I found the processes at the warehouse quite as interesting as Edith
had described them, and became even enthusiastic over the truly
remarkable illustration which is seen there of the prodigiously
multiplied efficiency which perfect organization can give to labor. It
is like a gigantic mill, into the hopper of which goods are being
constantly poured by the train-load and shipload, to issue at the other
end in packages of pounds and ounces, yards and inches, pints and
gallons, corresponding to the infinitely complex personal needs of half
a million people. Dr. Leete, with the assistance of data furnished by
me as to the way goods were sold in my day, figured out some astounding
results in the way of the economies effected by the modern system.
As we set out homeward, I said: "After what I have seen to-day,
together with what you have told me, and what I learned under Miss
Leete's tutelage at the sample store, I have a tolerably clear idea of
your system of distribution, and how it enables you to dispense with a
circulating medium. But I should like very much to know something more
about your system of production. You have told me in general how your
industrial army is levied and organized, but who directs its efforts?
What supreme authority determines what shall be done in every
department, so that enough of everything is produced and yet no labor
wasted? It seems to me that this must be a wonderfully complex and
difficult function, requiring very unusual endowments."
"Does it indeed seem so to you?" responded Dr. Leete. "I assure you
that it is nothing of the kind, but on the other hand so simple, and
depending on principles so obvious and easily applied, that the
functionaries at Washington to whom it is trusted require to be nothing
more than men of fair abilities to discharge it to the entire
satisfaction of the nation. The machine which they direct is indeed a
vast one, but so logical in its principles and direct and simple in its
workings, that it all but runs itself; and nobody but a fool could
derange it, as I think you will agree after a few words of explanation.
Since you already have a pretty good idea of the working of the
distributive system, let us begin at that end. Even in your day
statisticians were able to tell you the number of yards of cotton,
velvet, woolen, the number of barrels of flour, potatoes, butter,
number of pairs of shoes, hats, and umbrellas annually consumed by the
nation. Owing to the fact that production was in private hands, and
that there was no way of getting statistics of actual distribution,
these figures were not exact, but they were nearly so. Now that every
pin which is given out from a national warehouse is recorded, of course
the figures of consumption for any week, month, or year, in the
possession of the department of distribution at the end of that period,
are precise. On these figures, allowing for tendencies to increase or
decrease and for any special causes likely to affect demand, the
estimates, say for a year ahead, are based. These estimates, with a
proper margin for security, having been accepted by the general
administration, the responsibility of the distributive department
ceases until the goods are delivered to it. I speak of the estimates
being furnished for an entire year ahead, but in reality they cover
that much time only in case of the great staples for which the demand
can be calculated on as steady. In the great majority of smaller
industries for the product of which popular taste fluctuates, and
novelty is frequently required, production is kept barely ahead of
consumption, the distributive department furnishing frequent estimates
based on the weekly state of demand.
"Now the entire field of productive and constructive industry is
divided into ten great departments, each representing a group of allied
industries, each particular industry being in turn represented by a
subordinate bureau, which has a complete record of the plant and force
under its control, of the present product, and means of increasing it.
The estimates of the distributive department, after adoption by the
administration, are sent as mandates to the ten great departments,
which allot them to the subordinate bureaus representing the particular
industries, and these set the men at work. Each bureau is responsible
for the task given it, and this responsibility is enforced by
departmental oversight and that of the administration; nor does the
distributive department accept the product without its own inspection;
while even if in the hands of the consumer an article turns out unfit,
the system enables the fault to be traced back to the original workman.
The production of the commodities for actual public consumption does
not, of course, require by any means all the national force of workers.
After the necessary contingents have been detailed for the various
industries, the amount of labor left for other employment is expended
in creating fixed capital, such as buildings, machinery, engineering
works, and so forth."
"One point occurs to me," I said, "on which I should think there might
be dissatisfaction. Where there is no opportunity for private
enterprise, how is there any assurance that the claims of small
minorities of the people to have articles produced, for which there is
no wide demand, will be respected? An official decree at any moment may
deprive them of the means of gratifying some special taste, merely
because the majority does not share it."
