i.  e.  God- 
likeness)  of  Man  and  the  inherent 
righteousness — rationality — of  the  Uni- 
verse. 

Thus  we  get  a  clear  concept  of  our 
chosen  social  Ideal,  and  from  it  indi- 
cations as  to  the  character  of  means 
appropriate  to  or  discordant  therewith. 
In  other  words  we  have  on  broad  lines, 
bases  for  rational  economic  conven- 
tions, adapted  to  make  effective  a  so- 
cial system  on  the  basic  principles  of 
Democracy. 

Limitations. 

Neither  by  mutual  agreement,  nor 
by  legal  enactment,  nor  constitutional 
provision,  nor  even  as  a  concession 
to  ancient  custom  and  universal  con- 
sent may  we  make  two  units  and  two 
units  constitute  five  units — being  con- 
trary to  the  facts  of  nature.  For  pre- 
cisely the  same  reasons  we  cannot  (by 
any  or  all  of  these  social  expedients) 
successfully  adopt  or  retain  economic 
devices  at  variance  with  the  essential 
principles  of  Democracy. 

Industrial  Democracy — Purpose. 

Autocracy  and  Democracy  are  both 
merely  forms  of  human  organization, 
group  contrivances — social  machines — 
built  on  different  basic  ideas  or  prin- 
ciples; machines  to  accomplish  some- 
thing. 


A  Nation  (no  less  than  an  individ- 
ual) that  would  build  (or  "recon- 
struct") without  first  clearly  deter- 
mining the  purpose  of  the  proposed 
structure,  would  be  indulging  in 
a  foolish  and  futile  waste  of  en- 
ergy. But  what  our  national  purpose 
is,  is  quite  apart  from  the  present  in- 
quiry. And,  indeed,  it  is  not  the  prov- 
ince of  an  individual,  but  of  consensus 
to  determine  the  ultimate  National  Ob- 
jective. 

Industrial  Democracy. 

The  people  of  the  United  States 
have,  however,  agreed  and  decided 
upon  the  idea  of  the  National  Or- 
ganization and  its  proximate  charac- 
ter —  Industrial  Democracy.  Or 
perhaps  this  outcome  represents  the 
resultant  of  choice  and  circumstance. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  we  are  now  con- 
sciously launched  on  a  career  of 
mechanistic  Industrial  Democracy; 
and  the  aim  of  the  present  inquiry 
is  to  investigate  the  functional  con- 
sistency (appropriateness)  of  the 
working  parts  to  the  accepted  prin- 
ciple of  the  National  Social  Machine. 

Neutral   Nature. 

The  greatest  and  most  consequence- 
breeding  thought  that  has  ever  found 
lodgement  in  the  human  mind  is  the 
idea  that:  Nature  is  neutral  toward 
Man  and  in  regard  to  all  Human  con- 
cerns. 

The  greatest  and  most  conse- 
quential human  discovery  is:  The 
Orderliness — rationality — of  Nature. 

These  two  concepts  are  the  mar- 
velously  fruitful  germs  from  which 
all  modern  Science  has  developed. 
And,  as  exact  science — based  upon 
experimental  proof — owes  its  con- 
tinued development  to  machines  of 
precision;  it  may  with  ultimate  sig- 
nificance be  said  that  our  idea  and 
Ideal  of  Human  Liberty,  self-govern- 
ment, as  we  today  conceive  it,  is 
one  of  the  many  wonderful  products 
of  the  machine  shop — our  Mechan- 
istic Industrialism. 

Motor  Impulse  of  Autocracy. 

Man's  soul  is  free,  hence  Rational 
Liberty  is  his  social  motor  impulse. 

Clearly,  with  an  anthropomorphic 
"God"  interested  in  human  wants, 
wishes,  purposes,  and  projects,  and 


18 


TECHNOCRACY 


with  unlimited  power  and  inclination 
to  meddle  in  human  concerns,  to 
help  or  hinder,  to  make  or  mar  them; 
human  "freedom  of  thought"  would 
be  futile,  and  human  "liberty  of  ac- 
tion" a  farce. 

We  have  seen  that  the  motor  im- 
pulse of  Autocracy  is  super-mundane 
in  origin;  its  initiative  is  super- 
human; its  means  are  mysterious 
occult  powers  derived  from  "above"; 
that  privilege  maintained  by  ruthless 
force  and  cunning  is  an  essential 
element;  and  power  absolute  and 
humanly  irresponsible  is  its  objec- 
tive. 

These  factors  therefore  present 
some  criteria  wherewith  to  gauge 
the  validity  of  present  economic  con- 
ventions; also  to  test  their  appropri- 
ateness in  a  Democracy,  the  basis  of 
which  is  human  experience  energized 
by  individual  human  initiative;  like- 
wise to  measure  their  probable  worth 
in  a  society  in  which  the  powers 
to  do,  and  the  opportunity  to  be, 
are  derived  from  the  consensus  of 
free  and  equal  human  wills;  wills 
subject  to  none,  but  co-operating  to 
facilitate  individual  and  mutual  pur- 
poses— purposes  socially  unified  in 
the  purposive  National  Will. 

Nature    Non-Ethical. 

In .  the  light  of  Modern  Science, 
human  experience  shows  that  Na- 
ture's dealings  with  Man  carry  no 
more  moral  or  ethical  significance 
than  in  the  problems  of  Practical 
Mechanics.  Scientifically  enlightened 
experience  teaches  that  Humanity 
alone  is  ethical  or  takes  account 
of  motives: 

Impartially  the  sun  warms  and 
scorches,  blesses  or  blasts;  brings 
famine  and  plenty,  life  and  death. 
The  sea,  the  wind,  earthquake  and 
torrent,  and  all  the  forces  of  Nature 
build  and  destroy,  with  utter  disre- 
gard to  Man  or  his  handiworks,  his 
hopes  or  his  faiths,  his  motives  or 
his  morals.  The  wondrous  mechan- 
ism of  Creative  Evolution  performs  its 
myriad  functions  no  less  oblivious  to 
Man's  existence  than  are  the  ponder- 
ous machines  of  Man's  own  devising. 
Nature,  like  them,  fosters  or  over- 
whelms with  heedless  indifference; 
ruthless,  pitiless,  appalling  to  ignor- 
ance, error,  and  fear;  but  helpful,  in- 


dulgent, obedient  to  knowledge, 
intelligence  and  courage;  neither 
kind  nor  cruel,  nor  good,  nor  bad — 
impersonal. 

Failure. 

In  the  past,  with  childlike  faith  we 
have  relied  for  support  and  guidance 
in  human  affairs  upon  the  assumed 
beneficence  of  occult  Powers.  Upon 
this  basis,  Autocracy  is  the  only  con- 
ceivable form  of  social  organization. 

Yet,  the  autocratic  idea  and  Ideal 
has  proven,  (in  the  opinion  of  many), 
to  be  a  disastrous  failure  under  mod- 
ern conditions;  and  we  in  the  United 
States  have  decided  to  try  its 
antithesis — Democracy. 

But  while  discarding  the  old  for 
the  new  Ideal,  we  have,  most  illog- 
ically,  retained — substantially  un- 
changed— the  effective  conventions, 
the  ways  and  means,  of  the  old 
order. 

And  now,  with  modern  Science  and 
Mechanics — hindered  and  hampered 
at  all  points  by  our  futile  and  in- 
appropriate "Economic  System"-  -we 
are  fighting  for  National  life  and 
Democracy  against  efficiently  or- 
ganized Autocracy.  Not  alone  the 
Autocracy  of  organized  military  force 
but  also  the  Autocracy  of  system- 
atized and  unified  financial  Cunning. 

Thus  the  urgent  need  for  scientific 
reconstruction  of  our  whole  social 
system  is  multiplied  manyfold,  if  we 
are  to  rectify  our  past  sins  against 
reason  and  retrieve  our  pitiful  social 
failure. 

Modern    Dependence    on    Machinery. 

The  life  of  the  ordinary  modern 
man  differs  from  that  of  all  previous 
times  in  his  peculiar  dependence  upon 
complicated  machinery  •  •  machinery 
over  which  he  exercises  no  personal 
control.  The  manifold  activities 
which  in  past  times  depended  upon 
individual  muscular  effort  are  now 
performed  by  prime  movers  and 
power  driven  machines,  so  that  the 
individual  man's  work  and  effort  is 
unmeaning  and  useless  apart  from 
these  instrumentalities  of  life  and 
production. 

Thus  the  United  States  is  one  huge 
mechanistic  industrial  workshop.. 

The  organization  of  these  com- 
plex, specialized,  power-driven  mech- 


TECHNOCRACY 


19 


anisms  and  the  sources  of  power  and 
of  the  raw  materials  with  and  upon 
which  they  operate,  together  with 
the  distribution  of  the  output,  are 
the  functions  of  Scientific  and  Tech- 
nical Industrial  Management. 

There  should  be,  it  would  seem, 
no  room  or  occasion  in  such  an  ar- 
rangement, for  chance,  mystery  or 
magic. 

Old  Customs. 

That  the  average  individual  prefers 
old  customs  to  new,  helps  to  account 
for  much  that  is  strange  in  present 
conditions;  but  it  fails  to  explain 
completely  how  it  happens  _  that 
occultism  has  been  wholly  banished 
from  the  Machine  Shop — the  Social 
Producing  Element — and  remains  so 
conspicuously  interwoven  in  oui 
"Economics" — the  Social  Distributive 
Element. 

It  would  seem  that  we  are  com- 
pelled to  assume  that  our  deep  seated 
human  instinct  of  self-interest  is  the 
controlling  factor  in  maintaining  this 
incongruous  combination  of  Science 
and  Occultism. 

It  would  seem  that  the  cunning 
acquisitive  instinct  of  certain  excep- 
tionally alert  minded  men  in  the  com- 
munity— taking  advantage  of  the 
normal  preference  of  the  average  man 
for  old  ways  and  customs,  and  his 
preoccupation  in  his  favorite  work- 
ings and  doings — is  employing  these 
ancient  and  familiar  usages  to  befog 
and  obscure  the  stealthy  diversion  of 
an  undue  proportion  of  the  Commun- 
ity Product. 

If  this  be  so,  it  should  be  interest- 
ing to  glance  at  the  ways  and  means, 
the  prestidigitatorial  bag-o-tricks  by 
which  it  is  accomplished.  Later  we 
will  scrutinize  them  more  closely  and 
in  greater  detail. 

Money  and  Credit. 

The  bases  of  Mechanics  in  all  its 
simple  and  complex  expressions  are 
two  commonplace  elements  the 
Wedge  and  the  Lever;  the  bases  of 
pur  Economic  and  Financial  System 
in  all  its  curious  manifestations  are 
also  two  commonplace  elements — 
"Money"  and  "Credit." 

Here  the  similarity  ends. 

There  is  not  on  ordinary  fourteen- 
year-old  school  boy  in  the  United 


States  but  who  knows  and  intelli- 
gently uses  the  wedge  and  lever;  and 
there  does  not  exist  a  Mechanical 
Expert  who  could  reasonably  ques- 
tion the  practical  accuracy  of  the 
boy's  knowledge  regarding  these 
elements  of  mechanics. 

Under  our  present  economic  us- 
ages, customs  and  laws,  each  one  of 
us — man,  woman  and  child — is  com- 
pelled, willy-nilly,  to  use  daily  and 
hourly  some  form  of  "money"  and 
"credit";  and  there  is  not  in  the  world 
a  man  who  understands  either  of 
these  economic  elements,  as  the 
boy  knows  the  wedge  and  lever. 
Nor  is  there  an  Economic  Specialist 
or  Financial  Expert  whose  attempted 
explanation  of  either  "money"  or 
"credit"  (or  the  functions  of  either) 
whose  supposed  elucidation  would 
not  be  ridiculed  and  controverted  by 
a  multitude  of  Economic  and  Mone- 
tary Experts  of  equal  or  greater  au- 
thority. 

The  average  man  of  affairs — Law- 
yer, Doctor,  Editor,  Tradesman,  Mer- 
chant or  Mechanic — freely  admits  his 
incapacity  to  understand  the  "mys- 
teries of  finance,"  and  frankly  says: 
"I  don't  know  a  damn  thing  about 
it."  Even  Bankers  and  Brokers, 
Financiers  and  Economists,  whose 
business  it  is  to  deal  in  and  mani- 
pulate these  most  remarkable  com- 
modities, will  quite  frequently  make 
the  same  honest  confession  of  ignor- 
ance. Indeed,  the  subject  is  common 
stock  in  the  jokesmith's  workshop. 

Mystery,   Magic — Failure. 

In  no  other  department  of  human 
interest  is  so  much  mystery,  confu- 
sion and  controversy  regarding  the 
basic  "facts"  and  assumptions,  except 
possibly  institutional  religion — which, 
avowedly,  rests  upon  the  miraculous 
and  supernatural.  Indeed,  the  paral- 
lelism between  these  two  ancient  ac- 
tivities is  curiously  complete.  Both 
transcend  human  experience,  and 
neither  submits  to  the  tests  of  Sci- 
ence— weighing,  measuring,  cause- 
and-effect  experimental  proof. 

"Credit." 

Like  our  religious  forms,  our  Eco- 
nomic System  is  hoary  with  age — a 
survival  from  ancient  Babylonian  cus- 


20 


TECHNOCRACY 


toms.  It  rests  on  assumptions  un- 
sanctioned  by  science;  its  effects  are 
causeless;  the  miraculous  supersedes 
natural  causation;  mystery  takes  the 
place  of  human  reason;  and  endless 
futurity  is  its  heavenly  storehouse  of 
all  humanly  desirable  things. 

A  Thievish  Process. 

From  this  miraculous  store  the 
"Wizard  of  Finance,"  with  his  wonder- 
working wand — "Credit" — filches  back 
(for  a  slight  '  present  tangible  con- 
sideration and  without  the  owners' 
consent)  the  imagined  products  of 
imagined  future  toil  of  unborn  gen- 
erations of  workers — a  doubly  thievish 
process,  as  black  in  morals  as  in 
magic. 

