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Show PLACES READJUSTMENT DATA AT COMMAND OF BUSINESS WORLD Research Division of the Council of National Defense Offers All Its Facilities to Aid in Reorganization of Industry and Resumption of Trade Burden of Reconstruction Reconstruc-tion Must Fall on Industry. j: , enlightened organization for reconstruction. recon-struction. "History records but few fruitful governmental agencies that did not have a firm and penetrating quality at the- base. liaising the framework for the task is merely a matter of nie ehanics in organization. In the meantime the council and advisory commission should accumulate all of the literature bearing upon this ques tion and form It into a working library. li-brary. "It may be that as the war nears Ita ends and as the issue between autocracy au-tocracy and democracy becomes ever sharper and more terrible, the civilized world will demand that immediately at the war's close all reconstruction of the world's affairs be based upon the dictum of Lincoln that no man Is good enough to govern any otber man without that other man's consent, to the end of approaching the proper readjustment of national, international, interna-tional, and racial relationships. I offer this, though, not for the purpose of injecting idealism in a discussion where undue accent of it does not belong, be-long, but to emphasize anew that none of us can see the end of the road and that therefore all plans for reconstruction re-construction should be builded so as to permit of flexibility of action and even of minor policy at any given time. The main thing now is to come to concrete thinking and study of the entire problem." Director Clarkson immediately began be-gan the organization of a staff of experts, ex-perts, including O. M. W. Sprague, professor of finance and banking at Harvard, and Herbert N. Shenton of Columbia. Out of this staff work grew the reconstruction research division, which swas organized on February 3, 101Q irifti fp Chonfnn o t, ito lrt-C Washington The eo'iizi! of r.ntion::l ' defense arv-oinces Its readiness to pla-cs ac the wrrimand of the business wwld the- information coutained in : the voluminous collection of data brought together, classified, indexed, nr.d partly digested by its reconstruc-, reconstruc-, tion research division. It also offers . the services of this division in the procurement of such further special information as may be desired and ; which may aid in the reorganization of industry and the resumption of trade, or which may, in any other manner promote progress in thfe reconstruction. recon-struction. Just what the information here offered of-fered consists of may be indicated best by reference to some of its sources and by mention of a few subjects under which the material is subclassified : Official Information The division has undertaken to chart all the federal fed-eral official bodies that have a point of contact with demobilization or reconstruction, re-construction, and to possess first-hand, up-to-date information as to accomplishments accom-plishments and plans of each such body or bureau. Furthermore, through its "field service," branching put into 184,-000 184,-000 state, county, and community organizations, or-ganizations, including some 1,000 women's wom-en's units, the division is enabled to maintain direct contact with every sort of state and local reconstruction activity in the land. A digest Is kept of state reconstruction news. Foreign Reconstruction The divi- of the services of an organization that for many months has been establishing establish-ing connections and perfecting facilities facili-ties for the securing of every sort ot vital information at the earliest possible possi-ble moment It is available. Through the fact that the council of national defense itself consists' of six secretaries secre-taries of administrative departments of the government, and by virtue .of the further fact that for more than two years the council has been engaged en-gaged in the closest co-operation with national, state, and local agencies of private as well as public bodies, the reconstruction research division has been from its inception possessed ot invaluable contacts In all directions. The material and staff now placed at the service of business was originally intended primarily for governmental use, and they will, of course, continue to function as the governmental clearing clear-ing 'house of reconstruction information. informa-tion. The beginning of the council's researches Into reconstruction and readjustment re-adjustment matters in this and foreign for-eign countries followed upon a memorandum memo-randum addressed to the six cabinet members forming the council by Gros-venor Gros-venor P. Clarkson, its director, on May 6, 1918. The president of the United States received a copy of this memorandum, memo-randum, and shortly afterward authorized author-ized the council to begin its studies. ' In the memorandum in question Mr. Clarkson, after defining the prime problem as being that of industrial siou nas access to every important report re-port of foreign reconstruction activity, 'proposed or accomplished, that reaches this country. . Domestic Business Background The division has official contact with all the war administration boards, bureaus, bu-reaus, and Investigation commission, as well as with the federal departments themselves. Thus it lias access to a great deal of statistical and other unpublished Information, ranging all the way from domestic prices data and production estimates, wage data, labor supply problems ; to notes on foreign productiop, the foreign Inbor and emigration situation, foreign market mar-ket conditions, and finance. The division divi-sion has advices as to which industries and which sections of our country are picking up and making their reconstruction recon-struction readjustments the more promisingly. Of course such a range of information, covering physical resources re-sources and available goods, the money and credit outlook, relative price and price tendencies, foreign prospects, and the trend of actual business development develop-ment as represented by reports of current projects and undertakings throughout the United States such a survey must tend to yield more reliable relia-ble impressions as to what the future fu-ture may be expected to bring than can be derived from the more restricted restrict-ed basis of judgment of the average business group. Devices of Clipping Bureaus. Public Opinion and General Information Infor-mation The division lias its own clipping clip-ping bureau, supplemented by the service of the chief commercial clipping clip-ping bureaus. Thus it is enabled to sift practically everything In public print that has a bearing upon any phase of reconstruction. All this material ma-terial is ""iassilied, Indexed, and made rcfcdy for reference. The industrial or financial organization or trade paper that chooses to tap this resource will no doubt find unexpected stores of