"That would be tyranny indeed," replied Dr. Leete, "and you may be very
sure that it does not happen with us, to whom liberty is as dear as
equality or fraternity. As you come to know our system better, you will
see that our officials are in fact, and not merely in name, the agents
and servants of the people. The administration has no power to stop the
production of any commodity for which there continues to be a demand.
Suppose the demand for any article declines to such a point that its
production becomes very costly. The price has to be raised in
proportion, of course, but as long as the consumer cares to pay it, the
production goes on. Again, suppose an article not before produced is
demanded. If the administration doubts the reality of the demand, a
popular petition guaranteeing a certain basis of consumption compels it
to produce the desired article. A government, or a majority, which
should undertake to tell the people, or a minority, what they were to
eat, drink, or wear, as I believe governments in America did in your
day, would be regarded as a curious anachronism indeed. Possibly you
had reasons for tolerating these infringements of personal
independence, but we should not think them endurable. I am glad you
raised this point, for it has given me a chance to show you how much
more direct and efficient is the control over production exercised by
the individual citizen now than it was in your day, when what you
called private initiative prevailed, though it should have been called
capitalist initiative, for the average private citizen had little
enough share in it."
"You speak of raising the price of costly articles," I said. "How can
prices be regulated in a country where there is no competition between
buyers or sellers?"
"Just as they were with you," replied Dr. Leete. "You think that needs
explaining," he added, as I looked incredulous, "but the explanation
need not be long; the cost of the labor which produced it was
recognized as the legitimate basis of the price of an article in your
day, and so it is in ours. In your day, it was the difference in wages
that made the difference in the cost of labor; now it is the relative
number of hours constituting a day's work in different trades, the
maintenance of the worker being equal in all cases. The cost of a man's
work in a trade so difficult that in order to attract volunteers the
hours have to be fixed at four a day is twice as great as that in a
trade where the men work eight hours. The result as to the cost of
labor, you see, is just the same as if the man working four hours were
paid, under your system, twice the wages the others get. This
calculation applied to the labor employed in the various processes of a
manufactured article gives its price relatively to other articles.
Besides the cost of production and transportation, the factor of
scarcity affects the prices of some commodities. As regards the great
staples of life, of which an abundance can always be secured, scarcity
is eliminated as a factor. There is always a large surplus kept on hand
from which any fluctuations of demand or supply can be corrected, even
in most cases of bad crops. The prices of the staples grow less year by
year, but rarely, if ever, rise. There are, however, certain classes of
articles permanently, and others temporarily, unequal to the demand,
as, for example, fresh fish or dairy products in the latter category,
and the products of high skill and rare materials in the other. All
that can be done here is to equalize the inconvenience of the scarcity.
This is done by temporarily raising the price if the scarcity be
temporary, or fixing it high if it be permanent. High prices in your
day meant restriction of the articles affected to the rich, but
nowadays, when the means of all are the same, the effect is only that
those to whom the articles seem most desirable are the ones who
purchase them. Of course the nation, as any other caterer for the
public needs must be, is frequently left with small lots of goods on
its hands by changes in taste, unseasonable weather and various other
causes. These it has to dispose of at a sacrifice just as merchants
often did in your day, charging up the loss to the expenses of the
business. Owing, however, to the vast body of consumers to which such
lots can be simultaneously offered, there is rarely any difficulty in
getting rid of them at trifling loss. I have given you now some general
notion of our system of production; as well as distribution. Do you
find it as complex as you expected?"
I admitted that nothing could be much simpler.
"I am sure," said Dr. Leete, "that it is within the truth to say that
the head of one of the myriad private businesses of your day, who had
to maintain sleepless vigilance against the fluctuations of the market,
the machinations of his rivals, and the failure of his debtors, had a
far more trying task than the group of men at Washington who nowadays
direct the industries of the entire nation. All this merely shows, my
dear fellow, how much easier it is to do things the right way than the
wrong. It is easier for a general up in a balloon, with perfect survey
of the field, to manoeuvre a million men to victory than for a sergeant
to manage a platoon in a thicket."
