Show merican american individualism A timely message to tho the american people dy HERBERT HOOVER secretary Secie tary of commerce 4 1 I ECONOMIC E PHASES HAT high and increasing standards of living and comfort c should hould 4 T THAT bo be the first of considerations in public mind and in government needs no apology wo havo have long since realized that the b basis asis of an ail advancing civilization must be a high and growing standard of livius for all the people not for a single class that education food clothing housing and the spreading uso use of what wo we so often term are the real fertilizers of tho the soil from which spring the finer lowers of life tho the economic development of the past fifty years lins lias lifted the general standard of comfort far beyond tho the dreams of our forefathers the only road to further advance in the standard of living is by greater invention greater production and better distribution of commodities and services vices for by increasing their ratio to our numbers and dividing them justly we each cadi will havo have moro more of them superlative value of individual ism through its impulse to production its stimulation to invention has su ru far ns I 1 know never been denied criticism of it has lain in its wastes but moro more importantly in ili its failures ful lures of equitable sharing of the product in our country those these contentions contention 3 tire anre mainly over the division to each of lils his share of tho th comforts anti and luxuries for none of us la is either cither hungry or cold or without ft place to lay tits his head and am wo have much besides lies ldes in ili less than four decades wo we lime have added electric lights plumbing telephones gramo pl phones iones automobiles and what riot not in ili vado diffusion to our standards of living 1 each ach in turn begun began ns it iti luxury xury each in turn has become so con commonplace that seventy or eighty per cent of our people participate in ili them to all practical souls bouls thero there Is uso use in quarreling over the share of of each cadi of us until we have hae something to divide so long its as we in maintain our individualism we 0 o will have increasing impi easing to share and we shall havo time and leisure and taxes with which to fight out proper sharing of the surplus the income tax returns show that this surplus Is a minor part of our total production after taxes are paid some of this surplus must bo be set aside for rewards to saving or stimulation of proper effort to skill to leadership and mention on afore the dispute Is in fit reality over much less than the total of such surplus while there should bo be no minimizing of a certain fringe of injustices in ili sharing tale le 1 L suits of production or tit in the wasteful use made by some soine of their share yet vet there Is vastly wider field tor for gains to nil all of us its through cheapening the flip costs of production pi and distribution through tho the eliminating of their wastes from increasing the volume of product by each and every one doing tits his utmost than will eve ever r conic come to us oven even if we can think out a method of abstract justice in sharing which did not stifle production of tho total product it Is n certainty we aro are confronted with a population in ili such numbers as can only exist by production attuned to a pitch in which the slightest reduction of the impulse to produce will at once create misery rind and want cant it if we throttle tho the fundamental impulses impulse of man inan our production will decay the world in tills this hour Is witnessing tho the most overshadowing tragedy of ten centuries in the heartbreaking heart breaking lifts and death struggle with starvation by a nation with a hundred and fifty millions of people in russia under tho the now new tyranny a group groupen gro in pursuit of so bo caal theories have destroyed tho the primary mary self interest impulse of the ind andl vidual to production although socialism in a nationwide nation wide application has now proved itself with rivers of blood and inconceivable misery to be an economic and spiritual fallacy anti and lias has wrecked itself finally upon the rocks of destroyed production and moral degeneracy y I 1 bellove believe it to liae have been necessary for the world to have lina had this demonstration great theoretic and emotional ideas have arisen before in the worlds history and have in more than mere material bankruptcy deluged the world with fearful losses of life A purely philosophical view lew might be that in ili tho the long run humanity has to try every way oven even precipices in finding the road to betterment but thos are utterly wrong who say that individualism has as its only end the ho acquisition anti and preservation of arl avato property tho selfish snatching and hour hoarding dIng of tho common product our american individualism indeed lg is only in ili part tin an economic creed it alms almi to provide opportunity for self impression expression riot not merely economically but spiritually as well private property Is riot not a bettell in ili america tho the crushing of the liquor trade without a cent of compensation with scarcely even a discussion of it does riot not bear out the notion that wo we give property rights any headway over human rights our development of individualism shows tin cu iacre increasing illig tendel tendency lcY to 0 o regail right of prope property arty not as tin an object li it itself but in the light of a useful and necessary instrument in stimulation of initiative to the individual riot not only stimulation to lihn him flint ho he may g gain ain personal comfort security in life protection to ills 1113 family but also because individual tit accumulation and ownership Is a bas basis Is of selection to lea leadership dersh lp in ill administration of the tools of industry and commerce it Is where dominant private property lg Is assembled in tho the hands of the groups who control the state that the individual begins to feel en capital ns aa in oppressor our american demand for equality of opportunity port unity Is a constant militant check upon capital becoming n R thins thing to be feared out of fear we nye sometimes even so go too far aud and the reproductive uso use of cri capital pital by crushing tho the five that makes for its creation sonio some discussion of tho the legal gions wo we have placed upon domination Is given later on oil but it Is desirable to mention here certain potent forces in ili our economic life that aro are themselves providing their own correction to domination tho the domination by arbitrary individual oi ners filp Is di disappearing aring because t thu I 1 in wor works ks of today tire are ste steadily adaly growing moro more and moro more beyond tho the resources of tiny onu one individual anti steadily taxation will reduce relatively c excessive individual accumulations tho the number of persons in partnership through division of among jnnny stockholders Is stend steadily ity increasing thus to partners in a single concern tire aro riot not uncommon nion tho the overwhelmingly largest portion of our mobile capital Is that or of our banks companies building and loan associations find and the vast majority of till all this Is