' 6 I i : i s ~y' -;/' 9061 "IZ NVf '1M -\&K WwX^ >w^A/> ^b TECHNOCRACY FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD SERIES Social Universals By William Henry Smyth FIRST SERIES Human Instincts in Reconstruction: An Analysis of Urges and Suggestions for Their Direction National Industrial Management: Practical Suggestions for National Reconstruction Ways and Means To Gain Industrial Democracy Skill Economics For Industrial Democracy SECOND SERIES Magic Money, Money Magic and the Magician: The Payers and — the Fading Smile The Method of Solving Problems Generally And Our Social Problem in Particular A Working Method for a Workable Understanding Of the Social Problem and of a Workable Reconstruction Labor, Skill, Tally, Organization and Their Functions: Production, Distribution, Direction THIRD SERIES Animal-man and Man-animal: A Working Understanding of Man the Social Unit Old Irascible Strong and Trixie Cunning Their Sons and Modern Society Parasitism and Personality: Conflicting Drifts in the Evolution of Society The World's Great Crisis: Emergence of Social Self-Consciousness Social Universals .. Copyright, J521, bp W_ ;H; Smyth. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE SOCIAL UNREST WHAT IS THE NATURE OF ITS ENERGIZING FORCE IS THERE AN INTELLIGIBLE PRINCIPLE BEHIND IT WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE PRINCIPLE WHITHER IS THE WORLD WIDE MOVEMENT TENDING I wonder . . FOREWORD. I have read "Technocracy" with very great in- terest. 1 have been reaching the conclusion (hir- ing the last year especially that engineers and technical men hold a peculiarly strategic position in the- whole industrial structure of modern soci- ety ; and on this account, as well as for the substance of it, "Technocracy" makes a special appeal to me. Views of more or less similar import appear to be coming from a considerable range of tech- nical men. All of this seems to indicate a fairly well-defined rebelliousness of practicing me- chanics and engineers against the mechanistic philosophy of life. It is a significant fact that seemingly the strongest, most persistent uphold- ers of the mechanistic philosophy are men who are not mechanics or mechanists at all in the practical sense. WM. E. RITTER. [William Emerson Ritter, Ph. D.. is the eminent scientist and philosophical thinker who is Director of the Scripps Institution for Biological Research; Pro- fessor of zoology in the University of California; President of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science (Pacific Branch); founder of "Science Service," and author of "War, Science and Civilization"; "I he Higher Usefulness of Science"; "The Prohahle Infinity of Nature and Life"; "The Unity of the Or- ganism"; "An Organismal Theory of Consciousness"; etc. — Editor.] Reprinted from the Gazette, Berkeley, California Copyright, 1920, 1921, 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.)— Editor. to M ». c 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 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 217980 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 in favor of Cunning (under a changed and relatively modern guise repre- senting the instinctive Urge to Take) expressing itself as Commer- cialism. With this change came a consequent modification of usages, laws, and institutions appropriate to its highest expression — Capitalism — capitalistic economics. The result of this last oscillation of control in favor of (acquisitive) Cunning was that Germany became a nation of slaves, England a nation of paupers, France quit breeding, and the United 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 Cun- ning — for the control of men, and the products of their activity. But this last and most spectacular conflict is complicated by the intru- sion of the most modern and most rapidly developing factor — Organized 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 — older than the race itself — the struggle to satisfy the primordial instincts: to 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, 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- stinct — Autocracy. The present amply cieti'es based upon the Mastery In- TECHNOCRACY proves 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 [deals 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- nating 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 with "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 Nation. Purpose. No lesson of the War is more significant than: Given a National Purpose, intelligently comprehended and acquiesced in — only unselfish Leadership is needed, and neither control by force nor control by cunning is necessary to bring about the unification of effort needed to accomplish the Nation's Objective. The significance of this lesson is the utter irrationality of national control in the hands of any class characterized by self-centered in- stincts, or that strength or skill or cunning should be dominating fac- tors in the social structure. Though none of these factors should dominate, each and all of these vital and necessary elements should have free scope for the so- cially effective outflow of its particular expression of life energy. Second only in significance to the acquiescence and co-operation of the united people is the method irre- sistibly forced upon the Nation by the logic and necessities of its stu- pendous War problem. First Real Nation. This most modern economic in- stitution, and the unified co-opera- tion of the united people, are the two outstanding lessons of the War for us. Taken together, they point sig- nificantly to the solution of our social problem — the lacking element which should and could consciously, deliberately, and rationally unify the basic instinctive urges into an har- monious direction of national effort and so produce a humanly efficient national organization — the first real Nation on earth! The lacking element? — the element which is adapted to assume the func- tion and position to be vacated by the obsolescent autocratic concept — arbitrary "control" — the element ca- pable of controlling without con- trol, of making Freedom effective, Democracy a living fact as well as a noble Ideal! In this, as in many other seem- 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 its proper function of Social Strain Equalizer. Indeed, this urge factor, more even than the Instincts — "to Live," "to Make," "to Take," "to Control" — is the most universal and most humanly characterizing trait of that most marvelous complex — Man. Desire to Know. I refer to Curiosity — curiosity ra- tionalized into Desire to Know. Desire to Know, while equally urgent for gratification, inherently lacks the undesirable and inappro- priate qualities which render the other human Instincts unsuitable as organizing and strain equalizing fac- tors in the social structure. Also it possesses qualities and attributes which make it peculiarly adapted to perform the rationally harmonizing function so irrationally assumed in all earlier social organizations under the guise of Forceful and Cunning Control. 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 impersonal; while it is as aggressive as other Instinctive Urges, charac- teristically its energies and activities are directed at Nature, not in ag- gression on human opponents; hence it engenders no human strife; and while it drives furiously, it drives none but its possessor — in the pur- suit of Knowledge. Desire to Know, while profoundly interested in all that pertains to Human Life and living — to eugenics and racial development — character- istically its possessor would risk his own life in the pursuit of Knowledge. Desire to Know, though urgently interested in Nature's Laws and in all that concerns the correct making and constructing of things, charac- teristically lacks desire to make or construct things, but seeks only sys- tematized concepts of Knowledge. Desire to Know, while deeply in- terested in all that pertains to the 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 Urge 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 W T ar: 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 WEALTH MORE PRECIOUS THAN HUMAN PERSONALITY? 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 sacrosanctily. 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- 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- miaistcred 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 "fags" 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 yond measure less wasteful of Doers and Suppliers. So it 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 racially 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 sir.^ly 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 spiritual 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 iife, 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 eld estab- lished modes of thought— howsoever irrational — makes progress in this di- rection seem almost hopeless. Familiar Fallacies. Most reluctantly are familiar fal- lacies 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 uns." 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 "Gott 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 ol thousands of human beings; and even 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 the chances are it will work untold social calamity. There are so many roads to go wrong, and only one way to go right. To leave a force and factor of such supreme social significance and 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 science as well as armed men are kept within the harness of civiliza- tion.") Democracy. In the rough, Democracy is the rule of the mob, the rule of the masses, the rule of the majority — the rule of un-intelligence. But even so, it 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- mocracy alone encloses and fosters the 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, medievalis m, 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 masterv. 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 Avliich 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; Ave 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 exceptionallji skilled; let us commandeer, conscript, enlist, their loyalty, their devotion, their enthusiasm, their intelligence, their interest, their talents, their ac- complishments for the purposes of 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 of national reconstruction; let us not tinker with futile details — let us na- tionally Re-construct. Such a national co-ordination of 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 arc 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- pointed 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 eaeli 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-Ethicalr In the light of Modern Science, human experience shows that Na- ture's dealings with Man carry no more moral or ethical significance than id 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 anisnis 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 out "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 our 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 "M oney 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; never 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 wealth 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. "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. 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" 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 with 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- unintelligence. 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. When 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 wMi dvke, and mill, and pump he holds his prize secure from angry wave and wind and shifting sand. A nriz^ in- deed! — a rich and pro c <~>prous 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 mechanic; 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 "Hu- 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 arc 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 our 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- not 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 gencies — 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- tation." 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 cap. if we will- — providing our aims and objectives are in accord (lie Rational Order of Nature. It is only in purposive action that n freedom — self-determination — is expressed. An aimless man or a purposeless "nation" is an equally insignificant Lent 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 and 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 — r^cy. 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 Shecp- r 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 i 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 mistunderstandihg 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 our 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 die 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 2? Fall parti-colorcd 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 its economics. So if our Mechanistic Age, our Democratic Dispensation is not to prove a futile race experiment, a will-o-thc-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. Bui, 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 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 Ape 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, ii and power. Indeed, it would seem, that of all the facts, circumstances, and incidents, constituting present conditions of hu- life, "blind chance" has irration- ally 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- asure 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 itial 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- 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 unconscious 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 conies, 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 presei able picture of a lifeless thin ing an everlasting and inexhaustible supply of goods." Was ever gross superstitious ignor- ance or "black art" more crassly at variance with facts iture's Laws or the S 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 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 i hings — 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 with future bullets and feeding our soldier boys with future food— substi- tuting "future savings" (!) of future generations tor 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- sion 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 arthly result which would not otherwise have occurred; never was solitary grain of gold transmuted from metal by the magic of the myriads of guaranteed "Philosopher's mir- acles happen — except in the distorted s of the simple ones who ians 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 franl erts: "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 cost! 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 honest}- — 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 fed and clothed and housed, and the children schooled, — or the supply of Makers would soon peter out. For these unavoidable necessities the "Financiers" allow, on an average, a thousand dollars a year per family; a "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- rived 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 31 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 Nchcmiah'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 shrunk to four inches or so (!) 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. TECHNOCRACY 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 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 when 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 mint 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 ownership 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 group 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! Whether these proposed changes arc 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 being "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 lack> 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 tor 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. Fernwald, Berkeley, March 20, 1919. 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. Reprinted from the Gazette, Berkeley, California. Copyright, 1921, by W. H. Smyth Technocracy Second Series PART I. Magic Money, Money Magic and the Magician ; The Payers and — the Fading Smile. By William Henry Smyth FOREWORD. University of California, Department of Philosophy, I have read with keen interest this series of discussions on "Technoc- racy." They constitute an interesting and incisive analysis of some im- portant factors of our present day society. One need not agree with all of the author's comments and conclusions, but the spirit of his inquiry, and the serious attempt to be scientific and analytical will impress every thoughtful reader. G. P. ADAMS. (George Plimpton Adams, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy in the University of California.) Note: The First Series of Technocracy outlines a program of social recon- struction under the guidance of nationally organized Science. The Second Series develops, in simple language and with common examples, the working method, the ways and means proposed by the author for attaining such social order and contentment, and thus destroying the peril of revolution. In Part I Mr. Smyth sets forth the antagonism, in our society, of ancestral superstition, obvious in economics, notably effective in finance, as against the modern point of view, enforced by Science and our every-day-life familiarity with and dependence on machines and machine processes — with the resulting social tension accumulating to the breaking strain. — Editor. Mechanics and Economics. prehension and understandable to or- Mechanics deals with things— dinary intelligence, things governed by unchangeable and "Economics" and "Finance," to Mr. unchanging Laws of Nature. The ba- Average Man, seem realms of pro- sic facts and principles of Mechanic found impenetrable mystery governed Arts have passed out of the region of b y occult forces, doubt or controversy — they are firmly T „ , . -rvrr^ founded upon the proofs of scientific Important Difference. experiment. The difference in our mental atti- • Economics, on the contrary, is con- tude towards these two departments cerned with easily changeable (man- of human effort, to which I have di- made) rules and regulations— commu- rected attention, serves in part at least nity usages intended to facilitate so- to explain why it is that we would cial activities. Hardly any two an- unquestioningly accept (as being bnl- thorities are agreed upon the basic hantly reasonable) a proposal by a "facts" of economics, nor are these "Financier," that with spontaneous "facts" determinable by the tests of scorn we would reject (as being ob- experimental science. viously crazy), if suggested by a me- i-«i • /-m ■ chanic. Clarity and Obscurity. i t j s so easy to overlook the cus- Mechanics and machines, to Mr. Av- tomary that this common happening erage Man, are quite within his com- is not commonly noted; nonetheless 217980 38 TECHNOCRACY it is a fact and social factor of more than ordinary importance, for it throws light on social problems, upon the solution of which may depend our escape, in the United States, from the condition of Europe, particularly that of Russia. "Future Savings." Obviously (to commonsense), if workers worked in future materials or if soldiers shot at each other with fu- ture bullets, or if both toilers and fighters fed on future food, only vis- ionary products and dream carnage could result. So, should a Mechanic propose to us an "invention" intended to enable workers, feeders, and fighters to fight today, feed today, work today, and jag today on next year's or next cen- tury's materials, food, booze, and en- ergy; we should tap our foreheads significantly, and murmur— "Wheels!" Let, however, Mr. Financier make the same proposition as Mr. (Nuttie) Mechanic, and we joyfully shout — "Hurrah! for the Future!"; and hand our "Wizard of Finance" a thousand billion dollar blanket mortgage "bond" on the world, (i. e., "National Debts," and intra-national "credit" instru- ments) paying Financier 5% interest for ever — to "finance the enterprise." When a dapper and dextrous gen- tleman, in evening costume — with con- vincing evidence of "no deception" — produces ribbons and rabbits, pigeons and poultry, guinea-pigs and goldfish, from a magic hat, we — undeceived — smilingly applaud his skill. But, let Mr. Financier's learned co- adjutor Professor Economicus solemn- ly and lengthily discourse learnedly regarding steaks and steamships; su- gar, shoes and psychics; copper and coal; jags, joys and jimjams; cotton, coaloil, and cucumbers; cabbages and kings, dollars and diamonds, quantum and quahogs — all that heart of man desires — spontaneously generated out of a magic hat of "future savings" (i. e., mysteriously conventionalized "credit"), we listen in respectful amaze, and hopefully hand our petty surplus present products to Mr. Finan- cier — as a small consideration for the great and mysterious future benefits to be conferred by his wondrous cre- ative art! Such "finance" and "economic" hap- penings as these are so common, usual, everyday experiences that they pass smoothly by without any awak- ening shock to our intelligence; thus they escape critical attention. None- theless from these casual unnoted causes flow our social unrest and world-conflict. Magic Money. (a) "This war must be financed, not out of past savings but out of future savings. Future savings are for the moment 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- sion of bank credit." Money Magic. (b) "And, finally, it flows in to the capitalist without ever exhausting the capital from which it comes, and there- fore without any necessary limit to its continuance. It is, if one may use such an expression about mundane things, capable of an everlasting life. 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." "Economics" vs. Horsesense. Quotation (a) is the considered pro- nouncement of a foremost banker and a national power in the "World of Finance." Quotation (b) is the deliberate ut- terance of a leading if not the leading authority in the "Realm of Econom- ics." Both statements, with practical unanimity, are accepted as expressions of Twentieth Century economic intelli- gence. If quotation (a) is not in essence precisely the proposal of our crazy "in- ventor" and if (b) does not in effect describe the performance of the presti- digitator, and if both are not definite and serious expressions of (real even if unconscious) belief in magic, then words have no meaning and rational thought is a futile farce. TECHNOCRACY 39 Should cither proposition (a or b) come (in precisely the same form) from a mechanic, it would require no stretch of the imagination to foretell the verdict of a lunacy commission regarding his fate. Modern Diabolism. It is noteworthy that our mental attitude toward the .Mechanic is prac- tical, matter-of-fact, modern; toward the Financier it is "natural," sub- conscious, and old as the human race. In this first quarter of the Twen- tieth Century, the overwhelming majority still persist in our ages-old belief in supernatural outcomes — something from nothing. Indeed, it is probable that not one of us is quite liberated from the ancient thrall of superstition in some of its myriad aspects. So deeply ingrained in the fiber of human thought is the idea of magic causation, that this is still the "natural" explanation of any strange happening. Our common speech, our vocations, relaxations, institutions, (secular and sacred), are full to overflowing with evidence to the persistance of prac- tically universal belief in sorcery, de- monology, witchcraft, black-art and magic. We legalize "chance" for the dis- tribution of wealth, for the "owner- ship" of property, and for success in life. We commercialize and institu- tionalize luck, gambling, speculation — socialize worship of the "fickle god- dess." We pray "God" to pet and coddle us, and we bribe "Him" to clout without mercy those of whom we disapprove. We supplicate rain for our little alfalfa patch — regardless of our neighbor's blossoming orchard. We "bless" our friends politely, and "curse" our enemies with pro- fuse elaboration. We have sanctified days, places, and things, not forgetting a fair- sized remnant of super-sanctified peo- ple. We habitually apply the term "wiz- ard" to every man who produces results that arouse our wonder — Wizard of Invention, Wizard of Art, Wizard of Finance. We constantly talk of the Magic of invention, the Magic of art, the Magic of money. Still we ignore these facts and pretend that the modern use of hoary old witchcraft words is metaphorical, and that our continued use of Black Art and White Magic customs does not imply belief in Diabolism and necromancy as in the past. But association of ideas, race his- tory, nursery impressions, and com- munity heritage are all too strong for the strongest of us, so the best we at- tain is verbal and vociferous denial thinly and shamefacedly masking con- scious, subconscious, and unconscious belief in magic. Two Ways of Thinking. Add now the new factors, Modern Science and Printing, — with the con- comitant spread of scientific thinking — which knows not, repudiates, and wars with mystery, occultism, magic — and we have the perfectly natural re- sults which we see all around us: dis- agreements, disputes, strikes, lock- outs, riots, I. W. W.-ism, Bolshevism, revolutions, rebellions, World War; results the final outcome of which — depending upon general human intel- ligence — will make for unprecedented social progress or for anarchy and the downfall of present civilization. Mechanics, Modern Science and sci- entific mode of thinking practically be- gan with the Steam Engine and mod- ern machines of precision. Economics is coeval with the Hu- man Race. So it has come about that each one of us has two separate sets of ideas, two distinct ways of thinking — the Ancient and the Modern. Truth Resented. Even so, a statement that our (more or less) self-consistent "Financial Sys- tem" is to any serious extent con- structed out of unscientific fancies and rots upon nothing more solid than ancient superstition, is a shock to van- ity, as an insult to our intelligence: an insult directed not at the ignorant anion*- us or at the thoughtless ordin- ary citizen, but, at our leaders and our 40 TECHNOCRACY teachers, and at the "brilliant intel- lects" that control the world's activ- ities — the Premiers of Governments, the Kings of Commerce, the Emper- ors of Finance. Nonetheless, I believe the accusa- tion to be substantially true. For a Consideration. Under our modern business usages and economic customs, all social ac- tivities must be "financed"; every hu- man purpose from "winning souls to God" to building a toboggan slide hell- ward; from constructing a "little red schoolhouse" to destroying an empire; from borning to burying, every human enterprise must (as a matter of course), be "financed" — for a consid- eration. In brief, the modern fashion in smoothly separating Doer and Maker from the desirable results of his doing and making, is by "financiering the enterprise" — for a consideration. For a thousand years prior to our "Finance" dispensation, human activi- ties and enterprises had to be (similar- ly) sanctioned by "the Church" — for a consideration. For a thousand years or more, prior to "the Church," enterprises had to be similarly sanctioned by "the Or- acle" — for a consideration. Fashions change, but human nature is more unchanging than the granite cliffs; and the art of painlessly part- ing producer from his products is as old as civilization and — Magic still is, as it always has been, the painless parter's most effective "device." Indeed, the art of separating the worker from the results of his indus- try is far older than the human race: animals swipe their neighbors' hoards, bears steal honey, and bee swarms rob each other. Aeons of time and ages of human experience have not resulted in any essential change in purpose and out- come, but only in rendering the pro- cess more workmanlike and less messy. Animism in "Economics." A common feature in systems of magic is animism — attributing to in- animate objects the functions of life, assuming things to possess will, pur- pose, and power. It is significant (though quite in keeping) that "Economists" and "Fi- nanciers" have this characteristic at- titude of mind towards, and employ animistic forms of expression in writ- ing and talking about "Money" and "Capital." Whether this is due to unconscious belief in magic or is mere metaphor, the result, in either case, is befogging confusion of thought. When the President of a great banking corporation, in a serious pub- lic discussion on "War Taxation," for example, says: "Capital has a long memory . . . "; "Capital is proverbially timid . . ."; ". . . treason for capital and capi- talists . . . "; "... capital and men of enter- prise . . . "; "... capital and capitalists of to- day . . . "; he seems to be expressing nonsensical animism and belief in magic — magic no less crude and thinking no less na- ive and childlike than that of the av- erage man-on-the-street in his oft- stated conviction that "Money makes money," that "Dimes breed dollars," and suchlike popular aphorisms. Hazy verbal expression usually im- plies foggy thinking, and this is as true of the "highbrow" as of the rest of us. When language fails to clarify thought it is probable that the thoughts of its user need clarifying. Interpretation. Let us then (by means of a little paraphrastic amplification), endeavor to make clear just what our banker friend and adviser is really implying in these truly ear-catching phrases, which sound as though they really ought to mean something: Capital (i. e. a spade, or a plow, or a crowbar, is more favorably en- dowed than many of the human users thereof — it) has a long memory . . . Capital (i. e. a railroad, or a steam- ship, or a skyscraper is scared to be out alone after dark — it) is prover- bially timid . . . (It is) treason for capital (i. e. boilers and bullion, timber-land and mineral deposits, wharves and ware- houses to preach and practice the forc- ible overthrow of our government") and (likewise also for) capitalists TECHNOCRACY -II (when either capital or capitalist is caught in the act, he, she or it should be shot, or at least fed on low diet in close confinement until repent- ant) . . . Capital and capitalists of today, (on account of their like human attrib- utes, should be treated with all due and tender consideration of their like human frailties and timid self-sacri- ficing characteristics) . . . 