"The general of this army, including the flower of the manhood of the
nation, must be the foremost man in the country, really greater even
than the President of the United States," I said.
"He is the President of the United States," replied Dr. Leete, "or
rather the most important function of the presidency is the headship of
the industrial army."
"How is he chosen?" I asked.
"I explained to you before," replied Dr. Leete, "when I was describing
the force of the motive of emulation among all grades of the industrial
army, that the line of promotion for the meritorious lies through three
grades to the officer's grade, and thence up through the lieutenancies
to the captaincy or foremanship, and superintendency or colonel's rank.
Next, with an intervening grade in some of the larger trades, comes the
general of the guild, under whose immediate control all the operations
of the trade are conducted. This officer is at the head of the national
bureau representing his trade, and is responsible for its work to the
administration. The general of his guild holds a splendid position, and
one which amply satisfies the ambition of most men, but above his rank,
which may be compared--to follow the military analogies familiar to
you--to that of a general of division or major-general, is that of the
chiefs of the ten great departments, or groups of allied trades. The
chiefs of these ten grand divisions of the industrial army may be
compared to your commanders of army corps, or lieutenant-generals, each
having from a dozen to a score of generals of separate guilds reporting
to him. Above these ten great officers, who form his council, is the
general-in-chief, who is the President of the United States.
"The general-in-chief of the industrial army must have passed through
all the grades below him, from the common laborers up. Let us see how
he rises. As I have told you, it is simply by the excellence of his
record as a worker that one rises through the grades of the privates
and becomes a candidate for a lieutenancy. Through the lieutenancies he
rises to the colonelcy, or superintendent's position, by appointment
from above, strictly limited to the candidates of the best records. The
general of the guild appoints to the ranks under him, but he himself is
not appointed, but chosen by suffrage."
"By suffrage!" I exclaimed. "Is not that ruinous to the discipline of
the guild, by tempting the candidates to intrigue for the support of
the workers under them?"
"So it would be, no doubt," replied Dr. Leete, "if the workers had any
suffrage to exercise, or anything to say about the choice. But they
have nothing. Just here comes in a peculiarity of our system. The
general of the guild is chosen from among the superintendents by vote
of the honorary members of the guild, that is, of those who have served
their time in the guild and received their discharge. As you know, at
the age of forty-five we are mustered out of the army of industry, and
have the residue of life for the pursuit of our own improvement or
recreation. Of course, however, the associations of our active lifetime
retain a powerful hold on us. The companionships we formed then remain
our companionships till the end of life. We always continue honorary
members of our former guilds, and retain the keenest and most jealous
interest in their welfare and repute in the hands of the following
generation. In the clubs maintained by the honorary members of the
several guilds, in which we meet socially, there are no topics of
conversation so common as those which relate to these matters, and the
young aspirants for guild leadership who can pass the criticism of us
old fellows are likely to be pretty well equipped. Recognizing this
fact, the nation entrusts to the honorary members of each guild the
election of its general, and I venture to claim that no previous form
of society could have developed a body of electors so ideally adapted
to their office, as regards absolute impartiality, knowledge of the
special qualifications and record of candidates, solicitude for the
best result, and complete absence of self-interest.
"Each of the ten lieutenant-generals or heads of departments is himself
elected from among the generals of the guilds grouped as a department,
by vote of the honorary members of the guilds thus grouped. Of course
there is a tendency on the part of each guild to vote for its own
general, but no guild of any group has nearly enough votes to elect a
man not supported by most of the others. I assure you that these
elections are exceedingly lively."
"The President, I suppose, is selected from among the ten heads of the
great departments," I suggested.
"Precisely, but the heads of departments are not eligible to the
presidency till they have been a certain number of years out of office.
