Industrial Progress and Human Economics

Part 1

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND HUMAN ECONOMICS

By James Hartness

1921

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Address all communications relative to industries to Commissioner of Industries, Montpelier, Vermont.

This book is published by private funds

Fellow Citizen:

Vermont's natural resources have been set forth in State publications, not adequately, but nevertheless, in well prepared publications.

Supplementing such publications this book deals with our human resources, showing the way by which our greatest resource--human energy--can be most effectively employed. It uses the welfare of man as the yardstick of measure rather than treating the subjects under the head of natural resources.

At the present time the productive power of a day's work varies greatly throughout the country. It reaches its highest point where the most efficient implements and machines are used; where there is a high degree of special ability acquired by each executive and workman, such as has been attained in our highly specialized manufacturing industries, many of which may be found in our neighboring states. The upbuilding of such organizations is only in its infancy. There is now a natural drift away from congested cities to adjacent states where plants and homes may be spread out over larger areas.

The personal side of this to each man is the supreme need of a better understanding of human economics; that is, he must know the best way to use his own energies, and since he must work in cooperation with others he should also know what constitutes the most effective and successful organization. As a skilled worker, as a scientist in some branch of the work, as an executive in charge of some department, as a manager, investor or banker, he must keenly sense the conditions on which progress is made.

This book is written for the progressive young man as well as all those directly or indirectly interested in industrial development. It is at once a text book and a reference book, for, as a workman or executive advances he will find need of information on many of the points herein set forth.

If the book has no immediate interest to you, please pass it along to another.

Faithfully yours,

Governor.

FOREWORD.

The purpose of this book is to indicate the natural way to increase our industrial development. To accomplish this there is set forth an outline of an industrial policy. This policy relates to procedure and methods for starting and managing industrial plants.

It conforms to our economic conditions and offers the safest and easiest course.

While it is written to create more desirable industrial establishments within the state and to increase the vitality of the existing plants, it is distinctly a guide for the individual, for it facilitates the progress of the man as well as that of the state.

It is a practical policy that stimulates and energizes the industrial spirit and at the same time, directs our energies along the easiest road of progress in personal and state development.

It sets forth certain fundamental principles that apply broadly to all activities, but specifically to manufacturing and the means and methods that must be employed to win in the industrial conquest.

To the investor it provides the best measure by which he can estimate the economic soundness and prospects of an enterprise. It gives confidence in right projects, making money available for things that are right, and reducing the hazard of investments by eliminating the badly or indifferently managed organizations and those founded on unsound policies.

To the men in an organization it is also of great value, for by it they can estimate their own prospects for progress. They risk not only their earning power but their chances for personal development. Their chances in acquisition of high degree of ability and in advance from position to position also depends upon the policy of management and success of the enterprise. The loss of opportunity of any of these men really transcends the loss of money, for it involves the loss of personal development and all that that means.

It is obvious too that the management of each organization will be of a more successful type when the entire personnel grasps the essentials of industrial development.

When these essentials are understood and recognized as standards of measure there will be less conflict between the investors and the managers. Then it will be possible for managers and all others to use all of their energies wholly for progressive work rather than using a large part of their time and energy explaining each move to the investors.

Managers need the support and confidence of the investors. Every day requires a firm adherence to a definite policy. Nothing less than the firmest determination will hold an organization to a true course. With a division of opinion, the natural drift is away from the standards on which modern success depends. Not only is it necessary to have these principles understood by investors, but also by all whose opinions will in any way affect the spirit of the men in the organization.

The whole scheme, as it is set forth, is true to the fundamentals of human economics, for it provides ways by which the energies of mind and body are used most effectively. It brings a progressive growth and creates in each the greatest productive capacity. So that, as individuals and as a state, we will produce the greatest value for a given amount of labor.

It is the only way by which we can compete with other states and countries. It is the natural and inevitable way for Vermonters to travel.

Part 2

CONQUEST OF PEACE.

Before the war Vermont and the nation were approaching a serious economic crises. The war has accentuated the gravity of the situation, but has also demonstrated certain human characteristics that can be enlisted to correct our course. We found during the war that we were ready to take heroic action whenever an occasion demanded it--that there was a solidarity of purpose of our people. This characteristic must now be invoked. We must meet the conditions that confront us by unity of public opinion and team work.

The conditions that confront us do not involve the possibility of immediate invasion of our country by a hostile nation, but they carry a burdensome penalty if we fail to take the right action. Happily we are not required to risk our lives or even work harder, but we must recognize the plain facts that we are not sharing in the general economic progress of our neighboring states.

In war the nation that wins the victory imposes a burden of tax on the conquered nation. In the conquest of peace the victorious nations also impose a burden on the losers. This burden is just as real as the burden imposed by war, for in both cases the losers are paying tribute to the winners. This applies to states, to communities, to families and to men. The situation calls for prompt attention and concerted action by the people of our state and country.

In the conquest of peace success comes to those people who produce the greatest value with a given expenditure of energy, or, in other words, to the people who at the end of a day's, a year's or a life's work can measure their return in the largest value. Dollars constitute our measures of value for they are our medium of exchange of our products of labor. If, to accomplish the same result, the man with inferior implements must work harder than the man with the best implements, it is very easy to see who has to pay tribute to the other in the market where values are compared and payment made for values.

Owing to the advance that has been made both in invention of implements and methods and in the organization of workers, there is now a marked difference in the value of the product of a day's work. A study of this situation shows the supreme need of action that will direct our energies as individuals and as a state in a way that will bring the largest value for a day's work.

We must choose with care our work, our equipment and our methods of combining our efforts. There must be team work within each industrial plant and each plant must be in tune with the whole competing world.

As a people we have not lagged behind, in fact we have been leaders in many important branches, but our enterprise has known no state boundaries, and many of our men and women have gone to other states. Hence, while as a people we have been leaders, as a state we have been lagging behind the more active industrial states.

Vermont is very close to the most highly developed industrial center on the face of this globe. These centers, through coordination, invention and choice of work, have been able to produce greater values per man per day. Men with the spirit of industry and a practical knowledge gained by experience in these highly developed centers go out from such centers and build up other industrial centers wherever the best opportunity appears. The nearest places to these centers are the most natural fields in which to start new organizations. But when no cooperating spirit is found near at hand, these carriers of industry go till they find better places. Many have traveled past Vermont because we were busy in other lines and our money was being sent to other states for investment. Many of our own men left the town of Windsor during the last sixty years, and from this one town there has been built a number of important industries in other states notably in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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