1 wonder if this is precisely what friend Banker intended to imply, and us to understand him to mean. "Economic" Abracadabra. The literature of Wizardry — and it is amazingly voluminous — is charac- terized, both in word and in thought, by mind-racking unintelligible obscur- ity. It is curiously significant that the books devoted to modern Econom- ics and Finance are likewise couched in obscure jargon — abracadabra — not only meaningless to ordinary intel- ligence, but apparently also to the adepts in the alleged arts. Here are a few samples culled at random from a page in an article on "The Nature and Mechanism (!) of Credit," appearing in the Quarterly Journal of Economics: "... subjective value objecti- vised . . ."; "... force of value . . ."; "... psychic force . . ."; ". . . generic purchasing power "... present good for future good . . ."; "... present value of future industrial worth . . ."; and the list might be almost indefi- nitely extended. Truly, I do not lack courage, but I throw up my hands — confronted by these weirdly mystic phrases! To me they seem as essentially meaningless as the twaddle of the March Hare and the Hatter that so puzzled poor Alice — in Wonderland. Subjected to mere commonsense an- alysis not one of these mysteriously cabalistic phrases seems to have any more meaning, or to have any more relation to actual things in a work-a- day world of Science and Mechanics, than the amazingly similar jargon of Wizardry. Kilkenny Cats. Practically every "Economist" writ- er invents his own vocabulary, and contradicts the statements of every other; they ridicule each other's rea- soning; and seemingly each denies the validity of all economic axioms but his own — they fight like Kilkenny Cats. A hurricane of verbalization has yowled and a flood of billingsgate has raged in this tempestuously wordy conflict of economic mysticism. Bank- ers flatly contradict Bankers; and Economists arrive at diametrically op- posite conclusions — from the same "facts." In no other department of human thought is there so much discord and confusion as in the "Science of Eco- nomics." But . . . ! the Financier — gets there just the same. Fact and Fancy. It is practically certain that none of us knows when or to what extent superstition, ignorant mysticism and animistic fallacies color and vitiate his otherwise rational thinking. It should not surprise us therefore, to find whole areas of activities still ob- sessed with this primitive mode of thought, nor that the actors therein are unconscious of their mental state. Would -it not be the greatest miracle of all were it otherwise? Thus it is in high degree probable that old fallacies and superstitions still infest and ramify (unsuspected) those activities which deal with life in its more than ordinary complex aspects — religion, philosophy, government, fin- ance. These considerations (even without taking into account the ever-present factor of instinctive self-interest) suf- fice to make probability verge on cer- tainty, that all these departments of human activity involve an inextricable mingling of fact and fancy — science and superstition. War. Magic and Science — "Economics" and Mechanics — no contrast could be greater, no antithesis more complete; and between magic and science there must always be war. 42 TECHNOCRACY Just as the World War — with all its variety of aspects and complexities of motives — expresses the inherent con- flict between mutually exclusive and antagonistic social sys^ms — ancient Autocracy and modern democracy — so the world-wide social strife, indus- trial unrest, I. W. W.-ism, Bolshe- vism and other disruptive massisms, express, in last analysis the still more profound and equally unescapable con- flict between ancient Superstition and modern Science. Mumbo Jumbo. One of the commonest of human er- rors is that of mentally putting the cart before the horse — mistaking the effect for the cause and vice versa. We all reason more or less childishly, impressed by the obvious. In our childhood's games, custom (hoary with age) prescribes concur- rent forms of senseless words and ir- relevant acts, words and acts to which we ascribe such causative effect in the outcome that, to our childish minds, the game would be impossible without their magic. So, too, it is much the same with us, as grownups. In our social activities, custom (hoary with age and saturated with ancient superstitions) prescribes the mumbo jumbo we now call "financing the enterprise." And to our obsessed minds this voodoo becomes an all-im- portant factor of such causative effect that without its potent magic it would be unsafe, if not impossible, to build a schoolhouse or wage a war. Pedigree. We see with our eyes • the obvious fact that "financing" precedes and accompanies all undertakings and en- terprises; we see with our eyes that doings, and makings, and enterprises grow apace and increase most mar- velously, so — "naturally" — we ascribe to the "Financier" a large measure of effect in the outcome. And the source of the financier's power to do these "miracles" and work these wonders being mysterious and occult, we "naturally" concede him a large share of the proceeds, and we (equally naturally) accord to our modern Wizard (of "Finance") that respectful awe which in all past times we have been accustomed to render to his forebears and predeces- sors in magic — the Medicine Man, the Witch Doctor, the Soothsayer, the Oracle, the Astrologer, the Ma- gician, the Ecclesiastic. Custom and usage is merely con- tinuing its normal course in those two realms of activity now called Finance, and Productive Industry — Capital and Labor. D-e-b-t Spells Slavery. Enterprises (whether constructive or destructive, whether productive or unproductive, whether of peace or of war), when "financed," become in- debted to the "Financier" in propor- tion to their magnitude; hence, the harder the worker works, the more industrious and enterprising the Worker Community, the faster and greater grows the Community indebt- edness — a truly quaint, queer, curious and mysterious system of "econom- ics"! And the more closely it is exam- ined the more quaintly mysterious it seems. Mystery is and always has been the "device" of the cunning to de- spoil and enslave the simple; and no fact of large social significance is today more glaringly apparent than the general and mysterious drift of desirable things out of the hands of those who make them into the con- trol of others. Equally clear is it that the motor "device" in this drift, taken by-and- large, is that mysterious process we call "financing the enterprise"; and by the same token its most efficient instrumentality is magic money and money magic. It is not necessary to assume con- scious intent on the part of the "Financier" to enslave the "Worker Masses", still, in a practical world it is the practical outcome not the in- tent that is of practical importance; and in the orthography of modern economics "slavery" is spelled with only four letters — D-E-B-T. The Magic Hat. As — "economically" (!) — debt im- plies interest "which flows to the capitalist without ever exhausting the TECHNOCRACY 43 capital from which it comes and therefore without any necessary limit to its continuance, it is . . . ca- pable of an everlasting life . . . a lifeless thing producing an ever- lasting and inexhaustible supply of goods" — steaks and steamships, welsh- rabbits and railroads, women and wine, dinners and diamonds, farms and factories; parks, palaces, pleas- ures, power — leisure and luxury, and all that lustful heart of man desires, all flowing in an everlasting, self- creating stream, not out of but into the magic hat — of the smiling finan- cial prestidigitator. But . . . ! the responsive smile is ominously fading from the faces of the dazed payers of the perform- ance, gazing in goggle-eyed perr. lex- ity at this quaint inversion of the familiar old magic-hat trick. Who? and What? Who are they from whose faces the smile is so ominously fading? What does the fading of the smile mean? What does it portend? They — are "the people." Of them I have written heretofore: "They do not think (constructively) . . . they feel — feel hunger, feel passion — they feel with all the vital energy of the race. Thus when so- cial conditions become unbearable or threaten their vital function (repro- duction), they reflex with unre- strained ferocity. ..." That is what it means — the fading of the smile. What it portends is — Revolution. Question! Is that — even as only a possibility — a worthwhile social outcome, con- sidering our stupendous National op- portunity? Is our present social condition one to which we can justly point with National pride? Is our present social condition worthy of National self-praise or of self-condemnation when we think of our century of nationally unhampered freedom and consider our vast con- tinental area of the most fertile, the most resourceful, and most favorably situated land and — the most intelli- gent mass of human kind on earth, on the job? Is our present social condition a goal for which an intelligent healthy- minded Nation would deliberately strive? Is our present social condition the Objective for which we — as a Na- tion — have deliberately striven dur- ing our National life? What is — now — our National Ob- jective? Fernwald, Berkeley, California. November 5, 1920. ANIMALS REPRODUCE THEIR KIND: CAN "MONEY MAKE MONEY"? Technocracy Second Series PART II. The Method of Solving Problems Generally And Our Social Problem in Particular. By William Henry Smyth Note: Part II of Technocracy — Second Series makes easily and clearly understandable a method of solving problems by disregarding details (ac- cidentals) and focusing on principles (essentials), and the peculiar applicability of this method to the social problems. In so applying it, it is shown that social forces and (human) materials are nature-given — unchangeable — and act in obedience to laws of nature (instinctive urges, etc.), but by the same method by which the mechanic utilizes "destructive" natural forces to subserve his human purposes, attains his ends, and prevents disaster, we may (and not otherwise) avoid impending social calamity — forestall revolution. Freedom of Choice. Nations, like individuals, have free- dom of choice to do well or ill — to act wisely or otherwise. Nations, like their human elements, are subject to growth, to degeneration, to catastrophe. They are subject, in other words, to evolution, devolu- tion, revolution. And, as in the case of individuals, their growth, health, freedom from accident — their continued prosperity — depends upon their knowledge of the laws of Nature and the intelligent use they make of this knowledge. "Great" and "Small." Seemingly "Nature" makes no more distinction between nations and indi- viduals — is no more considerate of millions than of units, than we are. toward an ant or a swarm of ants. Indeed, in the midst of the bil- lions of giant suns constituting our "Universe" the significance of our whole huge Earth and all its con- tents, animate, and inanimate, seems to shrink into absolute negligibility. But, "great" and "small" are human notions. "Nature" is just as "great" in its smallest parts as it is "small" in its greatest. And it is human Intelligence which comprehends both the greatness of the telescopic universe of suns and solar systems, and the equal greatness of the microscopic "universe" of mole- cules and sub-molecules that make up a grain of sand. Responsibility. The practical point of this more or less philosophical introduction is that wc humans find ourselves on a mag- nificently equipped earth, endowed with freedom of choice to use or abuse our splendid opportunities, with the inevitable alternative of sanely joyous life or futily premature death. And we of the United States hold the most favorable portion of the globe and an unequalled physical and spiritual heri- tage, with corresponding magnitude of responsibility; responsibility flow- ing from and out of our God-given and God-like freedom of choice. Intelligence. It is not necessary (as is both cus- tomary and confusing) to read "pur- pose" into the "acts of Nature." It is enough to discern their unmistak- ably marked drift. This drift is a datum — a basic fact — that willy-nilly we must accept. It is this drift we call Evolution. But there is this distinction between Man and "Nature": Nature is imper- sonal, mechanistic; Man is endowed with Personality — intelligence and TECHNOCRACY 45 freedom of choice; and is thereby en- abled to become an active and pur- poseful participator in the processes of evolution, and by judiciously selecting his relation to the drift he becomes the sole responsible arbiter of his fate — the master of his destiny. Perplexity. But, can man's finite mind really discern and steer a certain course among the infinite complexities of the Universe? Why not? The difficulty is not nearly so great as many think. For every complexity is reducible to simplicity. Perhaps you have recently visited the California, one of our latest fight- ing ships. And being neither a naval man nor a mechanic, what you saw was probably a seemingly unintellig- ible and mind confusing mass of com- plexities, filling you with wonder, but also with helpless bewilderment. Principles. But, looked at the right way, the battleship would have been as easy reading as this sentence is to you. You would have automatically looked for the very few essential ideas — princi- ples — upon which every mechanism and every combination of mechanisms must be built; and these perceived, the rest would have been as simple as unrolling a ball of twine; for, after all, what you saw was only a dug-out with cobble-stones to throw at the enemy — modernized. Complex Machinery? You know that the battleship hull is merely a large floating sharp-ended box or shell. You know that it has motor means to give it motion; steer- ing means to give it direction; arma- ment to give it fighting efficiency. These simple essential elements equally characterize the primordial savage war-canoe and the modern civ- ilized battleship; and so considered one is no more bewildering than the other. And both are equally within the grasp of common-sense clear and ordered comprehension. As to the myriad minute details, by which these simple elements have gradually attained their modern re- finement, these are matters of merely incidental interest; each one of which complexities, however, could be re- duced to the same simplicity separ- ately — by the same method. Indeed, these separate elements con- stitute subject matters of separate arts, and they have been arrived at by the skilled mechanic by a process es- sentially corresponding to that which I have suggested to you, as the right way of looking at the battleship. Fictitious Complexity. The Mechanic knows no more about the ultimate nature (i. e. details) of the matter, materials, and forces which he employs, than you knew about the details of a fighting craft. All he knows or cares about are a few basic facts, the simple principles (elements) of Mechanics, and he pro- duces his results, so bewildering to you in their fictitious complexity, by applying these simple principles to whatever task he tackles. Experience. You will not charge me with ego- tism if I remind you that I am talk- ing as one who has been there. In my long experience as inventor, as inventor's adviser, as expert in a multitude of technical questions and patent litigations involving matters of the most intricate character, I have never found my method of lay- ing hold of the principles to fail; and I have never encountered another that will work. Method. Now this method, though unfor- tunately far from universally prac- ticed, is quite universally available. There is no reason in the world why you should not employ it as well, and with the same confidence, as I. For it rests, not upon a spe- cial endowment or any particular at- tainment, but on the commonsense discernment that every effect has a cause, and that at the bottom of a cluster of interrelated effects one must reach a simple cause. Universal Applicability. This effective method of attack is seemingly of universal applicability, 46 TECHNOCRACY and you should now be able to rec- ognize its use by me in the various articles of mine that you have read. You may also fathom the cause and foundation of the seemingly egotis- tical confidence with which I, a mere mechanic, plunge headlong into the all-but-sacred-and-awe-inspiring region of Sociology, Economics, and Finance — and unhesitatingly invite you to follow me. The method has in the past en- abled me to successfully pioneer in quite a number of arts in the details of which I was as ignorant as I am of those of Economics and Finance. Thus I do not feel that I am sug- gesting to you a course fraught with any more danger than that normal to being alive; either when I recom- mend your adoption of my method of attacking problems generally or in my asking you to follow me in my application of it to our "Social Prob- lem". Why Pessimistic? You Mall remember that the first part of this series ended somewhat pessimistically envisaging an ominous prospect and causative influences seemingly deep-seated and running back into the mists of antiquity. The great mass of the people are becom- ing more and more discontented with their condition, more and more per- plexed concerning its cause, and more and more bewildered (and increas- ingly impatient) as to the course to be pursued. To all with eyes to see it is clear that the social body is profoundly sick. And equally clear, that to cure a sickness, one must remove the cause; and that unless the cause is so removed, the sickness will run its course — possibly to death. Forestall Revolution. In the social body, when the process of sickness (such as we are now passing through) reaches a crit- ical point, another phase or phe- nomenon usually supervenes to save the moribund body from actual ex- tinction: Revolution. And just as it is the task of a sick man to fight off death, so our social problem, in its essence, is the task of forestalling Revolution. Remember the California. With our visit to the warship in mind, let us now prepare to apply to our Social Problem the method there tried out. We must first of all ascertain and grasp securely the simple basic prin- ciples on which the mechanism of the social body is built. This will carry us out of the maze of confus- ing details into the clearness of or- dered comprehension. We shall then be in a position to make an intelligent diagnosis of the social disorder, and to at least think clearly regarding the remedial course to be adopted. And, lest there be needless appre- hension, t let us note right here that it will not be necessary for us to lay down the curative (or recon- structive) procedure in its particu- lars — "a practical remedy" in detail. Just as on the battleship we should find experts competent to execute the details of any change found de- sirable, so we have in the social ag- gregation technicians to perform the corresponding tasks. What Evolution Is Not. No word is more on people's lips than "Evolution"; and none is more frequently misused, and misunder- stood. Social Evolution is often talked of as if it were a cosmic process forced on men wholly from the outside, re- gardless of their yea and nay; or again as if it were a beneficent dis- pensation "from on high" that some- how, and regardless of men's acts, will float them to the haven of social bliss. The typical expression of this last extraordinary misconception is: "Things will right themselves!" What Evolution Is. In so far as "Social Evolution" is used not merely as a pretentious label for any adventitious change, but for a continuing process analo- gous to that which has produced the animate world, from amoeba to Man, Social Evolution is indeed a "Nat- TECHNOCRACY 47 ural'' force which Alan must accept and to which he must adjust him- self as to all other forces of Nature, but which, like any other natural force, is available to Man for the accomplishment of his own purposes. Thus — and this is the decisive point — Man is not the helpless object of this evolutionary force, but a par- ticipating subject — a Master Me- chanic. Man's Will. It is nonsense to say Capitalism mu^t persist or that Socialism must come, by virtue of social evolution. whether men desire either one or the other or neither. Men in their social relations are not dust motes blown hither and thither by evolutionary winds. Men are intelligent beings, with freedom of choice; that is, free to use their intelligence. Use their intelligence for what? Obviously not for the purpose of trying to re-make Man — to treat as negligible basic traits fixed by suc- cessive survival through a million generations; or of attempting to alter the eternal forces of Nature. That were vain indeed! Natural forces, in social as well as in molecular and molar mechanics, in social as well as in biological evo- lution, are inexorable. They are not hostile to Man, neither are they friendly; they are simply regardless of him — impersonal. If the}' have any "will", they show none toward Man. But Man has will. Man has pur- pose. Man can! — if he will.*. . Man's Way. How then does Man do his will, work his purpose? To him who tries to see below the surface it is clear that purposeful action invariably is pivoted on a ju- dicious choice of the man's position in relation to the circumstances which he confronts. This is true even of the trite con- ditions of our daily lives: even these are usually determined for us. Our real freedom of action means our choice of different ways of placing ourselves in relation to these con- ditions — as a sailor, to keep his de- sired course, sets Ids sail with- ref- erence to the wind. Choice of Relation. It is even so with the greatest affairs, with the concerns of the Na- tion, with our whole Social Problem. Certain forces face and envelop us that we cannot change. But we can set our social sails and order our actions in relation to them and thus mediately affect the course of our social craft in the direction of a hu- manly desirable, predetermined goal. If our choice is unwise, those forces will run to our hurt. If we choose wisely, we may make a force seemingly opposed to our aim — sub- serve it. Thus we can convert what otherwise would have led to destruc- tion into constructive upbuilding — change malefaction into benefaction, criminality into social service, gen- eral nuisance into commonweal. Preventable Calamities. Think of the Johnstown flood, the San Francisco fire, the Titanic dis- aster, the frequent destructive over- flow of the Mississippi, the recurring inundations of the Sacramento Val- ley. All these represent Nature acting regardless of Man; and Man acting regardless of his own intelligence. In all these cases natural forces overwhelmed Man with calamity be- cause he had failed to exercise his intelligence in rightly choosing his relation toward these forces. After Event Wisdom. After the destruction of Johns- town, the seasonal floodwaters were wisely impounded — to prevent a repe- tition of the disaster. After the San Francisco fire, build- ings were wisely constructed of steel and concrete and an adequate water supply provided — to prevent a repe- tition of the disaster. After the Titanic and her human cargo had perished, her sister ship was wisely fitted with a double cel- lular bottom, and other provisions^ — to prevent a repetition of the dis- aster. After seasonal floods of Sierra 48 TECHNOCRACY snow waters have, time and again, destroyed, wholesale, men's works and the products of their industry, engineering measures are contem- plated in our great valley — to prevent the recurring disasters. Why Not Before? The Johnstown people knew their danger from flood! The San Franciscans knew their peculiar danger from fire! The owners of the Titanic knew the danger from icebergs! And all of us in the United States now — except those deliberately ob- structing their mental vision with blinkers of happy-go-lucky optimism — realize our impending danger from Revolution. There is nothing so foolish and ultimately disastrous as to blink un- pleasant facts; "saying peace, peace: when there is no peace." This blinking of facts — "trusting to luck", trusting that "things will right themselves"- — is the true cause of disaster. Shall we of the United States act like those foolish ones and like them suffer for our foolishness? Shall we continue to act with equal foolishness and enact silly "pro- hibition" and other repressive laws intended to accomplish the impos- sible — change fundamental human in- stincts and overturn the unalterable laws of Nature? Shall we, like Europe, wait to learn wisdom from social catastrophe — revolution? I hope not. Ways and Means. My hope that we shall forestall rev- olution will undoubtedly be echoed by all true Americans. But that our hope may be fulfilled, we cannot trust to luck or that things will right themselves. It will be necessary above all that we act, and not only act, but act intelligently. And we seem, as yet, far from anything like a general un- derstanding and agreement as to what must be done and what can be done. We cannot (and we would not if wc could) prevent the snow falling on the Sierras. We cannot prevent that snow from melting when and how fast it will. No matter how much we may prefer a nicely and "benevolent- ly" calculated graduation, we cannot prevent a sudden and "malevolently" unseasonable rise of temperature and sudden starting of a thousand "dev- ilishly" destructive freshets. Adjust Ourselves. But we can protect the forests, im- pound flood waters, regulate stream channels, build reservoirs, dams and levees. In short, we can forestall destruction flowing from impersonally neutral natural forces, which in them- selves aie unpreventable. Every one knows how much in that way we have already accomplished, and how much more is planned. We are not, however, confined to prevention. Flood waters, which would devastate, can be (and, as well known, are) turned into priceless means of production. By intelligence and skill and purposefulness they are made the means of reclaiming for man's use the desert, and of "gener- ating" light and power, and of helping to build up what may, and what many of us loyal Californians firmly believe will, become the apex of human cul- ture, the highest and truest civiliza- tion on earth. Immutable Nature. The point of application is plain. There are about us social forces that in themselves are just as little under our control as are the snow fall and thaw. Left to themselves they must run their "natural" course. And, like as not before we have time to catch our breath, the flood will be upon us; that direst deluge of all — Revolution. We cannot change the elemental facts of human nature. Unchangeable Types. In the first part of the first series of these Technocracy papers I have sketched in outline the origin and de- velopment of the primal instincts and propensities. These are as fixed as natural forces. They ai <•, indeed, nat- ural forces. We cannot change a bellicose man into a pacifist — a Roosevelt into a TECHNOCRACY 49 Wilson; nor a feeder and breeder into a philosopher; nor the acquisitive in- to the inventive. We cannot by any direct act abolish or even change sel- fishness, cunning, greed, cowardice, jusl as little as it would avail to try (and it has been tried) to eradicate courage, generosity, industry, public spirit. Human Material. To the social philosopher and the enlightened social reformer, and best of all to the plain citizen taking thought of these matters, the first step in the right direction, the first basic principle that must underlie an under- standing of the present Social Dis- order and be imbedded in the founda- tion of the Social Order to come, should be the real and effective recog- nition that all that may be accom- plished must be accomplished with the existing human material. Not Angels. There is nothing in this proposition to cause dejection to any one except to those who think our only salva- tion lies in our acquiring halos and growing wings. To many of us there is much deeper satisfaction and cause for hopefulness in the fact that, thanks to the Scien- tist, the Inventor, and the Mechanic, flying has become mechanically pos- sible, than sorrow over the circum- stance that our heads are not heboid and the skin covering our scapulas (male or female) remains as bare of feathers as before. Reconstruction. It is indeed the Scientist, the Inven- tor and the Mechanic who must, as I propose to show, guide and help us on our way — if we are to achieve social salvation. Let our Scientists prove intelligent, our Inventors resourceful, our Me- chanics skillful, and us ready to draw on our combined common-sense and courage, there need be little fear that our work of Social Reconstruction will be brought to naught by inadequate human material. Reconstruction: That and no less we must attempt if we arc to prevent disaster — forestall Revolution. Simple Principles. The obvious prerequisite to our beginning our reconstructive work is an understanding of ourselves and the existing social mechanism. And to gain such understanding we shall follow the method outlined in connection with our visit to the California: We shall refuse to be daunted by surface and fictitious intricacy and the multiplicity of details. We shall seek out the simple es- sentials, and we shall remember: First, that every mechanism what- ever, no matter how vast and com- plicated, is built on simple princi- ples. Second, that it would be imprac- tical and futile to specify "a prac- tical remedy" or to lay down a "practical program of reconstruction" till we practically agree on social principles and practically agree on the purpose of the proposed social reconstruction. Third, that laying hold of such principles is like unlocking a door; and a knowledge of the principles of the social structure is the key (and the only key) to an understanding of the whole of it and of how it works. This last implies that it is needful also to note that to know how a mechanism works is as requisite as to know how it is made. Its work- ing as well as its structure must be understood. But a knowledge of a structure almost certainly brings with it a like knowledge of its work- ing. It will therefore be our task to separate society into its very few and very simple main parts, and to observe their activities and the work- ing of society as a whole. Natural Groups. Obviously the units of society are the human beings comprising it. As I have set forth earlier, these human units naturally arrange them- 50 TECHNOCRACY selves, by virtue of their economic traits, into natural groups. These groups, then, are the essential (main) parts of the social mechanism. When we have learned to under- stand them, their interrelation, and their functioning — their natural work- ing — we have learned to understand society as a whole. Having learned this, our ideas re- garding "Reconstruction" will have become clear, precise, and practically