It is rarely that a man passes through all the grades to the headship
of a department much before he is forty, and at the end of a five
years' term he is usually forty-five. If more, he still serves through
his term, and if less, he is nevertheless discharged from the
industrial army at its termination. It would not do for him to return
to the ranks. The interval before he is a candidate for the presidency
is intended to give time for him to recognize fully that he has
returned into the general mass of the nation, and is identified with it
rather than with the industrial army. Moreover, it is expected that he
will employ this period in studying the general condition of the army,
instead of that of the special group of guilds of which he was the
head. From among the former heads of departments who may be eligible at
the time, the President is elected by vote of all the men of the nation
who are not connected with the industrial army."
"The army is not allowed to vote for President?"
"Certainly not. That would be perilous to its discipline, which it is
the business of the President to maintain as the representative of the
nation at large. His right hand for this purpose is the inspectorate, a
highly important department of our system; to the inspectorate come all
complaints or information as to defects in goods, insolence or
inefficiency of officials, or dereliction of any sort in the public
service. The inspectorate, however, does not wait for complaints. Not
only is it on the alert to catch and sift every rumor of a fault in the
service, but it is its business, by systematic and constant oversight
and inspection of every branch of the army, to find out what is going
wrong before anybody else does. The President is usually not far from
fifty when elected, and serves five years, forming an honorable
exception to the rule of retirement at forty-five. At the end of his
term of office, a national Congress is called to receive his report and
approve or condemn it. If it is approved, Congress usually elects him
to represent the nation for five years more in the international
council. Congress, I should also say, passes on the reports of the
outgoing heads of departments, and a disapproval renders any one of
them ineligible for President. But it is rare, indeed, that the nation
has occasion for other sentiments than those of gratitude toward its
high officers. As to their ability, to have risen from the ranks, by
tests so various and severe, to their positions, is proof in itself of
extraordinary qualities, while as to faithfulness, our social system
leaves them absolutely without any other motive than that of winning
the esteem of their fellow citizens. Corruption is impossible in a
society where there is neither poverty to be bribed nor wealth to
bribe, while as to demagoguery or intrigue for office, the conditions
of promotion render them out of the question."
"One point I do not quite understand," I said. "Are the members of the
liberal professions eligible to the presidency? and if so, how are they
ranked with those who pursue the industries proper?"
"They have no ranking with them," replied Dr. Leete. "The members of
the technical professions, such as engineers and architects, have a
ranking with the constructive guilds; but the members of the liberal
professions, the doctors and teachers, as well as the artists and men
of letters who obtain remissions of industrial service, do not belong
to the industrial army. On this ground they vote for the President, but
are not eligible to his office. One of its main duties being the
control and discipline of the industrial army, it is essential that the
President should have passed through all its grades to understand his
business."
"That is reasonable," I said; "but if the doctors and teachers do not
know enough of industry to be President, neither, I should think, can
the President know enough of medicine and education to control those
departments."
"No more does he," was the reply. "Except in the general way that he is
responsible for the enforcement of the laws as to all classes, the
President has nothing to do with the faculties of medicine and
education, which are controlled by boards of regents of their own, in
which the President is ex-officio chairman, and has the casting vote.
These regents, who, of course, are responsible to Congress, are chosen
by the honorary members of the guilds of education and medicine, the
retired teachers and doctors of the country."
"Do you know," I said, "the method of electing officials by votes of
the retired members of the guilds is nothing more than the application
on a national scale of the plan of government by alumni, which we used
to a slight extent occasionally in the management of our higher
educational institutions."
"Did you, indeed?" exclaimed Dr. Leete, with animation. "That is quite
new to me, and I fancy will be to most of us, and of much interest as
well. There has been great discussion as to the germ of the idea, and
we fancied that there was for once something new under the sun. Well!
well! In your higher educational institutions! that is interesting
indeed. You must tell me more of that."
"Truly, there is very little more to tell than I have told already," I
replied. "If we had the germ of your idea, it was but as a germ."