"Money" 

While  supposedly  representing  life- 
less things  (that  wear  out  by  use), 
"money"  is  conventionally  endowed 
(by  financial  magic)  with  everlasting 
life,  and  also  with  life's  unique  func- 
tion—  reproduction.  So  "Money 
makes  money"  for  ever  and  ever — 
for  the  Magician. 

Peace,  super-abundance,  and  endless 
idleness — "retirement  from  business"- 
is  "the  Promised  Land,  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey"  of  Economic  Saint- 
hood— the  earthly  Heaven  of  "Fi- 
nance." 

But  .  .  !  Never  was  work 
more  urgent  nor  idleness  less  com- 
mon; rjever  was  peace  more  scarce  nor 
strife  so  universal;  the  labor  of  future 
•generations  has  been  crazily  "mort- 
gaged" by  thievish  "economic"  (!) 
conventions  beyond  all  possibility  of 
redemption  (in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
science  and  mechanics  have  multiplied 
manifold  the  effectiveness  and  produc- 
tiveness of  present  labor);  and  Man's 
present  vocation  is  social  suicide — the 
destruction  of  wrealth  and  the  slaugh- 
ter of  his  fellow  men! 

A  stupendous  and  tragic  record  of 
"Economic"  folly  and  failure!. 

The  Mechanic's  Philosophy — Success. 

The  "God"  of  our  nursery  tradi- 
tion has  been  banished  from  the  Ma- 
chine Shop  and  the  world  of  Me- 
chanics. The  result  of  this  courage- 
ous spiritual  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence has  been  our  "Conquest  of  Na- 


ture," our  Age  of  Productive  Indus- 
try. 

Seemingly  a  like  rending  of  thought 
shackles,  a  similar  breaking  of  mental 
prison  bars,  is  needed  in  the  realm  of 
Economics. 

When  scientific  imagination  and 
knowledge  of  Nature's  Laws  are  sub- 
stituted in  our  economics  for  chance, 
mystery,  and  magic;  when  the  regu- 
lation of  our  Nation-wide  industry  is 
taken  out  of  the  hands  of  quib- 
b  1  i  n  g  "lawyers",  and  nature's 
forces,  resources,  and  the  mechanical 
instrumentalities  for  their  transforma- 
tion into  human  necessaries  and  de- 
sirables are  no  longer  the  play-things 
of  money-juggling  gamblers,  and  the 
products  of  Nature  and  Mechanic  Arts 
no  longer  glut  the  instinctive  craving 
of  Acquisitive  Cunning;  when  this 
economic  childish  irrationality  is 
sanely  substituted  by  organized 
Science,  Technology,  and  specialized 
Skill  co-ordinated  in  National  Indus- 
trial Management,  then  will  begin  real 
civilization,  the  Age  of  Social  Sanity, 
— Technocracy. 

"Chance"  Catastrophes. 

The  "God  of  Chance"  or  "God's 
mysterious  providence"-  -which  per- 
mits the  killing  of  a  President  by  a 
madman;  the  obliteration  of  a  great 
city  by  fire;  the  sinking  of  a  huge  pas- 
senger-ship in  mid-ocean;  and  a 
world-war — are  merely  misleading 
euphemisms  for  human  ignorance, 
human  improvidence,  and  childish 
shirking  of  responsibility. 

Social  conventions — our  Economic 
and  Financial  system — which  by 
"money  magic"  make  these  "chance" 
catastrophes  into  controlling  factors 
in  the  distribution  of  the  product  of 
human  effort,  are  simply  tragic 
monuments  to  ignorant  superstition, 
mental  laziness,  and  criminal  folly. 
,  Indeed,  our  whole  "Economic  Sys- 
tem" is  so  incredibly  unscientific, 
so  irrational,  so  utterly  puerile, 
that,  were  it  not  for  custom- 
induced  mental  myopia,  its  glaring 
absurdities  would  long  ago  have  suf- 
ficed— without  a  world-war — to  shock 
our  moral  sense  and  intelligence  into 
effectivity. 

"Chance"  in  Economics. 

A  machine  is  certain  in  action   and 


TECHNOCRACY 


21 


uniform  in  output,  because  scientific 
imagination  has  foreseen,  and  con- 
structive intelligence  has  provided  for, 
the  elimination  of  the  "chance"  ele- 
ment. 

The  forces  which  will  devastate  the 
results  of  man's  industry,  through  the 
"natural"  action  of  an  uncontrolled 
torrential  stream,  (with  equal  uncon- 
cern) if  scientifically  directed,  will 
make  the  same  country-side  teem  writh 
human  happiness — but,  not  by 
"chance."  In  like  manner,  the  same 
"natural"  social  forces  which  make 
poverty,  wretchedness,  and  vice,  will 
(with  equal  unconcern)  produce  the 
opposite  results — but  never  by 


"chance." 


Human  institutions  founded  upon 
"chance"  merely  express  Man's  brute- 
unintclligence.  That  our  "Economic 
System"  makes  "chance"  a  controlling 
factor  for  the  distribution  of  wealth, 
merely  shows  the  persistence  of  ignor- 
ance and  that  old  habits  of  thought 
are  more  compelling  than  modern  in- 
telligence. To  legalize  "chance"  delib- 
erately is  to  relinquish  our  Godlike 
control  over  the  results  of  Nature's 
processes,  and  thus  voluntarily  enslave 
ourselves  to  ruthless  Nature,  and  to 
abandon  even  our  authority  over  the 
outcomes  of  our  own  actions.  Hence, 
it  would  seem,  that  the  first  step  to- 
ward a  new  and  Rational  Economics  is 
a  courageous  declaration  of  our  free- 
dom from  tyranny  of  the  insensate 
"God  of  Chance." 

Choice. 

A\  hen  a  Mechanic  has  decided  upon 
an  idea  or  principle  as  the  basis  of  a 
proposed  machine,  he  has  exercised  his 
rational  freedom  of  choice.  Regard- 
less of  whether  his  choice  is  wise  or 
not  (in  this  decision)  he  has  placed 
definite  limits  upon  the  range  of  sub- 
sequent selection  in  regard  to  detail 
instrumentalities.  Indeed,  he  has  en- 
tered into  an  implied  contract — as- 
sumed a  rational  responsibility — to  em- 
ploy only  such  means  in  the  construc- 
tion of  his  machine  as  (in  accord  with 
Universal  Order)  are  appropriate  to 
make  effective  his  proposed  mechanical 
contrivance;  with  failure  as  the  pen- 
alty for  wilful  or  ignorant  error — 
breach  of  his  implied  contract. 

History  demonstrates  conclusively 
that  races,  nations,  civilizations  (equal- 


ly with  individuals),  are  subject  to  the 
same  rational  limitations,  are  bound 
by  the  same  responsibility,  and  incur 
the  same  penalty  for  wilful  or  ignorant 
error  in  exercising  their  human  free- 
dom of  choice. 

Out  Last  Warning! 
The  practical  difficulties  of  forestall- 
ing the  hazards  of  birth,  of  death,  and 
of  disaster,  are  doubtless  great,  and 
the  problem  of  eliminating  the 
"chance"  element  from  our  economic 
system  is  a  man-sized  job — with  a  slim 
probability  of  complete  success.  But, 
it  is  reasonably  certain,  that,  if  courage 
to  make  the  needed  change  is  lacking, 
or  if  our  intelligence  is  insufficient 
for  the  task,  our  social  adventure  in 
Democracy  will  prove  a  tragedy.  And 
the  world  war  is,  I  believe,  our  last 
warning. 

Laisser  Faire. 

Nor  may  we  drift;  laisser  faire  is 
lazy  fear — cowardly  re-submission  to 
the  dog-eat-dog  jungle  law,  right-of 
might  principle  of  Nature — and  of  Au- 
tocracy— from  which  our  modern  con- 
science has  revolted. 

The  Mechanic. 

While  caution  bids  us  pause  and 
realize  that  Nature  is  ruthless  in  its 
punishment  of  ignorance  and  error, 
courage  reminds  us  that  Nature  also  is 
infinitely  lavish  in  its  rewards  for 
knowledge  and  intelligence;  and  cour- 
age points  to  the  Practical  Mechanic 
as  an  exemplar  and  an  object-lesson 
for  the  Social  Constructor. 

Mechanic  vs.  Nature 

The  Mechanic  has  courageously  in- 
vaded Nature's  guarded  realm;  has  ac- 
cepted her  "no  quarter"  terms;  and 
has  assumed  complete  responsibility 
for  his  revolt  against  all  the  ancient 
Occult  Powers. 

He  has  tacitly  assumed  that  "God" 
and  "Nature"  are  supremely  and  pre- 
eminently self-sufficing;  that  these  all- 
inclusive  profundities  utterly  trans- 
cend the  utmost  limits  of  his  acts  or 
his  art — that  the  "plans  of  God"  and 
the  Mechanic's  problems  cannot  in 
anywise  conflict. 

He  predicates  that  "God"  and  "Na- 
ture" are  limitlessly  competent  to  care 
for  their  own  infinite  concerns;  hence, 


22 


TECHNOCRACY 


that  his  problems  involve  only  what 
the  Mechanic  wants,  and  not  "the 
wants  of  God."  In  so  far  as  concerns 
his  art  (and  with  reverence  for  Uni- 
versal Order,  which  makes  his  art  pos- 
sible) the  Mechanic,  in  effect,  says: 
"This  I  will,"  "Thus  I  do."  "I  am 
the  Earth-god  of  things,  of  matter, 
and  of  motion." 

The  Mechanic's  Achievements 

And  how  gloriously  has  the  Me- 
chanic made  good! 

Even  the  most  most  cursory  survey 
of  his  accomplishments,  in  manufac- 
ture, in  transportation,  in  communica- 
tion, in  reclamation,  in  power  utiliza- 
tion generally,  staggers  while  it  exalts 
the  mind. 

Has  he  not  with  wheat  and  corn 
from  Eastern  steppe  and  Western 
prairie,  and  with  fresh  and  wholesome 
meat  from  the  Antipodes,  fed  the  hun- 
gry workers  of  Europe;  and  brought 
from  the  four  corners  of  the  Earth 
materials  for  their  needs,  their  uses, 
and  their  industries?  Yes!  And  from 
the  teeming  estuaries  of  the  North  he 
has  served  the  World's  table  with 
dainty  fish,  and  with  wine  and  oil  and 
luscious  fruit  from  the  fertile  valleys 
of  the  Pacific  Slope. 

By  his  use  of  Nature's  forces,  he 
has  immeasurably  out-rivalled  imag- 
ination's Magic  Carpet,  transporting 
by  his  mechanisms  untold  millions  of 
work-weary  families  from  cramped 
and  life-worn  areas  to  the  free  spaci- 
ousness of  many  wide  scattered  Edens 
of  plenty,  there  to  found  Empires. 

And  more,  he  has  bound  these 
broadcast  settlements  in  bonds  of  mu- 
tual help  with  space-negating  bands  of 
steel  and  steam;  and  on  the  one-time 
pathless  ocean  he  has  marked  out 
highways  with  light  and  life  of  swift- 
moving  commerce,  till,  in  the  utter- 
most ends  "of  the  earth,  friend  greets 
friend  as  though  but  a  mile  from 
home.  Seas  no  longer  separate,  nor 
continents  divide,  for  Man  now  talks 
with  Man  as  face  to  face  across  the 
soundless  void. 

As  with  a  broom,  he  has  swept  sul- 
len ocean  back  to  its  deeps  and  bared 
Netherland's  fertile  plains;  and  with 
dyke,  and  mill,  and  pump  he  holds 
his  prize  secure  from  angry  wave  and 
wind  and  shifting  sand.  A  prize  in- 
deed!— a  rich  and  prosperous  country 


of  towns  and  villages,  of  farms  and 
homesteads,  all  interlr  %.ed  with  road 
and  rail  and  placid  water-way;  a  hive 
of  human  industry  a  kingdom 
snatched  from  ocean's  grasp. 

In  torrid  Egypt,  too,  he  has  tamed 
the  turgid  Nile  to  flood  the  desert 
sands  and  made  thereof  a  nation's 
granary. 

He  has  moved  mountains,  split" 
continents,  harnessed  Niagaras  to  his 
machines;  subdued  the  land,  triumph- 
ed over  the  sea,  and  now  seeks  do- 
minion of  the  air. 

And,  East  and  West  and  North 
and  South  he  has  sluiced  and  swept 
with  giant  streams  the  high-piled 
gravels,  and  ript  and  smashed  and 
ground  to  powder,  fine  as  from  the 
mills  of  the  gods,  mountains  of 
crystalline  quartz;  and  dredged,  and 
plowed,  and  sifted  the  frozen  Arctic 
tundra,  to  tear  from  reluctant  Earth 
its  golden  treasure  for  counters 
wherewith  to  play  Man's  world-wide 
commerce  game. 

The     Economist's     Failure. 

All  this  stupendous  output  of  hu- 
man experience,  human  reason,  hu- 
man industry — rivalling  creation  itself 
—is  in  startling  contrast  with  our 
world-wide  tragedy,  the  outcome  of 
our  world-wide  economics.  A  con- 
trast doubly  significant;  significant 
in  the  entire  absence  of  chance,  of 
mystery,  of  magic  from  the  work  of 
the  mechanvc;  and  again  as  expres- 
sing the  practical  extremes  of  glori- 
ous success  and  of  failure  most  tragic. 

Selective     Rejection. 

The  human  mind,  like  the  body, 
can  advance  only  step  by  step,  from 
the  solid  ground  of  the  known  and 
tested  to  the  doubtful  footing  of  the 
unfamiliar.  Human  progress  is  like 
adventuring  through  a  _ morass  of 
ignorance  toward  a  far-distant  goal; 
with  disaster  the  penalty  for  every 
false  step. 

