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 ship-load, 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 other gets. 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, come 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."