第25章 Chapter 4(6)

In so characterising the situation there is, of course, no inclination to impute blame to these businesslike officials who are patriotically giving their best abilities and endeavors to this work of enforcing an increased production in the essential industries and diverting needed labor and materials from the channels of waste; nor is it intended to cast aspersions on the good faith or the honorable motives of those grave captains of industry whom the officials find it so difficult to divert from the business man's straight and narrow path of charging what the traffic will bear. "They are all honorable men," But like other men they are creatures of habit; and their habit of mind is the outcome of experience in that class of large, responsible and remunerative business affairs that lie somewhat remote from the domain of technology, from that field where the mechanistic logic of the industrial arts has something to say. It is only that the situation as here spoken of rests on settled usage, and that the usage is such as the businesslike frame of mind is suited to; at the same time that this businesslike usage, of fixed charges, vested interests and reasonable profits, does not fully comport with the free swing of the industrial arts as they run under the new order of technology. Nor is there much chance of getting away from this situation of "incapacity by advisement," even under pressure of patriotic devotion, fear, shame and need, inasmuch as the effectual public opinion has learned the same bias and will scarcely entrust the conduct of its serious interests to any other than business men and business methods.

To return to the argument. It may be conceded that production in the essential industries, under pressure of the war needs, rises to something like a 50 percent efficiency. At the same time it is presumably well within the mark to say that this current output in these essential industries will amount to something like twice their ordinary output in time of peace and business as usual, One-half of 50 percent is 25 percent; and so one comes in sight of the provisional conclusion that under ordinary conditions of businesslike management the habitual net production is fairly to be rated at something like one-fourth of the industrial community's productive capacity; presumably under that figure rather than over.