In  the  great  adventure  called  iu- 
man  Progress"  the  "Occult"  has 
proved  a  will-o-the-wisp  guide. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  stupend- 
ous accomplishments  which  charac- 
terize productive  industry  and  the 
present  era  as  the  Age  of  Mechanics, 
the  process  which  has  brought  it  all 
about,  is  the  same  step-by-step- 


TECHNOCRACY 


23 


proof  by  experiment  —  scientific 
method.  We  can  think  of  the  new 
and  unknown  only  in  terms  of  the 
old  and  familiar. 

Still  errors  detected  and  fallacies 
perceived  are  guides  for  inventive 
synthesis — construction. 

Selection  is  but  a  process  of  in- 
verted rejection.  So  having  deter- 
mined that  our  ideal  social  structure 
is  the  antithesis  of  the  Autocratic  idea, 
we  may  with  confidence  assume  that 
the  characteristic  elements  of  Auto- 
cracy are  inappropriate  for  our  pur- 
pose. Thus  by  a  process  of  (selec- 
tive) rejection  we  should  arrive  at 
economic  expedients  more  in  har- 
mony with  our  Social  Ideal. 

Democracy  vs.   Anarchy. 

Universal  Order  is  the  key-note  of 
modern  Science;  and  upon  this  order- 
liness of  Nature  scientific  thinking 
is  based.  Hence,  the  much  abused 
phrases  "human  liberty"  and  "hu- 
man freedom"  cannot  imply  anarchy 
or  chaos,  i.  e.  dis-order. 

Liberty  means  absence  of  irrational 
restraint. 

Freedom  of  thought  can  have  but 
self-imposed  limitations. 

Social  Freedom  simply  means  lib- 
erty for  rational  individual  activity 
tending  to  the  accomplishment  of 
Community  Purpose. 

National    Self-determination. 

When  a  Nation — exercising  its 
freedom  of  choice — discards  Autoc- 
racy and  selects  Democracy  as  its 
social  principle  it  cannot  sucessfully 
retain  the  working  elements  of  the 
discarded  social  organization.  If  it  is 
to  survive,  it  must  adopt  ways  and 
means  and  methods  of  life  in  con- 
sonance with  its  chosen  principle. 

Our   Futile  Experiment. 

The  United  States,  like  a  novice 
in  Mechanics,  has  seemingly  under- 
taken the  futile  experiment  of  build- 
ing an  Industrial  Democracy  out  of 
the  functional  elements  of  Preda- 
tory Autocracy.  The  natural  result  is 
noise,  friction  and  heat.  And  worse 
—a  dangerously  large  proportion  of 
pur  energy  is  wastefully  expended 
in  constant  readjustment  to  keep  the 
outfit  running,  and  to  prevent  its 
pounding  itself  into  scrap.  Prac- 


tically the  whole  of  our  "Economic  and 
Financial  System"  is  a  left-over  from 
the  days  when  absolutism  and  privilege 
were  universally  accepted  ideas  and 
ideals;  and  when  magic-causation  was 
an  unquestioned  "fact."  Quite  natur- 
ally our  economic  customs,  conven- 
tions and  laws  are  in  keeping  with 
these  antiquated  assumptions.  Sub- 
stantially our  "Economics"  is  a  ves- 
tige, and  as  with  other  vestiges — like 
our  vermiform  appendix — it  is  now 
functionally  useless,  and  frequently 
causes  much  unnecessary  pain  and 
trouble;  which  sooner  or  later  may  end 
in  tragedy. 

Not  All  Bad. 

While,  in  the  foregoing,  there  is  no 
real  cause  for  pessimism,  there  is  even 
less  reason  for  happy-go-lucky  optim- 
ism. 

Mentally  reviewing  this  matter, 
there  appear  several  implications 
which  stand  out  clearly  as  definite 
practical  suggestions  for  economic  re- 
construction. 

Suggestions  for  Reconstruction. 

First:  That  "chance"  means  ignor- 
ance. 

The  elimination  of  even  the  crudely 
obvious  "chance"  factors  from  our 
laws,  customs  and  economic  conven- 
tions, would  do  away  with  much  rank 
injustice  in  our  social  functioning. 
_  Second:  That  the  onward  flow  of 
time  is  not  reversible — the  future  can- 
n*ot  help  the  present. 

A  clear  appreciation  and  practical 
application  of  this  seemingly  axiom- 
atic proposition  would  go  far  to  rem- 
edy the  grosser  evils  of  capitalistic 
economics,  and  strip  "money"  and: 
"credit"  of  their  conventionally  en- 
dowed time-reversing  magic. 

In  every  physical  human  accom- 
plishment, there  are  involved  but 
three  factors  or  elements:  raw  Ma- 
terial (Nature's  free  gift);  human 
Time;  human  Energy.  Every  product 
(food,  clothing,  housing,  transporta- 
tion facilities,  or  what  not),  represents 
a  definite  amount  of  past  human  time 
and  past  human  energy — gone  beyond 
recall.  Neither  by  ghostly  hands  nor 
by  flibber-gib  financial  conventions  can 
future  work  or  future  product  be 
yanked  back  into  the  present,  to  be 
used  for  present  purposes,  or  to  meet 


24 


TECHNOCRACY 


present  emergencies — even  if  self-re- 
spect and  common  honesty  did  not  suf- 
fice to  prevent  such  inexcusable  cam- 
ouflaged robbery  of  the  helpless,  the 
quintessence  of  "taxation  without  rep- 
resentation." 

Third:  That  cause-and-effect,  not 
whim,  is  the  order  of  Nature's  pro- 
cesses. 

Science  shows  us  that,  so  far  as  Man 
is  concerned,  Nature  is  infinite  poten- 
tialities; potentialities  realizable  in 
terms  of  individual  and  collective  pur- 
poses. We  can  if  we  will — providing 
our  aims  and  objectives  are  in  accord 
with  the  Rational  Order  of  Nature. 

It  is  only  in  purposive  action  that 
human  freedom — self-determination — 
is  expressed. 

An  aimless  man  or  a  purposeless 
"nation"  is  an  equally  insignificant 
fragment  of  raw  material  in  Nature's 
Evolutionary  and  Devolutionary  pro- 
cesses. But,  knowledge  of  Nature  and 
of  Nature's  Laws  co-ordinated  by  Hu- 


man Intelligence  in  rationally  purpos- 
ive actions,  have  all  of  Nature's  in- 
finite potentialities  and  stupendous 
forces  as  tools  to  facilitate  accom- 
plishment. 

Purposive   Co-ordination. 

Obviously  the  control  of  our  Great 
National  Workshop — the  United  States 
—should  not  be  in  the  hands 
of  selfish  Mr.  Acquisitive  Cunning— 
"who  knows  the  price  of  everything 
and  the  value  of  nothing" — facile  only 
in  getting  something  for  nothing — and 
whose  highest  social  ideal  is:  "To  buy 
cheap  and  sell  dear";  but — in  reason, 
in  common  horse  sense! — our  purpos- 
ive Industrial  Democracy  should  be 
guided  ard  directed  by  nationally  or- 
ganized and  co-ordinated  specialists  in 
all  the  branches  of  Skill,  Technology, 
and  Science  which  are  involved  in  its 
Social  Life  and  requisite  to  the  suc- 
cessful accomplishment  of  its  Great 
National  Objective. 


Fernwald,  Berkeley,  February,  1919. 


IS  THE  ONWARD  FLOW  OF  TIME  REVERSIBLE 
BY    HUMAN    CONVENTION? 


Technocracy 


PART  IV. 
Skill  Economics  for  Industrial  Democracy. 

By  William  Henry  Smyth 

Note— In  the  previous  essays  of  this  series  the  author  shows  that  men's 
characterizing  activities  express  certain  instincts  or  instinctive  urges  and 
that  human  societies  (nations)  today  consist  of  uncoordinated  groups,  each 
bent  upon  gratifying  its  predominating  instinctive  urge — at  the  expense 
of  other  groups  and  regardless  of  the  common  weal.  He  proposes  as  a 
remedy  for  this  social  strife  a  plan  of  National  Co-ordination — Technocracy. 

This  article  discusses  some  of  the  important  phases  more  in  detail, 
with  constructive  suggestions  for  the  elimination  of  "chance,"  "mystery," 
and  "magic"  from  our  present  economic  processes,  the  substitution  of 
intelligent  purposive  ways  and  means  for  haphazard  methods;  and  for 
self-interested  autocratic  control,  the  substitution  of  Scientific  Leadership 
organized  for  the  accomplishment  of  consensus  National  Objectives. — Editor 


Our  Nationwide  Machine  Shop. 

Attempting  to  make  a  robust  man 
conform  to  nursery  usages  and 
swaddling  clothes  conventions  would 
be  no  more  absurd  than  our  present 
efforts  to  conduct  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury life  on  the  Hunter  and  Sheep- 
herder  customs  of  our  racial  infancy. 

Indeed,  it  would  be  less  preposter- 
ous than  our  continued  efforts  (de- 
spite tragic  experience)  to  have  law- 
yers and  gamblers  run  our  nationwide 
Machine  Shop  by  methods  and  under 
conventions  not  differing  essentially 
from  ancient  Babylonish  laws  of  King 
Hamurabi  and  economic  customs  in 
vogue  two  thousand  years  before 
Christ. 

Childish   Economics. 

Human  society  started  with  Brute- 
force  Economics,  suitable  to  Cave- 
man— Hunter  .and  Fighter -- times. 
Then  humanity  advanced  through  the 
Pastoral — animal  breeder — stage,  be- 
ing therein  confronted,  socially  and 
economically,  with  the  awe-inspiring 
marvel  of  phallic  phenomena,  the  fear- 
ful mystery  of  Death  and  the  joy- 
inciting  miracle  of  Life — life  with  its 
seemingly  endless  sequence  of  pro- 
duction and  reproduction. 

The  Animal  Breeder  stage  of  de- 
velopment, indeed,  seems  to  have  left 
an  indelible. impression;  seems  to  have 
peculiarly  influenced  man's  mental 
outlook  and  modified  his  thinking  pro- 
cesses so  profoundly  as  to  have 


shaped  even  our  modern  business  con- 
ventions and  daily  practices — or  at 
least  to  have  provided  favorable 
psychic  habitat  for  our  conventional" 
economic  irrationalities. 

Mysticism  and   Symbolism. 

The  mind-staggering  miracle  of 
generation  seems  to  have  thrown 
primitive  human  thinking  back  upon 
itself  in  dazed  befogment — bewilder- 
ment and  mistunderstanding  of  Na- 
ture's laws,  out  of  which  confusion  of 
thought  emerged  Mysticism  with  its 
magic  symbolism. 

This  mental  chaos  of  mystic  sym- 
bolism— the  endowment  of  the  sym- 
bol (or  "representative")  with  the 
qualities  and  functions  of  the  thing 
symbolized — is  a  primordial  explana- 
tory perversion  which  still  character- 
izes our  commonplace  thinking  on 
monetary  matters.  The  "power  of 
money"  is  proverbial  among  us;  and 
that  "money  makes  money"  is  axio- 
matic to  the  average  man;  also  that 
"money  makes  the  mare  go,"  and  that 
it  performs  many  other  strenuously 
animistic  stunts. 

Money,  Mortgages  and  Nehemiah. 

Down  through  the  ages  occasion- 
ally we  find  (both  in  ecclesiastic  and 
lay  writings)  clearly  reasoned  repro- 
bation of  practices  based  upon  this 
naive  misinterpretation  of  the  facts  of 
Nature. 


26 


TECHNOCRACY 


"The  words  of  Nehemiah,  the  son  of 
Hacaliah"  and  cup  bearer  of  Ar- 
taxerxes,  king  of  Persia,  are  as  "mod- 
ern" today  as  on  the  day  they  were 
uttered — nearly  five  hundred  years 
before  Christ. 

And  they  are  as  applicable  to  the 
"civilized"  world  today  as  they  were 
to  the  kindergarten  usages  and  anti- 
social practices  of  our  civilization's 
nursery — Mesopotamia. 

"Some  also  there  were  that  said, 
We  are  mortgaging  our  fields  and  our 
vineyards,  and  our  houses:  let  us  get 
corn,  because  of  the  dearth.  There 
were  some  also  that  said,  We  have 
borrowed  money  for  the  king's  tribute 
upon  our  fields  and  our  vineyards.  Yet 
now  our  flesh  is  as  the  flesh  of  our 
brethren,  our  children  as  their  chil- 
dren: and  lo,  we  bring  into  bondage 
our  sons  and  our  daughters  to  be  ser- 
vants, and  some  of  our  daughters  are 
brought  into  bondage  already:  neither 
is  it  in  our  power  to  help  it;  for  other 
men  have  our  fields  and  our  vineyards. 

"And  I  was  very  angry  when  I 
heard  their  cry  and  these  words. 

"Then  I  consulted  with  myself,  and 
contended  with  the  nobles  and  the 
rulers,  (or  deputies)  and  said  unto 
them,  Ye  exact  usury,  every  one  of 
his  brother.  And  I  held  a  great  as- 
sembly against  them. 

"And  I  said  unto  them,  We  after 
our  ability  have  redeemed  our  breth- 
ren the  Jews,  which  were  sold  unto  the 
heathen;  and  would  ye  even  sell  your 
brethren?  and  should  they  be  sold 
unto  us? 

"Then  held  they  their  peace,  and 
found  never  a  word. 

"Also  I  said,  The  thing  that  ye 
do  is  not  good: 

"And  I  likewise,  my  brethren  and 
my  servants,  do  lend  them  money 
and  corn  on  usury.  I  pray  you  let 
us  leave  off  this  usury. 

