WASTAGE A CRIME

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 309, 24 September 1918, Page 8

WASTAGE A CRIME

SOME UNCONSIDERED ESSENTIALS. Inefiiciency is waste; idleness or unemployment is waste; ill-done or illconceived work is waste; human misfits involvo waste; there is wastage of human energy at both ends of tlio social scale due to contrasting sets of reasons. The wastage due to stupidity is incalculable; it nut-tops the .waste involved, by theft or rascality. Coordinated effort is the greatest preventive of waste yet and in some quarters is the most resented of all modern innovations. Waste cannot be afforded by the most affluent, for r.o initial fortune is inviolable to the spendthrift. Every man who clings to worn or out-of-date machines or processes, when better are available, sins against the light', and makes the .community pay penalty for his default; he is in deed and. fact squandering the common fortune. If lie bo a monopolist exercising privilege in restraint of improvement to augment profit he commits a crime against the human specie's. I Among the outstanding future problems which must he tackled by the future Government is that of conservI ing national- resources:' No nation ought to throw away the natural wealth it took millions of years to store for beneficial purposes, by wasteful, or uneconomical methods. Wo are now in the mood, because of the discipline of circumstances, to consider wastage as a criminal proceeding. Not a word, can be said against, rightful exploitation, but use must justify itself lest want make us wise. We take and leave at pleasure all provided by the foresight of Nature, forgetting that to plant a tree when one is cut for timber is more than simple. precaution against future want—it is a bounden duty. ' Scrap should be treated with the ytmost respect; it cost toil to win originally, and it will have an honoured place when duly treated for future use; it is treated with more deference tit the moment than ever before, while the interval'between disuse and re-use gro\vs steadily less. Metallic wastages, .'although considerable, is slight in comparison with that of coal and oil, which are totally ' expended ; when utilised. The time is near at hand when the problems of waste will attract universal attention rather than ' occasional speculation; results will-he judged not alone in terms of coin, but as utilising the otherwise destroyed. Industry is the dominant feature of the present era, wastage its most regrettable accompaniment, large amounts of which are in the nature of preventable decay. .There is, perhaps, a type of thrift whose merits are too dearly' bought; 'often it is through incurring vast expenditure that economy can eventually 'be secured. The relation of expenditure as.investment to expenditure earning no re'tunr is rather a complex matter. ■The nation which sayes on education Iby stint is not to be envied, nor is :tbe mail generous who lavishes entertainment on his friends and leaves his dependants a public charge. Wastage limits national power, paralyses effort, icauses- insolvency. How many by-pro-.ducts have given greater returns than ■the.objective business are matters of current knowledge. Conservation of natural wealth, re» stoi'ation of replaceable respurces, utili-sation-even at enhanced cost of power to be'"had for the taking, these are primary to national well-being, cardinal to,,humanity at large. AVastage is crime,- inefficiency is deplorable, stupidity" deserves neither extenuation ror .[pardon; all three are to a great extent preventable.—''Engineer ing.'!