usable. Unchangeable Human Nature. Let us take a forward look here, in order to better know where we are at, and where we are going. We cannot change human nature; on that we are, I hope, agreed. The human units are beyond the reach of Reconstruction. Can we reconstruct their group- ings — the social elements? If I am right in holding that these groupings are the expression of im- manent economic traits, and thus the working out of "human nature", these too are fixed facts. The essential social elements are also not subject to Reconstruction. What, then, in heaven's name, I almost hear you cry out, is there left to reconstruct? Ask — Tin Lizzy. If you had dealt as much with ma- chinery as I, you would not be puz- zled. And you will cease to be puz- zled as soon as you reflect a little. And — your tin Lizzy can tell you all about it. Ask her, nicely and properly, she will tell you: Her besetting vice is friction; but Fernwald, Berkeley, California. November 11, 1920. without friction she could do noth- ing — either praiseworthy or reprehen- sible. Lacking friction: instead of being a jocund joy, she would be use- lessly futile tinware. She will skittishly skid on a greasy road, or stall in loose sand because of — insufficient friction. But, also, she will refrain from these improprieties, answer her brake, and conform to your will only — because of friction. It is friction getting in its deadly work when her joints and journals screech for oil; and it is friction that compels you to everlastingly buy and replace her worn-out in'ards. But, and finally, she speeds her flirtatious chu-chu-ing way on the level and chug-chugs laboriously up- hill — God bless her — by friction. Freedom of Choice. One and the same force, then, will work both "good" and "ill", depend- ing on the conditioning interrela- tions — our selected relation toward the neutral natural force, — our pur- pose. Just so, one and the same machine part, or one and the same social ele- ment, will under different conditions of interrelation or coordination pro- duce totally different or even oppo- site results — depending on our choice of purpose. In brief, what we can reconstruct is the interrelation of the social ele- ments. And such reconstruction must proceed from a clear concep- tion of what end the whole social mechanism is to serve — our National choice of purpose — our National Ob- jective. IS HUMAN FREEDOM ABSOLUTE OR IS IT CONDITIONED ON RATIONALITY AND NATURE'S LAWS? Technocracy Second Series PART III. A Working Method for a Workable Understanding Of the Social Problem and of a Workable Reconstruction. By William Henry Smyth Note: Proceeding from the understanding reached in Part II, that the natural social forces are fixed facts which cannot be altered, Part III shows how they may be utilized for a human social purpose. It shows that while human freedom must act within rigid laws of na- true, it is not thereby limited. The intelligent realization of this fact has made the mechanic effective and his accomplishments possible; failure to attain this insight in social relations has produced what we call the "social problem." Microscopic Scratch to Panama Canal. Seemingly there is no physical task beyond the capability of the Me- chanic. Measuring and weighing machines accurately determining relations of ultra-microscopic minuteness up to those of cosmic magnitude; machines for production, for transportation, for reclamation, for communication; ma- chines of all grades of size and of power, and of capacity, and of preci- sion — from bolometer measuring vari- ations in pressure of light-waves trav- ersing infinite space to dreadnaught delivering its accurately placed and ir- resistible thousand-ton blows; from the hundred thousand in an inch ac- curately spaced diffraction-grating scratches to Culebra earth-gash of the Panama Canal: These are some of the works of the Mechanic. Methods Right and Wrong. Clearly it is pertinent to our in- quiry to ask: How does he do it When we note in one department of human effort certainty and success, and in another confusion and failure, it is more reasonable to infer that a deep-seated difference in method ol procedure is involved than that the brains and intelligence of humanity have accidentally drifted into the one and deserted the other department. The validity of this inference is em- phasized by our common impression that Mechanics are more or less hum- ble and low-brow, commonplace and ordinary fellows, while our Econo- mists, Sociologists and Financiers are by-and-large haughty and high-brow, brainy and rather extraordinary per- sonages. The Mechanic's Wisdom. Probably the most characteristic at- titude of the mechanic toward the forces and materials with which he deals is unquestioning acceptance of the fact that he cannot change or any- wise modify the laws of nature or the qualities of materials. The mechanic, like the rest of us, wants to accomplish a multitude of purposes. Having determined upon the object of his desires, be it a machine to do something, or a change in the location of physical things, he pro- ceeds upon the assumption which I have indicated: that he is debarred from changing or even modifying either the laws of nature or the char- acter of materials; and so sets to work to get a clear understanding of these laws and of the characteristics of the materials involved. Then he so se- lects his relation to the appropriate forces and materials that thereby (through their natural causc-and-ef- fect functioning) his purpose is accom- plished. 52 TECHNOCRACY Nature Dynamic But, what do we mean by "Laws of Nature"? We do not mean a catalogue of in- ert, dead "facts." A law of nature implies motion, not rest — Universal Energy in universal orderly activity — it is not a static, but a dynamic concept. It is the description of a process and the conditions under which it runs. Essentially it is a precise statement of the simple notion — based on experi- ence — that if something happens, something else will happen as a con- sequence. Nature is dynamic — it is eternal Do- ing. Ceaseless change is of Nature's es- sence. Even what we call inert matter is constantly changing and undergoing elaboration and displacement. What does not change are certain relations, which we spell out under the notion of cause and effect. Thus a law of nature is the expres- sion of what is ever changeless within the ever changing. Freedom Through Knowledge. It is such clear and adequate under- standing of and conformity to the laws of nature that gives to the Mechanic his freedom of action — his certainty, his success. He goes to his task neither cowed by the irresistible natural forces nor ignorantly contemptuous of them. He knows them: and with his objective clear before him, he so makes his selection among them and so chooses his relation to them that his work may be accomplished through their service — through Universal Energy. The Mechanic's purposive freedom (expressed in his accomplishments) is made effective through knowledge of, but by, Nature's Causative Activity. Neutral Nature. Nature is neutral to Man, to his hopes and his fears, his projects or his lack of them. Neutrality, however, does not neces- sarily imply passivity. There is a neu- trality in action as well as a neutrality in rest: A swimmer's choice of direc- tion is not diminished if he can take advantage of currents flowing in the chosen course, but on the contrary, his effective liberty is thereby enhanced. And the last word of Science is that "Nature" is an infinitely directioned but orderly flow of Universal Energy — currents infinitely directioned and available to liberate all who will pa- tiently study them, and to realize all their rational purposes. It is in this sense that there is truth in the otherwise inexact statement that the mechanic has learned to "con- trol" nature. As a matter of fact, he does not "control" nature. As a matter of fact, also, nature does not "control" him. Doing the Impossible. Some of you will remember the time, not so very, very many years ago, when aeronautics was still in the balloon stage, and when at our own university here in Berkeley one of our most revered and renowned and forward - looking scientists "demonstrated" that flight by a heav- ier-than-air contrivance was a phys- ical impossibility — as contravening certain laws of nature. As we all know, the Professor was wrong. But his error did not come from overrating the laws of nature, but from underrating man's freedom and ingenuity in choosing his rela- tion to them. The fact of gravitation is beyond the will of man and mechanic — leave it or lump it. It is just the same as it was when the Professor asserted the impossibility of the aeroplane. Yet now the overhead whirr (that still thrills some of us) has become so familiar that busy men hardly look up. How was this seeming miracle ac- complished? In essence: by a design calculated to put the aviator in suitable speed relation to that proverbially lightest of things, the air, and thus its nat- ural (upthrust) resilient energy coun- terbalances natural (downthrust) gravitational "pull". In short, the mechanic utilized nat- ural forces appropriately — placed him- self in appropriate relation — and thus attained his desired objective. TECHNOCRACY 53 But, the mechanic, no more than the animal, the fish, or the bird, "controls" these forces of nature. Conditioned: Not Limited. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Of the forces of nature man cannot alter a jot. But he has practically unlimited scope for determining his own relation with regard to them. Man does not control nature. But man can utilize the active forces of nature — without limit. The "Practical Mechanic" has learned this lesson, as he has also learned to utilize nature to attain his own objectives — hence his ' success. The Social Mechanic (sociologist and economist) has learned neither; — hence his failure. Considering the limitless extent and infinite complexity of nature, there is thus given to Man an equally un- limited scope for his activity — even to the point, as shown by the prac- tical mechanic, of attaining the "Im- possible". This holds good of all men's as- pirations and activities, in his social arrangements no less than in his me- chanical contrivances. In one as in the other he has infinite choice. Man may attempt the seeming im- possible — and succeed! Man is free! What Is Freedom? With respect to the laws of na- ture, and the mechanic's attitude to- ward them, may we not now feel that we are on firm ground? But, what do we mean by "free- dom"? Freedom! Invoked by myriad- voiced chorus, called in vain by ig- norance and folly! Spirit of de- mocracy, yet not understood by de- mocracy! Endless foolish talk of freedom, with all manner of etherial attenua- tions of metaphysical abstractions, perfervid declamation, profound mis- conception! What I mean by Freedom is ex- ceedingly simple; but directly this meaning is grasped, the light it sheds on social relations becomes all-illu- minating. Freedom in matters social is pre- cisely what I have shown to be the mechanic's freedom in his dealings with the forces of nature. No more, no less. Free to Choose. The mechanic is not free to change, he is free to choose the facts and forces of nature. He is free to use them as he wills, to his own and others' good or — hurt. Neither can you or I change the social forces, the social materials. But you and I and all of us to- gether are free to choose and use them for a predetermined purpose and our advantage; but unused, they — with cosmic indifference — quite commonly run to our undoing. The human units and essential group elements of the social struc- ture and their natural laws are as much nature-given, nature-made and nature-determined, as the units, ele- ments, and laws of the mechanic's constructions. They are the facts, the data which we must accept, as the mechanic accepts the character- istics and functions of the wood, or clay, or iron, or wedge, or lever, or whatnot of his craft. The Only Way. If Society and Social Reconstruction are to exercise freedom, it can only be by wise selection and purposeful utilization of the material offered by nature. Chemist, electrotechnician, metal- lurgist, farmer, plant "originator", and animal breeder— all (in effect) so ap- preciate the rationale of their activi- ties, and thus gain success. When the stock-breeder wants cows that produce more milk or heavier beeves, he does not pray, nor employ magic, nor serve, notice of specifica- tions on nature. What he does is to get busy with actually existing cows and beeves, in whose make-up he has no say whatever; and by apply- ing his knowledge of genetics and crossing the appropriate strains, he finally gets what he is after. So far from "controlling" nature and essaying to dictate to her, he is her humble, patient and painstaking pupil. And so it is that he, after all (in effect), "makes" her do his will. 54 TECHNOCRACY Let "Nature" Do It. No one will more heartily agree with the Mechanic's Philosophy, as I have outlined it, than my friend Luther Burbank. He knows in high- est degree how nature's "secrets" may be learned; not evoked by magic or any form of wizardry; not wrested by flying in the face of nature's laws or by nullifying natural forces; but gained by patient search, by persist- ent study, judicious choice, and intel- ligent application to a well defined purpose — objective. That is, exercis- ing one's freedom in choosing his rela- tion to the facts of nature. Man did not make the myriad-spike-armed cactus. But, Burbank has induced "Nature" to make the heretofore hostile cactus, spineless. And so also, Dr. Jacques Loeb, Dr. Ritter, and the other biologists search- ing for the secret of how "life is made" and conceivably to "make" it themselves, they all, I feel confident, are imbued by the same understand- ing and in essence follow the same method. Re "Social Problem." This and no other must be our method in dealing with our Social Problem. Not otherwise will a (hu- manly desirable) New Order ever arise from the existing Social Dis- order. For this Disorder is the resultant of natural (social) forces, forces to- wards which men, failing to exercise their freedom of choice, have taken no defined and socially purposive po- sition at all or an irrational position, i. e. in opposition to natural social forces. And these social forces will and must obey their immanent laws and run their nature-appointed course, even to the obliteration of civilization and civilized man's destruction, unless and until he becomes fully aware of the situation, learns to know the social forces and their laws which he con- fronts, and deals rationally with them as does the mechanic with the natural forces in his department of effort. Let Man — in social relation — but reach such competence of insight and competence of action as the Mechanic has already attained and the horizon of the socially attainable will be ex- tended immeasurably. Scepticism. It is not unnatural that so many pro- posals for social betterment should encounter scepticism. The man who waves them aside with the (to him) conclusive '"impossible," is less of an impossibilist than the typical "reform- er" who makes them. For those pro- posals commonly rest, not on scien- tific knowledge of the natural laws involved and a competent technology in dealing with them, but on mere wish-father-to-the-t hought; fro m which pedigree nothing comes but futility. But a suggestion for social action, no matter how unprecedented, how "impractical," no matter how startling on the surface and to superficial in- spection, if it discloses itself as se- curely founded on the facts and laws of society, will claim criticism of a very different order. Only the self-interested will hurl angry epithets. Only the unthinking will then cry "impossible." Only the impractical will cry "Give us a practical remedy," "Give us a practical program of reconstruction." And when the basic point of view which I am here abbreviatedly setting forth shall have gained acceptance, it will follow that what is now labelled impractical and socially impossible will be universally regarded as the matter-of-course; just as the "imprac- tical" and "impossible" airplane of twenty years ago is with us, now, an every-day reality. Absurdity Rampant! If my extended experience with in- venting had not taught me so securely that the most formidable obstacles and difficulties dissolve of themselves, as it were, before the method which I am outlining, and what victories over the "impractical" and "impos- sible" may thus be won, I do not know that I should have the heart for any sociologizing; so great and gro- tesque is the contrast between what humanly is and what humanly ought to be. Look about in any direction: You TECHNOCRACY 55 find absurdity running rampant — run- ning Society. Ubiq. H. C. L. Charmed if not charming symbol of man's economic ineptitude — H. C. L. Tons of paper and printer's ink and myriad dynes of linguistic energy have been used up in vain speculative ef- forts to track it to its lair, to stop its soaring, to understand, to curb, to con- trol it. And while the writing and disputing, learned and unlearned, are at their hottest, — lo! things mysteriously be- gin to happen. Howls and Grins. Wool drops 50 per cent and — a mil- lion-dollar howl goes up from the sheepmen. Wheat, which sold at three dollars a few months ago, is now precariously hanging about two dollars. The price of cotton has been cut in two since spring. Cattle and hogs on the hoof have slumped. Prices of staple fruits are down — billion-dollar-shrieks from the agriculturalist. City man grins. Why Blame Anyone! In the why of these ground-and- lofty acrobatic performances o f "prices" I am not at present interest- ed. But what does interest me— and you — at this point is the difference in emotional response from different por- tions of the American people. Roars of rage from the farmer: A nascent smile — a flickering grin — of hope on the faces of the urban consumers. Would you blame the farmer? I don't. He must raise "high-priced" crops on his "high-priced" land — blessed are the land-speculators and boosters! How else could he make "interest," let alone a "profit," on his "invest- ment"? — blessed our system of finance and financiers and "financiering the enterprise." And is not everyone legitimately, necessarily, "naturally" out for the boodle? Said a Hayward poultryman a little while ago (a very decent good-natured fellow, quite undistinguished for re- pacity) : "I hope eggs go to two dol- lars a dozen." Can you blame him? I don't. Do you blame any "profiteer"? I don't. Would you blame Mr. City Con- sumer for rejoicing at Mr. Farmer's sorrow? I don't. Fifty-Fifty. Let us note parenthetically that Mr. City Consumer's joy is, as yet, only anticipatory. The decline in values on the farm has not, as yet, penetrated into his grocery store — with marked visibility. (Maybe it will not.) And his (decline- in-wool-inspired) scouting of clothiers' show windows has not, as yet, dis- closed any hope-confirming tags. Perhaps, indeed, though wool go down fifty per cent, suits may go up another fiftv. Why not? Is not our "economic system" equal to almost anything — preposterous? It "naturally" makes every citizen an enemy of every other! "One man's misfortune is another's opportunity." Of course! Naturally. Serious Questions. What are farms and farming to the city dweller? What is the city man to the farmer? What is the householder to the store-keeper? What are they all to the laborer? What is the laborer to them all? What are producer and consumer to the Nation? Where is there any understandable and unifying interest? Civil War. You cut yourself down to one fire in your house because coal is so dear; but West Virginia and Alabama have been enjoying the diversion of civil war, because the coal miners want more wages. And they are as far from sybaritism as you are from be- ing a miser. But the Coal Barons do not lan- guish. Truly our grotesque "economic sys- 56 TECHNOCRACY tern" is equal to almost anything pre- posterous. Obviously it is equal to producing the quaint, Alice in Wonderland, re- sult of placing one good and amiable American in Hayward and another equally good and equally amiable American in Berkeley into a relation of active antagonism in life and death hostility of interests and aims; hos- tility as real, as necessary, as "nat- ural," as if they were members, not of a supposedly unified nation, but sub- jects of two atrocious nations — at war with each other. Quaint hardly expresses it . . .eh? Those Patched Breeches! Why has wool, let us say, dropped in price? Because, say the "economists and financiers," the world's market for wool is overstocked. Think of it! But how on earth has it become overstocked? Think of it. If a tithe we are told about Europe is true, half her people have hardly rags wherewith to cover their naked- ness. And we dwellers in the richest land of the earth (and, as we some- times fancy, owners thereof) have we not been performing marvels of skill and patience (ye gods, how long it seems!) in patching sleeve elbows, in patching shoes, in patching breeches seats, in patching our ragged tempers, and in pretending that — if we have one — an overcoat is appropriate for sum- mer wear and — public appearance. Why? A sheepraiser in the Sacramento valley will tell you he is compelled to warehouse his present season's clip indefinitely. Why? "Wool is not now saleable"!- — "There is no demand whatever!" No demand for wool! Mark that. And, of course no one feels the slightest desire for a new suit of clothing. So there you are. Truly, quaint beyond expression. How do you like it, Mr. Man? And, how do you like it, Friend Lady? Futile Tinkering. But these examples of our prepos- terous "economics" are obvious and commonplace. I should not waste my time and your patience just to speak of such trite matters; or to add an- other "practical" suggestion for "bet- tering" them to the futile scrap-heap of "practical" palliatives. He would, indeed, be a fool- mechanic who would waste time and material tinkering with details of a mechanism after having on careful ex- amination decided the device to be wrong in basic principle. Why waste futile anger and energy on Financiers and Profiteers when they are perfectly "natural" elements in our "economic system," as our na- tional social aggregation has devel- oped from its ages-old "natural" her- itage? I would not, if I could, stop Prof- iteers from profiteering, nor Finan- ciers from financiering, nor punish any one for playing our fool-game accord- ing to its crazy rules — better than the rest of us. Effective Reconstruction. What I am driving at is a working method, for a workable understanding of the "Social Problem," and a work- able Social Reconstruction. However difficult in application it may appear to the unthinking, or how- ever undesirable to the self-interested, the method I propose has the ef- fectiveness and simplicity of ration- ality. It has that perfect simplicity which lies at the heart of useful dis- covery and invention. The discernment for which I plead is that our society is wrong in basic principle, is based on anti-social prin- ciples. It is a left-over from our Eu- ropean heritage and — headed for the same outcome. Its various parts have developed in obedience to natural forces, are work- ing in obedience to natural forces, and the outcome will be the natural re- sult of the interaction of these nature- given materials and natural forces. Elements Unchangeable. It is childishly futile to try to tinker any social machine part — any social element — into workability, by itself. TECHNOCRACY 57 In the first place, these elements are in their essential qualities unmod- ifiable. Just as the mechanic's ma- terials are unchangeable. In the second place, even could they be singly altered, what good would that do? They still would remain es- sentially isolated elements, aggregat- ed in this or that connection, but un- combined by any unifying human de- sign into a humanly purposeful whole. Society a Machine. It has not been effectively recog- nized, despite the universal use of the phrase "social body," that society is a body — a mechanism. Just as a man's body is really a ma- chine, a heat motor, as mechanistic as a Tin Lizzie or a battleship; just as an army (in every proper sense of the term) is a military machine: so a Town, a State, or a Nation is equally mechanistic — a true Machine. Let us look for a moment at the effective implication and significance of this notion . . . When your body is "sick" and an- noying you by not obeying your will, it is acting in obedience to universal law with the same precision, regular- ity, and mechanistic predictableness, as when it was "well" and acting re- sponsive to your will. The only real difference is: in one case you like, and in the other you dislike, — the outcomes of the same universal law, the same mechanistic natural order. Fernwald, Berkelev, California. November 15, 1920. Just so with the social body. If we do not like the outcome of our social organization, and if we will use our constructive imagination to conceive an outcome more to our lik- ing and use our freedom of choice to choose such outcome; and if we have initiative to undertake, and construc- tive skill (and courage) to rearrange the nature-given elements in suitable relation to social forces and factors to produce the chosen outcome — then the solution of our "Social Problem" will be in process. And as I have said, "sickness" which in the human body brings crises, boding physical death, in the social .body brings — Revolution — portent of National Dissolution. Purposeful Social Evolution. It is quite useless to promulgate "practical" programs and platforms, and childishly impractical to prate of the common interests of (dead) "capital" and (living) "labor" and the need of bringing them together, and so forth, and so on and on . . . The only measure that will prevent Revolution is Purposeful Social Evo- lution: Social Reconstruction of such kind as will turn what is now a sense- less anti-social, internecine warring aggregation, into a purposeful work- ing combination; into a real Nation — a Nation unified by a common pur- pose — a National Objective. IS NOT HUMAN PURPOSIVE FREEDOM MADE EFFECTIVE BY KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE'S CAUSATIVE ACTIVITY? Technocracy Second Series PART IV. Labor, Skill, Tally, Organization and Their Functions: Production, Distribution, Direction. By William Henry Smyth Note: This the concluding part of Technocracy — Second Series gathers up the preceding considerations for their logical conclusions. The solution of the social problem is shown to lie in man's making use of his unique self-conscious freedom and rationality for purposefully co-ordinat- ing the nature-given and nature-elaborated elements of the social structure; which the essay describes in their essentials. In this way man makes himself a participator in the miracle of creation, the evolutionary process, and his own physical, social, and spiritual development. The alternative presented is, on one hand: animal instincts running their '"natural" course to social chaos, to revolution; on the other hand: human reason utilizing the instincts, for the attainment of social order, true social evolution. Basic Requirements. Feeding and Breeding are the funda- mentals of social life. Any circumstance — "natural" hap- pening, or artificial arrangement — ad- verse to these basic requirements is anti-social and socially disruptive. Conditions favorable thereto are con- ducive to social development. Inherited Animal Instincts. Not only are these requirements basic to human society, but they are and always were equally necessary to all forms of "lower" animate exist- ence. Thus it is that (to ensure feeding and breeding), "Nature" during the aeons of experimentation which we call "Evolution" has developed a va- riety of fixed preservative instincts, traits, and characteristics in the animal world. From the animal world, we as animals have inherited such of these instincts, traits, and characteristics as were necessary or most favorable to Man's survival and present dominance. "Gifts": Peculiarly Human. In addition to these, man lias ac- quired, attained, or been endowed with "gifts" peculiar to himself which render him unique — Consciousness of Self, Freedom of Choice, and Purpos- ive Rationality. A Cosmic Invitation. By these latter acquisitions, Man has been placed in the peculiar situa- tion of being an invited participator in the evolutionary process, including also the working of this cosmic pro- cess as concerns himself. This momentous invitation he is free to accept or reject. Accepted? If he accepts the invitation he as- sumes its inherently implied terms. He assumes responsibility for the out- come of his interference with the evolutionary process. He gets the benefits which his intelligent co-opera- tion may bring him, and the accom- plishment of his own desires, but, also, he must bear the pains and penalties of his own foolish actions. If he accepts the invitation to take a responsible part in his own evolu- tion, he has at his disposal all of the active forces of Nature including those which motivate himself, — his bodily mechanism, his instincts, his procliv- ities, his economic traits, his intelli- gence — to make or mar himself and his institutions. Rejected? If he docs not accept the invitation to participate in the miracle of ere- TECHNOCRACY 59 ation and the Cosmic Enterprise, the Great Undertaking: goes on without a flicker of disturbance — indifferent to his existence — or what amounts to the .same, regardless of outcomes which are humanly desirable. Outcome. All of this means that human soci- ety as it exists today is the end-result of these various factors. If the outcome does not please or suit us it is our own fault and the remedy lies in our own hands — with the proviso that we realize the terms of the implied contract and under- stand the nature of the instrumentali- ties at our disposal with which to realize our purposes. Conditioned on Understanding. In brief then, all human accom- plishment, all invention, all attainment of anything "new," are conditioned on an understanding of the facts and laws of nature involved and the choice of an appropriate relation to them, with reference to the determined purpose. Society is a structure based, like everything else in the universe, on na- ture-given facts and laws. The prerequisite then to our present endeavor, to map out a course of so- cial progress, is to have a clear under- standing of the facts and laws of na- ture involved: of which the first item is society's composition. Elements. Man is a strong, skilful, cunning an- imal endowed with freedom of choice. Some are characteristically Strong, some arc characteristically Skilful, some are characteristically Cunning. In others, again, these basic traits are merged in varying proportions. The Social