"Restore,  I  pray  you,  to  them,  even 
this  day,  their  fields,  their  vineyards, 
their  olive  yards,  and  their  houses, 
also  the  hundredth  part  of  the  money, 
and  of  the  corn,  the  wine,  and  the  oil, 
that  ye  exact  of  them. 

"Then  said  they,  We  will  restore 
them,  and  require  nothing  of  them; 
so  will  we  do,  even  as  thou  sayest. 
'Then  I  called  the  priests,  and  took 
an  oath  of  them,  that  they  should  do 
according  to  this  promise. 

Also  I  shook  out  my  lap,  and  said, 


So  God  shake  out  every  man  from 
his  house,  and  from  his  labor,  that 
performeth  not  this  promise;  even 
thus  be  he  shaken  out,  and  emptied. 

"And  all  the  congregation  said, 
Amen,  and  praised  the  Lord. 

"And  the  people  did  according  to 
this  promise."  (Nehemiah  Chap.  5.) 

Money,  Reason  and  Rome. 

Practical  minded  ancient  Rome, 
from  whom  we  have  learned  so 
much  of  pur  work-a-day  jurispru- 
dence— while  retaining  many  other 
gross  superstitions — seems  to  have 
rejected  this  animistic  pecuniary 
absurdity,  as  is  shown  by  the  familiar 
expression:  Money  does  not  procreate 
money  —  "Nummus  nummum  non 
parit/' 

Money,  Sheep  and  Shylock. 

The  genius  of  Shakespeare  realized 
me  fatuity  of  this  pastoral-age- 
founded  pecuniary  delusion  that 
"money  breeds  money"  (which  still 
obsesses  our  misbegotten  finance 
conventions),  and  holds  it  up  to  de- 
served ridicule: 

(The     Merchant     of     Venice — Act     1 

Scene  3.) 

Shylock: 

When  Jacob  grazed  his  uncle  Laban's 

sheep — 

Antonio: 
And    what     of    him?       Did     he     take 

interest? 

Shylock: 
No,    not    take    interest,    not,    as    you 

would    say, 
Directly         interest:         mark         what 

.    Jacob    did. 
When      Laban      and      himself      were 

compromised 
That    all     the     eanlings    which    were 

streaked    and    pied 
Should  fall  as  Jacob's  hire,  the   ewes, 

being   rank, 
In     the     end     of    autumn     turned     to 

the    rams, 
And,    when    the    work    of    generation 

was 
Between     these     woolly     breeders     in 

the    act, 
The      skilful      shepherd      peel'd      me 

certain  wands 
And,    in    the    doing    of    the    deed    of 

kind, 
He  stuck  them  up  before  the  fulsome 

ewes, 
Who    then    conceiving   did    in    eaning 

time 


TECHNOCRACY 


27 


Fall    parti-colored    lambs,    and    those 

were  Jacob's. 
This    was    a    way    to    thrive,    and    he 

was  blessed: 
And    thrift    is    blessing,    if    men    steal 

it    not. 

Antonio: 
This    was    a   venture,    sir,    that    Jacob 

served  for; 
A    thing    not    in    his    power    to    bring 

to   pass, 
But     sway'd     and     fashion'd     by     the 

hand    of    heaven. 
Was    this    inserted    to    make    interest 

good? 
Or     is     your    gold    and     silver     ewes 

and    rams? 

Shylock: 
I  cannot  tell;  I  make  it  breed  as  fast: 

Adolescent  Economics. 

Magic-Mystery  tinged  Breeder- 
economics  and  vocational  experience 
(misinterpreted)  quite  naturally  re- 
sulted in  Theocracy  and  Theocratic- 
economics;  and  from  Theocracy  the 
course  is  straight,  the  steps  easy  and 
obvious  to  Working-by-proxy  social 
systems  — Privilege-economics  — as 
represented  by  Autocracy,  Aris- 
tocracy, and  modern  Plutocracy. 

Thus  the  race  has  successively 
adopted  Strength-economics,  Cun- 
ning-economics, and  Cunning-Strong- 
economics;  each  system  appropriate 
to  the  conditions  of  life  and  stage 
of  development,  in  the  past. 

Adult    Economics. 

Today  is  the  day  of  Doer,  Work- 
er, Maker — practical  utilizer  of 
Nature  by  skill  of  hand  and  science- 
taught  brain — the  Mechanic. 

This  is  an  age  of  applied  Science — 
the  utilization  of  Nature's  Laws  and 
forces  -  -  consequently  the  earlier 
mystic,  _  predatory,  and  parasitic 
economic  usages  and  conventions  are 
now  antiquated  and  impracticable. 
Hence  ^  they  are  beginning  to  revolt 
our  science-developed  practical  com- 
mon sense,  our  sense  of  propriety, 
and  our  modern  sense  of  justice. 

Furthermore,  it  is  significantly  in 
accord  with  race  experience,  with 
commonsense  and  with  reason  that: 

Those  whose  activities  characterize 
the  times,  must  initiate  and  adminis- 
ter ats  economics. 

So  if  our  Mechanistic  Age,  our 
Democratic  Dispensation  is  not  to 


prove  a  futile  race  experiment,  a 
will-o-the-wisp  ideal,  we  must  ini- 
tiate Skill-economics,  economics  of 
our  Twentieth  Century  mechanis- 
tically characterized  activities — eco- 
nomics of  the  Scientist;  of  the  Tech- 
nologist, of  the  Mechanic,  on  a 
nationwide  scale,  in  other  words: 
National  Industrial  Management — 
Technocracy. 

Skill    Economics. 

The  Mechanic's  philosophy  as- 
sumes: the  neutral  orderliness  of 
Nature;  personal  freedom;  and  per- 
sonal responsibility  for  the  outcome 
of  his  acts. 

The  Mechanic's  practice  is  based 
upon:  personal  initiative;  self-  reli- 
ance; and  the  validity  of  experience. 

The  Mechanic's  success  results 
from:  knowledge  of  Nature's  laws; 
experimental  proof;  and  the  elim- 
ination of  "chance." 

It  is  reasonable,  therefore,  to 
assume  that  upon  these  fundamentals 
also  must  be  framed  our  new  work- 
a-day  Skill-economics,  in  order  to  be 
workable  in  our  work-a-day  Mechan- 
istic Age. 

As  applied  to  our  present  obso- 
lescent economics  these  principles 
imply: 

Elimination  of  Magic  (as  a  tacitly 
assumed  factor)  in  the  means  and 
methods  of  production. 

Elimination  of  Mystery  from  our 
means  and  methods  of  exchanging 
human  efforts  and  resulting  products. 

Elimination  of  Chance  from  in- 
dustrial organization  and  distribution. 

Twixt  Devil  and  Deep  Sea. 

Stated  as  generalities,  few  will 
question  the  desirability  of  such 
changes;  for  it  will  readily  be  con- 
ceded that  "chance,"  "mystery,"  and 
"magic"  are  merely  expressions  of 
ignorance  clothed  in  old  and  familiar 
superstitions.  But,  when  one  comes 
truly  to  realize — not  just  verbally 
admit — how  completely  magic,  mys- 
tery, and  chance  are  woven  into  the 
fabric  of  our  modern  life  and 
thought  processes,  then  the  true  sig- 
nificance of  the  propositions  strikes 
the  mind  with  a  sense  of  shock. 

We  are,  indeed,  between  the  devil 
and  the  deep  sea! 

Radically   change   we   must,   or   our 


28 


TECHNOCRACY 


"Civilization"     will     go     the     way     of 
previous    abortive    social    experiments 
—Assyria,    Egypt,    Phoenicia,    Greece, 
Rome,    Spain,    and      .     .     .      Europe. 

But,  characteristically,  the  huge 
majority  of  us  would  rather  be 
socially  damned  in  the  good  old- 
fashioned  way,  than  accept  social 
salvation  through  radical  change. 
Yet,  if  human  experience  proves  any- 
thing, it  demonstrates  conclusively 
that  irrationality  cannot  persist  in 
the  rational  Order  of  Nature. 

Chuck-a-Luck  Economics. 

Thus  it  will,  perchance,  be  help- 
ful to  indicate  some  implications  of 
the  suggested  eliminations,  by  more 
specific  applications  to  present  social, 
economic  and  financial  customs, 
usages,  and  conventions. 

Birth,  Marriage,  Death,  are  the 
time-worn  dice  in  our  chuck-a-luck 
economics. 

Birth,  in  surroundings  of  wealth 
or  poverty — on  Fifth  Avenue  or  in 
the  Bowery — decides  whether  a  child 
shall  be  a  Master  or  a  Servant,  an 
owner  or  a  slave,  a  nationally  con- 
trolling factor  or  one  of  a  million 
mere  "cogs,"  regardless  of  inherent 
fitness  to  the  "chance"  ordained 
position,  or  to  further  the  aims  of 
the  community. 

Marriage,  under  our  quaint  eco- 
nomic conventions,  decides  into 
whose  hands  shall  be  entrusted 
power  represented  by  vast  accumula- 
tions of  wealth,  regardless  of  the 
chances  that  the  easily  acquired 
wealth  may  be  frivolously  squan- 
dered or  used  adversely  to  national 
purposes. 

Death,  with  sardonic  irrelevance, 
plays  skittles  with  the  lives  of  the 
living;  for  our  weirdly  jocund  "laws 
of  devise"  empower  dead  hands 
from  the  grave  to  control  thousands 
of  living  men's  activities. 

Makers  and  Takers. 

Under  our  "economic  and  finance 
system"  to  be  born  into  our  Mechan- 
istic Age  with  mechanical  and  con- 
structive traits — dextrous  hands,  inge- 
nious brain,  and  irresistible  instinctive 
urge  to  do,  to  work,  to  make  the 
things  which  constitute  our  "wealth" — 
is  to  be  fore-doomed  by  "chance"  to 
lifelong  obscurity,  social  impotence, 
and  relative  poverty;  while  to  be  born 


with  instinctive  acquisitive  cunning 
and  insatiable  greed,  is  to  be  elected 
by  "chance"  to  social  distinction, 
wealth  and  power. 

Indeed,  it  would  seem,  that  of  all 
the  facts,  circumstances,  and  incidents, 
constituting  present  conditions  of  hu- 
man life,  "blind  chance"  has  irration- 
alty  been  selected  as  the  controlling 
factor  in  that  antiquated  collection  of 
queer  customs,  quaint  conventions  and 
grotesque  superstitions,  that,  with 
childish  fatuity,  we  call  our  "Science 
of  Economics  and  Finance." 

Magic — Ancient  and  Modern. 

To  gage  the  folly  of  earlier  ages 
by  our  own  advance  is  an  easy  and 
vanity  satisfying  diversion;  to  correct- 
ly measure  the  ignorance  and  super- 
stition of  our  own  times  is  a  hopeless 
task. 

Thus  we  look  back  with  smiling  con- 
tempt upon  Devil-raising,  Soul- 
selling,  Fountain-of-youth,  Witch's- 
broomstick,  and  other  wondrous  para- 
phernalia of  "Black  Art."  And  yet,  no 
essential  difference  exists  between  the 
old  witchcraft,  by  which  a  "magic  po- 
tion" added  years  to  human  life,  and 
modern  "financial"  black  art  which 
gives  everlasting  life  to  inanimate 
"capital"  and  endows  lifeless  "money" 
with  life's  unique  function — reproduc- 
tion— so  that  "money  makes  money" 
for  ever  and  ever.  Indeed,  of  the  two 
the  modern  magic  causation  is  the 
more  crudely  illogical  and  unscientific; 
for  while  the  ancient  black  art  only 
purported  to  prolong  life  already  ex- 
isting, modern  financial  magic  pre- 
tends to  perform  the  still  greater 
miracle  of  infusing  life  into  inanimate 
objects! 

Do  I  seem  to  exaggerate? 

Then  read  what  Economic  High 
Priest  Boehm-Bawerk  says  in  his 
"Capital  and  Interest — A  Critical  His- 
tory of  Economic  Theory";  says  seri- 
ously, supremely  uncon-scious  that  he 
is  describing  a  crazily  impossible  mir- 
acle— a  miracle,  however,  in  which 
there  is  a  substantially  universal  con- 
sensus of  ignorant  .belief. 

"And  finally  it  (interest)  flows  to 
the  capitalist  without  ever  exhausting 
the  capital  from  which  it  comes,  and 
therefore  without  any  necessary  limit 
to  its  continuance.  It  is,  if  one  may 
use  such  an  expression  about  mundane 
things,  capable  of  an  everlasting  life. 


TECHNOCRACY 


29 


Thus  it  is  that  the  phenomenon  of  in- 
terest as  a  whole  presents  the  remark- 
able picture  of  a  lifeless  thing  produc- 
ing an  everlasting  and  inexhaustible 
supply  of  goods." 

Was  ever  gross  superstitious  ignor- 
ance or  "black  art"  more  crassly 
at  variance  with  facts  and  Nature's 
Laws  or  the  Sciences  of  Physics  and 
Mechanics,  than  this  self-filling  "magic 
purse"  of  financial  wizardry? 

Time  Turned  Tailward! 

If  there  is  one  fact  in  human  ex- 
perience, the  validity  of  which  is  be- 
yond question,  it  is  that  the  onward 
flow  of  Time  is  non-reversible,  the  fu- 
ture cannot  help  the  present. 

We  can  change  the  direction  of  mo- 
tion in  physical  things — back  up  a 
horse,  a  train,  or  a  boat,  or  even  in 
some  instances  reverse  the  flow  of  a 
river;  but  to  turn  back  the  inexorable 
forward  march  of  Time  is  unthinkable. 

To  suggest  shooting  the  Germans 
with  future  bullets  and  feeding  out- 
soldier  boys  with  future  food — substi- 
tuting "future  savings"  (!)  of  future 
generations  for  present  savings  and 
present  work,  seems — to  a  Mechanic- 
like  the  insane  imaginings  of  a  magic- 
crazed  brain. 