information. From the sittings of Its incoming information the division issues a daily digest of reconstruction news, intended primarily for the use of tile council and government bureaus', bu-reaus', but available also lo other Institutions In-stitutions whose relations to reconstruction recon-struction problems are such as to entitle; en-title; them to the service. In thus proposing to extend its service, serv-ice, (lie council opens to the business public probably the largest and most complete assembly of up-to-tlie-miiiule reconstruction Information in existence. exist-ence. The undertaking also Implies the proffer to Industry u.nd commerce i CV.UUOL1 ucuoii -in oroau terras, tne reconversion of industry from the war basis back to the peace-time basis and the reabsorption into industry of the labor employed In the service of the United States said: ' "It is elementary that after the war America will not be the same America. Amer-ica. Already she has in many directions direc-tions broken with her past and she Is being hourly transformed. The metamorphosis meta-morphosis is going on as much in the thought of the country as It Is in the structure,- the same thing will be true in the period after the war. New conditions and relationships create cre-ate new problems for nations as well as for individuals; and, let n add, the change will be as great in the thought and ideals of the nation as It will be in its strictly material problems, prob-lems, whether these be military, commercial, com-mercial, or those having to do with labor. i "Let us grant that we shall gain military success. Let us then not fall into the danger-trap of allowing the material effects of such success to overshadow ov-ershadow consideration of the higher values which give a nation its life. The civilized world today, as we know that world, may be said to be cbe great altar of sacrifice. If that Is not true now, it certainly will be true if (he war continues for another year. It Is our duty In any adequate Intellectual Intel-lectual conception of the task to see to It that the gains to the moral as well as the material well-being of the nation shall square with the sacrifice. A little reflection will convince one that this aspect of reconstruction is the fundamental aspect and that upon It must be predicated all successful plans in. Ulis direction. "A year ago we were a great, lazy democracy. Lincoln said, 'A fat hound won't hunt.' That sentence illumined our national disease. The transformation transfor-mation from that condition is already tinder way. Soon the spirit of Hie na-j tion will be a burning flame. There will be sloughed off the scales fostered by a love of luxury and the loose and boastful thinking that have been our curse in-the last generation. Out of the turmoil and the sacrifice will come discipline and orderly living and flunking; flunk-ing; and, therefore, with sequential and Irresistible logic will come demands de-mands for new conditions of living commensurate to the new Ideals. Aaln I repeat, here Is the fundamental reconstruction re-construction to which tlie American government should address itself, and only herein can be found the policy which shall be the groundwork of any "The reconstruction research division," divi-sion," said Charles H. Chase, a member, mem-ber, "has come to feel more and more, as the reconstruction has progressed, that its Information service should be made available to the leaders of private pri-vate enterprise, just as it is made responsive re-sponsive to the needs of governmental agencies. The problems and responsibilities respon-sibilities of reconstruction tend, as time goes on, to fall more ,?.nd more heavily upon the shoulders of business busi-ness and relatively less upon governmental govern-mental machinery. Of the two grand, divisions of reconstruction, demobilization demobiliza-tion and reorganization, the former belongs be-longs chiefly to the government and the lattar devolves mainly upon private pri-vate enterprise. The former tends steadily toward its conclusion ; the latter broadens into the foundation of an indefinitely expanding, future. And though the government has, and will continue to have Important responsibilities re-sponsibilities in connection with the economic reorganization of the nation. It must be acknowledged that those who are to deal with these problems hand-to-hand are the directors of business busi-ness undertakings. "It must be' recognized, also, that we have come out upon a new world, in a sense, in emerging from the world war. Our Industrial and commercial com-mercial reorganization must be effected effect-ed under conditions that have undergone under-gone considerable alteration during the struggle. Not only price levels, but price ratios also, have been changed, and in many cases permanently perma-nently so. New industries have arisen ; markets have been altered; International Interna-tional economic relations are modified ; means of transportation and communK cation have been partially revolutionized revolution-ized ; but nothing has undergone greater great-er change than our social viewpoint, and especially the viewpoint of labor. There are new opportunities and new and promising outlooks, but they are not quite like those of pre-war times. The chessboard has been shaken ; some of the chessmen have disappeared, while several others have been moved forward or backward a little. "Not only have purely business factors fac-tors altered, but new duties have arisen (lie social responsibility of the business enterprise lias become a much more serious matter than it used to be. In the light of world developments develop-ments it Is obvious that our business system must prove its resourcefulness; resourceful-ness; It must . demonstrate hitherto unrevealed capacity for readjustment; it must show a disposition to meet and satisfy certain species of expectation which have gained recognition during I he war and can no longer be unceremoniously uncere-moniously Ignored or suppressed. As Secretary Redlield says: We cannot lie a law unto ourselves any more." General and continuous prosperity ' must be underwritten and guaranteed, If our institutions are to avoid ihe risk of a trial at the bar of public discontent. Rules of thumb are liable to prove iiKiSoqunte In tills period of readjustment.' Nothing short of alert opeii-inlniledncss, reinforced by possession pos-session of the fullest aval! ible information, infor-mation, will serve. In view of thosv facts the business world Is entiUcf lo fhe fullest measure of assistnnc.; (hat governmental agencies are prepared pre-pared to render It. It Is In (he spirit of (hat principle that the files of Ihe council's reconstruction research dlvt- ( slon are now thrown open to the business busi-ness public." Inquiries may be made by written communication, by telephone, or by : personal representative. Requests should be addressed to the Keconst ruc- I lion Research Division, Coimc:! 4r Mn llonal Defense, ISth and U sSveet y. V., Washington, D. '. - |