MEN AND METHODS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 136, 5 March 1929, Page 15

MEN AND METHODS

BUSINESS PLANS AND IDEAS (Conducted by “Observer.”) The leading bankers of the coming year are bound to be leading sociologists as well as leading international influences. — EL G. Wells. I Human Desires Not Limited. Mass production in industry, whereby the output of the individual worker has been markedly increased, has led to the jealisation of the entirely new principle that human wants and desires are not limited, but that the consuming public wants more of the better things of life. The demand for commodities which have quality and style is always unsatisfied. Thia principle is now the lodestone of industry. While the capacity of the human stomach for food is limited, the demand for quality of foods is unlimited, and the new guiding principle of industry is equally adapted to agricultural production. Are “Business Cycles” a Myth?” This is the question asked by a contemporary, which is frankly sceptical about the widely held theory that good and bad times come in regularly recurring cycles, which may be approximately figured out in advance by statistical research. It actually feels that this belief in “business cycles” injures the 1 normal and prosperous progress of business. Indeed, “no matter how favourable the actual economic conditions, business can be made to slump if enough business men think it is going to slump; and if enough business men believe a ‘cycle’ of bad business 'is impending, there will certainly engjje a cycle of bad business.” The Junior Executive. Some secretaries are helpful,, resourceful, and willing to take a certain amount of responsibility. There are others who seem to think they are playing interference for the big chief, and that their most important function is to keep any messages from ■ reaching him. One or two of the-former type, in the absence of the chief, are willing to tell the facts of a certain situation and take full responsibility, but it is the other, type who are most amusing. “No, it is impossible to talk to Mr. Chief for several days. He is attending directors’ meetings and other important conferences.” It would be difficult to tell even where the chief lived, unless he specifically authorised it. When bv some freak of chance, the chief is reached by the person who desires to see him, he is often found to be composed, unhurried, and friendly; as aitferent from his snappy secretary as it is possible to be. There may be no cure for the secretary who misrepresents in his or her attitude the policy of the company and the personality of its head, but the type which takes responsibility represents the group from which future executive material will be recruited. But the sort of secretary who tries to surround his chief with a stone wall and.acts in a supercilious manner will never JE®. far. Office boys are adepts at that sort if work. What Edison’s Genius is Worth. The ideas and the genius of Thomas A. Edison are said to be worth £3,000,000,000, based on present investment in America alone of industries based on or stimulated by. his inventions, according to an article in the New York Time . The separate items making up this total are; — £ Moving pictures 200 000 000 Ekctrkal S railways''. ’. ’. ’• 1,300,000,000 Electric lighting and railways |>ooo,ooo Electrical supplies IZ T’ono 000 Fixtures .. 21 000 000 Phonographs ’nno'oOO Electric car shops 21,000,000 Dynamos and motors ....... TeSU-V.-.-.-.,"-....., JgJjg Wireless telegraph ....... J.OUU.UUU Prosperity and "Unemployment. We are so accustomed to associate unemployment with prostrate industry, closed factories, and universal depression that it is hard to revise, ..our ideas and grasp the fact that we must also grapple with an unemployment problem that is the direst outcome of our prosperity. The orthodox economist confidently tells us not to worry. All his text.boks assure him that, although the process of readjustment may be temporarily painful, everybody gains in the long run. The employer makes larger profits, the community’s expenditures are cut, and the worker himself benefits by the general prosperity. Not so many years ago, English and Erench workmen were smashing the iron thieves that stole their jobs, and showed much bitterness over the ruthlessness with which the machine forced them into the street. Yet, an industry made efficient by modern machinery often expands so fast that it is able to retain all or most of its workers, while the output per -worker rises steeply. The motor-car industry is a good example. One man to-day can put out a better 'car than three could fifteen years ago. Yet the industry employs more and more men because the improvement in the cars and price reduction's have widened the market so tremendously. In one important case at least, the machine has filled in gaps that were left by deserters. The exodus from the farm has been going on for decades, for reasons that were not purely econ’omic. Young men left their fathers farms, not necessarily because they could earn higher pay in the cities, but because they preferred urban to rural life. They wanted the theatres, the bright lights, the city’s comforts. The dwindling supply of farm labour might have caused serious complications if it had not been for the invention of sowing and harvesting machinery. Without their withstraining influence, the shortage of labour might have forced the prices of farm products unpleasantly high.