Yet,  these  are  the  stupendous  mir- 
acles which  the  "magic  of  finance"  se- 
riously purports  to  accomplish — for  a 
small  present  consideration. 

Do   I   seem   to   exaggerate? 

Then  read  the  serious  proposal  of 
Financial  Wizard  Frank  A.  Vander- 
lip,  President  of  the  National  City 
Bank  of  New  York. 

'This  war  must  be  financed,  not  out 
of  past  savings,  but  out  of  future  sav- 
ings. Future  savings  are  for  the  mo- 
ment not  available  and  some  other 
device  must  therefore  be  brought  into 
play.  That  device  is  bank  credit,  and 
this  loan  and  subsequent  loans  will  in 
the  main  be  floated  through  an  expan- 

Ision   of  credit." 
Truly  human  credulity  is  limitless — 
or  the  day  of  witchcraft  and  miracles 
is    not   past! 

Futilities  of  Magic. 

Never  in  one  solitary  instance,  in  all 

the  hundreds  of  years  and  millions  of 

sacrificial     victims,      did     entrails      of 

slaughtered    animals    foretell    a    future 


happening;  never  did  any  of  the  armies 
of  Devils  and  "familiar  spirits,"  in- 
voked by  magic  incantations,  effect 
any  earthly  result  wrhich  would  not 
otherwise  have  occurred;  never  was 
solitary  grain  of  gold  transmuted  from 
base  metal  by  the  magic  of  the 
myriads  of  guaranteed  "Philosopher's 
Stones";  never  did  any  of  these  mir- 
acles happen — except  in  the  distorted 
imaginings  of  the  simple  ones  who 
paid  the  Magicians  for  their  futilities. 
And  the  poor  boobs  who  "paid  the 
piper"  didn't  know  any  more  about 
magic  then,  than  the  average  man  of 
today  who  frankly  asserts:  "I  don't 
know  a  damned  thing  about  Econom- 
ics and  Finance." 

"Future  Savings"! 

Recalling  practical  warlike  Rome, 
fighting  her  world-conquering  battles 
or  refraining  from  attack  on  the  au- 
gury of  fowl's  entrails;  remembering 
philosophical  Greece  conducting  her 
civil,  military,  and  economic  affairs  up- 
on the  assumed  guidance  of  similar 
irrationalities;  not  forgetting  that  in 
comparatively  recent  times,  by  "sell- 
ing indulgences,"-— dealing  in  "future 
savings,"  "treasures  in  heaven,"  i.  e., 
"floating  (super-mundane)  credit"- 
and  by  commerce  in  other  optimistic 
and  supposititious  commodities,  "the 
Church"  acquired  legal  ownership  to 
over  half  of  the  land  and  wealth  of 
England;  not  overlooking  the  fact  that 
by  similar  supposititious  means  mod- 
ernized, the  Mormon  Church  of  the 
Latter  Day  Saints  has  become  one  of 
the  wealthiest  and  socially  most  pow- 
erful capitalistic  corporations  in  our 
midst  today;  calmly  and  dispassionate- 
ly turning  these  facts  over  in  the 
mind,  causes  one  to  pause  and  reflect. 
Indeed,  mentally  reviewing  this  ages 
long  and  unquestionable  historical  ev- 
idence, one — embued  with  modern 
scientific  notions — begins  to  wonder. 

Questions  and  Doubts. 

One  wonders  how  "dollars"  or 
"debts"  can  be  magically  endowed 
with  life? 

How  magically  endowed  with  "ever- 
lasting life?" 

How  magically  endowed  with  the 
capability  of  unending  reproduction? 

-"a  lifeless  thing  producing  an  ever- 
lasting and  inexhaustible  supply  of 
goods." 


30 


TECHNOCRACY 


And  thus  wondering,  one  questions 
and  doubts.  .  .  . 

Can  it  be  that  the  "miracles  of  fi- 
nance" and  the  "magic  of  credit"  are 
of  a  piece  with  the  ancient  miracles  and 
magic? — only,  (in  keeping  with  the 
h.  c.  1.)  gone  up  in  cost  to  the  simple 
ones  who  pay  for  the  "miraculous" 
performances. 

But  what  a  co.°t! 

Distribution. 

Science  and  Mechanics  have  multi- 
plied manifold  the  productive  effect  of 
human  effort  during  the  past  century, 
so  that  the  resulting  products  and  in- 
strumentalities of  production  have  in- 
creased in  like  ratio. 

So  the  question  naturally  arises  as 
to  what  disposition  has  been  made 
of  this  great  aggregation  of  National 
Commissariat  Stores  in  the  United 
States  under  our  alleged  "economic" 
system? 

How  have  the  "Financiers" — our 
book-keepers — kept  tab  on  the  "debits 
and  credits"? 

How  have  they  (numerically  less 
than  one  per  cent)  distributed  this 
product  of  the  combined  work  of  the 
twenty  million  families  that,  in  round 
numbers,  constitute  (the  other  ninety- 
nine  per  cent  of  )the  population? 

The   Balance   Sheet. 

In  round  numbers  the  books  show: 
$250,000,000.000— "wealth" ; 

$70,000,000,000— gross  "profits";  di- 
vided:— 

$50,000,000,000— "income"      to      the 
book-keepers; 

$20.000,000,000— "wage"  to  the  fam- 
ilies; 

$1,000 — average  family  "wage." 
Thus   the  balance  sheet  shows  that 
the  self-selected  and  socially  irrespon- 
sible   score-keepers — the    "Financiers" 
-have    apportioned    the    gross    yearly 
"profits"  of  the  United  States  National 
Industrial    Enterprise   in    the   ratio    of 
five-sevenths   to   themselves   and   two- 
sevenths  to  the  20  million   families. 

"Business"  and  Instincts. 

In  the  jargon  of  "Business,"  "the 
Financiers"  "charge"  fifty  billion  dol- 
lars ($50,000,000,000)  yearly  for  "fi- 
nanciering" the  United  States. 

That  is  to  say:  "The  Interests"  as- 
sess the  People  of  the  United  States 


fifty  billion  dollars  ($50,000,000,000) 
"interest"  tribute  yearly,  in  perpetuity, 
for  permitting  the  people  the  privilege 
of  practicing  national  honesty — and 
for  the  magic  of  (mysteriously  con- 
ventionalized) "Credit." 

In  other  words:  "The  Capitalists" 
tax  the  People  of  the  United  States 
fifty  billion  dollars  ($50,000,000,000) 
yearly  for  permitting  the  People  the 
privilege  of  utilizing  the  Nation's  hu- 
man and  other  natural  resources — and 
for  (the  miracles  of)  "Capitalization." 
^  In  simple  terms  of  human  instincts: 
The  Instinctive  Takers  take  the  In- 
stinctive Makers'  makings  for  permitt- 
ing the  Makers  to  make  the  Nation's 
natural  raw  materials  into  desirable 
commodities. 

Feeding  and  Breeding. 

The    families    must,    of    course,    be 
UMJ         clothed  and  housed,  and   the 
children    schooled,— or    the    supply    of 
Makers  would  soon  peter  out. 
,  F°L  these    unavoidable    necessities 
Financiers"  allow,  on  an  average 
thousand  dollars  a  year  per  family- 
bare  living  wage"  in   exchange  for 
a    whole    year    of    the    brief   work-life 
(of  twenty  odd  years),  for  life-energy 
irrecoverably   used   up    in    making   the 
wealth;  wealth  out  of  which  bare  sus- 
tenance is  all  that  goes  to  its  Makers. 

Worse  and  More  of  It. 

Nor  is  this  all,  nor  the  worst. 

It  deals  with  things  only,  now  in 
existence.  And  it  refers  to  an  appor- 
tionment of  the  gross  "profits"  ar- 
nved  at  (more  or  less)  by  our  own 
consent. 

But, — by  the  wondrous  working  of 
Credit"  -the  "Financiers"  have  '  vir- 
tually pawned  (in  their  own  pawn 
shop)  the  whole  Industrial  World! 

The  "Financiers"  have  placed  a  per- 
petual mortgage  plaster  of  at  least  one 
thousand  billion  dollars  ($1,000,000,- 
000,000)  on  the  work  and  products  of 
unborn  generations  of  the  hundred 
million  families  constituting  the 
"White  World." 

The  "Financiers"  have  chained  thus 
a  $10,000  debt,  paying  "interest"  trib- 
ute of  $2.00  per  day  (for  ever)  upon 
the  back  of  each  and  every  family  in 
the  "civilized  world"-— a  perpetual 
thraldom  of  debt;  debt  secured  by 
"Bonds,"  by  "Mortgage,"  by  "Capi- 


TECHNOCRACY 


3! 


talization"  and  by  "National  Debt" 
conventions. 

The  "Financiers"  have  thus  placed 
this  huge  mortgage  debt  (in  perpet- 
uity) upon  future  generations  with- 
out their  consent — the  most  stupend- 
ous case  of  tyrannous  "taxation  with- 
out representation"  in  all  the  dark 
ages  long  tragic  experience  of  long 
suffering  humanity. 

What  petty  "Pikers"  were  the  Shy- 
locks  of  old  Nehemiah's  day  compared 
to  our  .  .  .  our  .  .  .  "Financiers"^. 

Crowning  Paradox. 

Poverty  is  the  opposite  of  riches; 
debt  the  negation  of  wealth;  bank- 
ruptcy the  reverse  of  solvency;  they 
are  antithetical — the  plus  and  minus 
signs  of  human  interaction  in  the 
world  of  "Business." 

A  modern  man,  by  the  aid  of  scienti- 
fic and  mechanistic  instrumentalities, 
accomplishes  more  today  than  one-, 
two-,  and  in  some  cases  ten-score  men 
of  a  hundred  years  ago;  so,  despite 
war  and  every  other  destructive 
agency,  production  outstrips  bare 
need  today  as  at  no  time  in  the  past. 

The  world  is  constantly  increasing 
its  total  products. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  these  facts, 
the  richer  the  world  grows,  the  more 
it  owes — both  relatively  and  actually; 
the  greater  its  wealth,  the  deeper  it 
is  plunged  in  debt. 

Thus,  under  the  regime  of  capitalis- 
tic "High  Finance,"  is  achieved  the 
crowning  paradox  of  all  time — the 
acme  of  miraculous  causation: 

The  functions  of  plus  and  minus  are 
reversed;  more  is  less!  The  larger 
a  thing  grows  the  smaller  it  becomes! 
The  more  efficient  men  get,  the  less 
effective  relatively  is  the  outcome! 
The  faster  the  world  cistern  is  filled 
with  wealth  the  more  nearly  empty 
it  is, — the  more  completely  is  the 
White  World  bankrupt!! 

The  ancient  miracle  of  "the 
widow's  cruse"  is  inverted — by  mod- 
ern Financial  Magic. 

An  Old  Delusion. 

Now  it  is  not  intended  to  impute 
deliberately  dishonest  or  intentionally 
unethical  methods  to  our  Financiers 
and  Capitalists,  under  a  vague  and 
metaphorical  term,  "Magic."  On  the 
contrary,  I  use  the  word  "magic"  in 


its  ordinary  meaning  —  supernatural 
effects. 

I  am  convinced  that  the  great  ma- 
jority of  us — capitalist  and  laborer 
alike — are  still  obsessed  with  the  fal- 
lacy of  magic  causation;  an  ancient 
delusion  that  has  dominated  men's 
minds  and  befogged  their  thinking 
from  the  very  beginning  of  man's 
efforts  to  explain  the  causes  of  un- 
usual happenings. 

"Magic"  is  the  oldest  and  easiest 
way  to  account  for  strange  things, 
and  still  holds  its  ancient  sway  over 
men's  minds  outside  the  laboratory 
of  the  scientist  and  the  workshop  of 
the  mechanic. 

Elimination  of  this  fallacy  as  a  con- 
trolling factor  in  the  distribution  of 
products — wealth — is  a  necessary  step 
toward  a  rationally  workable  eco- 
nomic system;  a  system  adapted  to 
20th  Century  life  and  the  mental  at- 
titude of  our  science-made  Mecha- 
nistic Age. 

Mystery. 

"Chance"  implies  insufficient  knowl- 
edge of  causes. 

"Magic"  implies  misinterpretation 
of  causes. 

"Mystery"  implies  inherent  un- 
knowableness  of  causes. 

While  increasing  knowledge  tends 
ever  toward  minimizing  the  "chance" 
element  and  lessening  of  "magic" 
errors,  mystery  presents  a  different 
problem. 

The  laboratory,  or  the  factory,  or 
the  workshop,  or  the  countinghouse, 
is  no  place  for  "mystery,"  for  to 
the  workers  therein  mystery  means 
ignorance — lack  of  intelligence.  In 
human  life  at  large,  it  is  quite  other- 
wise as  concerns  the  essential  All- 
inclusive  Mystery  and  religious  mys- 
ticism. This  is  a  fact  of  profound 
significance  in  relation  to  the  larger 
aspect  of  our  "Social  Problem." 

Our  new  Skill  Economics,  there- 
fore, may  not  discourage  man's  in- 
nate love  of  mystery, — his  inborn  re- 
ligious spirituality  —  nor  curb  the 
spirit  which  tempts  him  to  adventure 
courageously  into  the  unknown;  but 
instead  should  provide  advantageous 
scope  for  its  personal  expression. 

But — as  in  the  machine  shop — 
"mystery"  is  out  of  place  in  finance; 
out  of  place  because  the  function  of 


32 


TECHNOCRACY 


"money"  in  an  economic  system  cor- 
responds to  the  purposes  of  checks 
and  gauges,  templets  and  measuring 
instruments  of  the  technologist  and 
the  mechanical  constructor. 

The  essentials  of  such  devices  are 
accuracy,  certainty,  invariability — the 
antitheses  of  the  qualities  of  mys- 
tery. 