Elements — the essential (or main) parts of society — then are the groups formed primarily by the working out of the instinctive proclivi- ties which I briefly sketched in the opening part of the first series of Technocracy. The Economic Traits, strength, skill, cunning and the instincts, to live, to make, to control, to take, have founded and formed our social struc- ture, in which they are still recogniz- able as its four great elements: Labor, Skill, Tally, ("Capital"), Organization ("Government"). Labor. By Labor I mean that activity which is chiefly muscular effort. It is obviously the foundation of all other activities whatever, and as such it engrosses the effort of the great majority — the bulk of "the people". Their motive urge is mainly "to live". They are impelled by no other special impetus towards any particu- lar form of activity. Those who do the bulk of the world's work there- fore find self-expression in the meas- ure in which their work conduces to the satisfaction of their instinct "to live". Thwart this, and Labor balks. Skill. Skill, expressing the instinct "to make", must be taken in a sense wide enough to embrace not only dex- terity, but also usable knowledge of matters and things conducive to phys- ical accomplishment. The Skill ele- ment of society holds the scientist as well as the artisan, philosophy as well as technology. The function of such a Skill ele- ment in a rationally, purposefully or- ganized society is self-evident. How woefully far from this it departs in the actually existing society is like- wise self-evident. Tally. Whenever team-work is under way — or for that matter team-play — there is need of a record of each man's .performance. To keep such record is the function of the Tally element in society. This colorless, yet all-important, function the cunning instinct "to take" early made its own. The em- bodiments of that urge made them- selves the keepers of the social tally- sheet — the "Financiers". Organization. The Organization element coordi- nates and supervises the work of so- ciety. It prescribes what should and what should not be done, in relation to the work in hand — the purpose. This element embraces the "author- 60 TECHNOCRACY ities", the "government", the "em- ployers". Necessity and Freedom. The quality uniformly exhibited by all four social elements is their in- stinctiveness. The}' have developed from inward necessity. But there is no such inner neces- sity for their interrelation, their co- ordination and combination into a social machine as a whole. That is not a matter of instinctive urge, but a problem of intelligence. The present chaotic lack of co- ordination is due to lack of social purposive intelligence; it is the "nat- ural result of (and has been de- termined by) failure (socially) to exercise Man's transcendent preroga- tive: Freedom of Choice — freedom to choose his relation to natural forces in such manner as to make them subserve his predetermined united purpose — Community objective. War of Instincts. Indeed, each element, far from uniting with the others in purpose, is "naturally" fighting every other for a greater gratification of its own "nat- ural" urge, and the all-embracing urge of instinctive self-preservation. It is in highest degree probable that, typically, the four instinct-char- acterized groups of modern society — the Masses, the Artisans, the Em- ployers, the Financiers — do not think. Thinking is not their social func- tion; they merely respond to the urge of their dominating instincts — the Masses to breed, the Artisan to make, the Employer to energize, the Financier to hoard — instincts which characterize separately many animals other than Man. These various social groups in- stinctively resist any social conditions or conventions that tend to hamper the functioning urge of their char- acterizing instinct and instinctively struggle for its greater gratification — hence our "Social Problems". What Is the Social Problem? The Scientists — scattered and few in number but socially significant — do think; it is their social function to think, to rationalize with constructive imagination. It is the Scientist's function to solve problems, to pio- neer, to blaze a trail into the un- known — to illumine the path of Social Progress. Clearly it is the Scientist's social function to straighten out social snarls, to unravel social tangles: To so organize society that human freedom and self-expression will be the product of and result from the rational relationing, the coordinate functioning and gratification of the human instincts. That is the Scientist's great task. That is our Social Problem. Purposeless. Socially, Man has remained a mere- ly instinctively acting animal. He has never unitedly pondered a social pur- pose, reflected on a freely chosen united objective. When our inspection of the Cali- fornia had disclosed its constituent elements, we knew as readily for what purpose they were to work to- gether: we knew what the battleship was for. But for what socially determined end do our Financiers finance, our inventors invent, our laborers labor? What is the purpose of Society? Is it not true that, judging from society as it is, we must say it has no purpose? Is it any wonder then, that we have a "Social Problem", and that most men face it in utter bewilder- ment? Purpose Necessary. To deal effectively with the social problem requires then, first of all, that men become conscious of a so- cial purpose. And a very little reflec- tion will disclose the enormous dif- ference which a difference of purpose effects with regard to otherwise iden- tical processes. The same purposive skill that makes — feloniously breaks. Bees and Profiteers. Our profiteers have been filling their coffers just as bees are filling their combs. Essentially their activ- ities proceed from the same source: instinctive drive to hoard. Bee and profiteer are equally "sel- fish". TECHNOCRACY 61 Each acts in obedience to the de- mand for self-expression. But win Te- as the utility of the profiteer's hoard (if it has any true utility at all) is for himself alone and prejudicial to society, the bee's honey hoard is for the whole hive. What "Nature" has contrived in thus shaping toward an ulterior pur- pose the instinctive activities of a lowly insect, men must accomplish in their social arrangements by the exercise of their distinctively human qualities: reason, freedom and purpose. No Use Calling Names. It is quite needless and useless to single out the profiteer for moral ob- jurgation; and in many, if not most cases it would be unjust to boot. His profit-gouging comes not from moral depravity, but from a special bent of mind, a particular ability: and our so- ciety, imprimis our quaint system of "finance," gives no scope to that abil- ity — except to gouge the public. Yet that ability — in its essence, instinctive hoarding — has a social util- ity of the highest order. And in an enlightened society, that is one pur- posively organized, it would not only find scope for its exercise for the public good, but be spontaneously so exercised, and with no less gratifica- tion for its possessor. The War Illustration. Of how this might be accomplished, the War has already given us a sketchy illustration. The men who were called to mobi- lize the social forces of the United States were commonly the very men whose pre-war activities had been more notorious for amassing huge pri- vate fortunes than celebrated for self- less public service. Between the high officials of the War Industries Board, the Shipping Board, and so forth, and the member- ship of a "Millionaires' Club" there was little discernible difference of per- sonnel. Charles M. Schwab, the finance magnate, and Schwab, the war-organ- izer, were the same person. All these men brought to their so- cial, national jobs the very same tal- ents that they had been employing right along self-centeredly — unsocial- ly, un-nationally. The work they did, their proximate functioning, was the same as before. But what a difference in social re- sult! They were acting for a different purpose. That really makes up the whole of the difference. The skill that feloniously breaks — can also make. Where these hurriedly assembled mobilizcrs fell short of efficacy it was in the measure of their failure to equate completely their aims with the National Objective. Greater "Temptation." It is worth while considering how it was that men pre-eminent for ca- pacity of self-aggrandisement, for their ability, to put it in plain words, of using the Nation for their own pri- vate aims and advantage, came to make the Nation's purpose their own. The outstanding fact is that they did it of their own free will. The deeper lying fact is that they responded to the greater inducement: public good was a stronger stimulus, a greater "temptation," than private profit. The decisive fact is that such re- sponse was made possible and induced by the (even if only crude and tem- porary) rearrangement of the social elements for the attainment of a Na- tional Purpose. Work. Add to this the perception, for which I have so often contended, that there is no blinder folly than that which sees in "work" nothing but "the primal curse"; and that, on the con- trary, doing — which is only another name for work — is the very essence and end of man's living, provided only it be the purposive work of his heart — and you have the whole foun- dation of the psychology of social re- construction. Order, Purpose, Freedom. Freedom is the first law of Man's nature. Any social convention or construc- tion which does violence to the free- dom of the individual, of the group, 62 TECHNOCRACY or of the Nation as a whole, is doomed to inevitable failure. If any single cause is to be given for the social failure which we now so anxiously face, this cause, which earlier I have formulated as the ab- sence of purposive design, may well be formulated as the infraction of the basic law of freedom. For in a chance- made agglomeration true Freedom can not arise and act, any more than in a void. It is only in a true Order, in a pur- posively designed and rationally com- bined society, that Freedom can find the conditions for its effective being, its self-realizing activity. Disorder — Jungle Law — Restraint. Obviously there can be no real hu- man freedom in a society based on primeval jungle law, only license and restraint. When it is the sole acting principle, (even if not the preaching of the pulpit) that he may take who has the power, and he shall keep who can, what can be the issue but intra- social warfare? — and, still more re- pugnant, a warfare in which victory is not to the strong, clean and cour- ageous, but to the sordid, tricky and cunning. Fictitious Freedom. Let us not be misled by surface ap- pearances. Ostensibly the mine owner has more freedom than the miner, the manufacturer than the mechanic, the merchant than the clerk. More pro- foundly, one is found to be as unfree as the other. For freedom implies do- ing one's reasoned will. But as mem- bers of a planless social monstrosity, no man can be a free agent. All are caught in the same chaotic social tangle; none guide their course by anything better than chance and their instinctive proclivities. Reason and Freedom. These instincts, as I have pointed out, are natural forces. And I have also shown how Man, the Mechanic, has achieved his conquests by bring- ing his Reason and Freedom of Choice to bear on natural forces: not in crazy hope of changing them, but to make I hem the realizing means for his rea- son and freedom — for his purpose. Even thus is the task of Man, the Social Mechanic. Our reconstructive effort must be so to reconstruct or rearrange the social mechanism as to utilize the unchangeable instincts, the economic traits (that is, the natural forces in our problem) for the accomplishment of a united social purpose, a National Objective. Man a Spiritual Entity. I have spoken so much in terms of mechanics that it may not be amiss to guard here against the imputation that I conceive of human life in such terms. My conception is indeed the very opposite of that. Man (though functioning in a mechanistic world through a bodily machine) is above all a spiritual entity; and his ma- terial and mechanical concerns and affairs are of importance only in so far as they affect his spiritual being. "Society." To avoid misunderstanding, it should be borne in mind that "Society" as used herein means the total of all those constituting the Nation — "tinker. tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggarman, thief", et al. ; but that Social Functioning includes only a limited part of their life in its totality. Social functioning is the service part of modern collective (gregarious) life — for material well-being. Its relation to national life is analogous to that which the kitchen and service part in a well ordered household bears to the life of the family. And, national economics is merely household economics expanded. "Society" a Machine. This is not the place for expound- ing at length my social philosophy. But it will suffice, as a guiding thread, to indicate that my conception of Society is the corollary of my concep- tion of Man. That is, I view society as a mechan- ical contrivance for the satisfaction of man's material needs; for the ul- terior object of freeing his spiritual self. What ministers directly to his spiritual wants and his spiritual life itself, lies as clearly outside of the TECHNOCRACY 63 social organization, as outside- the ma- chine-shop. It is in this sense also that I hold that man does not exist for society (as certain ardent social reformers would have us imagine), but society for man. Within this frame, society resolves itself, structurally and functionally, into Production, Distribution, and Direction. Production. Under the term Production or Pro- ductive Group is implied that part of the community which skillfully deals with nature's forces and materials; which familiarizes itself with all mat- ters relating to the physical environ- ment of the human aggregation. Its function is to extract, produce and arrange all things and physical con- ditions desirable and necessary to the well-being of the organization. Skilful-Strong. Its membership is characterized by skill and strength, by curiosity ration- alized into desire to know, and by a beaver-like urge — the instinct to make. This group is not the representative of the community, nor is its function that of guardian, custodian, organizer, supervisor, or unifier of the composite group, nor has it rightly any of these functions. This Productive Group is the transforming element of tJie Social Machine. "Labor." The Labor Element we find in prac- tice also assumes the functions of the Directive and Distributive Groups in many ways and details. And attempt- ing to perform these functions so for- eign to its character, specialized apti- tude, and economic trait, it does much harm and adds misdirected energy to existing confusion. Taking into consideration, however, the history of this group — its age-long grinding between the upper and nether millstones of Cunning-Strong and Tricksy-Cunning — the wonder is, not that the results are as thev are, but rather that this group still persists in its efforts to perform any of its rightful functions, and that it has not long ago by the misdirection of its energy wrecked the whole structure; as it has often, seemingly, been on the ragged edge of doing. Were it not for its ineradicable instinctive urge, this doubtless would have been the result. It is not without significance that the Distributive Group is satisfied with present conventions and desper- ately fears change, while the Product- ive Group is fiercely dissatisfied, and welcomes any change. "Efficiency." "Production" has been of late very much to the fore in the public prints. The whole civilized world, our own country included, we are told, is not producing enough. Production, we arc told, must be increased by greater in- dustry and "efficiency." As an inventor, that is one engaged in devising ways and means for do- ing something in a new and better way, I may be credited with having a sufficiently high regard for effi- ciency. Yet I own that, as currently conceived and employed, "efficiency" is my pet aversion. Nothing provokes me to more laughter or anger. A notion of efficiency that focuses on the product, instead of the pro- ducer, misses the point completely. Such "efficiency" is really (humanly and socially) inefficiency. Therefore, when I outline the task of social reconstruction as an appro- priate organization of production, dis- tribution, and direction, there are to be constantly held in mind and applied the ultimate criteria: a free unfolding of the spirit, a free manhood, a free nation. Distribution. Under the term Distribution or Dis- tributive Group are implied those indi- viduals whose function in the social organization is to keep tally and effect the distribution of products and wealth equitably and impartially to all the individuals of all the groups in accordance with their effectiveness and the best interests of the commun- ity at large. A truly magnificent function! Capitalist. The "Capitalist Element" in prac- tice, as the "Money Power" or "the 64 TECHNOCRACY Interests", interferes most energetic- ally and unjustifiably in matters wholly outside its sphere. It has, in fact, assumed, through its taxing power, the functions of "Gov- ernment" and control over the life and activities of every individual in the community. It has missed its way and is more distorted (if such be possible) than either of the other groups. To it is attributable in greater measure the social disturbance and confusion at present existing. This group is characterized by an economic trait due to its (Tricksy- Cunning) origin — its members have an inherent parasitic tendency and a bee-like hoarding urge — the instinct to take. Tally. This group is not the community's representative any more than is the Productive group; it is not the guard- ian or unifier; nor has it any of the functions of government, though it has assumed many of them. Neither does it deal with nature's forces or materials; it has no concern with phy- sical environment or natural re- sources; it does not extract or pro- duce things from nature's stores; it does not make, produce, or create wealth; its functions are neither gov- ernmental nor productive in any sense. It is simply the bookkeeper, the clerk, of the community — the record- ing or tabulating element of the so- cial machine. Tricksy-Cunning. And yet it has arranged conventions of distribution for its own exclusive benefit. It has appointed itself an unofficial and irresponsible custodian of the community's wealth in process of dis- tribution. Out of the community's wealth flowing through its channels, it pays itself such wages as it deems its due for performing these services and functions. In addition to this, it retains possessio'n of various forms of conventional increment accruing to the flowing wealth during the distrib- utive process. These increments are deemed, by tacit acceptance of con- ventions made by the Distributive Group, to be its property. So this ac- quisitive group acts as distributive agent for producer and the commun- ity, and custodian of the products, while at the same time it is active as an untrammeled trader on its own behalf in and with the community's wealth. Direction. By the terms Direction or Directive Group is implied that part of the na- tion which neither produces nor dis- tributes, but represents the whole composite group, the community. It is that part which, as representa- tive, is guardian, supervisor, and uni- fier. Its function is to facilitate the correct working of all the ramifying parts of the other elements, so as to bring about harmonious co-action of the entire social organization. It is the "governor" or strain and speed equalizer of the social machine. Government. The "Government", in practice, ex- ercises all these social functions in- extricably tangled up with the pro- ductive and distributive elements in most of their details. Government makes, manufactures, and exploits; it keeps tally of pro- ducts and distributes them more or less ineffectively; and while remain- ing Government in name, it per- forms all these other functions to such an extent that it is difficult to determine which most definitely characterizes it in reality. This confusion of function seems to be the logical outcome of the (Cunning-Strong) genesis of the group, with its inherent lust for power and dominion — the instinct to control. Social Mechanic's Task. What then is the task of Man, the Social Mechanic? Primarily, it is to extricate the ba- sic three-fold elements of the social mechanism from the present confu- sion and distortion; and, in the light of and under the guidance of Science, so to organize these fundamental functions: Production, Distribution, and Direction, that they will serve the social purpose, the national ob- jective. TECHNOCRACY 65 What the Trouble Is. As it stands now, the Social Ma- chine is a product of nature-made conditions, and not a construction of self-conscious human intelligence di- rected to the accomplishment of a predetermined human purpose. Man has never attempted to organ- ize his Social Machinery to accom- plish a socially unified object. And Nature docs not stop, simply because man acts like a fool. Nature truly abhors a vacuum — especially a va- cuity of intelligence. Man has tinkered with many social details — he has never tackled the So- cial Problem! That is the whole trouble with the Social Machine. Social Problem The situation is not unlike that of a machine-shop in which a lot of mentally deranged mechanics would find themselves while gradually and unequally convalescing toward ra- tionality. They find the engine and machin- ery (Nature) all running smoothly, but also they find themselves (with more or less bewilderment) indi- vidually and in bunches, marvelously and solemnly busy doing, with great skill, all manner of grotesque stunts: stoking the furnaces with their wom- en and children, feeding their young men to the ponderous grinding and crushing machines; tirelessly dump- ing the most valued and useful prod- ucts of their bodies, brains, and skill, to the smashing "dead-falls" and scrapping "go-devils", to be crushed to human slimes and refuse; and in a multitude of other ways in- geniously employing their (Nature- made) facilities and capabilities to produce all kinds of silly outcomes — unlikable to their awakening intelli- gence. The condition thus disclosed they call their "Social Problem". Man Is Free. Man has a living Godlike soul which is free. As a "person" — a spir- itual entity — a Man is not a machine, is not subject to control by any power in the Universe except him- self, and except in so far as — by an exercise of his freedom — he volun- tarily submits. In so far as he does submit to force or irrational control, he be- comes a mere product — a machine; he contracts his own soul and di- minishes that transcendent quality of Godship which makes him a Man — his Freedom. A Purposive Social Machine. I firmly believe that Man is, and the Universe is, so constituted that Human Intelligence can construct a Rational Social Machine; that if Man earnestly desires and has the cour- age seriously to undertake the task, he can make an infinitely more smooth-running, humanly efficient, and humanly purposive arrangement than the humanly objectless, inhumanly cruel, and incredibly wasteful Stone Age animalistic abortion to which he now submits — that Man can make a Social Machine worthy of Man, the World Mechanic. Human Intelligence or Animal Instincts? "Nature", while on one hand seem- ingly reckless of "waste", is on the other obviously economical — struct- ures, functions, and "gifts" not used, atrophy and disappear. If then Man, in social relation, fails to use his "gifts", these will atrophy ■ — be recalled. And Man's social devel- opment will run not in accord with his intelligence, but in accord with his animal instincts, dominated by the most basic of all, the anti-social (in- dividual) self-preservation instinct — ■ dog-eat-dog — jungle law. Science a Fulcrum. It may seem that I have made of the existing social disorder an ar- raignment of Man's competence. I have charged him with folly, with fail- ure to use his greatest gifts: reason and freedom. Perhaps he can bring forward exten- uations. Perhaps the time had not come — till now. Perhaps there has been neither lack of human intelligence nor lack of wil- lingness to use it. Perhaps he really could not use it, did not know how 66 TECHNOCRACY For one thing he lacked, which has come only in our own day: Experi- mental Science. Science is a firm fulcrum for the lever of thought. It is a fulcrum securely resting upon the eternal facts and laws of nature. It is a fulcrum that rests upon phenomenal truth, which rests upon Nature's immanent Essential Truth that makes for universal right-eous- ness — mechanistic validity, personal worth, social right. Technocracy. The philosophers and thinkers of the past lacked that fulcrum. At the best, they could be only good guess- ers. There is no lack of intelligence or high spirituality in Plato's "Re- public", in More's "L T topia", and in their many followers. But they all lacked, and all they Fernwald, Berkeley, California. November 21, 1920. lacked was, the firm fulcrum of Science. This we now possess. Now only has Technocracy become a realizable ideal. This transcendent acquisition and necessary instrumentality — Science — is now ours to freely use or freely abuse — abuse to our irrecoverable hurt or utilize for our ever increasing and true prosperity. This is our signal acquisition as compared with the past, our signifi- cant point of progress. And by its aid (if we choose) we (socially still in the pre-scientific period) may at last achieve also social progress. And thus, by the means of nation- ally organized Science, we may be- come the first real nation, a truly united people with a worth-while na- tional objective — a true Industrial Democracy — an intelligentlv purpose- ful TECHNOCRACY. CAN MODERN MECHANIZED SOCIETY SAFELY RELY UPON TRADITIONAL ECONOMIC CUSTOMS? Reprinted from the Gazette, Berkeley, California Copyright, 1921, by W. H. Smyth. Technocracy Third Series PART I. Animal-man and Man-animal: A Working Understanding of Man the Social Unit. By William Henry Smyth FOREWORD. It is very important in these days of confusion that those who are trying to make this a better and more liveable world, should understand one another in every way possible. For this reason it gives me pleasure to say that, having read Part I of my neighbor Mr. Smyth's Tech- nocracy (Third Series), I find myself in hearty accord with it in the main; especially in the central place which he gives to Personality and Freedom. This evaluation of Personality opens a way to a moral and spiritual, as well as social and industrial advance. With the severity of Mr. Smyth's indictment of early man and of modern society I cannot agree; but his forward look and many of his ideas are vigorous and suggestive. June 17, 1921. JOHN WRIGHT BUCKHAM. (John Wright Buckham, D. D., is the distinguished scholar who holds the chair of Christian Theology in the Pacific School of Religion. He is the author of "Personality and the Christian Ideal," "Progressive Re- ligious Thojught in America," "Mysticism and Modern Life," etc.) NOTE: The First and Second Series of these Technocracy essays were devoted almost exclusively to social Mechanics; in the present series the emphasis is upon the still more important element in our Social Problem — the social mechanic himself — Man. This Third Technocracy Series aims at a "working understanding" of man, that supreme paradox — a free spirit expressing itself individually and socially through a physical body. It aims at such understanding of man, lacking which, an understanding of "society" cannot be had, and without which a solution of our Social Problem is an obvious impos- sibility. Part I: Deals with the spirit of man — his unconditioned self — per- sonality; Human relationship to a universe at once creative and conditioned by its own laws; and shows how by knowledge of and purposive action toward those laws, the human being gains freedom and action worthy of his free essence. Thus man can "humanize" man's own animal nature, and produce the social instrumentalities appropriate to "human" self- expression. Personality. wise hamper its self-expression, but The human personality we know eacri would still remain gloriously as Christ, or as Socrates, or as human, ^and act in accord with his Shakespeare, or as Newton, impris- "human" character, oned (as was, indeed, almost the case These extreme examples serve to of the philosopher) in the body of illustrate a general proposition ap- a gorilla, would not be essentially plying to all men. changed thereby. The inappropriate It is that intangible elemental embodiment might, it is true, some- something (defying analysis), spirit, 68 TECHNOCRACY soul, personality — call it what you will — that transforms the animal-man into the man-animal — into a human being. Personality a Basic Fact. As to this there can be no argu- ment. It is cither obvious, self-evi- dent, or all discussion regarding hu- manity — individually or collectively — here stops. Such as cannot accept this basic proposition will merely waste their time to travel with me further on the tour of investigation I contem- plate. To those, however, who, like my- self, deem it axiomatic, it should be of surpassing interest to join in an earnest effort to investigate how the wondrous combination of free spirit and physical machine — personality and animal body— coact and function together in the practical affairs of social life. It Is! It is not of pertinent interest here to inquire how or by what omni- potent process of invention or by what miracle of Cosmic Self-expres- sion this unique combination came to be. It is! That fact is our starting point. Starting with this it will be the aim of this essay to get such Avork- ing understanding of Man, as dis- played in his social activity, as will aid in solving some of the difficul- ties (flowing from this fact) which confront us in our troublous "Social Problem". Man an Animal — Plus. Man, then, in one respect is truly an animal, linked to his animal an- cestors by his physical structure and his animal instincts. Thus, like other animals, he is subject to all natural laws which undeviatingly govern ani- mate nature — heat scorches, cold chills, falling rocks crush, torrents whelm, starvation weakens, sex de- sires and other passions drive furi- ously. What makes Man more and other than an animal is his self-conscious- ness, his reason, his constructive imagination, his freedom of choice; in a word, his Spirit — not possessed either by his brute ancestors or by his present day animal fellows. Human in Humanity. Accepting these propositions (not as verbal