Spirit of the Press

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 9, 4 December 1931, Page 10

Spirit of the Press

UTOPIAS HAVE THEIR USES jSJOME modern Sir Thomas More, bent on writing a new “Utopia” to set forth his ideal of a perfect world order, might well choose economics as his theme, since the most burning public questions of today have to do with world industry and commerce. The goal of any economic Utopia unquestionably would be a world so ordered that every individual might work according to his talents and be justly rewarded. Opportunities for self-improvement would be unlimited, always in the recognition that the good of one is the good of all, and vice versa. Group action invariably would be directed toward promoting the happiness and wellbeing of all individuals in the group. Each group would consider the effect of its actions on the welfare of other groups. Resources would be so managed that no part of them, needed by anyone anywhere, would lie idle or go to waste. In all proposals for ameliorating economic conditions, the emphasis is rightly upon the need for more enlightened management of the world’s resources. Will Rogers put it pithily the other day when he said that the United States is the first nation ever to “go to the poorhouse in an automobile.” With more wheat, more corn, more food, more cotton, more money in the banks, more “everything in the world than any nation ever had, we are starving.” We have the resources, the cowboy philosopher adds, “but we don’t know how to split ’em up.”

This is the nub of the situation. The challenge is for better management all along the line. Individuals, companies, trade associations, governmental bodies and international agencies have recognised this fact and are thinking as never before on the subject. When the goal of erecting a world order in which industry is to fulfil its only legitimate end—to" produce and

distribute commodities needed by humanity—is kept steadfastly in view, progress toward it is certain. Then in less than the 400 years that have elapsed since More wrote his “Utopia,” hoarding, selfishness, greed, cutthroat competition and all the et ceteras which clog the economic machine may be as far from private and public practice as imprisonment for debt is now.— Christian Science Monitor.