Yet  in  no  branch  of  human  activity 
are  its  measuring  devices  so  incon- 
sistent, contradictory,  inaccurate;  so 
mysteriously  variable,  so  subject  to 
anti-social  self-interested  control  as 
are  those  of  the  Financier — his  twin 
mysteries,  "Money"  and  "Credit." 

Our    Queer   Dollar. 

One  of  the  many  quaint  functions 
of  the  dollar  is  that  of  a  "standard 
of  value."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  no 
one  knows  or  can  determine  from 
moment  to  moment,  what  is  the 
value  of  a  dollar.  We  only  know 
that  its  worth  is  diminishing,  vari- 
ously, to  the  vanishing  point. 

Neither  the  Nation  nor  the  Mone- 
tary Experts,  nor  the  Professors  of 
Economics,  nor  the  Financiers,  nor 
the  Interests,  nor  the  Capitalists,  nor 
the  Common  Man,  have  ever  suc- 
ceeded in  fixing  our  "standard  of 
value" — standardizing  the  value  of 
our  "standard  of  value" — the  worth 
of  our  Dollar. 

Mr.  Worker  contends  that  the  con- 
traction of  the  dollar  is  due  to  ex- 
pansion in  the  cost  of  living;  so  he 
strikes  for  more  dollars,  and  effects 
another  shrink.  Mr.  Trader  says  the 
contraction  is  due  to  the  expansion 
of  wages;  so  he  boosts  up  the  price 
of  products,  and  effects  still  another 
contraction.  And  so  on  and  on,  and 
the  end  is  •  not  yet! 

Indeed,  there  are  as  many  different 
explanations  of  this  mysterious 
""spooky"  phenomenon  in  our 
"Standard"  almost  as  there  are  ex- 
plainers— and  their  number  is  legion. 

An  Elastic  Foot  Rule! 

If  our  foot-rule  were  subject  to 
similar  mysterious  fluctuations,  its 
length  would  have  increased  to  a 
yard  or  more  in  the  past  five  years, 
with  innumerable  variations  from 
time  to  time. 

Imagine  the  chaos,  had  such  a  mys- 
teriously variable  standard  of  mea- 


surement been  used  in  the  machine 
shop! 

The  stress  of  War  conditions  has 
so  completely  demonstrated  the  in- 
utility  of  our  mysteriously  elastic  so- 
called  "standard  of  value  and  medium 
of  exchange"  that  it  is  now  virtually 
in  the  discard, — stacked  up  uselessly 
in  private  and  in  national  treasury 
vaults. 

Our  alleged  "standard  of  value  and 
medium  of  exchange"  never  was  a 
standard  of  value,  and  now  it  is  not 
even  a  medium  of  exchange.  Quaint, 
but  true! 

A  practically  costless,  hence  un- 
varying, "medium  of  exchange" — a 
one-function  money — is  another  much 
needed  step  toward  a  rational  eco- 
nomic system. 

Credit. 

But  if  our  money  is  a  mysterious 
commodity,  what  shall  be  said  of 
"Credit"? 

"Money" — i.e.,  "gold  coin  of  the 
United  States  of  the  present  standard 
of  weight  and  fineness"-— even  though 
lacking  in  practical  utility,  is  at  least 
a  physical  commodity.  It  occupies 
space  (however  uselessly) ;  it  has 
color,  weight,  length,  breadth  and 
thickness, — it  possesses  physical  char- 
acteristics easily  determinable  by 
scientific  tests. 

Not  one  of  these  facts  is  applicable 
to  "Credit." 

"Credit"  is  a  state  of  mind,  a 
psychological  condition — hypnosis — a 
mesmeric  dream.  Naturally  it  lacks 
all  the  qualities  of  physical  things, 
and  possesses  all  those  of  phan- 
tasms. A  man  dreams  he  is  wealthy, 
and — for  all  dream  purposes — he  is 
wealthy;  even  though  in  actual  fact 
he  is  dying  of  starvation  in  squalor 
and  want. 

So  too,  in  like  manner,  a  nation 
dreams  itself  some  (or  many)  billions 
of  additional  wealth;  sets  the  print- 
ing presses  going  to  record  the 
dream — in  "bonds";  and  forthwith 
becomes  billions  wealthier  (in  its 
mind),  though,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  physical  wealth  may  have  shrunk 
to  the  danger  point  of  general  in- 
digence and  starvation. 

This  is  the  danger-fraught  "World 
condition"  today. 


'ECHNOCRACY 


33 


Boundless  Credit  Wealth 

Seemingly  human  stupidity  is  lim- 
itless and  human  credulity  infinite! 
This  boundless,  unweighable,  unmea- 
surable,  hope-created  dream-stuff 
("Credit")  is  sliced  and  apportioned, 
like  beef  or  butter,  and  sold  in  the 
market  place  by  self-appointed  pur- 
veyors of  public  optimism. 

Yes!  Sold  and  exchanged  for  the 
limited,  measurable,  physical  prod- 
ucts of  sweaty  and  grimy  toil  and 
strenuous  human  effort. 

Like  all  other  dreams  and  dream- 
stuff.  ''Credit"  visions  know  no 
bounds  but  those  of  desire.  Millions 
or  billions  or  scores  of  billions — it's 
all  the  same  in  the  wonderland 
dreamworld  of  "Finance":  wish  them 
and  dream  them,  and  presto!  they 
exist.  They  exist:  dream  ships, 
dream  cannons,  dream  food — irides- 
cent wealth  bubbles  blown  up  and 
"floated  through  an  expansion  of 
credit,"  as  proposed  by  Finance  Wiz- 
ard Vanderlip-. 

Dream    Wealth. 

It  is  not  surprising  therefore  that 
in  the  wonderland  of  Finance  this 
dreamworld's  dream  wealth  "Credit" 
—as  represented  by  "credit  instru- 
ments," i.  e.,  stocks,  bonds,  mortgages, 
national  debts,  etc. — transcends  great- 
ly the  workaday  world's  physical 
utilities — real  wealth. 

But  what  is  going  to  happen  when 
we  are  jolted  awake  to  the  rationality 
of  workaday  reality,  and  dream 
visions  vanish;  when  the  airy 
floating  credit  bubble  bursts — as  bub- 
bles do?  When  Germany  and  Austria 
follow  Russia's  (Bolshevik)  example, 
and  France  follows  Germany,  and 
then  England,  and  then  .  .  .  ? 

Then  what? 

When  this  happens,  the  world  will 
discard  the  silly  delusion  that  time  is 

I  reversible  by  financial  magic — credit; 
"credit,"  the  greatest  of  all  myths  and 
magic  makebelieves  by  which  cunning 
men  in  all  ages  have  sought-  to  get 
something  for  nothing. 

In  all  the  historically  recorded  cases 
of  collective  human  delusions — from 
practical  Rome's  entrail  augury  to 
shrewd  Yankee  Salem's  witchcraft — 
there  is  none  which  surpasses,  in  col- 
lective crass  credulity,  our  great  Credit 
Myth! 

A   national    (non-tribute)    bookkeep- 


ing system  equitably  to  determine  real 
ownership  of  the  products  of  effort, 
is  a  much  needed  economic  conven- 


ience. 


Experimental    Science. 


It  would  seem  that  with  the  advent 
of  Experimental  Science  occurred  an 
epoch  in  the  history  of  our  Race;  an 
epochal  event  to  which  none  other 
is  comparable,  except  possibly  the  ac- 
quisition of  Self-consciousness  itself. 
Indeed  it  would  seem  that  these  two 
super-significant  events — so  unthink- 
ably  far  apart  in  time — are,  in  essence, 
closely  related. 

By  coming  to  Self-consciousness 
the  Brute  became  Man — potentially, 
though  not  actually,  a  self-determining 
being. 

By  the  coming  of  Science — based 
upon  the  idea  of  the  rationality  and 
neutrality  of  "nature"-  -potential  Free- 
dom ceased  to  be  a  mere  possibility 
and  became  a  realizable  Ideal. 

To  Make  or  Break  Shackles. 

Science  and  Technology  are,  how- 
ever, but  tools  in  Man's  hands;  tools 
wherewith  to  make  effective  Man's 
transcendent  privilege:  Freedom  of 
Choice. 

Groups  of  men  (like  Germany)  may 
use  these  great  instrumentalities  to 
forge  social  shackles  upon  themselves, 
and  upon  Humanity  the  bondage  of 
autocracy. 

Or,  they  may  use  them  to  make  hu- 
man Liberty  effective,  as  is  the  ideal 
of  the  United  States. 

Human  beings,  whether  as  individ- 
uals, or  as  groups,  or  as  nations,  are 
"free"  —  self-determining  —  only  wThen 
purposively  initiative;  for  it  is  only 
in  purposive  action  that  liberty  can  be 
expressed. 

Freedom,  then,  means  will  to  intelli- 
gent self-expression  —  liberty  ex- 
pressed in  rational  accomplishment. 

"Reconstruction." 

On  all  the  foregoing  considerations, 
our  problem  of  "Social  Reconstruc- 
tion" on  a  scientific  basis  implies  sys- 
tematizing our  great  but  inchoate  Na- 
tion upon  economic  principles  appro- 
priate to  an  Industrial  Democracy. 

The  basis  of  modern  industry  being 
scientific  knowledge  of  nature's  laws 
whereby  nature's  resources  are  made 
available  for  human  use  and  enjoy- 


34 


TECHNOCRACY 


ment  through  the  aid  and  agency  of 
technical  skill,  "Reconstruction"  be- 
comes essentially  a  process  of  selec- 
tive rejection  of  present  inappropriate 
economic  usages;  discarding  customs 
which  unduly  facilitate  the  acquisitive 
instincts,  and  substituting  others 
which  tend  to  minimize  social  ob- 
stacles to  the  freer  expression  of  the 
constructive  or  industrial  instincts — 
in  the  interest  of  the  commonweal. 

As  industrial  processes  involve  spe- 
cialized skill  and  expert  technical 
training,  made  effective  by  intelligent 
co-ordination,  it  is  clear  that  a  hu- 
manly efficient  Industrial  Democracy 
necessitates  leadership  by  those  who 
possess  the  requisite  knowledge,  skill, 
and  technical  training. 

So,  when  we  speak  of  Industrial  De- 
mocracy, what  we  really  mean  is: 
Nation-wide  Industry  managed  by 
Technologists — a  Nation  of  free  and 
socially  equal  workers,  scientifically 
organized  for  mutual  benefit  and  uni- 
fied purpose — a  Technocracy. 

Suggestions. 

By  way  of  summary,  a  few  of  the 
more  obviously  inappropriate  present 
usages  which,  seemingly  with  advan- 
tage, we  might  consign  to  the  limbo 
of  outworn  social  expedients,  here  fol- 
low: 

(I)  Discard  usages  founded  on  the 
autocratic  idea  of  "the  State"; 

Substitute  therefor — in  fact  as  well 
as  in  theory — others  resting  upon  the 
self-evident  right  of  a  man  to  inalien- 
able and  complete  pwnership  of  him- 
self; hence  (in  effect)  inalienable  own- 
ership of  the  industrial  product  result- 
ing from  the  functioning  of  his  mind 
and  body — limited  only  by  others' 
equal  right. 

(II)  Discard     conventions      resting 
upon    the    parasitic    idea    that    (legal) 
possession  is  equivalent  to  production: 

Substitute  natural  ownership  based 
on  making  for  conventions  that  legal- 
ize taking. 

(III)  Discard    institutions    legaliz- 
ing  "chance"   as    a   controlling   factor 
for  the  distribution  of  things; 

^  Substitute  therefor  collective  fore- 
sight based  upon  experience;  and  hu- 
man need  for  instinctive  animal  greed 

-in  the  interest  of  the  commonweal. 

(IV)  Discard       "financial       magic" 
practices    resting    upon    the    animistic 
fallacy  that  inanimate  objects  can  (by 


convention)    be    endowed    with    life's- 
unique  function — reproduction; 

Substitute  others  on  the  evidential 
fact  that  only  human  beings  can  make 
usefully  available  the  things  we  call 
"wealth." 

(V)  Discard    the    "mysteries    of    fi- 
nance"    in     wealth     distributing     pro- 
cesses— the  private  purveying  of  pub- 
lic  optimism   for   gain   and   the   "man- 
ufacture of  credit"  for  sale; 

Substitute  therefor  a  community 
(national)  bookkeeping  system,  in 
which  figures  clearly  tell  what  each 
individual  and  each  group  has  added 
to  the  common  stock. 

(VI)  Discard     institutions     resting 
upon   the    erroneous   notion   that   con- 
ventional   symbols,    i.    e.,    "representa- 
tives"   of    wealth,    "bonds,"    "credit," 
"capital,"    etc. — are    equivalent    to   and 
can   perform  the   functions   of  the   in- 
strumentalities   they    "represent,"    and 
can  continue  so  to  function  long  after 
the    instrumentalities    have    ceased    to 
exist  or  have  become  obsolete; 

Substitute  others  making  -the  use- 
rent  of  things,  i.  e.  "usury,"  "interest," 
correspond  to  and  be  contingent  upon 
the  effective  worth  and  the  continued 
usefulness  of  the  things  rented. 

(VII)  Discard  customs  based  upon 
mystic    symbolism    and    the    animistic 
fallacy  that  "money"  can  perform  the 
functions    of    the    life-energy    or    pro- 
ducts "represented"; 

Substitute  a  costless  one-function 
national  check  medium  of  exchange. 

(VIII)  Discard  "business"  practices 
based     upon     the     anti-social     dictum 
that:    "one    man's    misfortune    is    an- 
other's opportunity"; 

Substitute  therefor  the  proposition 
that:  the  illhaps  of  unavoidable  social 
hazards  and  chance  favors  of  good 
fortune  should  (in  social  effect)  be 
equally  shared  by  all. 

(IX)  Discard     all     institutions  and 
conventions   facilitating    the    function- 
ing of  anti-social  predatory  and  para- 
sitic instincts; 

Substitute  others  tending  to  en- 
courage willing  self-interested  co- 
operation energized  by  national  unity 
of  purpose. 