or academic admissions but — ) as valid in practical effect, it at once ceases to be matter for won- der that sometimes Man acts like an animal, at others with God-like purpose; and — inhumanity in man be- comes merely the failure of' the hu- man in humanity. Further, it is obvious that man's acquisition of human qualities does not change the facts of heat, cold, torrents, etc. — nature — but does pro- foundly change man's effective re- sponse. Self-Conscious. Self-consciousness enabled Man to perceive himself as something other and apart from the rest of nature both organic and inorganic, including his animal fellows and his fellow men. He became to himself an individual, an entity in whom he has overwhelming personal interest. He knows himself as a source of pains and pleasures dis- tinctly his own; an entity whose ani- mate and inanimate friends and ene- mies are matters personaT to himself — his friends to be favored by him, his enemies to be — by him — fought and destroyed. Reason. His dawning reason, supplementing instinct , taught him that the shade of a tree or of a rock mitigates the scorching heat of the sun and the piercing cold of the blizzard; that by suitably locating his distance from a devouring blaze he changes its pain- ful effects into pleasant sensations; that the torrent that could sweep him to destruction may also transport him without effort, in a desired direction. These and many other useful lessons his reason sums up in the dimly per- ceived but profoundly true generaliza- tion, that: Animate and inanimate surround- ings ("environment") are friendly or otherwise to Man depending on how he acts toward them. (Religion and Science — the two most energizing pro- TECHNOCRACY 69 ducts of organized human thought — flow directly and derive their energy from this simple notion). Imagination. Then comes his constructive imagi- nation, mentally reconstructing earlier pleasures and pains, and urging him to renew in physical realization the pictured joys of the past and prevent the recurrence of remembered mis- haps. Choice. Last, and most important, freedom of choice, guided by experience, rea- son, and imagination, permits him to select which rock, which torrent, which thing, which act (out of the many and varieties of each presented for choice) as best serving the prob- able accomplishment of his desires, and which to reject to avoid mishaps. So starts humanity's upward course. In breathing into animal-man His spirit, verily! "God blessed them, (and truly!) God said unto them: Be fruit- ful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it." Nature. The brute's acquisition of "human" qualities did not and does not change the facts of nature nor the effects of its laws. It is equally clear that it did and does profoundly modify man's possible and probable response to these and hence their effect upon him. Heat, cold, rock, torrent, animal in- stincts, "passions" arc still as potential of destruction as ever, but not to man — if he so chooses. All nature and its urges, all its forces and its laws have become po- tentially his friends, if he so chooses and — his choice is constructively and rationally purposive. A Social Principle. Clearly then (let me nail it here, in passing): It is a first principle of so- cial design to so arrange and order the social structure that the animal instincts may not run counter to and shall act in unison with collective "hu- man" purposes. And therefore it be- comes a principle of social construc- tion to provide avenues of utilization for these indestructible natural forces, in substantially the same manner and method by which the mechanic m> suc- cessfully deals with like problems of seemingly conflicting and indestruct- ible forces in machine design. Free. Before there can be a group there must, of course, be units to form it; so there must be individuals before there can be society. The character and possibilities of a society must necessarily rest upon the nature and capabilities of its component individ- uals. Alan, as we arc agreed, is a free spirit, acting, functioning or express- ing itself through the medium of an animal body that is an animate physi- cal machine. In using the word "free" there is implied activity, and not merely cha- otic motion, but choiceful, purposeful action: preference to go in this direc- tion rather than that, to do some par- ticular thing rather than some other. An Infernal World. This free choosing man, however, has become conscious of himself ; con- scious that he is; conscious not only that he is, but (to some "more or less satisfactory extent) where he is at, what he is up against. He has become conscious to the extent at least that he is in a surrounding world of physi- cal things and forces, a world that jogs along in most unpleasant disre- garded indifference to his wishes, if indeed not diabolically adverse from them. Naively, this to him is an in- fernal world of storms and floods, scorching heats and freezing colds, rocks and sharp things which pain- fully bark his shins and tear his flesh, and of a myriad beasts, demons, and bugaboos that will surely make an end of him — if he don't look out! Even his own particular body, that is his own inseparable property, has tricks and manners of its own which cause him no end of discomfort and much annoyance; it experiences freez- ing chills, torrid fevers, furious pas- sions, exhausting fatigue, recurrently ravenous hunger; its joints stiffen, its parts break, its sense organs get agley in a multitude of disconcerting ways; and all these haps happen quite re- gardless of his wants and wishes; and 70 TECHNOCRACY surely will make an end of him — if he don't look out! Circumventing Its Devils. Having, however, an overwhelming interest in and regard for himself, man calls on his reason — poor and imperfect though it be — to aid him in avoiding these various mishaps and circumventing the malignity of their diabolical instigators. Unfriendly haps and malignant traps are so incessant that poor reason has a mighty busy time of it and is kept everlastingly on the job, alert and at work, and with no union or umpire to call time. Experience. So by constant exercise, and a growing stock of remembered and available experiences of past suc- cesses, hard-worked reason grad- ually develops and gets more and miore effective to meet emergencies. Partial successes in the past are im- proved upon in the present; previous seemingly successful circumventings which subsequent experience proves to have brought worse consequences than those intended to be avoided, are next time handled with more caution. Thus slowly is evolved the notion that not alone is the present diffi- culty to be met, but the possible or probable effect of the remedy is to be taken into consideration, as an essential element of every remedial measure. Now vs. Later. So reason makes possible the weighing and measuring of wants and wishes: makes possible the ra- tional comparison of later comfort against present gratification; makes possible to put into the scales of experience the fvrn of gorging now, regardless of starvation later, to be weighed against less joyous present moderation, regardful of freedom from later total abstinence. Mr. W. Man— A Parable Mr. Wise Man, very hungry, very tired, and miles from home and din- ner; luscious looking, good smelling, dainty tasting "mushrooms" Beast Hunger growls and whines pitifully protesting . . . Reason whispers: "Caution!" Appetite urges in loud and imperi- ous tones: "Eat! eat! satisfy the beast lest worse happen!" Reason whispers: "Caution!" And all alert, on the job, nudges Imagination, to (pictorially) twist Man's in'ards into hard and painful knots, vividly re-presenting those physical and almost disastrous ex- periences of last summer. "Look!" says Reason . . . "and — squirm! It's safer to squirm now at imaginary kinks than later at real knots in your little insides." "Remember," says Reason, "and consider, if you want to continue your mundane existence and really value those plans you seemed to have so much at heart — those seduc- tive fungi may not be mushrooms — caution!" "Look! — consider the pictures, and squirm some more!" "Then, forget your fatigue, disre- gard your hunger, take up a couple of holes in your belt, and strike for home." "Get busy! — March!" So Mr. W. Man — listening to the voice of reason — gets home, still very hungry, still very tired, enjoys his dinner, realizes his plans, and his days are long in the land. "Good." Thus reason substitutes rational desire and higher aspirations for "natural" instincts and "lower" ap- petite. Sets up mediate and dis- tant ends, as against immediate gratification: the ultimate (and last- ing) against the immediate (tem- porary and lesser) good. "Good" clearly implies preference; a "good" direction is that in which one would go; a "good" object, the thing one would possess; a "good" action, that which one would willing- ly do; freedom in esse — effective freedom. To Cunning Strong "good" means unlimited control; to Skilful Strong, "good" means unlimited opportunity for the fruitful exercise of construc- tive skill; to Tricksy Cunning "good" means unlimited scope for acquisi- TECHNOCRACY 71 tion; to Simple Strong "good" means opportunity to live unhampered his simple life. Thus, to the Strong, or the Skilful, or the Cunning, or the Simple, "good" means the realization of his characterizing wants and wishes. To each and all, however, (regardless ot nature-determined instincts, appe- tites, urges, or economic traits,) "good" means to "make good." It means self-initiated develop- ment to the nth degree. "Good" means realized "personal" freedom. "There Are Others." Self-conspiousness it is which makes possible that momentous question: what will it profit me? Wherein is it to my "good"? But the stupendous fact of self- consciousness brings with it another rivalling it in importance. As, humanly speaking, there could be no "In" lacking an "Out," no "Top" lacking a "Bottom," no "East" lacking a "West": so there could be no recognition of "Self" lacking rec- ognition of "Other-selves", no "Self- consciousness" lacking its twin, "Other-consciousness." The Me and The Many. This recognition, then, that "there are others," coupled with that basic human discovery: animate and inani- mate surroundings (environment) are friendly or otherwise to "me" depending on how I act toward "them," necessarily brings about the question: what must I do to profit others? — and culminates in the higher and more complex self-consciousness in which the "me" is not only con- scious of, but rationally reciprocal with, the many. Hence comes the "family," the group, society — the Nation. A Rocky Road. But it is a long, long way from these basic notions of individual character to their functioning smooth- ly in a rationally organized society. And truly! unfriendly haps and malignant traps are so fearsomely numerous, and confusingly incessant, that poor undeveloped human reason has a mighty busy time of it dodging social disaster by the way. For the social journey is not alone through an unmapped country fertile of se- ductive poisonous fungi; it is also be- set with all manner of pitfalls, treach- erous morasses of ignorance, rock barriers of established custom, raging torrents of ancient superstition, ma- lignant difficulties (many real, more imaginary), all kinds and descriptions of irrationalities., bestial instincts, de- mon appetites, and goggle-eyed bol- sheviki bugaboos, that surely will make and end of us — if we don't look out! Working Understanding. In general terms our "working un- derstanding" amounts to this: Alan is a free spirit, and as such is outside and beyond the laws which govern the physical universe. His thoughts (personal and spiritual life) are his own and have only self-im- posed boundaries. Man is an animal — an animate mechanism — and as such he is subject to and conditioned by all the laws of nature, mechanistic and animalistic. Man is a combination of spirit and animal and as such (potentially) en- joys practically limitless though con- ditioned freedom. There is (substan- tially) no limit to his thoughts, and the limits to his acts are (potentially) the boundaries of the physical uni- verse. His body is subject to the laws of chemistry, hygiene, mechan- ics, etc.; and he is at liberty to ex- press his mental freedom physically, in any manner or direction, subject only to the laws of the physical uni- verse involved in his purpose. Alan is fundamentally a rational be- ing, (free to express irrationality), hence must express reason or act contrary to his essential being — and suffer the consequences. Alan is hot only an individual en- tity, he is fundamentally a social be- ing; hence he must not only express rational individuality, but also ra- tional mutuality, in order to act in accordance with his essential being. Alan, the social being, contacts with other social beings only in the world of things and acts, hence must act, 72 TKCHXOCRACY man toward man, and man toward environment, and so arrange man- made environment — society — that neither individual nor collective ac- tivity contravene nature's physical laws or human nature — or suffer nat- ural consequences. Upshot. The consequences — "punishment" — following individual irrationality are sickness, accident, failure to accom- plish, and all the myriad of obvious (and obscure) futilities. The consequences — "punishment" — following social irrationality are sim- ilar to those of the individual multi- plied, together with characteristically collective futilities — debt, H. C. L. financial slavery, discontent, high death-rate, war, — our "Social Prob- lem". Still, this more or less valid and definite "working understanding" of the individual should be helpful to clear up some of the besetting diffi- culties, by enabling us to avoid blind paths leading nowhere; by enabling us to recognize social expedients which are unadapted to the normal functioning of human character, and by preventing futile attempts to force impossibilities upon human nature. Do and Dare. Courage is the virtue of virtues. Truly, naive man sorely needed courage in his life-and-death "contest with nature". But courage unguided is only sublime folly, which intelli- gent purpose alone can transform into effective rationality. To use his spiritual freedom, to be free, man must do and dare; and to do anything worth doing, man must learn and respect the mechanical uni- verse in which the doing must be done. A Sign Post. Within his own make-up man finds such (practically) mechanical facts: his instincts. These facts of nature cannot be altered by themselves. But they (like other, external forces — external to personality) may be and must be brought under the governance of knowledge in order to effect spiritual freedom. Man's progress in the Mechanic Arts has attained (relative) liberty of action with respect to the seemingly more external facts of nature. Thus it is a sign post of experience pointing the way. Just as the Mechanic Inventor chooses his goal and uses not alone his constructive imagination but also his Knowledge of the available ma- terials and of Nature's Laws; and thus (and not otherwise) attains success: so, the solution of our "Social Prob- lem" — spiritual and social purposive freedom — must and is to be gained only by combining with like insight, a like Knowledge (of the relevant Natural Laws and facts), and a like courageous application of this Knowl- edge in action. An End in Itself. Spiritual freedom in posse, lacking use, is only a burden — a crushing re- sponsibility. It must be in esse, ready for action — put into action. But in doing (in accord with his spiritual freedom) man stakes his whole self. That is why I call work of a man's own heart an end in itself — not a means to an end. It is such kind of doing in which the World-Force finds its complete human expression. "Do or die" is really the human quintessence of life. Do or die is self-expression raised to the nth degree. It is self-expression spiritually transfigured: he only can have true life who is ready to stake his life (and lose it) on his cause. Harness the Animal. The main task of man individually, and a crux of our collective task — our "Social Problem" — is to harness the animal in man. The task, rightly conceived, is not to kill, or maim, or nullify the animal instincts in man, nor yet to "punish" (by social obloquy, imprisonment, or the electric chair, the non-social or anti-social expressions of these in- stincts), but to harness and utilize these brute forces for man's higher spiritual purposes. TECHNOCRACY 73 The animal instincts must be "hu- manized." The economic instincts must be so- cialized. England's settlement of the Aus- tralian penal colonies and their pres- ent-day outcome are conclusive evi- dence that "criminal" ancestry is not "had" ancestry. It also indicates that the humanization of the animal in- stincts is not an impossible task. And the socialization of the eco- nomic instincts should be simple by comparison. Team Work. For the correct functioning of any machine or, indeed, any organism composed of many parts, co-ordina- tion is indispensable. Co-ordination is equally indispen- sable in the social unit, the individual, and in the social whole, the nation. A mentally unbalanced (unco-ordi- nated) man — because he acts irration- ally and is a menace — we call insane; and we take measures accordingly — to the best of our intelligence. Our economically unbalanced (un- coordinated) society, producing and accumulating fabulous wealth in peace times which irrationally saddles on its masses a still greater debt, and mort- gaging its (more than) total wealth to a few citizens forever we do not call insane; nor (though we perceive the menace) do we take measures ac- cordingly — to the best of our intelli- gence. Our economically unbalanced (un- co-ordinated) society which, while en- gaged in destroying fabulous wealth by war (for national self-preserva- tion), irrationally produces million- aire individuals by the thousand, we do not call insane; nor (though we perceive the menace) do we take measures accordingly — to the best of our intelligence. A mentally unco-ordinated man is foredoomed to failure, is always in trouble, and is a menace to himself, and others. An economically unco-ordinated so- ciety is foredoomed to failure, is al- ways in trouble, and is a menace to itself, and others. Owners of Tin Lizzies. Every man who possesses a Tin Liz- zie, or a high-priced Nickel-plated Elizabeth, knows what lack of me- chanical co-ordination means: co-or- dination between spark and compres- sion, co-ordination between intake and exhaust valves, co-ordination between air and "gas" — and he becomes pro- foundly interested when any of these co-ordinates get gley. . . . If all our citizen owners of Tin Lizzies were a hundredth part as in- telligently interested in the thous- andfold more important social disco- ordinations as they are in those of Tin Lizzie's in'ards, we should soon have a social machine as effective, as de- pendable, as smooth-running as the most perfect product of the mechanic arts. Man's Free Spirit. You will recall that there is inter- action .reciprocity, between man and his environment. Environment may help or hinder development, be friend- ly or otherwise depending on how we act toward it. You will recall also that environment is (in effect) modifiable by our relation to it. There may be modifications of response in situ, by draining a malaria-breeding swamp; or through change of position, as when a Chicagoan removes to San Francisco — or better still, Berkeley — to escape pneumonia-breeding winters. Social environment, as all will agree, is even more largely modifiable. In every case the effective modifier is man's free spirit. The Pilgrims. It was man's free spirit which led the first founders of our republic to the New World. And is it not a striking coincidence that among the prime motives of the Pilgrims and other early colonists was specifically the quest of spiritual freedom? Nor is the significance diminished by the incident that they sought spir- itual freedom in a special and nar- rower sense: religious freedom. They found better than they sought. A Vast Free Land From the straight-jacket of little England, from a narrow land beset 74 TECHNOCRACY with moral and mental fences and still more restrictive conventions, the Pil- grims came into wide open spaces, practically boundless in extent, came into a vast free land. In the evolution of the American this environment — large, free, unre- stricted — comes in for a great part of the credit. Even in our own day there is left in America "illimitable space," as compared with crowded Europe. And this favorable environment pow- erfully aided and aids in the develop- ment of Americanism. America. There was indeed at work a select- ive process: emigration is likely to appeal only to the more venturesome, and those are likely to be the more strenuous, the "fittest." But even so, large credit goes to the environment. It was what America had to offer that attracted the bolder spirits, and its obvious dangers daunted the more timid. And that the bolder had the imagi- nation to be so attracted was due to their possessing spiritual freedom in esse, so that to become and be free in fact was their master urge, theii effective purpose, their spiritual ob- jective Man and Environment. This to us momentous example is a beautiful and impressive illustration of the interaction and reciprocal rela- tion of man and environment, of the "miracle" of spiritual freedom in a mechanically conditioned universe. But if the early settlers of America (and many or even most of them that followed across the ocean in the re- volving years) were led by the spirit of freedom and came into a free land, they did not come free from dangerous personal belongings, "goods" and gods, and bugaboos — they had much better left behind in musty old Eu- rope. Social Conventions. They brought with them a host of lYrmvald, Berkeley, California. .May 16, 1921. barbarous old social conventions and customs; and these, replanted in the virgin American soil, throve lustily, defacing and ravaging' the lovely free; land with ruthless greed, and pollut- ing its free air with the noisome odors, of chattel and financial slavery. And if our great and fair land may still claim some greatness and some fairness, it is due only to the fact that America was too much for them. In short, the American failed to re- fashion his social environment in ac- cordance with his changed physical setting. The American. Yet we of the United States have a better chance of retrieving past errors — the refashioning ("reconstruc- tion") of our social structure — than have other peoples. We are relatively free from the re- straints of class, of caste, of tradition- alism, the dead weight of which is the finished product of Old World heritage. Then, too, the American has more "initiative," the result of pioneering conditions and the "con- quest" of a continent. The American has impressed him- self on his environment and recip- rocally he has received its American impress. Due to the reciprocal interaction of the man and the environment there has resulted a greater fluidity of the social setting, and to the man more resourcefulness, hence more effective freedom. Thinks and — Does. Man, then, conditioned by the me- chanical laws of the universe and his own animal instincts, has freedom in choosing his 'relation and action to- ward these seeming limitations; and out of what he thinks expressed in what he does emerges his effective free spirit; emerges Cunning Strong, Skil- ful Strong, Tricksy Cunning, Simple Strong; emerges Newton, Shakes- peare, Socrates, Christ; emerges the Man — wondrou> Human Personality. Technocracy Third Series PART II. Old Irascible Strong and Trixie Cunning Their Sons and Modern Society By William Henry Smyth NOTE: Part II takes up the instinctive side of man — his conditioned self, inherited from his animal ancestors, that any rational social structure must rest on. But the social environment is modifiable by man's will, so, given the will, the "socialization" of the instincts, in a manner appropriate to man's aspirations, may be accomplished by a suitable reconstruction of the social institutions. Irascible and Trixie. In the forest primeval, Irascible Strong, our semi-human first parent, promiscuously thrashed and smashed with his ragged tree-branch-club, joy- ously cracking skulls in his gory pur- suit of grub and — life interest; and Trixie, his less powerful and less fe- rocious, but more cunning mate (in her pursuit of life interest and — grub), jolted his sluggard wits by her audaciously flirtatious actions; swiped some of his procurements; and in many other feminine ways acted most reprehensibly. So it is today — merely modernized. Today. Alan must eat to live, must breed, must protect himself and his off- spring against the vicissitudes of life and the inclemency of the weather, today — just as in the old days half a million years ago. And in all the the ages since, neither the circum- stances of life nor the primal ne- cessities have changed in their fun- damentals. Right of Might. The fierce and fearsome sons of Irascible and Trixie — Cunning Strong, Skilful Strong, Simple Strong, and Tricksy Cunning — procured their grub and life interest, each in his own un- tutored way and in accord with his inherited make-up — Simple Strong by labor; Skilful Strong by skill; Tricksy Cunning by stealth; and Cunning Strong by favor of the gods and — right of might. Everywhere and Always. It has always been so in the past — East, West, North, South, in China, in India, in Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Rome — strength, skill, cunning, con- tending and contributing, each after its kind, to make for human supre- macy. So it is today — merely modernized. It is only the same old nobly simple poem of human existence done into modern prose in the varied life his- tories and (fictitiously) complicated social activities of the most up-to- date descendants of that primordial semi-human Cunning - Skilful - Strong family . . . "Divine Providence" and — Guns. Simple Strong — the Masses — labors simply, and propagates proliferously; Skilful Strong — the Arfisan — gets his livelihood and his joy of life by the exercise of his constructive skill; Tricksy Cunning — the Capitalist — gets his keenest delight (and other more concrete evidences of success) by the exercise and gratification of his stealthy cunning; and Cunning Strong — the Ruling Classes — they get their glory, grub and fun out of boss- ing the world, by favor of "Divine Providence" and — right of military might. Man — The Measure of Society. In Cave-man time the world (as he saw it) and cave-man society corre- sponded to cave-man character. So it is today — merely modernized. If man is not unqualifiedly the mea- 76 TECHNOCRACY sure of the universe, he surely is the measure of society. No society, no social complex, can have an excellence superior to that of the individuals who compose it — the widely accepted no- tion of "the' State" to the contrary notwithstanding. Nor can there be real virtue or lasting vitality in any society except when and in so far as it gives the amplest scope ("freedom of opportunity") to its individuals. To the society-builder — the social mechanic — the matter of foremost concern must therefore be man; man in his simple essentials — his intrinsic nature, his fundamental needs, his un- quenchable aspirations. Only as these are understood and properly taken account of, can the work of so- cial reconstruction prosper. Conditioned. Men's minds are free. M a com- pound of environmental and individ- ual forces. The individual i- essentially un- changeable — human society has always been composed of Cunning-Strongs, Skilful-Strongs, Simple-Strongs, and Tricksy-Cunnings. Social environment has changed kaleidoscopically, and can be changed at society's will or whim. Must Fit Human Nature. The remedy for conditions deemed undesirable lies not in attempting to transform, regenerate, or reform the individual or groups of individuals to suit reformers' notions, but in modi- fying social environment to suit na- ture's laws and conform to human nature. This seems to me to be axiomatic. Tricksy Cunning. As long as society and social con- ventions are so organized that Tricksy Cunning can gratify the cravings of his nature only by batten- ing on his fellow-citizens, he will bat- ten despite all pious protests and "up- lift" preachments, and will evolve plenty of pious justification for his battening to boot. Yes, he will sanc- timoniously call High Heaven to wit- ness that he (like the battening Coal Baron who said it) is one of those "Good and great Christian men to whom God in his infinite wisdom has confided the property interests of the country"; and "a wise God" (as an- other Baron Battener put it) "gives wealth to those best able to admin- ister it." Tricksy Cunning is not to blame for gratifying his acquisitive propen- sity, in the only way we leave open to its gratification; but we prove our- selves incompetent or careless social designers in not arranging an avenue — "freedom of opportunity" — for this instinctive force to function in a di- rection beneficial to society. 