Show Wi iI Yoke of eQ A fable for rte the modern world By fly Arch Booth executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States Once upon a time there was a small farm family a father mother son and daughter They lived on a farm in a 1 very remote place supplying most of their needs themselves As this was in the days before tractors they depended upon a horse to do their plowing In ways both direct and indirect this horse was really the source of their material well being TIlE THE HORSE worked hard and the land was bountiful They all ate well and lived the good life But as must happen some sometime sometime sometime time the father Cather grew old and died The care of oC the farm Carm then fell Cell to his son The son though basically a good person had long chafed under the fathers father's authority He lie thought thought thought-as as youth of often oCten len does does does- that his ideas for far running the farm Carm were better beller than his fathers father's He lie thought the farm Carm needed more central planning New Policies Given this background the son can hardly be blamed for Cor a certain lack of oC caution perhaps even a touch of oC arrogance as he set about running the farm Carm After ACter all his motives were good He was as sincerely Interested in their joint prosperity as his father Cather before beCore him THE TIIE SONS SON'S first aim was to increase the farms farm's yield of grain To do that he decided to cut down on the horses horse's feed and redistribute the seed to the fields so there eventually would be more for everyone lies Hes getting fat at our expense said the son of the horse Why s should he have all the grain he wants when we need it in other areas And in truth the animal did have a sleek prosperous look Being no fool Cool the son realized there was a minimum beyond which the horses horse's rations could not safely be reduced He lie therefore appointed his sister who had once read a book on biology to conduct a study and recommend an appropriate level of feed TIlE THE SISTER found Cound the job difficult She had little to go on since the matter of oC how much to eat had been left pretty much up to lo the horse previously Nevertheless she duly concluded concluded concluded con con- the horse could get along adequately on an allocation equal to 76 percent of oC its former Cormer feed largely because that figure had a nice ring to it And so it was done All went well for Cor a while leading the son to believe he had been right from Crom the start The horse did seem to be losing its fat Cat but that was merely proof it had been overfed before beCore No Horse Sense Then one day the horse began to slow down It could neither plow as much ground nor pull the plow through ground as ashard ashard ashard hard as it had been able to do before beCore This development was a serious threat to the sons son's strategy for maximizing production If he could not get th the energy he needed to plow more ground he could not use the seed he had saved to plant more grain The parts of oC his little lIlUe economy seemed to lo be bemore bemore bemore more closely Interrelated than he had realized The daughter hastily reviewed her food allocation program for Cor the horse hors and decided that its rations should be doubled to make up for Cor lost time BUT nUT THE TIIE poor animal overate because it feared a quick return to smaller rations And in the ensuing condition of bloat it could do no plowing at atall all The son seeing the collapse of oC his schemes for Cor a better planned farm convened a commission of oC inquiry The daughter testified that she could not be at fault Cault since the horse failed Called to perform well even when its rations were doubled The son testified that this theory could not be wrong if iC the daughters daughter's calculations were not nol wrong s SO HE accused the horse of oC deliberate sabotage and sloth and he beat it to punish it and force Corce it to work The horse died And they all lived unhappily ever after MORAL THE TIIE goose that lays our golden eggs needs food Corthe for Cor forthe forthe the job and theres there's not nol enough horse sense in Washington to decide how much |