(X)  Discard  the  strife  inducing  in- 
stitutions   of    erroup    industries    based 
upon   the   hunger-slavery  idea   of   em- 
ployer   and     employee     organized    for 
mechanistic  human  efficiency  in  output 
of  products  for  purely  private  profit; 


TECHNOCRACY 


35 


Substitute  others  based  upon  ra- 
tional human  initiative  and  develop- 
ment with  the  aid  of  all  the  resources 
of  the  Nation,  co-ordinated  for  the 
commonweal  under  the  management 
of  Scientific  Leadership  to  accomplish 
a.  consensus  National  Objective. 

Save  Civilization! 

\Vhether  these  proposed  changes 
are  effectively  workable  or  are  only 
"visionary,"  "impracticable,"  "Utopian 
dreams,"  is,  of  course,  debatable;  but 
there  can  be  no  question  regarding 
the  truth  of  the  solemn  warning  of 
Lloyd  George:  "Civilization,  unless  we 
try  to  save  it,  may  be  precipitated 
and  scattered  to  atoms." 

Responsibility. 

That  our  Civilization  is  in  danger  of 
Toeing  "shattered  to  atoms,"  raises  the 
question  of  culpability  for  the  present 
ominous  state  of  affairs,  and  hence 
of  responsibility  for  averting  the 
threatened  outcome. 

The  Masses  cannot  be  held  respon- 
sible, for  they  are  simply  impelled  by 
their  instinct  "to  live";  they  do  not 
think,  they  do  what  is  much  more  im- 
portant: they  breed.  Their  magnifi- 
cent all-inclusive  social  function  is  re- 
production. Hence,  they  feel — feel 
hunger,  feel  passion — they  feel  with 
all  the  vital  energy  of  the  race. 

Thus,  when  social  conditions  be- 
come unbearable  or  threaten  their  vital 
function,  they  reflex  with  unrestrained 
ferocity  against  such  conventional  re- 
straints to  the  natural  expression  of 
their  instinctive  urges. 

The  Skilled  Artisans  cannot  be  held 
responsible,  for  they  are  merely  obey- 
ing the  instinct  "to  make."  Their 
mental  activity  is  analogous  to — and 
for  the  same  social  purpose  as — the 
cycle  of  brain  functioning  that  pro- 
duces the  mathematical  cell  of  the  bee, 
the  carpentry  of  the  beaver,  and  the 
nest  building  of  the  bird. 

The  Employers  cannot  be  held  re- 
sponsible, for  they  only  express  the 
instinct  "to  control," 'the  Mastery  in- 
stinct— an  urge  which  could  not  be 
satisfied  unless  others  willingly  sub- 
mitted to  domination.  Their  social 
function  is  to  energize — to  counteract 
human  inertia — for  the  preservation 
of  the  Race. 

The  Financiers  cannot  be  held  re- 
sponsible, for  they  only  reflex  the  in- 
stinct "to  take,"  the  urge  to  hoard, 


like — and  for  the  same  social  pur- 
pose as — the  hoarding  of  the  squir- 
rel or  the  honey  storing  of  the  bee. 
They  probably  are  least  imaginative 
of  all.  Their  social  function  is  con- 
servation, the  converse  of  progressive 
theorizing. 

Typically,  none  of  these  social  ele- 
ments think;  think  in  the  sense  of  the 
imaginative  pioneer  theorizing  of  cre- 
ative thought — seeking  for  truth  apart 
from  its  immediate  application  to  self- 
preservation — searching  with  spiritual 
insight  for  paths  into  the  unknown  to 
be  later  trod  by  careless  earth-bound 
feet. 

The  Scientist  is  in  a  different  cate- 
gory. Characteristically  he  lacks  the 
instinctive  urges  which  distinguish  the 
other  elements  of  human  society. 

But,  it  is  his  social  function  to  think. 

He  does  think — he  has  functioned 
with  a  vengeance! 

One  of  the  results  of  his  high- 
pressure  thinking  is  that:  "Civilization 
may  be  shattered  to  atoms" — or  Hu- 
manity raised  to  Godlike  heights,  by 
Science. 

While  it  is  quite  questionable 
whether  Science,  so  far,  has  proved  a 
blessing  or  a  curse  to  Humanity, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  its  poten- 
tialities in  either  direction  are  limit- 
less. Praiseworthy  or  culpable,  as  the 
case  now  stands,  responsibility  for  the 
outcome  rests  squarely  upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  Scientist. 

National  Leadership. 

Notwithstanding  appearances  to  the 
contrary — popular  unrest,  growth  of 
socialism,  spread  of  I.  W.  W.-ism, 
the  whirlwind  of  Bolshevism  and 
other  terrifying  upsurgings  of  de- 
structive Massism — the  "Masses"  do 
not  desire  to  lead,  do  not  seek  "pro- 
letarian dictatorship." 

Human  herds  have  always  followed 
leaders,  like  other  gregarious  animals; 
followed  their  leaders  willingly,  blind- 
ly, thoughtlessly. 

The  herd  will  follow  till  following 
becomes  vitally  dangerous,  threatens 
its  social  life — hinders  the  normal 
functioning  of  its  instinctive  urges  to 
growth  and  reproduction. 

Nations  have  followed  the  leader- 
ship of  Autocracy  till  starved  white 
by  plundering  conventions  or  bled 
white  by  wars. 

Nations  have  followed  the  leader- 
ship of  Theocratic  Mystics  into 


36 


TECHNOCRACY 


mental  chaos,  and  confusion  of  human 
ideals   and   social   purpose. 

And  we  today,  with  sheeplike  docility, 
have  followed  Plutocratic  leadership 
into  a  social  morass  of  crazy  financial 
conventions,  till  the  raising  of  families 
has  become  an  unbearable  burden,  an 
impossible  social  handicap;  till  the 
opportunity  to  work  is  a  dubious 
privilege;  till  the  future  of  the  worker 
and  breeder — the  proletarian — offers 
only  a  soul  shriveling  bondage  of  de- 
basing and  inescapable  debt! 

Modern  Manhood's  Mandate. 

The  present  "World  condition" 
means  only  that  the  proletariat  has 
balked,  revolted,  at  this  sordid  threat 
to  the  sanity  and  the  sanctity  of 
Human  existence. 

The  "World  condition"  is  a  World 
Cry! — a  cry  not  for  Proletarian  Dic- 
tatorship, nor  for  Mob  Rule,  but  for 
new  Leaders. 

The  World  demands  new  Leaders! 
Not  new  and  more  "efficient"  slave 
drivers — Trust  Barons,  or  Kings  of 
Commerce,  or  Emperors  of  Finance.  • 

The  Modern  World  demands  mod- 
ern Leaders,  Men!  Men  with  ideas 
that  rise  higher  than  swapping  jack- 
knives — even  in  carload  or  shipload 
lots. 

The  "World  condition"  expresses 
this  demand  by  modern  men  for  mod- 
ern leaders,  leaders  with  modern  spir- 
itualized ideals. 

Our  "Social  Unrest"  is  a  demand  for 
torch-bearers  and  pathfinders  to  social 
freedom  of  opportunity;  a  demand  for 
leaders  with  luminous  imagination  to 
visualize  our  War-born  Nation's  de- 
sired Peace  Goal;  leaders  with  scien- 
tific knowledge  to  realize  and  actualize 
the  rational  aspirations,  ambitions, 
and  ideals  of  free  modern  American 
Manhoood. 

Scientist 

vs. 
Auto-,  Theo-,  and   Pluto-crat 

While  the  Autocrat,  the  Theocrat, 
and  the  Plutocrat,  are  decadent 
products  of  outworn  ways  and  obso- 
lescent materialistic  manners  of  think- 
ing, the  Scientist,  on  the  contrary,  is 
the  most  modern  development  of 
modern  intelligence,  modern  ideals, 
and  modern  spiritualized  modes  of 
thought. 

The  Scientist  is  essentially  a  pioneer, 


a  pathfinder,  a  torch  bearer,  a  seeker 
after  Truth  and  Rationality. 

The  Scientist  is  the  modern  re- 
ligionist, the  priest  of  selfless  Truth: 

Truth  which  grows  with  Man's 
growth  and  luminously  emerges  with 
the  purifying  of  human  Intelligence: 

Truth — that  all-inclusive  Something 
behind  the  physical  facts  of  nature 
which  makes  for  Right — for  mechan- 
ical, for  personal,  for  ethical,  for 
spiritual,  for  social  righteousness — the 
ultimate  Unifying  Ideal. 

Truly,  "the  stone  which  the  builders 
rejected  is  become  the  head  of  the 
corner":  the  keystone  of  the  social 
arch. 

Rational  Leadership. 

The  Scientist  is,  seemingly,  our  one 
best,  if  not  our  only  hope  for  Rational 
Leadership. 

Then,  too,  the  Scientist — by  un- 
leashing the  limitlessly  powerful  nat- 
ural forces,  in  uncoordinated,  haphaz- 
ard science  -  made  instrumentalities — 
has  got  us  into  much  of  our  present 
social  muddle. 

So  it  is  up  to  the  Scientist  to  lead 
us  out;  or  at  least,  to  harness  for 
human  service  the  science-created 
non-moral  mechanistic  monster  that 
he  has  liberated. 

Guideless  and  Aimless! 

But  if  the  Scientist  shirks  this  great 
task,  if  he  lacks  the  desire  for,  or 
the  courage  of,  or  the  will  to  Leader- 
ship; if  for  any  reason  he  evades  this 
obvious  responsibility,  or  is  daunted 
by  its  obvious  difficulties  .  .  .  then 
indeed,  blindly  plunging  deviously  on- 
ward— guideless  and  aimless— -"our 
Civilization  may  be  precipitated  and 
shattered  to  atoms,"  and  our  Indus- 
trial Democracy  adventure  prove  a 
World  Tragedy. 

Yes!  the  most  pathetic  of  all  human 
tragedies — futility. 

Lacking:     Purpose. 

Our  Nation  of  great  expectations, 
of  magnificently  vague  hopes  and  stu- 
pendous possibilities,  (if^  nothing 
worse  happens),  will  slump  into  futile 
pottering  desuetude,  lacking  inspiring 
purpose  to  live  for,  lacking  worthy 
achievement  to  work  for,  lacking 
worthwhile  goal  to  strive  for,  lacking 
— a  Great  National  Objective. 


Fernwald,    Berkeley,   March  20,  1919. 


Working  Explosively 

A  Protest  Against  Mechanistic  Efficiency 
By  William  Henry  Smyth 

(Reprinted  from  Industrial  Management,  January,  1917.) 


We  all  know  the  Explosive  Worker 
type  and  generally  recognize  him  with 
disapproval. 

The  trouble  with  working  explo- 
sively is  that  the  individual  addicted  to 
this  character  of  activity  won't  fit  into 
any  decently  organized  scheme  of  pro- 
duction. He's  a  sort  of  human  bomb- 
shell— lacking  a  timer.  So  he  "goes 
off"  at  any  old  time,  day  or  night — 
always  unexpectedly — with  the  utmost 
disregard  to  sensitive  nerves  and  es- 
tablished conventions. 

In  the  family  he's  the  juvenile 
"problem";  in  school,  the  hopeless  im- 
possible! and  in  the  shop,  the  idlest 
of  idle  apprentices  (with  a  big  ?).  In 
the  factory,  he's  the  man  one  is  always 
going  to  discharge, — but  ...  Or 
he's  our  Boss,  who  is  "a  Holy  Ter- 

kror." 
Working  Explosively. 
There  are  but  two  places  for  the 
Explosive  Worker  to  land — at  the  top 
or  at  the  bottom.  And,  characteris- 
tically he's  rapid  in  getting  there. 
Still  worse,  when  true  to  type,  he  is 
disconcertingly  apt  to  reverse  his  lo- 
cation from  time  to  time,  whether  top 
or  bottom,  with  the  speed  of  a  light- 
ning change  artist. 

The  Efficiency  Expert  has  no  place 
for  the  Explosive  Worker — except  in 
his  vocabulary  of  dynamic  expletives 
and  fulminative  epithets. 

§Of  course,  all  this  refers  to  the  typ- 
ical Exploder;  but,  curiously  enough, 
each  one  of  us  at  times  looks  back 
with  self-hugging  secret  joy  to  occa- 
sions and  experiences  of  working  ex- 
plosively in  our  own  otherwise  hum- 
drum career.  And,  reflecting,  realizes 
with  some  surprise  that  these  stand 
luminously  out  as  our  really  worth 
while  adventures — life's  decisive  bat- 
tles. 

Such  reminiscences,  and  the  feelings 
evoked,  jolt  one  into  thinking — to 
wondering.  .  .  . 


Work  Is  Human. 

There  appears  to  be,  nay,  there 
surely  is,  something  amazingly  hu- 
manly human  about  working  explo- 
sively. We  feel  that  there  is  truly 
something  warm,  vital,  hot-blooded, 
about  this  sort  of  activity  which  is 
lacking  in  the  efficient  routine  of  eight- 
hours-a-day  work  at  so-much  per. 

In  fancy  we  flit  backward  and  aban- 
donedly  re-erupt  our  own  little  ex- 
plosions. .  .  .  Eight  hours! — Pah! 
Twenty-four  is  all  too  short!  Hours! 
Days!  What  are  they  to  the  Explo- 
sive Worker — during  eruption.  Mere 
irrelevant  astronomical  incidents. 

But, — with  a  sigh — returning  to  here 
and  now — from  memory's  fecund 
realm,  where  we  too  forged  vibrant 
dreams  most  strenuously  into  things 
of  beauty,  worth  and  substance,  paint- 
ed with  comets'  tails,  playing  skittles 
with  time  and  space — (Oh  magic  state, 
wherein  all  work  is  play,  and  play 
means  working  explosively!) — there 
still  remains  that  work-a-day  remind- 
er, the  vivid  impression,  potent  intui- 
tion, the  "hunch"  of  discovery,  so  sug- 
gestive of  revelation  in  its  flash-like 
clarity. 