78 TECHNOCRACY The Bed Rock. Since activities are reactions to sur- rounding conditions, and since these reactions are conditioned by specific make-up of individuals, is it not ob- vious that this individual nature is the bed-rock upon which we must build the social structure? The controlling factors are spirit- ual freedom, on one hand, and in- stinctive urges on the other. These seemingly opposing factors must be reconciled. They require adjustment toward each other, as the whole man must be adjusted to the whole environment — as the necessity of a prosperous existence. The instinctive complex is a pro- duct of evolution, and therefore prob- ably modifiable only by evolutionary process. Practically it is a fixed datum, a persistent motor force. Explosive Energy. Instincts are essentially appetitive. The}" are life energy, stresses, vital forces that ever strive to become kin- etic, to explode in action — in doing. They exert an imperative inward urge, an urge seeking expression, seeking gratification. When this is denied, they set up inward strain and distress, which strain and distress., when experienced by sufficient num- bers, is expressed outwardly in "so- cial unrest." Cosmic Birthright. Man's spiritual freedom is his cos- mic birthright, which he must vindi- cate by action before he can have the fuli enjoyment of it, Here, as every- where in our world, we have exem- plified the order of spiritual freedom reconciled with inflexible physical laws. To be really free, man's dominant instinctive urge must be satisfied. Contentment is merely the psychic in- dex of a good adjustment. And good adjustment hangs on self-ex- pression: scope to the dominant eco- nomic instinct. Else contentment is impossible. False Doctrine of Pleasure. This indicates what seems to me the error in the seductive doctrine of pleasure, that theory of hedonism which interprets man's aspiration and action as a striving for "happiness." Nor is the case altered if some other term descriptive of a state of mind be substituted for happiness. It is, at best, putting a secondary ef- fect in the place of a primary fact, referring the effect of the electric discharge to the ineffective rumble of the thunder. Rapture of Creation. When man strives it is, after all, in obedience to an inner urge; and it is irrelevant whether that urge be con- sciously understood or not. And what is socially pertinent: this urge is not generalized and vague, directed at some psychic state, but specific and precise. It is an urge to do a desirable something, to accomplish an attractive purpose. It is an urge promising pleasurable satisfaction, in- deed, but it is the joy of "something accomplished, something done." Truly a spiritual satisfaction, a human real- ization of the cosmic rapture of Cre- ation- — self-expression. The Primal Curse. Closely connected with this is my inability to share the (alas, still craz- ily popular) view of work as "the primal curse" — I would almost say my inability fully to understand how that poisonous view could ever have gained acceptance. That it has gain- ed acceptance is in itself perhaps the most impressive testimony to how miserably we have failed in our so- cial contrivances. For such utterly inhuman misconception of the true nature of work can have arisen only from the abuse of work, from mis- work — from forced work, work not self-initiated, work not expressive of the worker, work which indeed vio- lates the worker's characterizing in- stinct. Person vs. Product. The foregoing offers another point of support for the acceptance of the fundamental notion which I have at- tempted to recommend to you, that: The individual is far more impor- tant, even economically, than his product. TECHNOCRACY 7') The chief benefit of the individual doing anything which is at all in the line of self-expression lies, not in the outcome, but in the doing. Is not this really self-evident? An activity performed in response to an inward urge brings that con- dition of liberation to which all or- ganic needs tend and in which, for the time being, they find their end. This liberation it is that makes itself known as primary satisfaction, and gives rise to the feeling of pleasure. The performance of work after a man's own heart is an end in itself, not merely a means to an end. What lies beyond, what "product" or pe- cuniary gain results from the effort, is a secondary matter. * False "Efficiency." It is the failure to realize this vital truth that makes modern so-called "efficiency" humanly inefficient, and a dangerous fallacy. This disposes of the unfounded, or quite wrongly founded, notion that without the social "incentives" — pe- cuniary "profit" — now in force, work- ing performance would be gravely impaired. That lacking "profit," men would quit work, to vacuously twid- dle their fingers and thumbs. Ages of human experience are all to the contrary. "The devil finds some mis- chief still for idle hands to do," is a bit of simple folk-wisdom expressing the fact that inactivity is a human impossibility. Con-struction or De-struction. Close the avenues to con-struction and men will turn to de-struction. The urge stress must find relief, it will find relief either in service or in dis-scrvice — in work or in war. Where "incentive" is not merely a euphemism for "necessity," its modi- fication will not extinguish the ac- tivity which it is supposed to incite. It is quite idle to suppose that the abolition of social institutions facili- tating, say, private profiteering, to- gether with the incentives thereto, would make a man of distinguished organizing ability turn to bookkeep- ing or typing or nursing a rag-doll, in disgust and despair. It is much more reasonable to expect that he will strive just as lustily to "organ- ize" for national benefit, as he does now for private profit. And where the incentive is simply necessity (as it is for the great majority), is it rational to suppose that a willing worker (willing because he has the work he wants) will work less, or less efficiently, than an unwilling one? Blue Laws. In planning an outcome, or de- signing a machine, only a crazy or a crassly ignorant man would attempt to change the essential character of his materials, or to modify the laws of matter and motion. But this seemingly has been and still is the course pursued in our so- cial endeavors, as evidenced in some of our prohibitive measures, our "blue law" foolishness, many of our puni- tive and repressive statutes, and our glorified "Modern Art of Efficiency." Facts of Nature. The scientist and the mechanic know that the laws of nature are invariable and the qualities of mate- rials are fixed. However convenient, at any stage, it might be either to be able to subvert nature or endow his materials with qualities they do not naturally possess, the mechanic knows he has no such magic power. Instead, he must arrange, order, and often modify his plans in accord with the facts of nature. As Man Is. So it is and must be with the so- cial constructor or reconstructor (and this is usually overlooked by "social reformers"): he too must take his human material — with its animal in- stincts, its brute-man heritage, its economic traits — just as it is. Men are as they are: some are selfish, brutal, cruel, thoughtless, ir- rational; some are benevolent, kindly, loving, thoughtful, rational; some men are more or less all these quali- ties; some men want to make, some merit want to take, some men want to boss; and many men have no par- ticular hankering to make, or to take, or to boss, but merely want to rationally live their own unhampered 80 TECHNOCRACY lives — to live simply, to work sanely, and center their interest in their fai Lilies. / Build Society to Suit. It is therefore an essential part of the "Social Problem" so to arrange society that all the human instincts, . traits, and qualities have due consideration and free scope to serve useful ends and perform their appro- priate functions in the economic or- ganization — the Nation. In short, we must take men as we find them and build our social struc- ture to suit them as they are, and build in unison with Nature's "Law and Order," as this is disclosed in our experience. And, in addition, we must build in accordance with our highest ideals of social worth and to rve our loftiest national pur- poses. A Social Object-Lesson. As the mechanic inventor strives to organize mechanisms to realize his highest ideals of mechanistic effi- ciency, • so must we as social con- structors strive to organize the social structure to realize our highest ideals of human worth. should not expect (nor be dis- couraged if we fail) to build a "per- fect" social machine; and we. should expect to build and rebuild, modify- ing and improving as our growth in knowledge and our ever-increasing social intelligence enlarges, and puri- fies our National Ideals. Creative. Constructing tentatively is not ex- and peculiar to the Social ilem. Quiti the contrary. [f we lake experience for guide, the erse it self is d hed perfect work of a now resting Power-, but as a growing, de- ever expanding process of Creatn e Self-expression. l-'.vi rything suggests thai motion is lamental than re t- -that rest (non-motion) is somewise an illusion of thi I ; or at most a state of partial and temporary equilibrium: that the Universe is not static but creative, dynamic, progressive. And so must we be creative, dy- namic, progressive — or perish. Compromises. Every human endeavor, the accom- plishment of every purpose — the reali- zation of an ideal — is a series of com- promises growing out of the require- ments of the idea and the char, istics of the available materials, through which it is physically ex- ' ■ if such com- promises satisfactorily, one general idea or principle disclosed in the me- c's experience, and which has at been very helpful to him, here 3 to possi icance to the social mechanic: Motion is just a.- ive to re- duction of pre o ad- dition of pressure behind. Carrot vs. Club. As in the machine shop, so also in social construction, the first expedient has the advantage of avoiding the compression of, and consequent gen- eration of heat in, t!i acted upon. How obviously true is this fact, but how universally neglected in our deal- ings with hui es! Hope is more stimulating than Hope incites, fear benumb-. The car- rot in front of the donkey is as ener- gizing as the club behind — and costs less effort. Vet, how general our social recourse to fear, how frequent our employment of the club. Brutish Irascible's witless method — merely modernized. Crime. So long as "crime" is the direction I re- i -1. nice, there will be "crim- inals." Or, put in terms of our com- mercial age, as long as social "bad" pays, social "good" cannot thrive. Under present money and owner- ship conventions, legal possession is accepted as equivalent to production of the things "owned." Hence desire to possess must increase at the cx- pense of desire to produce — taking is easier than making. Thus the para- sitic effort to take rather than the productice effort to make has natural- ly become to many the direction of TECHNOCRACY 81 least r< sistance. And to nothing is the highest ex- ion of this motor idea mercial ideal. Messrs. Maker, Swiper. Stealer, and E. Merger. The huckster who si corn to make his brooms clearly is better circumstanced than petitor who buys his broom-con slow-going Mr. Swiper, who takes material, cannot with, luxuriantly as his still rival who stealthily ace; 1 all ready-made and m; i And m — M r. Maker, Swiper, nor Mr. St chance with Mr. gcr, who "combines" and high-finances all — the "profits." "Prohibition." m — prohibition -end-to. It is sheer waste of . enei probably worse. It is crass foolishness to ti people "pure" and "good" by statute, nperate and moral by lav punishment. It is the substitution of sub — slavery — for self-control. ming success in this dire means real failure, rein on, not — pr< igress. nld prohibition law- result in complete "success," destroying the beverage use of alcohol and, with it, the acquired physical and spiritual re- sistance thereto: the second or third n will lack this painfully ac- quired spiritual strength and pro perience, and the result of the ''rediscovery" of beverage alcohol up- on that generation will be similar or worse than alcohol's effect upon simi- larly unprotected aborigines. But . .! We can, by legal and other conven- tions, make morality, temperance, goodness, desirable; i. e., the ((social) direction of least resistance, for self- initiated effort — encourage "virtue" in- stead of punishing "vice" — the succu- lent and energizing carrot instead of the skull-cracking club. Brute-instinct yells — Kill! — Crucify! i in v. hi pers — Utilize. Social Good and Social Bad. Human action expresses itself in the direction of least resistance, in much the same way as "natural" en- Results will be desirable or wise, depending upon the intelli- , or lack of it, in selecting the mis of human energy suited or mi suited to the object sought to be hed. When custom and convention make of social good greater than the rewards of social bad, the social criminal will become the social saint — malefactors of great private wealth become benefactors of great public worth. So long as convention puts : uium on taking and social pun- ishment on making — the makers will grow thin, the takers wax fat. Under these conditions, however, our alleged industrial democracy so- cial machine is headed for old man Revolution's repair shop, or — the scrap heap. Futile Questions. Discussion as to the "goodness" or "badness" of a system or method apart from the purpose to be accom- plished (as, for example, Capitalism vs. Socialism) is futile, leading only to confusion. Is individualism good? — collectivism bad? Is egoism bad? — altruism good? As well ask similar questions regard- ing one - many, going - coming, rigid- ity-flexibility, heat - cold; and all the thousand-and-one other reciprocal qualities and characteristics. All such terms merely indicate relation, not self-sufficing entities. They desig- nate complementaries, no one of which could exist or be conceived in the absence of the other. Besides this, "good" and "bad" are also mean- ingless in this connection, as they connote ethical relations in the men- tal realm of thoughts and ideas, not space and time measurements in the physical world of acts and things — social act-ivity. To talk about "profiteering" as "good" or "bad" is merely to talk nonsense. It is an efficient method of enriching the few at the expense 82 TECHNOCRACY of the many. Thus — as a means to effect the purpose of Air. Profiteer — it is open to no reasonable criticism. Social "Sin". Social "goodness" is accomplish- ment of socially desired ends. "Bad- ness" is failure in that regard. This criterion applies equally in social mechanics as it does in the machine shop. "Sin" alike in both of these de- partments of human effort is neglect to use the befitting means or mate- rials. When a mechanic for selfish gain, from misdirected economy, or from ignorance employs a power- shaft too light for its "load, there is no doubt as to where blame should lie. How about a businessman or bank- er who, for the same reasons, places a heavy load of responsibility on hu- man shoulders too light for the bur- den — who entrusts millions to youth- ful and underpaid clerks? Objective of the Nation. Thus, in the social organization, the human parts must be arranged, not alone with regard to the imme- diate requirements of their work, or the "efficient" output of products (as is present "efficiency" practice), but primarily with reference to the hu- man needs and the natural character- istic of the worker, the democratic ideal of the people, and the ultimate purpose — Objective of the Nation. Built That Way. The point here to be reinforced is how vitally important are these natural characteristics of the human units of the social structure, and how profoundly society is affected by their instinctive constitution. Introspection will confirm what I have argued on the ground of the evolutionary history of man. Let any one look within himself and examine the quality of his pref- erences, their motivation, and the line of action into which they run: he will most likely find something in the nature of a categorical imperative — a must. Why do 1 dislike this, why do T like that? The answer would probably be: Because — I am built that way. "Right" and "Wrong". But note, this inward compulsion is felt to be, and is, something very different from coercion exercised from without, whether the compul- sive force expresses nature's activity or the arbitrary will of others. The inward compulsion is not felt as a mere "must". The compulsive quality may, indeed, not be felt at all; it may remain unperceived until disclosed by inward search. What is always felt, hoAvever, is that it — is "right". Coercion, on the contrary, is al- ways felt to be "wrong". Self-Expression. This inward compulsion, then, car- ries with it a sense of sanction. And it has this sanction because it is in- itiative — it is the expression of an instinctive urge. That is, it is self-expression. If one' could venture to use the term "right" otherwise than rela- tively, as an "absolute", one might be tempted ' to say: self-expression IS right. The Japanese Question. How individual instinctive bents af- fect social action may most readily be perceived in cases where the same instinctive reaction governs great numbers of men. Take, for example, the Japanese question which of late has assumed such seriousness for the people of the United States and par- ticularly for us Californians. In the mass of arguments advanced for and against Japan, one stands out like one of our granite buttes: "Race antipathy," say the pro- Japanese. Quite true, answer we; it is race antipathy. But what does that mean? Essentially it signifies simply a race preservation instinct: an instinctive objection by men of the white race for hybridization with an alien race. They want to remain white. Vox Populi! Let it be admitted that this desire may be injudicious. Let it be granted that, under a yet undiscovered canon of super-aesthet- TI-XHNOCRACY 83 ics, our complexions would be im- proved by being jaundiced, tbat blue eyes would be bluer gazing from oblique lids, tbat a shrinkage of our Stature would bring us closer to earth. Let it be granted that the eugenics- to-be would demonstrate a great mental improvement of the American people resulting from their ceasing to be Caucasic and becoming yellow- white mongrels. All of that would avail nothing — avails nothing. The policy laid down for our deal- ing with Japan is ultimately dictated by — instinct; or, more accurately ex- pressed, by the frank and wise recog- nition of an instinct. "We just don't want to." Vox populi, vox dei. Fits and Mis-fits. Economic institutions and conven- tions (laws and customs) being man- made, may be rational or otherwise, may be self-initiated or imposed, may be native or adopted, may fit or mis- fit the natural characteristics of the individuals composing a social aggre- gation, may rest on autocratic or democratic notions, and may express debasing or ennobling ideals. Creative Consciousness. But every idea or ideal, whether its rays point up or down, has its in- itiating flame in an individual creative consciousness. And, it is ideals — realized — that make the social world move; valid ideals for progress, false ideals for retrogression or profitless milling around in a vicious circle. So it is almost a truism to say that: All social and economic ideals are futile and dangerous that violate na- ture or invade the sanctuary and sanctity of the individual. Man Is a Compound. Before closing, and at the risk of repetition, I want to hammer home this and one or two other ideas which seem to me to be of controlling significance. The individual man is a compound of creative spirit and nature-evolved instinct: The first is elemental — free. The second is a product — governed by physical laws. All human beings are alike in free- dom of spirit — to the extent that they realize their freedom. But they dif- fer without limit in their individuality, that is, in their proportional admix- tures of inherited instinctive traits, urge-force, and general make-up. Hence nations differ in their effec- tive capability to realize their social ideals — to utilize their nature-provided opportunity for national self-realiza- tion, through rationally appropriate economic institutions. The American Nation. While the spirit of man is free to choose well or ill, it is economic in- stincts which determine economic possibilities. And society is no more than the aggregate of the individuals that compose it. The American Na- tion is nothing more or less than a hundred-and-odd million (potentially free but self-bound) American Sim- ple-Strongs, Skilful-Strongs, Cunning- Strongs and Tricksy-Cunnings — and our national character is the sum total of our inherent and our in- herited characteristics. Our Unprecedented Responsibility. We occupy a wonderful continent and we have an unparalleled oppor- tunity: thus we face an unprecedented responsibility to prove our worthiness of this great trust — to prove that our spiritual worth is at least commen- surate with our physical wealth. Fernwald, Berkeley, California. May 25, 1921. Technocracy Third Series PART III. Parasitism and Personality: Conflicting Drifts in the Evolution of Society. By William Henry Smyth NOTE: Part III exhibits the twofold nature of man in its interaction in our present "society," as yet unorganized for the mutual adjustment of ani- mal instinct and social reason. It is shown how at present the evolutionary urge to self-support is opposed by the evolutionary counterdrift, parasitism: how this drift (facilitated by the belief in magic) supports the existing system of finance, itself the quintessence of parasitism: how this must lead ultimately to ruin, of parasite as well as host. Old Order and New Order. cious, blood- ty, two-fisted killer, with Trixie, cunning- two-handed male: her reached the pinnacle of ai ' lent, the limit, the end-r i — the climax, resull there i ntered an ling" transforming the climax into a I not only a new direc- tion, but a order of dev< lo] The old order, still existing and functioning in the animal world, was ii ted to producing new animal species, thus is characterized by limi- ms. The new order, of which Alan is the m, is characterized, as . by fr< edom. Self-support vs. Parasitism. For survival in the animal world 1 I : . ■ directions ir1 have been available and have, pectn I . I folli :d by ani- ns as their direction of The two directions i oughly b( expi essed i : the way of productive self-sup- port. By the way of deductive parasitism. These path-takers are broadly rep- nted by prey and predator, ivy ..ii'! oak, by herbivora and carnivora, ("Bulls and Bears"?), by host and i;e — big bugs have little bugs up- on their backs to bite 'em, little bugs ill nitum. The di\ survival to the human on- looki ' and "downward"— i tion. And it i: to be observed that this "upward" and "downward" oi survival effort passed over with our animal nature into human de\ ment, and i - ntly into our - expedient s and com entions. The upward or self-supporl j naturally expressed itself early, in crude agriculture and rude indus- . gradually being developed and cJ into modern arts, crafts and s cien 'i'he downward or parasitic tendency naturally i ed in its crud- esl (cannibalistic) form in the earlier and more animal stages, gradually (i.\ eloped and "refined" from its raw crudness, in keeping with the "higher" development of humanity, in- to exploitation — slavery direct and in- direct; into cunning thievery — legal- ized and otherwise; into cunning cheats in all their variety — unearned "pi i ilit" chasers; into cunning we; al> ;orbers — "hoarders," "profiteers," etc., and all kinds of wealth-wasters — idle poor, idle rich, hobo and aristo- crat. The generalized present-day social expression of the two trends 1 have indicated by dividing society into "Maker-," and "Takers." TECHNOCRACY 85 "Preference." As the "New Order" of develop: itiiMit progressed (and pri man has gradually acquired a distinct and conscious preference for the "up- ward" direction of developmenl a repugnance From even the idea of itism— we hate body lice, and "varmints" of all kinds. thinking — social conventions — has not caught up with his individual intelligence. We have ed habits of bodily cleanlh we are as y< ( far from a similar pref- ial soap and cathartics — externa] and internal social purity. Hence par; mun- ity do not produce the quick and spon- >us loathing which parasites on or in the person (bed-bugs, body-lice or the individual. Witness: "One man's misfortune r's opportunity" — a commer- cial aphorism, which is a stupid social fallacy, but a valid parasitic a- also: "profiteer," "interest," "unearned increment," "four hundred," etc.; all. of which are merely "respectable" euphemisms for social matters and things that, couched in more direct terms, would produce feelings similar to those aroused by "louse," "tick," and "tape-worm." A Basic Proposition. Man's advent, then (explain it how you will) introduced on earth a being differing in kind from all that preceded him, a true "combination" of matter and spirit, of animal and spiritual, of mechanism and — personality. In man was "combined" the preda- tory animal with its restricting in- stincts, and spirit with its unrestricted creativeness. If this proposition is not accepted (as earlier I said about a similar one) there can be no further discussion; in- deed, there can be no "Social Prob- lem" to discuss. But this proposition once truly re- alized, and its valid implications rationally applied, the Gordian knot of social difficulties calls for no cutting, for it loosens up and be- comes amenable to comparatively easy rational manipulation. Human Elements. As the complication of machinery is resolvable into two simply use- able (though incomprehensible) me- chanical elements — the wedge and, tin- lever— so the complication of society and social activity is resolv- able into, flows out of, and rests upon two simply usable (though in- comprehensible) human elements — in- stinct and personality. These arc the fundamentals of Man. individually and collectively; and society's function is to employ one to liberate the other. Junk Piles. As in practical mechanics failure to get a "working understanding" of the simple mechanical elements — the wedge and lever — brings mech- anistic confusion, "perpetual motion" foolishness, vast wastage of human energy, wealth, and material; brings difficulties (real and imaginary) ana fills the Patent Office and junk-piles with records of myriad mechanical futilities: so with the workaday af- fairs of society, failure to get a "working understanding" of the sim- ple human elements — instinct and personality — brings like results, so- cial confusion, credit-perpetual-motion foolishness, \ast wastage of human energy, wealth and material; brings difficulties (real and imaginary), debt, discontent, H C. L., the myriad futili- ties of finance and the host of other undesirable items which go to make our mountainous social-scrap-pile and our ominous "Social Problem''. Tangibles and Intangibles. As the lever, in its arc movement raising a load, combines the physical iron bar with intangible time, space, and motion and makes available (liber- ates) universal energy for human use: so the physical animal combined with intangible spirit liberates Uni- versal Creativeness in its earthly ex- pression — Human Personality. Liberation. To carry the analogy still further: A ragged tree-branch is a rough-and- ready lever of limited effectiveness, while a steel-toed, scientifically- shaped iron crow-bar is an enor- TECHNOCRACY mously powerful and highly efficient instrumentality. So, in like manner, the greater the perfection of the human body, in skeleton, muscle, brain ,and sense organs, the more efficient an instrumentality it be- comes for the creative liberation ot the human spirit — self-expression. True Efficiency. Read Huxley's idea of a worth- while man: .... "his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with care and pleasure all the work that as a mechanism it is capa- ble of; his intellect is a clear, cold logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth work- ing order, ready like a steam engine to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; his mind is stored with knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her opera- tions; he is no stunted ascetic, he is full of life and fire, but his passions are trained to come to heel by a .vigorous will, the servant of a ten- der conscience; he has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of Art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself." "Society." Lacking a word to express, gener- ally, the total interacting mass of men, women, and children constituting a political aggregation, that is to say, the entire communal complex in its material aspect, including its mainten- ance (making and using in all their multifariousness — food, clothing, hous- ing, hygiene, reproduction, etc.), I have throughout these essays em- ploy ed the terms "society," and "social functioning" as implying all the peo- ple and their total community doings which directly affect, or arc directly aff( 'led by, the economic processes of production, distribution and direction; i. e. doers, doing, and dune — nation- wide industry — -the entirety of social ACTivity — physical society. Purpose of Society. A sane mind in a healthy body, sums up in a few words an ideal of human effectiveness, whether consid- ered in the individual or in the col- lective aspect. To make social conditions favor- able to this ideal is clearly the main (proximate) purpose of society. And we have seen that personality is in- itiative — creative — self-expression is or its essence. So it follows that the function of society is twofold, it has a direct and an indirect purpose; the direct is the care of the body, the indirect is to foster freedom of personality — "freedom of opportunity'' for untrammeled self-expression. Direct and Indirect. The indirect object (self-expres- sion), though paramount, rests on first attaining the direct object — food, clothing, etc.; for man's spirit resides in a physical body. The direct object is thus seen to be vital, for to fail in it is to fail completely. The direct object thus becomes the — social object. And as, in the family, intelligent diousehold economics is vital not alone to the physical but the moral well-being of its members, so sane national economics is of first impor- tance to the like well-being of the citizens. Society "Economic". So the advisability of treating so- ciety and our social problem as "economic" is clear and its advan- tages apparent. By confining our (social) attention to matters which can be dissected, analyzed, and synthetized; weighed, measured, and catalogued, we are dealing with things and acts which can be physically dealt with ana determined. Though motives are spiritually paramount, as society is a physical organization, dealing with physical things, physical acts, and physical problems, we may disregard those vague intangibles and confusing spir- itualities, for they do not help us in physical problems and only hinder physical work. Not Spiritual. In the kitchen, or in the machine shop, for example, it would only tend TECHNOCRACY n? to confusion and inefficiency to lug in "God," religion, and spiritual concerns, which there would be quite imperti- nent. In the food-shop, machine-shop, or work-shop, my "God," my religion, my spiritual problems do not concern my fellow-cooks or my fellow-mechan- ics or my fellow-workers, no matter how ingeniously imaginative the} - may be or how spiritually expert. So in society — the general work- shop — my "God," my religion, my spiritual problems do not concern other workers, my fellow-citizens, no matter how ingeniously imaginative they may be or how spiritually ex- pert. As family life and family purposes (though dependent upon) are exterior to and apart from kitchen functioning, so it is on a larger scale with society. "Personal" Concerns. My spiritual concerns are my "per- sonal" concerns, to interfere in which no fellow citizen nor any other human being has the faintest shadow of a right — all the "Lord's anointed," all the busy-body religionists, all the "God-appointed" soul experts in the world to the contrary notwithstand- ing. In the "separation of Church and State" humanity for the first time ef- fectively recognized the truth of this transcendently important