Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/28

6 tions. In this case the core was undoubtedly the idea that under the stress of unparalleled incentive the directing mind of industry would so improve organization, would so invent new methods of doing things, and would so increase efficiency in production and distribution that the losses of the war would be outweighed and the people as a whole would benefit out of the net result. The whole idea of a higher scale of living reflected basically not the thought that the masses were put in a position to claim that from which they had thitherto been unfairly deprived; but rather the idea that talent, to which the uplift of the masses has been solely due throughout the ages, would be stimulated to accomplish something more, something super- normal and something very quickly, and that the masses would seize it immediately.

But, let us look at the facts.. The Great War was not only destructive, but also it was, broadly speaking, sterile. There was no exhibition of surpassing military genius. There was no lasting uplift in the minds of the people. On the contrary there was deterioration in morale, and also in morals. Of invention in military machinery and methods there was much; in industrial machinery and methods there was some, but on the whole it was disappointing. In the great industries with which I am especially familiar, namely, copper, lead and zinc, I can not think of any major improve- ments that had not already been instituted before the war. Let us consider the railway transportation industry of the country, a major industry that employs about 5 per cent of all the workers. When the government took over the railways we had bright visions of the economy that might be effected by their operation