And  this  is  the  "hunch": 

Essence    of   Living. 

Explosive  Working?  Why,  explo- 
sive activity  is  not  "working"  at  all! 
It  is  the  essence  of  living.  Life  itself! 

"Efficient"  working  and  working  ex- 
plosively are  wholly  and  essentially 
different  matters  of  experience. 

"Efficient"  working  expresses  obedi- 
ence to  the  outside  pressure  of  brute 
mechanistic  Nature  in  the  struggle  to 
survive. 

Working  Explosively  is  inner  life 
insistent  of  self-expression,  the  willful 
impulse  of  vital  personality  in  raptur- 
ous culmination,  realizing  life — the  joy 
of  being  expressed  in  doing.  God-like 
spontaneity. 


38 


WORKING   EXPLOSIVELY 


One  means  Compulsion;  the  other 
Freedom. 

Routine  working  is  an  efficient 
means  to  an  indefinitely  desirable  end. 
Explosive  Working  is  an  end  in  itself, 
regardless  of  outcome.  The  very  joy 
of  working.  Self  realization. 

One  suggests  Force  and  Mechanism; 
the  other,  Life  and  Liberty. 

In  one  we  function,  contract,  and 
serve  a  purpose;  in  the  other  we  live, 
expand,  dominate.  In  one  we  work 
by  necessity  as  more  or  less  efficient 
"elements"  in  a  mighty  but  cold  and 
incomprehensible  machine;  in  the 
other  I  am  the  living  IT — Earth-God 
of  things,  of  matter,  and  of  motion — 
the  Mechanician. 

Is   Human   Problem. 

This  issue  involves  no  mere  moot 
or  academic  distinction,  about  which 
idle  men  may  split  dialectic  hairs  or 
bandy  fluent  phrases  to  fill  a  vacant 
hour.  Profoundly  is  it  otherwise,  for 
it  touches  closely  on  the  deepest  and 
most  significant  of  all  human  prob- 
lems— the  eternal  paradox  of  freedom. 
At  bottom  it  is  this  question  of  human 
worth  as  against  human  productive  ef- 
ficiency which  is  being  fought  out  in 
the  World-conflict  today — and  not 
alone  in  the  spectacular  European 
tragedy. 

So  much  for  the  "hunch."  And  now 
for  the  questions  which  it  raises. 

These  are  many  tough  conundrums, 
which  I  have  no  intention  of  now  at- 
tempting to  answer. 

Here  is  one,  by  way  of  example: 
Is  the  ultimate  outcome  of  mechan- 
istic efficiency  humanly  desirable?     Is 
the  Art  of  Efficiency  itself  efficientr 

Clearly,  there  is  no  place  in  this 
"Art"  for  "Explosive"  working;  and 
less  than  no  place  for  the  "Exploder." 
Both  are  too  spasmodic,  orgastic,  con- 
vulsive; and  either  would  burst  into  its 
ultimate  primordial  atoms  the  most 
systematic  efficiency  organization  ever 
invented.  Yet,  almost  equally  clear  is 
it,  that  without  both  of  these  joyous 
unruly  factors  there  would  be  no  Art — 
dramatic,  artistic,  nor  even  produc- 
tive— in  which  to  be  efficient,  to  prac- 
tice the  Art  of  Efficiency. 

Often   Overlooked. 

A   real   Art   of     Human      Efficiency 


must,  of  course,  take  cognizance  of 
the  inherent  characteristics  of  the  hu- 
man elements;  and  the  most  basic 
quality  of  life — certainly  of  life  exem- 
plified in  Man — is  this  very  quality  of 
explosiveness — explosiveness  which  we 
all  so  commonly  overlook  and  insist- 
ently ignore  till  made  to  sit  up  and 
take  notice  by  some  extra-violent 
eruption  in  our  own  vicinity,  or  in 
one's  own  self. 

Here,  then,  seems  to  be  a  funda- 
mental difficulty:  Efficiency  requires 
control  in  order  to  be  efficient.  But 
human  beings,  to  be  human,  must 
freely  effervesce — uncontrollably  erupt 
— or  contract  to  mere  efficiency  rou- 
tine-output-producing machines. 

This  raises  the  question  at  once: 
To  what  end  is  the  modern  Art  of. 
Efficiency  directed?  What  is  its  con- 
sciously desired  goal? 

Of  course,  we  all  know  the  obvious 
and  seemingly  conclusive  answer:  To 
make  better  men — in  order  to  increase 
their  productiveness. 

This  answer,  it  seems  to  me,  in- 
stead of  being  conclusive,  only  raises 
another  string  of  deeply  vital  ques- 
tions. 

Is  "Efficiency"'  Efficient? 

Can  an  Art  of  Efficiency,  dealing 
with  human  elements  incidentally,  bn, 
with  products  as  its  first  considera- 
tion, conceivably  result  in  other  than 
ultimate  disaster  to  the  incidental 
"elements"? 

Can  the  finished  human  output  of 
our  boasted  Art  become  more  desir- 
ably Human  and  less  machines  than 
the  inefficient  human  raw  materials? 

By  Efficiency's  first  law,  must  not 
the  primary  object  necessarily  divert 
to  itself  all  consideration — de-human- 
ize the  Human  Element  into  highly 
efficient  mechanisms  for  production? 

Is  mechanistic  efficiency  Humanly 
efficient? 

Is    the    Art    of    Efficiency,    by    any 
chance,      mis-directed?         Misdirected 
towards  products   as   an   end  in   itself, 
instead  of  towards  the  development  of 
vitally    initiative    human    individuals- 
joyous   workers,   to  whom   product   is 
a    by-product,     wealth    an     incident— 
MEN,   who,   for   the   very   joy   of   the 
working,  work  explosively? 


Fernwald,    Berkeley,    November,    1916. 


Working  Explosively 

Versus 

Working  Efficiently 

By  William  Henry  Smyth 

Leprinted  from  Industrial  Management,  May,  1917.) 


Between  working  efficiently  and 
working  ineffectively  there  can  be 
no  question  as  to  which  is  the  more 
desirable,  nor  would  I  raise  any  such 
issue. 

"Working  Explosively"  is  not  an 
argument  for  inefficiency,  quite  the 
contrary.  The  article,  as  I  intended 
it,  and  as  I  think  it  indicates  to  the 
thoughtful  reader,  is  merely  a  Stop! 
Look!  Listen!  signal;  a  hand  raised; 
a  suggestion  to  pause — pause  a  mo- 
ment to  consider  whether  we  are 
intelligently  directing  our  efforts 
toward  the  end  for  which  we  seek, 
the  goal  for  which  we  strive,  the 
reward  for  which  we  all  struggle. 

My  own  experience  with  life 
ranges  through  the  whole  gamut, 
from  the  coarsest  forms  of  manual 
labor  up  to  original  constructive 
mental  work,  both  as  employed  and 
employer — at  the  grind  of  "work- 
ing efficiently"  and  the  joy  of 
"working  explosively/'  I  have  as- 
sociated on  terms  of  equality  with 
hoboes,  with  laborers,  with  mechan- 
ics, and  with  captains  of  industry 
and  finance.  And  far  from  being 
a  socialist,  I  am  individualistic  to  the 
nth  degree.  Thus,  my  Stop!  Look! 
Listen!  warning  is  based  on  facts, 
and  upon  experience,  not  upon  the 
fancies  of  an  overwrought  imagina- 
tion. 

Importance  of  Worker 

Based  upon  this  varied  experience, 
the  question  I  wish  to  raise  involves 
the  relative  importance  of  the  work- 
er, or  his  work — human  worth,  or 
the  products  of  human  toil. 

Efficiency  is  no  new  invention;  it 
is  as  old  as  intelligence  itself.  None 
realize  efficiency  so  completely  as 
the  creative  genius, — our  Darwins, 
Faradays,  Edisons,  and  Fords, — and 
none  so  completely  practice  and  ex- 
emplify working  explosively.  Genius 
itself,  we  are  told,  is  the  capability 
for  taking  infinite  pains. 


The  Art  of  Efficiency  proposes  to 
substitute  the  short-  cut  of  imitating 
efficient  mechanical  tricks  for  the 
toilsome  process  of  becoming  a 
mechanic. 

The  Explosive  Worker  is  a  strenu- 
ous worker  whose  intense  preoccupa- 
tion is  with  accomplishing  perfectly 
that  predetermined  end  in  which  his 
interest  is  centered.  He  works  with 
intelligent  personal  intention  driven 
by  the  explosive  energy  of  his  pur- 
pose. If  he  is  driving  rivets,  he 
is  driving  them  so  that  they  will 
accomplish  the  object  intended. 

Working  Explosively  is  human 
purpose  expressing  itself  through 
inanimate  material;  it  is  not  the 
function  of  an  unhurried  efficient 
human  machine  striking  so  many 
well  directed  blows  in  a  definite 


time. 


Means  Personal   Energy 


Working  Explosively  means  per- 
sonal energy,  strenuously  applied  to 
the  accomplishment  of  a  personally 
desirable  result. 

Working  Explosively  is  not  a 
matter  of  habit,  instinct,  or  routine. 
It  involves  the  concentration  of  all 
the  faculties  upon  the  work  in  hand 
to  the  end  of  producing  the  result 
desired.  It  is  subconscious  impulse 
raised  to  conscious  effort  of  accom- 
plishment. 

The  Efficiency  Expert  joyously 
fills  his  God-like  function  as  he 
shuffles  numbered  human  'hands" 
and  rearranges  his  human  "pegs" 
into  round  or  square  holes,  so  that 
"hands"  and  "pegs"  shall  contribute 
most  efficiently  to  production.  But, 
soulless  pegs  and  automaton  hands 
which  will  passively  stay  put  are 
somewhat  different  factors  from 
Men  and  Women  with  personal  likes 
and  dislikes  and  smouldering  pas- 
sions which  must  explode  either  in 
Work  or  War — hence  industrial  un- 
rest and  warfare. 


40 


WORKING   EXPLOSIVELY 


The  "Art  of  Efficiency"  is  merely 
a  new  name  for  an  old  and  very 
dangerous  form — or  misdirection — of 
effort. 

The  essential  question  is  not  how 
many  more  billion  dollars  worth 
of  product  can  be  made  or  saved, 
but  how  many  more  million  human 
beings  can  express  themselves  in  the 
direction  of  personal  accomplish- 
ment. And,  in  my  view,  this  latter 
course  is  the  more  logical  and  the 
more  likely  one  to  produce  the  for- 
mer results  indirectly  through  the 
interest  of  the  worker  than  directly 
through  the  efficient  control  of  his 
action. 

Outside  Worker 

"Working  Efficiently"  assumes 
control  outside  of  the  worker,  direct- 
ing his  actions  and  efforts  toward  a 
purpose  in  the  mind  of  the  con- 
troller. 

"Working  Explosively"  assumes 
control  inside  of  the  worker,  di- 
recting his  action  and  energy 
towards  an  interesting  outcome. 

In  a  broad  sense,  one  is  Autocracy 
and  the  other  Democracy.  Imper- 
fectly but  significantly,  Germany 
and  the  United  States  repre- 
sent these  two  opposite  ideals 
of  human  activity.  The  one  repre- 
sents efficient  working,  the  other 
a  crude  and  embryonic  form  of 
working  explosively.  One  makes  for 
mechanistic  efficiency,  the  other  for 
human  liberty. 

Hopefulness  is  a  personal  quality, 
it  cannot  exist  in  connection  with 
work  in  the  outcome  of  which  the 
worker  is  not  interested,  and  Hope- 
fulness is  a  fundamental  factor  in 
working  explosively. 

"Working  Explosively"  and  "Work- 


ing Efficiently"  express  only  imper- 
fectly the  underlying  idea  in  each. 
In  essence,  they  imply  two  opposite 
ideals.  In  the  former,  emphasis  is 
placed  upon  the  worker;  in  the  latter, 
emphasis  is  placed  upon  the  work.  To 
my  way  of  thinking  the  two  points 
of  view  are  essentially  antithetical. 
Of  course,  the  only  way  of  bring- 
ing about  the  welfare  of  human  kind 
is  on  the  basis  of  right  and  justice. 
But,  who  shall  determine  these  mo- 
mentous bases?  You  or  I?  The 
Efficiency  Expert  or  the  "pegs" 
which  he  re-arranges  into  round  or 
square  holes?  The  employer  or  the 
employed? 

Conflict    Exists 

To  close  our  eyes  and  pretend  that 
there  is  no  conflict  between  employer 
and  employed  is  futility  itself.  To 
say  that  the  interest  of  these  is  mu- 
tual when  the  employer  has  all  of 
the  joy  of  working  explosively  and 
the  employed  all  the  grind  of  work- 
ing efficiently  is  equally  futile. 

I  gird  neither  against  employer 
nor  employed.  My  proposition  is: 
from  the  joy  of  the  work — Working 
Explosively — come  better  men. 
more  worthy  citizens,  and  greater 
commonweal. 

I  hold  that  a  human  being — human 
personality — is  of  infinitely  more 
consequence  than  the  product  of  the 
hands  and  brain;  that  a  true  ulti- 
mate efficiency  implies  the  liberation 
of  Man  rather  than  the  efficient  con- 
trol of  his  actions;  that  the  ultimate 
well-being  of  all  implies  not  the  ^  in- 
telligent control  of  passively^  efficient 
human  elements,  but  the  liberation 
of  men  and  women  to  purposeful 
joy  of  Working  Explosively. 


Fernwald,    Berkeley,    March,    1917. 


IS    THE    EFFICIENT  CONTROL  OF  MEN 

MORE  DESIRABLE  THAN 

FREEDOM? 


U.C.BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


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