idea. Responsibility. Food, clothing, housing, etc., mak- ing and taking, are all physical mat- ters to be dealt with by physical means. To make more or less, to take more or less, involve no moral or ethical problems, only questions of physical expediency — precisely as the expedient size of a steam engine or the expedient strength of structural iron, the expedient proportions of chemicals, or amounts of food. If I take from a man his food, or his clothing, or his housing: hunger will gnaw, the blizzard will chill, the storm will destroy, just the same, whither I take for the "glory of God," or for the gratification of my "evil passions," or in response to the urge of my "instinct to take." The out- come in each case is the effect of my act, and I alone, (not "God." nor "pas- sion," nor "instinct") should, very properly, In- held responsible and ac- countable to the association of my fellows, which my act tends to disrupt — "society." "Me" and My "God." As to the motive behind the doing or not doing, behind the making or taking, behind the more or les^: that is purely a personal matter between "me" and my "God." If I can justify my motive to "Him," so much the belter for me. To my fellow-men I am responsible for, and only responsible for, my acts and their consequences. Insatiable Curiosity. Our "working understanding" of man would be ineffective, lacking con- sideration of man's unsatiable curios- ity- — an insistent urge which, from the earliest and faintest dawn of self-con- scious intelligence, man has striven to satisfy. In lowliest form curiosity is prob- ably a fear reflex; more developed it is desire for scientific "truth," and ul- timately it expresses human craving to know supreme "Go(o)d." Following persistently and immedi- ately on the heels of seeing and sens- ing, that fire scorches, blizzards chill, rocks crush, torrents whelm, and man's life-course is beset with haps and traps and myriad pitfalls, all seem- ingly bent upon his destruction; come the insistent questions: — How! . . . How did it happen! . . . ? Why!. . . Why did it happen!. . . ? Old Fearsome Ferocity. Seeing that he — himself — could im- itate and initiate similar haps, traps and pitfalls for others, primitive man naturally assumed (with a high degree of reasonable probability) "that the natural haps were the outcomes of fearsomely ferocious invisible beings with purposes and passions like his own — only more so; beings who, like himself, had to be propitiated, into friendly mood and kindly act. So — naturally — arose "magic" and magic causation at the hands of the human friends and deputies of invis- ible Old Fearsome Ferocity himself, and — of his sisters and his cousins and his aunts! TECHNOCRACY Magic vs. Science. Down through all the ages, and . .uid ages; down even unto the present day, hour and minute — out- side the laboratory of the Scientist and the workshop of the Mechanic — no oilier (than the "act of God" — mir- aculous) explanation of unusual haps, happen-chances or disasters, has ever been forthcoming. And, as I have shown in earlier es- says of these Technocracy series, in- stinctive animal greed (which is only another way of expressing primordial parasitism) and primitive "magic" are still the controlling exploitation fac- tors in "Modern Economics, Com- merce and Finance." Magic, Everywhere and Always. Historically magic is known to have existed everywhere and at all times. Rut we of today are incredulous or affronted when told that, in most de- partments of life, our way of "think- ing" is on a level with those who fee augures and haruspices. Classical ex- amples arc too well known to pile up instances here. But magic heliefs and practices among peoples (not much if any below ourselves in regard to in- trinsic intelligence) in our own day are not so well known. A Magic Parallel to "Finance." . The following instance of present-day magic economics is peculiarly pertinent because it significantly shows a successfully working parallel to our "Finance." I quote from B. Malinowski's "The Primitive Economics of the Tro- briant Islanders," Economic Journal (the official organ of the Royal Economic Society), March, 1921. The essential identity of the Trobriand economics and ours (in parallel column) is strikingly illustrated by the very slight change in phraseology needed to make one fit the other. Run your eye from column to column and note for yourself. Trobrianders and Manhattanese. PRIMITIVE ECONOMICS OF THE TROBRIAND ISLANDERS. The garden magician (towosi) calls himself the "master of the garden" and is considered as such, in virtue of his magical and other functions. The Towosi, the hereditary magi- cian of each village community, has to a great extent control over the ini- tiative . . . The proceedings of gardening are opened by a conference, summoned by the chief and held in front of the magician's house, at which all arrange- ments and the allotment of the garden plots are decided upon. Immediately after that, the members of the village community bring a gift of selected food to the garden magician, who at night sacrificially offers a portion of il to the ancestral spirits, with an in- vocation, and at the same time utters a lengthy spell over some special SOPHISTICATED ECONOMICS OF THE MANHATTAN ISLANDERS. The financial magician (morgan- feller) calls himself the "master of the finances" ai d is considered as such, in virtue of his complex magical and other functions. . . . The Morganfeller, the legalized magician of each industrial commun- ity, has to a great extent control over the initiative . . . The proceedings of a prospective enterprise are opened by a conference, summoned by the company president and held in the magician's hanking lw use, at which all arrangements and allotment of stocks, bonds, and mort- gages are decided upon. Immediately after that, the members of the indus- trial community bring deposits of funds to the banker magician, who at night sacrificially offers a portion of it to the spirits of posterity, with an invocation to "manufacture credit," TECHNOCRACY 89 [eaves. Next morning, the magician repairs to the garden, accompanied by the men of the village, each of whom carries an axe with the charmed leaves wrapped around its blade. While the villagers stand around, the Towosi (magician) strikes the ground with a ceremonial staff, uttering a formula. This he does on each garden plot successively . . . In a series of rites, lasting as a rule for about three days, he inaugu- rates the work of clearing the garden plot . . . The planting of • yams is inaugu- rated by a very elaborate ceremony, also extending over a few days, during which no further garden work is done at all. A magical rite of its own in- augurates each further stage, the erec- tion of supports for the yam vines; the weeding of the gardens; cleaning the yam roots and tubers; the premilinary harvest; and finally the main harvest of yams. When the plants begin to grow, a series of magical rites, parallel with the inaugural ones, is performed, in which the magician is supposed to give an impulse to the growth and de- velopment of the plant at each of its successive stages. Thus one rite is performed to make the seed tuber sprout; another drives up the sprout- ing shoot; another lifts it out ot the ground; yet another makes it twine around the support; then with yet other rites, the leaves are made to bud, to open, to expand. The natives believe deeply that through this magic the Towosi con- trols the forces of Nature, and they also believe that he ought to control the work of man. To start a new stage of gardening without a magical inauguration is for then, unthinkable. Their implicit belief in magic also supplies them with a leader, whose initiative and command they are ready to accept. . . . The authority cf the chief, the be- lief in magic, and the prestige of the magician arc the social and psycho- logical forces which regulate and or- ganize production. and at the same time utters a lengthy spell over special leaves of account books. Next morning the financier repairs to the stock-market, accom- panied by members, each one of whom carries stock (leaves) wrapped up in a wad. While the community stand around, the Morganfeller (magician) strikes the gong with a ceremonial staff, uttering a formula. This he does for each enterprise successively . . . In a series of rites, lasting as a rule for about three days, he inaugu- rates the work of capitalizing the en- terprise . . . The incorporation is inaugurated by a very elaborate ceremony, also ex- tending over a few days, during which no further real work is done at all. A magical financial rite of its own inaugurates each further stage, the erection of machines for the plant; the purchase of material; running of the enterprise; the preliminary profit; and finally the main harvest of "melons." \\ hen the plants begin to grow, a series of magical financial rites, par- allel with the inaugural ones, is per- formed, in which the financial magi- cian is supposed to give an impulse to the growth and development of the plants at each successive stage. Thus one rite is performed to make the in- vestment sprout; another drives up the price of the product; another lifts it still higher; yet another makes the stock reach par; then with yet other rites to make the ttock bear big divi- dends; to bear still bigger ones; to ex- pand into subsidiary corporations. The people believe deeply that through his magic the Morganfeller controls the foices of Nature, and they also beiieve that he ought to con- trol the work of man. To start a new stage of any enterprise without a money-magic inauguration is for them unthinkable. Their implicit belief in money magic also supplies them with a leader, whose initiative and command they are ready to accept. . . The authority of the Law, the belief in magic, and the prestige of the money-magician are the social and phychological forces which regulate and organize production. 90 TECHNOCRACY We would sec their economic activ- ities in an entirely wrong perspective, if we imagined thai these natives are temperamentally lazy and can work only under some outside pressure. Tiny have a keen interest in their gar- dens, work with spirit, and can do sustained and efficient work, both when they do it individually and com- munally. We would see their economic activi- ties in an entirely wrong perspective, if we were to imagine that Americans are temperamentally lazy and can work only under some outside pres- sure. They have a keen interest in their occupations, work with spirit, and can do sustained work, both when they do it individually and com- munally. Essential Identity. Whatever may be said regarding the differences in details of the Tro- briand and Manhattanese "economics,"' how can their essential identity be reasonably questioned? ( >n the one hand there is the childish belief in the magic powers of rites, spells, and invocations. On the other, the equally childish belief in the magic powers of inani- mate money, intangible wealth, ana mythical credit. One rests its unscientific faith (credit) upon the dead workers of the past, the other rests its equally un- scientific faith (credit) upon the non- existent workers of the future. Both are equally unscientific in their fatuous belief in effects flowing from non-existent causes — magic. In both "economic systems" igno- rant belief in magic, and ignorant be- licl in the supposed power of magicians over the forces and pro- cesses of Nature, are the effective means to enslave the worker masses and control the product of their toil. "Business Is Business." That the morgan fellers of the Tro- briand Islands do not work their spells and invocations merely for "the good of their health," nor en- tirely for the spiritual uplift of their fellows, is clear from Malinowski's account, hut, like practical business- men, they — get their rake-off. That the Towosis of Manhattan Island, et ah, do not work their credit-and-money-magic merely for considerations of physical or spiritual hygiene — personal or collective — but, that they (also like practical busi- nessmen) "gel theirs" — seems to be indubitable from the evidence of the "Pujot Commission on the Money Trust" of 1913, from which 1 quote: Some "Gift"! "Morgan & Co. and their four chief hanking dependencies held control of: Directorships. Resources. 118 in 34 banks $ 2,679,000,000 105 in 32 transportation systems 11,784,000,000 63 in 24 manufacturing and trading companies... 3,339,000,000 30 in 10 insurance com- panies 2,293,000,000 25 in 12 public utilities.. 2,150,000,000 $22,245,000,000" Yes! it would certainly seem that our Manhattan Towosis get their — "gift". Before 1914 — And After. This, remember, was in 1913, be- fore the late general fracas — before the world went on its world-wide costly and crazy debauch of "credit" pipe dreams. During those bloody nightmare years (while the White World, in vital struggle and tragic desperation, was killing men by the million and destroying real wealth by the bil- lion) our Tricksy Cunning financial Tow r osis were busy too — muttering magic "credit" spells — uttering cco- nomic-magic ( hundred-billion -dollar-), paper promises — making parasitic millionaires by the thousand! — ab- sorbing (real) wealth by the billion! Truly, it would appear that our Towosis "got theirs all right, all right"! — as vulgar Jack Robinson would put it. TKCIIXOCRACY 91 $1,500,000,000,000! Commenting on "Looking Forward as We Glance Backward" by Theo dore H. Price (editor of "Commerce and Finance") in the Outlook of January 19, 1921, I had occasion to note: "Statisticians give the number of the White Race as about rive hun- dred millions; or say one hundred million families. Taking the credit debts, national, public, and private, at fifteen hundred billion dollars (a very conservative estimate), there is a pro-rata interest-bearing debt ot $15,000 saddled upon every family, which at 5% means an inescapable interest charge of $750.00 a year, or $2.00 a day." Seventy-five billion dollars tribute every year — forever! That's the "gift" we bring our Towosis for their magical "manufac- ture of credit" (debts) to the tune of $1,500,000,000,000, in a little over a generation! Yes, indeed, some "GIFT". A "MissingLink". From the same article ("Glancing Backward as We Look Forward," by the present writer), as pertinent and suggestive of a connecting link and kinship between the "Econom- ics" of Trobriand and Manhattan, I will further quote: Repeating Past Blunders. "While it is true that history, as Mr. Price says, never repeats itself, yet we may, if we will, learn from the past to avoid repeating past blunders. For example and as bearing on our present point: Not so very long ago the "Church" was extensively en- gaged in selling "indulgences" — that is, dealing in "future savings", "treasures in heaven". In other words, it was floating super-mun- dane credit. The makers and pur- veyors of these super-worldly credit instruments derived great worldly profit from the traffic, acquiring vast physical possessions. The credulous buyers of this dream-wealth, on the other hand, seem not to have done so well. Super-mundane credit, in this form, and popular willingness to "ab- sorb" these credit issues, gradually declined to zero point (as the mar- ket "value" of Towosi magic spells wotdd vanish in the white light of — botanical and agricultural — Science); only, however, towge substituted by credit issues of equally mythical fu- ture wealth, for which credulous ab- sorbers arc still plentiful — "one born every minute," so 't is said. Dream Wealth. The trouble with dealing with all forms of "future" wealth lies in the fact that because the future is in- finite in extent, its optimistically supposititious wealth partakes of the same infinite character; whereas present — that is, matter-of-fact exist- ing — wealth is necessarily always finite, limited. Great Expectations. To any mind courageous and naive — that is, undistorted by pseudo-eco- 'nomic and pseudo-theologic casuis- try — the difference between an of- fering of "indulgences" and a new company's prospectus (or the prom- ise by a Towosi of a bumper crop of Trobriand yams — ) is not nearly so great as popularly assumed. And closer inspection will then reveal a startling, but withal illuminating, identity in essential principle. In either case a transfer of actual com- modities is besought in exchange of "Great Expectations". A Dangerous Fallacy. Herein lies the essential fallacy of the world-wide collective delusion — our Great Credit Myth. How could anything different from or better than present conditions is- sue from such a dangerous fallacy? And how could anyone discerning that fallacy (as I did, years ago, long before the war) fail to anticipate what has actually come about?" Review. We have now reached a position in our investigation at which we may snug up the accumulated material into more compact form: The Universe disclosses itself to us as dynamic, creative; and Man's 92 TECHNOCRACY spirit discloses itself as partaking of the same essential character. Man is a self-conscious, gregarious animal in a mechanistic, animalistic, and man-made environment, which is friendly or otherwise depending on how he acts toward it. In this marvelous, manifold, and varied setting made up of myriad things and forces, wholly indifferent and neutral to his wants and wishes, Man is free to choose wisely or otherwise and — take the conse- quences. He is even free to be unfree — if he so chooses; for it is only by and in the rational exercise of his free- dom that he becomes free; spiritually free by self-liberation from the irrationalities of gross superstition — magic; physically free by ac- quiring and rationally using knowl- edge of the truths of Nature and the laws of her operations. While his spirit is ever potentially free, his physical freedom is condi- tioned upon his rational attitude to- wards the unvarying law and order of the physical universe. Though "personally" Man is spirit- ually free, physically he is in a world in which "there are others" (also spir- itually free and physically con- ditioned) like himself, towards whom as towards other _ ele- ments of his environment, he is free to act rationally or otherwise, and — take the consequences. Hence Society. Human instincts are as much facts in the order of Nature as any other, and willy-nilly must be acquiesced in. Like other elements of Man's en- vironment (including "others"), in- stincts are friends or enemies de- pending upon how he acts towards his own and towards the instincts of "others." Man's instincts are, so to say, the environment of his spirit, so self- expression must satisfy both the "natural" urge of instincts and the creative urge of his spirit. Hence the "Social Problem." This problem involves the social task of harnessing the "animal" by socializing the instincts through ra- tional organization of society — the social environment; and elimination of ignorant belief in and reliance upon magic. In the animal world, under the "old order," two main survival paths were open — self-support and parasit- ism. These survival trends passed over into "human" development, so into our social expedients and conven- tions. Modern man has acquired a prefer- ence for the "upward" trend and hence a repugnance to the idea of parasitism. This "preference" has become — in view of the overwhelming develop- ment of parasitism (under "Capital- ism") during the last half century — probably the most important stress factor in our modern "Social Prob- lem." The spirit of a man — with its "pref- erence" for the "upward" path, its aspirations after high ideals, its God- like creativeness — resides in and is dependent upon a body, with its physical needs, its physical wants, and it's physical requirements. Social Purpose. Taking all these matters into con« sideration, it would appear that: The main (proximate) purpose of "Society" is to facilitate the econ- omical production and the efficient distribution of food, clothing, hous- ing, etc., to each of its human units without fictitious (privilege) distinc- tion, and in such way as to effect the greatest physical well-being of its individual members. But a social organization which ends merely as an effective instru- ment for individual well-being (re- gardless of humanity's essentially mutual aspect) is little if any ad- vance on raw non-conscious gregari- ous instinct, which also unifies the herd (under the "old order") for the well-being of its members. Docs it not, therefore, seem ob- vious that a rational social organiza- tion — in order to be consistent with Evolutionary Progress and with Hu- TKCIIXOCRACY 93 man Nature — must unite the consci- ous wills of its members in "up- ward" ever expanding and consci- ously perceived rational purposes? Does it not seem obvious that the only form of national organization which is enduring and "humanly" de- sirable is one in which self-conscious- nesa and other-consciousness, individ- uality and mutuality, are inter-ad- justed and work harmoniously for the spiritually worth-while purposes of the Nation? Fernwald, Berkeley, California, May 31, 1921. FIFTEEN ^HUNDRED ^BILLION $DOLLARS$CREDIT &DEBT 1 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$£$$$^ $&$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$&$ $A c» c* o cffdjCJ C?4j C? 4jc? v4j OCJCJ O O common people Technocracy Third Series PART IV. The World's Great Crisis: Emergence of Social Self-Consciousness By William Henry Smyth NOTE: Part IV outlines Social Reconstruction in the light of the evi- dence and the conception of man previously set forth. The moving force and the practical means are indicated for bringing about such changes as will make of society a truly "human" institution, designed to aid the expression of human personality; and by this enfranchisement and the unison of minds in a national objective, raising the American people to unguessed heights of achievement. Irascible Strong. Irascible Strong, irrepressible old killer, has been relegated to the low- ermost social stratum of yegg, thug and gunfighter and — war. Blundering old Irascible; but, he gave us our reckless and unconquer- able physical courage, and he saved us from a lot of less desirable, still more dunder - headed would - be an- cestors who sought Trixie's frolic- some favors. What do we not owe to Irascible's uncertain temper, his strenuosity, and his big stick! Oh! a bad, bold swashbuckler was Irascible Strong, our humorous first parent — a sigh and rosemary for his strenuous social virtues; for his jocund peccadils — the statute of limitations. Trixie Cunning. And what a bunch of unmitigated blundering boobs we would have been, but for Trixie's frolicsome even if stealth}^ cunning. Today, doubt- less none of us would pick Trixie in lieu of his own particular mother; but as the mother of the race, we could hardly have done better. Cunning Strong. Would-be world conqueror, self- centered Cunning Strong, has been dumped into the limbo of the gov- ernmental scrap-pile, with the pass- ing of Autocracy and the develop- ment of an effective Vox Populi. But what would Democracy avail or amount to, without its Cunning Strongs! Where would we find worth-while executives, or what could be substituted in leadership, lacking men of combined strength and cun- ning: Tricksy Cunning. Tricksy Cunning is now in the sad- dle (or rather in the counting house) and in legal possession of the World's Wealth, hence has con- ventional ownership of the World and — all that it contains. Clearly Tricksy is most earnestly and conscientiously (even if uncon- sciously) doing, in these latter days and for her latest descendants, what Trixie did in her own inimitable fashion for (their other first parent) her slow-witted mate. Tricksy — truly, an all too efficient eliminator of dunderheads — is jolting our sluggard wits in many effective ways, and particularly those of our modern Simple Strongs — by killing them off in "economic" wars, and in peace "economically" starving their foolish bellies. His function in the past is of obvi- ous and inestimable value, and to- day it is hardly less indispensable. I cherish and admire my Tricksy Cunning friends, Mr. Banker and Mr. Parson; but I do so with my own tricksy cunning wits alert for the safety of my purse, and for the free- dom of my soul; and old Irascible in me would joy to see the Dempsey- Carpentier scientific slugging match TECHNOCRACY 95 and a fair knockout at the end of a good stiff fight. Skillful Strong. Of Skillful Strong and his past and present value nothing need be said: his works speak louder than words — even megaphoned from the mountain tops. Simple Strong. But these valuable deviations from the norm are of little worth com- pared to Simple Strong — the Masses; the masses in whom is potential all the strength of Cunning Strong, all the cunning of Tricksy Cunning, all the skill of Skillful Strong; all the genius, all the spiritual worth, all the realizable ideals of the race. If We So Will It! Looked at thus (and who will question the validity of this view), what is there in present conditions about which to be pessimistic? Considering the past, and the way we have come and the victories we have gained; considering our lowly beginnings, the infinitude of Nature, and the heights which Man has at- tained physically and spiritually, is not the future filled to overflowing with glorious possibilities: If We so will it, and — have the courage of our convictions. Opposite Outlooks. A school teacher recently destroy- ed herself — overwhelmed with the thought of the siderial heaven's mag- nitude compared to man. How crassly foolish, how utterly irrational her thought! When I consider the unbounded starry firmament and the equally un- bounded microcosm — and Man's all- embracing Mind comprehending both. I am uplifted to the high heavens of spiritual exaltation. For what is Betelgeuse with its mere bulks of incandescent gases, no matter how huge, or _ the light years of mere space which separate us from them, compared to a single human spirit which takes in, weighs, measures, an- alyses, deduces past, present and future, not alone of Betelgeuse but of myriad directioned other star masses greater and more distant? Should we be depressed? •We should not! Gcd is God, and Nature is His true Prophet: He is in His high Heaven and all is well with the World — if We so choose. Social Self-Consciousness. The necessity for rational choice is upon us, immediate, and insistent. We are, as I believe, at a momen- tous stage in human history; indeed, a vital crisis is upon us, in the devel- opment of the race — our race, the White Race. Something of vital moment seems impending: it's in the air, we all feel it; sense it in as many ways as there are differences in characters, tempera- ments, interests and outlooks: laws, customs, conventions, institutions, habits, are in turbulent flux — as never before in the world's history; a war is waged comparable to nothing in human experience; the American peo- ple in seeming violation of their con- structive instincts, their peaceful character and freedom-loving nature accepts conscription, practically with- out a dissenting voice and becomes over night a wealth-destroying mili- tary nation; with equal unanimity the American people deprive themselves (voluntarily) of many accustomed foods, that other nations might eat; they loan (virtually give) their wealth by the billion to save other nations from vital harm. Volumes have been written upon the signal happenings of our times, so I will only add (as I have not seen the matter I have in mind referred to in a manner commensurate with its significance) that this United States, the largest, most united, most power- ful political division of the White Race, discarding all precedent, de- manded, asked or accepted no quid pro quo for these lavish contributions to an ideal, but voluntarily, unani- mously, gladly gave of its blood, its man-power, its wealth, and its re- sources — a gloriously unique and stu- pendous exemplification of united col- lective spirit — national altruism: al- truism — national altruism, mark you: altruism i. e. "other-consciousness," the necessary concomitant of Self- consciousness. 