uie the aggregated small all savings of our people thus large is 19 steadily becoming moro more and more moio a mobilization of file savings of the small holders tho actual people themselves tind its administration I 1 becomes I 1 tit at once more sensitive to it alie 0 mo moral ral opinions of the people in order to attract their support the directors and managlia man ninna ageia gei s of largo large concerns themselves employees of these groat great groups of individual stockholders or polley policy holders reflect a spirit ot of community responsibility largo large masses of capital cay can only find their market for service or production to groat numbers of tho the same kind of people that they employ till and they must therefore ninin maintain tain conal jence in their public responsibilities in ili order to retain their custo customers iners in ili times when tho the products of manufacture were mostly luxuries injuries to the average n go of the people the condition of their employees was of tie no such huch interest to their customers as whon when they enter to employees employ aea in ili general of tills this latter no greater proofs tie need c a exist than the efforts of ninny many large concerns directly dependent upon public good will to restrain prices in ili scarcity and the lie very general desire to t yield a measure of service with the goods soll sold another phase of tills this same development in or of capital Is tho the growth of a sort of institutional anse in many largo large business enterprises the encouragement of solidarity in ili all grades of their employees in ill tho common service and common success t the lie sense of mutu mutuality allty with the prosperity of tho the community are both vital development in ili individualism there has beet beer in the last thirty years nn an extraordinary growth of organizations for advancement of ideas in ili tho the community for mutual co opera tion find and economic object objectives iNes the chambers of commerce trade associations labor unions bankers farmers propaganda associations and what riot not these are indeed variable mixtures 0 of altruism and self nevertheless egg I 1 in n these groups the individual finds an ail opportunity for self expression anti and participation in ili tho the molding of idena ideas a field for training and tho stepping stones for leadership the number of leaders in local and national life whose opportunity to service and leadership camo through these associations has become now of more importance than those through tho the direct lines of political and religious at times these groups como come into sharp conflict and often enough charge each other crimes against public interest aliey do contain faults if they develop into warring interests if they donil dominate wite legislators rind and initial dato date public officials it if they art are to be a now new set setting ting of tyranny tv ranny then they will destroy the foundation of individualism our government will then drift into the hand handi i of timo timorous rons mediocrities do dominated winsted by groups until we shall bacon beron A ft a ss endl caUst nation en cr a gigantic scale on oil the other lilt 1 ind each group Is a realization of grf uter itter mutuality of interest each contains some clemett of public service and each Is a of public responsibility in tho the main the same forces that permeate uio the nation at large eventually permeate these groups the sense of service a growing sense of responsibility and tho the sense of constructive opposition to domination constantly recall in them their responsibilities as well as their privileges in the end no group can call dominate the nation and n few successes in imposing ing the will of any group Is its sure death warrant today business organization Is moving strongly toward operation cooperation co there are in ili the co operative great hopes that wo we can even gain in individuality equality of opportunity nud and an barged held field for anti nt at the same time reduce many of tho the great wastes of over reckless a competition in ili production and distribution those who nho either cither congratulate themselves or those who fear that operation cooperation co la Is till nil advance toward need neither rejoice or worry borr cooperation in ill ltd its current economic sense represents diio initiative of self interest blended with a n sense of service senko for nobody belongs to n co operative who is not striving till ng to soil sell tits his products or services son ices for moro more or striving to buy from others for less or striving serl ing to make tits his income moro secure their numbers members tire 1110 fur neshin the capital for extension of their ac activities ti just JUM as effectively us its if they lid did it in ili corporate form anti and they alicy tire simply transferring the proult prin pi in from joint return to individual return their only success lies luhcs lui cs the alie eliminate waste nite cither in ili production or distribution and they can to do neither inthey destroy individual nilve indeed this phase of dolub ment of our antl iset promises to become the int note of its aleth century expansion hut but it will mill thrive only in so far us its it can call con leadership and a 1 sense of service cc and so long ns its it pre the titi in I 1 anti safeguards tho the individual ity of its members the economic system which lg Is th tho U result of our individualism Is not s a frozen organism it moves rapidly in ili its forin fonn of under the lin fill pulse of initiative of our citizens of groN rowling ving science of linger larger production mid of constantly cheapening distribution A great test of the soundness of a 11 social system must bo be its ability to evolve within itself those orderly shifts in ili its ita administration that enable it to apply appl the new tools of social economic and intellectual progress and to elliel nato tho the malign forces that may grow in ili tho the application of these tools tool when 1 we 0 o were almost wholly till an ngi agricultural people our form of organization and adain admin ration both in fit the govern mental till and economic holds fields could be ba simple with the enormous shift in growth to industry Ind and commerce wo have hae erected organisms that each generation has denounced as I branken rank en stellis yet set the succeeding generation proves them thein to bo be controllable ano and useful the growth of corporate or of our banking systems of our railways of our electrical power powe r of our farm co cooperatives of our trade unions of our trade associations and of a hun hundred dreLl others indeed dew de both bolh beneficent tind and malign forces tit alio timid become frightened bilut our basic social ideas march through the new things in ill tit the end our denin gogue of both radical and t brood li eed thrive tarlo on demands for the destruction st or of one or another of these organizations as the only solution for their defects yet iet progress pi ogress requires only a of the alie vital pies pie of our with its safe guard of true equality of opportunity in them TO nn CONTINUED coNTiN unD Covy copyright right 1923 by doubleday rage co published by arrangement with western newspaper new News union |