National efficiency

“ In every respect this Nation has to learn the lessons of efficiency in production and distribution, and of avoidance of waste and destruction; we must develop and improve instead of exhausting our resources. It is entirely possible by improvements in production, in the avoidance of waste, and in business methods on the part of the farmer to give him an increased income from his farm while at the same time reducing to the consumer the price of the articles raised on the farm. Important although education is everywhere, it has a special importance in the country. ”

“ Concentration and co-operation in industry in order to secure efficiency are a world-wide movement. The United States cannot resist it. If we isolate ourselves and insist upon the subdivision of industry below the highest economic efficiency, and do not allow co-operation, we shall be defeated in the world’s markets. We cannot adopt an economic system less efficient than our great competitors, Germany, England, France, and Austria. ”

“ Under their control rates will be made chiefly for the benefit of clamorous local interests; and little by little the economic organization of the country, so far as affected by the action of commission government, would become the increasing rigid victim of routine management. The flexibility and enterprise, characteristic of our existing national economic organization, would slowly disappear; and American industrial leaders would lose the initiative and energy which has contributed so much to the efficiency of the national economic system. ”

“ The idea that our natural resources were inexhaustible still obtained, and there was as yet no real knowledge of their extent and condition. The relation of the conservation of natural resources to the problems of National welfare and National efficiency had not yet dawned on the public mind. The reclamation of arid public lands in the West was still a matter for private enterprise alone; ”

“ Another is the elimination of many kinds of waste. The third is a general raising of the standards of efficiency. This combination has brought the perfectly astonishing result of a reduction in the index price of commodities and an increase in the index rate of wages. We have secured a lowering of the cost to produce and a raising of the ability to consume. Prosperity resulting from these causes rests on the securest of all foundations. It gathers strength from its own progress.
In promoting this progress the chief part which the National Government plays lies in the field of economy. ”

“ We have to pierce through the crust of our national conceit and find there the truth that our people are painfully in need of more efficiency and that therefore it is a matter of the most vital concern that we should put the home in all its phases into a condition more adapted for producing the perfectly efficient human product. ”

“ When our war debt is decreased we shall have resources for expansion. Until that is accomplished we should confine ourselves to expenditures of the most urgent necessity.
The Department of Commerce has performed a most important function in making plans and securing support of all kinds of national enterprise for the elimination of waste. Efficiency has been greatly promoted through good management and the constantly increasing cooperation of the wage earners throughout the whole realm of private business. ”

“ The outgrowth of conservation, the inevitable result, is national efficiency. ”

“ In harmony with this effort the expenditures of the Government should be revised and cut down to the lowest point consistent with efficiency. Economy will be an important ally. Even in small affairs it will be the witness to our purposes. Through these agencies our currency will be improved, and we shall be brought to specie payments, while the national credit will be established. ”

“ Moreover, if we are to compete with other nations in the markets of the world as well as to develop our own material civilization at home, we must utilize those forms of industrial organization that are indispensable to the highest industrial productivity and efficiency. ”

“ The corporate manager who achieves success by honest efficiency in giving the best service to the public should be favored because we all benefit by his efficiency. He realizes Abraham Lincoln’s definition which I have quoted above, because he works for his own material betterment and at the 77same time for the “amelioration of mankind,” and he should be helped by the Government because his success is good for the National welfare. ”

“ National politics have from the start aimed primarily at efficiency—that is, at the successful use of the force resident in the state to accomplish the purposes desired by the Sovereign authority. ”

“ It is clear that we must reorganize our administrative machinery with a view to securing greater efficiency, the improvement of the public service, and economy of means and effort in the discharge of the government's responsibilities, in order to make that machinery more responsive to public need within the limits of our available resources. ”

“ Twelfth—That while providing revenue for the support of the general government, by duties upon imposts, sound policy requires such an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interest of the whole country, and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the workingmen liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence. ”

“ Projects that are promising of immediate results should be given preference over those that must of necessity, on account of their nature, take a long time to produce tangible returns.
Thus, our most serious concern for the next four years should be: immediate increased production through rapid rehabilitation and development; decreased public and external expenditures; Government reorganization to achieve efficiency, economy and effective rendition of public services responsive to the needs and welfare of our people ”

“ These three things, natural resources, labor, and capital must be brought together, furthermore, and kept working in unison. This is where organization, the fourth factor in production, comes in. It borrows the capital, buys the raw materials, sets the labor to work, and markets the products. Government is not commonly looked upon as a factor in production, but it ought to be. Without the protection and regulation which government affords we could not carry on production at high efficiency. ”

“ It is a truth, as important as it is agreeable, and one to which it is not easy to imagine exceptions, that everything tending to establish substantial and permanent order in the affairs of a country, to increase the total mass of industry and opulence, is ultimately beneficial to every part of it. On the credit of this great truth an acquiescence may safely be accorded from every quarter to all institutions and arrangements which promise a confirmation of public order and an augmentation of national resource. ”