96 TECHNOCRACY Is ii conceivable that all this exal- tation of human vitality, all this tor- rential outpouring of human emotion, all this spiritual uplift, means nothing — nothing but a trivial passing phase? I cannot so see it. And. what phrases are more com- monly current today than "Group con- sciousness," "Class consciousness," "National consciousness?" To me it seems (and the notion will not down) that it all presages social re-birth: that what I have noted and what I have implied are the preliminary symptoms, the birth pains of social regeneration through the emergence of Social Self-consciousness. "Animal" vs. "Human." My fervent — and I firmly believe my rationally founded — hope is, that it is so. If my hope is only a foolish and il- lusory dream, then, indeed, must I shed my comforting optimism, and look with what philosophic resignation I can muster at the ominous future which faces our White Civilization. For as I envisage the situation, it would appear as a life-and-death con- test between antithetical forces — so- cially destructive "animal" parasitism (emphasized by Capitalism), and the vital emergence of regenerative "hu- man" social self-consciousness. If the latter is laggard or unduly de- layed, by ignorance, or by greedy parasitic design, the "downward" trend will carry us into the social quagmire, the social slough of de- spond, in which will be overwhelmed beneath the slime of animalism, the civilization of the White World. Menace or Salvage. If, on the contrary, we can and do accelerate the development of social self-conscious rationality — mutuality — the very momentum of the parasitic forces may be turned to social good. And those super-one-sided individuals who now in the exercise of their highly trained acquisitive propensities are a social menace of the most pro- nounced type, will under the (second) "new order" of human development become social factors of great human worth and of highest social value. Confirmatory. (Within an hour after writing the foregoing, I read in the editorial col- umn of the morning's paper [June 7] a few short paragraphs, so peculiarly apropos, that I cannot refrain from quoting them: "The City of New York is in debt more than a thousand million dollars. One citizen, if it were possible to re- alize on his possessions at their full value, could pay the debt of New York City and have more than a thousand million left. These are days of big figures. "Observe this fact: If this man, fifty years ago, had been put in charge of New York City's finances, with power to develop its street cars, wharves, real estate, gas, electric light, tele- phone and other natural monopolies for the public benefit, New York City wouldn't owe a dollar, would have no disgraceful slums and would have a thousand millions in the bank — if it chose. "At this point in our progress to- ward civilization, exceptional individ- ual intelligence is devoted to exploit- ing the masses. Later it will strive to protect and enrich them. Then many problems will be solved.") Evolutionary Revolution. All of us, I take it, have accepted in some form or other that: Nature's method is evolutionary. This, however, does not exclude cataclysms — crises. Indeed, that such cccur in "Nature" is even more ob- vious than its antithesis — develop- ment by infinitely small changes. Animal evolution, then, as in geo- logic adjustment, proceeds by a iong series of imperceptible changes till a point of critical stress is reached, then comes the jar, the shock — the evolu- tionary revolution — a new species is suddenly formed, or it may be a new order of conditions is inaugurated, to form in its turn a new point of evo- lutionary departure. Social Cataclysms. Social development (as I read his- tory and see it in its becoming) is not exempt from this otherwise universal — revolutionary — phase of evolution. In the complex of society, gradual TECHNOCRACY 97 evolutionary changes are easily ob- servable as proceeding incessantly. Ihit what is not nearly so apparent is the Fact that superadded to this slow change then' is to be noted (by those who have eyes to see) an accumulat- ing mas- strain, which will and must, sooner or later, be released with the always unexpected suddenness of an earthquake. Must White Race Go? This possibility of an "evolution- ary revolution" is not a mere thought or theory which can be lightly waived aside. It is profoundly serious and possibly a tragic condition which confronts us. As a tragic crisis to an individual leaves a blank which takes time to till; as our San Francisco disaster left behind it human misery not yet assuaged, obliterated wealth and art treasures much of which can never be replaced, made miles square of black ruin involving huge unneces- sary expenditure of human energy to repair; as the World War lett in its wake devastation and debt which will take generations to rep- arate and liquidate: so the racial catastrophe, when it comes — as come it will — may sweep the white race into chaos, out of which ages of time alone can again bring order — possibly with the White Race gone for all time. Yes, the white race gone for all time! Up to Us. For "Nature" cares no more for the white race than she does for a drug-crazed individual, or for thought- less San Francisco, or for suicidal Europe. But . . ! As an individual can, by rational foresight, turn temporary ills into permanent benefit, so the American Nation, by such foresight and fore- handed preparation, may turn im- pending crises into practically ever- lasting social betterment — opportuni- ties for unguessed heights of achieve- ment. If We so choose. Die or Diet? One of the common expedients in Agriculture to get rid of predatory pests is to foster their "natural en- emy" — dogs for sheep-destroying wolves, cats for rats, mongooses for snakes, parasites for parasites. And this expedient is usually more effective and cheaper than shot- guns. You will remember also that when (by super-strenuous predatory atten- tion) the particular prey of a preda- tor, or host of a parasite, "plays out," the predator has only two options — either to die or to reform his diet. "Preference." Recall now the two (self-support and parasitic) trends of survival ef- fort referred to in Part III of this Technocracy series — the "upward" and "downward" path. You will remember I said towards the end of that Part: "Modern man has acquired a pref- erence for the 'upward' trend and hence a repugnance to the idea ot parasitism. "This 'preference' has become — in view of the overwhelming develop- ment of parasitism (under 'Capital- ism') during the past half-century — probably the most important stress factor in our modern 'Social Prob- lem'." Modern Economics — Parasitic. Indeed it can hardly be questioned that modern economics, that modern industrial enterprises, that modern political entities or Nations (regard- less of what they are called or the wording of their constitutions) are fundamentally based upon the racially primordial principle of "parasitism", and not upon that of "self-support". Individually human intelligence has developed a "preference" for the "up- ward" path: lagging social intelli- gence has developed conformably to the "downward" course — hence the rapidly growing stress and imminent catastrophic adjustment jolt — evolu- tionary revolution. Easy Street— Sweat Street? I have also, on numerous occa- sions, reminded you that Taking is 98 TECHNOCRACY easier than Making, and cunning costs less physical effort than work. Basking in the bright lights of the roof-gardens on Easy Street is sen- sually pleasanter than toiling and moiling in the mud of Sweat Street. Quite "naturally" the roof-gardens tend to overcrowding — introducing structural stresses tending to sudden collapse or other catastrophic jolt — the "natural' outcome of man's irra- tional misuse of his freedom. Cheese Sandwiches and Beer. You remember the excursion boat, and how she turned turtle and drowned hundreds of her human freight in the Chicago river. Had the same weight been dis- posed below the waterline instead of upon the upper. decks: it would have required many thousand foot-tons of force, days of time, and elaborate en- gineering, to do what "she" did in seconds with the ease of a sleight- of-hand artist. Had those running the excursion boat (foreseeing the danger) ar- ranged long tables with piles of cheese sandwiches thereon and kegs of beer on tap at convenient inter- vals — all on the lower deck, below the waterline (whatever might have happened to exuberant individuals), the turning turtle would not have happened to the boat. Merely Illustrative. Of course, I'm not putting forward this particular precautionary measure as a general remedy. . . . Mere- ly illustrative of a principle. You understand? Any way, "she" would not have turned turtle, and thus the costly consequences would have been avoided. To that you will certainly agree. Bui you may protest: Boats do not usually turn turtle — so how could any one foresee . . . ? No power in the Universe will compel one to foresee! But! if one does not foresee . . . ; Call the Turn! Nature makels no distinction be- tween the dung-ball of a tumble-bug, a human being, a teeming metropolis, or a race; or whether a race be white, black, yellow, or — green. Nor does Nature care a tinker's dam for "untoward consequences" — as humanly conceived. If the conditions naturally call for catastrophic turtle-turning — Nature will call the turn. "Society" Topheavy. And it would certainly seem that social conditions are ripe and nat- urally call for the social structure to turn turtle, for it is obviously top- heavy. There is too much superstructure above the waterline, too much at- traction on the upper deck — and too little "sandwiches and beer" below the waterline — to satisfy modern man, the modern "masses". Seventy-five billion dollars yearly interest — "unearned increment" — para- sitically abstracted from the toiling and moiling proletariat! Animalistic — Humanistic. In brief, and this is our (oft-men- •tioned. but seldom baldly stated) "So- cial Problem": our social structure is built to facilitate and develop para- sitism — parasitism which is essen- tially animalistic, not a humanistic principle. Hence (humanly speaking) our so- cial structure is built upon a false basic principle. The inevitable outcome requires no prophet to foretell — it is obvious: If "society" continues along pres- ent lines of development, the "ani- mal" will survive, the "human" will perish. Truly! turning turtle of the social structure is imminent — if - we - don't - look - out! Detail Remedies Futile. Since the existing social structure is faulty — false in principle, it is self- evident that no amount of well-inten- tioned "remedial" measures directed to specific "evils" will be of avail. Such activities may, indeed, conceivably make the general "evil" worse, by adding stresses and accentuating mal- adjustment and lack of co-ordination between man's essential nature and his social machinery. TECHNOCRACY 99 Reconstruction means that: Our reconstructive efforl must be expended purposive ly along basic lines, on fundamental principles to bring the resulting "society" into har- mony with man's essential "human" nature. The Inventor — A Teacher. The typical inventor is pre-eminent- ly the man who consciously (and painstakingly) seeks and finds new and favorable relations to natural forces, for the realization of a pre- conceived purpose: the purpose being the satisfaction of a "want," i.e. lack of adjustment to environment. He makes dreams come true. He translates an idea into a useable thing. A successful machine is only an idea (or group of ideas) become em- bodied. It is the essential idea, not the mass of details, which character- izes the completed result. As in anal- ysing the battleship, you will remem- ber, I called to your attention, not a mass of bewildering detail parts, but the essential ideas and how they hang together and combine to produce a unitary result. What, then, have we specifically available for social reconstruction, analogous, or socially corresponding first: to the inventor's means, and second: to his mental equipment? Some "Means"! As to the first: The United States has more than a hundred million peo- ple: vast productive power: vast con- sumption capability, vast "purchasing" power. Its natural resources are on even larger scale. It has every essen- tial food product and raw material except rubber. More than three mil- lion square miles in solid mass, ex- traordinarily diversified climatically and topographically, etc. About 300 million acres under cultivation: lead- ing place among all nations. More farm animals than combined five prin- cipal civilized nations next United States. Forest only exceeded by Rus- sia. Half the world's coal measures are in the United States. One-third of world's railway mileage in the United States; and one-sixth of the world's postoffices. The United Stales, with only 6% of the world's population, produces of the world's ( rold '. 21 )' i Silver 40'; Iron and steel 409< Copper 60' - Lead 41 )' I Zinc 50' e Aluminum 60* '< Coal 50% Cotton 60% Coal oil 66% Wheat 25% Corn 75% Automobiles 85% (?) Loans to European gov- ernments $10,000,000,000 Private loans 10,000,000,000 Merchandise on con- signment 2,000,000,000 "Investments" 8,000,000,000 $30,000,000,000 which "the United States" has coming (?) from Europe. Some "Equipment"! And as to the second: It is a mis- taken notion that "inventiveness" is a special "faculty" endowing the few and withheld from the many. (As clearly pointed out in a widely copied article, "Is the Inventive Faculty a Myth," by the present writer, in the Engineering Magazine, May, 1895.) Varying at most in degree, inventive- ness is a universal "human" posses- sion; though by most people little used and hence not fully realized. And through disuse (both self-inhibited and socially repressed) has become "prac- tically" unusable and so "practically" lacking, in many individuals, hence seemingly rare in the community. This general inventiveness is sus- ceptible of enormous development through judicious exercise and proper stimulation, both individually and so- cially, of which stimulation — freedom is the foremost factor. But there is also available a body of special inventiveness, which hitherto (most stupidly) has not been socially tapped: the Scientists and the Tech- nicians. 100 TECHNOCRACY "To Know"— "To Make." These Scientists and these Techni- cians arc the best fitted by nature, by instinct, by economic trait, and by educational training, to seek and to es- tablish appropriate social relations to natural and national physical forces and resource-. The Scientist is so fitted because he is the most intensive human expres- sion of the "Desire to Know," which desire rises from the general mass of the animal (monkey-like) instinct of curiosity. The Technician is so fitted because lit is the most intensive human expres- sion of the urge to real-ize, which urge rises from the general mass of the animal (beaver-like) instinct to make. But the work of both scientist and technician, hitherto, has been "pri- vate;" socially, (collectively) unco- ordinated, often enough contradictory, frequently anti-socially. Technocracy. Wry significant of the parasitic trend of present "society" is the woe- ful contrast between how much ap- plied science has increased the mere hulk of products, and how little the infinitely more important physical and spiritual freedom of the producer. And this, in spite of the fact, as we have seen, that the prime function of "society" is the liberation of person- ality not — the deification of "efficient" productivity. Since, as a rule, scientists and tech- nicians are not rich men's sons (and a man must eat to live) their work usually is performed for the "good" of the possessing few rather than for the benefit of the wanting many or — the ( '( immonweal. In the First Series of these Tech- nocracy papers I indicated, on broad lines but sufficiently clearly for prac- tical purposes a "practical remedy" — Technocracy. Towosieized Technicians. On numerous occasions I have di- rected your attention to the prac- tically universal belief in magic — magic causation. The use directly and indirectly, both of this fallacy and of the widespread belief therein, makes them into effective handser- vants of parasitism under its "Cap- italistic" expression. The spirit and method of Science arc the direct antithesis of magic. It is science which has produced the "Machine Shop". It is magic that has produced "Finance". In the machine shop. Science rules only in so far as machine processes go: there its control stops. The social control of the Machine Shop lies with the Towosis of Finance. Thus it is that our Towosis (like those Of Trobriand) control not only the work, the workmen, the work shop — "industrial society" is only the Great Work Shop — but our Towosis run the scientists and Science itself! The "natural" consequence of this non-social ("kept") position of scien- tists ami technicians, including our Towosi pensioned teachers and Pro- fessors of "Economics", is that they have acquired a bias in favor of para- sitic Tricksy C. Towosi, both of which (i. e., Towosi and their bias in his favor) arc in pathetically lu- dicrous opposition to their own in- tellectual essence. Towosieized Industry. The existing mix-up of course is advantageous to Emperor Towosi of Finance, to the Kings Towosi of Commerce, to the Barons Towosi of Industry, and to all the lesser To- wosis in their various degrees, and is naturally supported by them. In- deed, the functional mix-up, in large part, directly results from this per- niciously parasitic pyramidal Towosi system of self-assumed autocratic rule. The liberation of our Industrial De- mocracy from the baneful influence and Autocratic rule of Tricksy C. Towosi magic would make possible the elimination of the existing con- fusion, resulting from the chaotic in- termingling of the component pro- cesses of Production, Distribution, and Direction, with enormously en- hanced "freedom of opportunity" for "personal" initiative — self-expression. The emancipation of science, of technology, of productive industry, and thus of all society, from the con- TECHNOCRACY 101 trol of Tricksy C. Towosi (his myth- ical manufactured "credit" and his money magic) can only, as I see it, be accomplished by science nation- alized — Technocracy. Produce - Distribute - Direct. The tripartite division of industrial process into Production, Distribution, and Direction is obligatory from its nature. Necessary because it corre- sponds to the tripart separation of the natural economic urge which dif- ferentiates men into, and motivates, Skilful Strongs, Cunning Strongs, and Tricksy Cunnings. To violate this division by over- lapping or by exchange of natural function, is to flout Nature, for it attempts to negate a nature given Law. To break Nature's laws is an of- fence which neither man individually nor man collectively — society — can commit with impunity. Blind Leaders of the Blind. One natural result of such irra- tionality is present day social con- fusion — futile functioning from' which few (seemingly) benefit, while many really suffer. For even the few en- joy only temporary and a very ques- tionable "good". Thus irrationally led civilization has run wild — chasing phantoms. Verily! the World is vibrant with signs, Europe reeks with bloody por- tents, and the whole Towosi Finan- cial Cabal has gone megalomaniac — dreaming "credit" pipe-dreams of the boundless wealth of infinite futurity, and greedily striving to grasp these mythical billions! Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. Scientist — Social Servant. Think for a moment of T. N. T. Think of Twenty-inch-, and Sev- enty-five-mile Guns. . . . Think of Air-ships. . . Think of Submarines. . . . Think of "Poison Dew" — that can destroy all human life for miles around. Think of disease germs. . . Think of all the devilish poten- tialities of science and technology — in the hands of self-centered Tricksy Cunning. . . Think . . . ! Then . . . Is it not as apparent to you, as it seems self-evident to me, that this "need" (of nationalizing the Scientist and Technician) has be- come a crying "want" — a danger- fraughl mal-adjustment in modern society, our Alan-made environment? Then . . . Does it not strike you as a self-evidently valid eco- nomic expedient and a wholly ra- tional proposition: That, by virtue alone of becoming a Scientist or a Technician, one should thereby concomitantly and concurrently become an honored and suitably rewarded National Official — Public Servant? That, every academy or college of Science and Technology should be an industrial "West Point", a con- structive "Annapolis" — a National training school of con-structive In- dustrial Democracy? "Let Him Be Your Servant." For this social "need" to become a generally recognized social "want"; for the validity of this proposition to be generally self-evident, there is re- quired not only an enlightened vision of their social function by scientists and technicians, but its discernment by the sovereign People, the source of all power and progress of the Nation. "And whosoever will be chief (i e., leader) among you, let him be your servant." That — is Industrial Democracy. Parasitic Toll Gates. There can be no "freedom of the seas" while one nation controls the Commerce Routes: in like manner, there can be no "freedom of oppor- tunity" while one (acquisitive) class controls the Highways of Oppor- tunity needed for human self-expres- sion (natural forces, resources and means of production), with parasitic toll-gates of conventional ownership. Perish — Parasitically. Not parasitism, but creative self- expressing Personality is the quin- tessence of "human nature", hence 102 TECHNOCRACY of "human" need: "Social Recon- struction" — our Social Problem — has plainly posed for it its ultimate ob- ject. This must be the central idea of reconstructed human society. The what to be attained is clear. How it is to be attained is equally unequivocal. Society must be so re-organized as to give the amplest opportunity (not alone to Tricksy Cunning, but) _ to each citizen for real-izing his aspira- tions. ■ It must do this, or — perish para- sitically. Obviously the conscious and pur- posive desire for such a society is it- self an aspiration. But . . . ! Aspirations, be it always remem- bered, conceived in the "realm of spirit", must (and can only be) real- ized in the world of acts and things. They must be "reduced to practice" in a world of mechanical matter and physical acts. "Force of Ideas." It folloAvs directly from this that the oft-repeated and cherished phrase "the force of ideas" expresses a wide- spread misconception, a fallacious, dangerously misleading notion. The only "force" which science has recognized or knows anything about, is the "force" which moves ponderable objects. But, Ideals and Ideas expressed in acts and things (i. e., force and matter), sums up the miracle of human life. Reduction to Practice. Mal-adjustments — needs, lacks — conscious "wants," are our urges; Nature, is our boundless store of forces and resources; Science,, is our systematized de- scriptive catalogue of these forces and resources; Technology, is our tested and spe- cialized experience in dealing with the available materials, means, methods and processes — systematized by Sci- ence—wherewith to satisfy our "wants"; Invention, is (and ideally exhibits) the method of reducing productive ideas and ideals to practice; Finance, is (and ideally exhibits) the method of reducing parasitic ideas and ideals to practice. From the effects and effective meth- ods of "Invention" we may get valu- able suggestions as to what social course to pursue, and from the effects and effective methods of "Finance" we may get equally valuable suggestions as to what to avoid in our solution of the "Social Problem," and the reduc- tion of the solution to practice. Social Dreams. Then : Exercising our unified free- dom to choose our Social Destiny; in- ventively using our combined con- structive imagination to visualize it, our mutualized reason to rationally plan it, utilizing our racial experience scientifically organized and our scien- tifically co-ordinated national re- sources to actualize it; we may cour- ageously attack our "Social Problem" with well-founded hopeful confidence that we will realize imagination's pic- tured social joys and rational social purposes, and — prevent the recur- rence of painfully remembered social mishaps. Thus, as the Inventor realizes his ideas, we, too, can ma'ice our social dreams come true. And so — like Mr. W. Man of our parable — our days may be long in our long-sought land of promise, which some call the Country of Self- Realization, and many others, the Land of Joyous Accomplishment; but most, (Simple Strongs,) name it sim- ply — Opportunity. Essentials of Productive Industry. As adequate differentiation is one law of a successful machine, so co- ordination is the other. This is ex- hibited in the machine which is Man, no less than by the purposive struc- tures he makes. Lacking self-consciousness there can be no purpose; Lacking purpose there can be no co-ordination; Lacking co-ordination there can be no realization of purpose; Lacking knowledge of Nature there can be no successful industry; Lacking the requirements of Na- ture's laws and the needs of Human Nature — the most fundamental of TECHNOCRACY 103 which is freedom — there can be no permanent productive organization; Lacking (unhampered) direction of scientists and technicians, (whose Nature-made function is to know and to utilize the facts and forces of Nature,) there can be no permanent modern industry; Lacking organized production, dis- tribution, and direction, with effective co-ordination of the economic traits (strength, skill, cunning) — all unified for a predetermined purpose — there can be no (private or public) indus- trial organization. Essentials of Industrial Democracy. Thus, from all the foregoing, it conclusively appears that: Lacking spiritual liberty; Lacking organized co-ordination of the economic factors — Strong men; Skilled men; Cunning men; Lacking intelligent (non-parasitic) co-ordination of the natural forces and resources; Lacking rational (natural) division into production, distribution, direc- tion; Lacking guidance of worthy na- tional leaders, whose minds are "stored with knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and the Laws of her operations"; Lacking nationally-conscious pur- pose; Lacking any of these essentials there can be no true and permanent Industrial Democracy: Q. E. D. Unifying Spirit. As my constructive imagination vis- ualizes the modern social complex and its "Social Problem," these Na- ture-made requirements are met and provided for by Technocracy. But, above all, and before all, (as I see it), there can be no true, worth- while and permanent national "So- ciety" (worthy of the Human Race, which has produced Newton, Shakes- pear, Socrates, Christ), lacking uni- fied National Self-conscious Spirit — initiative with responsibility — and hence an ever upward expanding ra- tional, consciously perceived National Purpose, expressing our National Per- sonality—A GREAT NATIONAL OBJECTIVE. Postcript. What I have written in these Tech- nocracy papers is not destructive crit- icism. On the contrary, if there is truth in the ideas which I have en- deavored to formulate, if there is va- lidity in any of my propositions, then they can only be constructive. For truth is destructive only of fallacies, errors and ignorance; which is only a round-about way of describing con- struction. What I have endeavored to do is to answer, for my own individual sat- isfaction, and out of my social urge, these questions: What is the meaning of the Social Unrest? What is the nature of its energizing Force? Is there an intelligible Principle behind it all? What is the nature of the Principle? Whither is the World-wide Move- ment tending? In "Technocracy" I have clarified my own thoughts; and if, incidentally, I have done a like service for others, and thrown some light upon these momentous questions, my purpose has been accomplished. "I thank vou." Fernwald. Berkelev, Calif. June 8, 1921. SHOULD ANIMAL PARASITISM OR HUMAN PERSONALITY BE THE GOAL OF OUR SOCIAL STRIVINGS OUR NATIONAL OBJECTIVE? Social Universals THE INDIVIDUAL. The main •function of society is to oppose its combined effectiveness to every natural and artificial condition which tends to hamper the freedom of the individual in so far as the acts of the individual are consistent with the community objective. SUSTENANCE. The products of effort are the results of life energy expressing itself through an individual upon his environment to the end that this in- dividual may and shall express more individual life. Ownership of products, therefore, is as essentially inherent in the producing individual as are the faculties from which the products flow ; thus products are, in right and in reason, in- alienable from the producing individual either by himself or by others — except for their equivalent. MUTUALITY. Equal liberty is the natural right of every per- son to the end that purposefulness may be ex- pressed and function freely, limited only by per- fect mutuality. INCREASE. The women are the natural wards of the com- munity, for its life and well-being are inseparable from theirs. By right of her womanhood's natural function, every woman is therefore en- titled to maintenance and protection as a first charge upon the community resources. Realized motherhood places the community under obliga- tion proportional to the benefit accruing to it. In this benefit the mother is, in equity, entitled to participate directly. FAMILY. . As the social and the true political unit, the family (as a unified group) is entitled effectively to voice its unified objectives, and to be repre- sented in the conduct of all community affairs. (Male- and female-suffrage tends to engender sex antagonism.) Society starts with the union of the sexes; social functioning should start there also: family suffrage — one family, one vote. PROGRESS. The community's most valuable and vital asset are the children, therefore self-preservation makes it imperative that the highest intelligence and unremitting effort be expended upon their prep- aration for carrying forward the national ob- jective. OPPORTUNITY. Every individual is entitled to equal oppor- tunity (i. e. without social or economic handicap), to the end that self-expression may have fullest scope and the individual thus be enabled to reach his highest effectiveness for self-realization and for the welfare of the community. PROSPERITY. Nature's resources are its gifts to all; they are man's inalienable environment; they are his common heritage and his common birthright. INHERITANCE. As it is only by and through the organization of the community that the individual can socially function, it is inherently right and reasonable that the surplus product of that functioning should accrue to the community at his death. Social Wants A PRACTICAL PROGRAM I SELF-OWNERSHIP— "I will" instead of "You must." II PERSONALITY instead of Parasitism. III KNOWLEDGE of Nature's Laws instead of Belief in Magic. [V FREEDOM of Opportunity instead of the Serfdom of Necessity. V NATIONAL BOOK-KEEPING instead of Money Monopoly. VI COSTLESS MONEY instead of Commodity Money — National Check Medium of Ex- change. VII NATIONAL HONESTY instead of Privat- ely "Manufactured Credit." VIII REWARDS for Making instead of Legal- ized Taking. IX INSURANCE at Cost for all, by all, instead of Exploiting for "Profit" the Mishaps of the Unfortunate. X NATIONAL PURPOSE. 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- ror." Working Explosively. There arc 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. WORKING EXPLOSIVELY One means Compulsion; the other Freedom. Routine working is an efficient means lo 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 he no Art — dramatic, artistic, nor even produc- tive — in which to he efficient, to prac- tice the Art of Efficiency. Often Overlooked. A real Art of Human Efficiency Fernwald, Berkeley, November, 1916. 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 i xplosiveness — explosiveness which we all so commonly overlook and insist- ently ignore till made to sit up and lake ndtice by some extra-violenr 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, but 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 — \1 I \, who, for the very joy qf the working, work explosively? Working Explosively Versus Working Efficiently By William Henry Smyth (Reprinted from Industrial 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. Management, May, 1917.) 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 W r ar — hence industrial un- rest and warfare. 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. Femwald, Berkeley, March, 1917. IS THE EFFICIENT CONTROL OF MEN MORE DESIRABLE THAN FREEDOM? TECHNOCRACY IMPLIES SCIENTIFIC REORGANIZATION OF NATIONAL ENERGY AND RESOURCES COORDINATING INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY TO EFFECT THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE. SHOULD THE SELFISH CUNNING OF FINANCE OR UNSELFISH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGE INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY? **»u>. % JUN161970 AN AIMLESS MAN AND A PURPOSELESS NATION ARE EQUALLY FUTILE FRAGMENTS OF RAW MATERIAL IN THE EVER GRINDING MILL OF NATURAL EVOLUTIONARY AND DEVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES: LACKING NATIONAL PURPOSE WHAT GOAL HAS PATRIOTISM UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY II "IP* I 1 '°o U0629 1990 UC SOUTHERN ^^^mffiflB I AA 001 168 068 3 : v -r v 1 1 J£ ' •