“ On January 3, 1957, the National Economic Council submitted its recommendations for updating the 1954 economic development program. These recommendations included a system of industrial priorities to govern the allocation of foreign exchange, the administration of the Government’s fiscal operations, and the extension of credit. We have adopted this industrial priority system as a guide in the implementation of projects which will make the maximum contribution to production, employment, and income. ”

“ We will turn pressure into impetus for growth, unwaveringly protect and develop advanced productive forces, shut down backward production facilities, integrate factors of production and create more room for development. We will balance our efforts to sustain economic growth, adjust the structure and improve economic performance to raise the overall quality of the national economy and strengthen the basis for its further development.
Third, we must press ahead with reform to make the economy more vigorous. ”

“ Whether we are thinking of the heart-breaking problem of present distress and of the possibilities of preventing its recurrence in the future, or whether we are merely thinking about the prosperity and continuity of industry itself, we know now that some measure of regularisation and planning for balance among industries, and for envisaging production as a national activity, must be devised. We must set up some new objectives; we must have new kinds of management. Business must think less of its own profit and more of the national function it performs. ”

“ They have shown under widely different conditions the power of nationalizing their economic organization; and in spite of the commission of many errors, particularly in this country, a system of national economy appears to make for a higher level of economic vitality than a system of international economy. ”

“ In conclusion, there is presented as the solution of the difficulties of the present industrial situation, concentration, co-operation, and control. Through concentration we may have the economic advantages coming from magnitude of operations. Through co-operation we may limit the wastes of the competitive system. Through control by commission we may secure freedom for fair competition, elimination of unfair practices, conservation of our natural resources, fair wages, good social conditions, and reasonable prices. ”

“ I speak for administrative efficiency, for lightened tax burdens, for sound commercial practices, for adequate credit facilities, for sympathetic concern for all agricultural problems, for the omission of unnecessary interference of Government with business, for an end to Government's experiment in business, and for more efficient business in Government administration. With all of this must attend a mindfulness of the human side of all activities, so that social, industrial, and economic justice will be squared with the purposes of a righteous people. ”

“ How far government ought to include within its functions schemes for increasing national wealth, otherwise than by such means (being means which a government alone can employ because to be effective they must be done on a great scale) as the improving of education, the diffusing of knowledge, the providing means of transportation, the conservation of natural resources, and so forth, may be matter for debate. But at any rate government ought to avoid measures tending to enrich any one person or group of persons at the expense of the citizens generally. ”

“ He says that "every thing will be done by the central authorities to enable the States to equalize the expenses and their revenues; to multiply their ways of communication; to augment their agricultural and commercial industry; in short, to make them great and powerful, attracting to their bosoms the intelligent, industrious and enlightened population which they so much need." ”

“ No engineer acquainted with the application of the principles of the science of management can doubt that if the universal adoption of those principles could be forced upon producers in general, this nation could increase its productivity fully 25 per cent. That would alone add more than twelve million dollars annually to the national income. But that is not all. The application of the principles of the science of management is only a fraction of the total enginery at our disposal. ”

“ And if it cannot obtain the efficiency exemplified by the private corporation it will, and it will deserve to. Perhaps our recent sad experiences in meeting the expanded demands on governmental efficiency should show us how to lay a new basis for that efficiency in modifications of our governmental structure. ”

“ I must state, however, that this increase in national production hardly evinces a balanced growth pattern. There is imperative need for the coordination and more vigorous implementation of the Government’s policies and the intensification of our efforts to stimulate production. ”

“ Finally he sought by means of his proposed fiscal and commercial policy to make the central government the effective promoter of a wholesome and many-sided national development. He detected the danger to political stability and self-control which would result from the continued growth of the United States as a merely agricultural and trading community, and he saw that it was necessary to cultivate manufacturing industries and technical knowledge and training, because diversified activity and a well-rounded social and economic life brings with it national balance and security. ”

“ The present structure--35 Government agencies, spending $5 billion yearly--makes it almost impossible to serve either the growing demands of this great Nation or the needs of the industry, or the right of the taxpayer to full efficiency and real frugality. ”

“ We have to lighten our public burdens and develop the prosperity of the country, not merely by schemes of financial management, but by striking out from our constitutions and laws the trammels which clog the spirit of industrial enterprise, by opening the resources of the land through a network of railroad communications and by developing the intelligence and stimulating the public spirit of our people through an efficient system of education. ”

“ While our peacetime prosperity will be based on the private enterprise the government can and must assist in many ways. It is the Government's responsibility to see that our economic system remains competitive, that new businesses have adequate opportunities, and that our national resources are restored and improved. Government must realize the effect of its operations on the whole economy. It is the responsibility of Government to gear its total program to the achievement of full production and full employment. ”