Vagabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

..THE SUN IS GOING TO SHINE AGAIN; BUSINESS IS GOING TO BOOM; THE HELL OF TODAY WILL BE REPLACED BY THE HEAVEN OF TOMORROW; FINANCES-THE LIFE BLOOD OF INDUSTRY_WILL LEAP ONCE MORE THROUGH THE VEINS OF TRADE; INDUSTRY AND ENTERPRISE WILL BASK IN THE SUNLIGHT OF RENEWED PROSPERITY: AND THE DARK NIGHT OF INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSION WILLBE RE. PLACED BY THE WELCOME DAWN OF NORMALCY, ENHANCED AN HUNDRED FOLD BY THE DAMMED-UP AND REPRESSED HUMAN NEEDS OF THE PAST EIGHTEEN MONTHS. NO EARTHLY DOUBT ABOUT IT !''

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The above is from a recent issue of "Vagabond Editorials." A good friend wrote suggesting that I run it again at the head of this column because he thought there were worlds of business men who need to have that thought driven home to them as often as possible.

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This friend evidently believes in the philosophy of the colored preacher who was asked the secret of his amazing infuence with and upon the member5 of his flock, and who replied: "Fust, Ah tells 'em what Ah's goin' to tell 'em; then Ah tells 'em: an' then Ah tells 'em what Ah has done tolt tem."

I don't know. t'.r" U"lr, ,""", fhe same things over and over again hundreds upon hundreds of times in these columns, down through the years. And I frequently feel like the old story of the nigger who got the job working in the lighthouse on San Francisco Bay, and who declared that he had "de mos' useless job on yearth." Asked why he thought so, he replied: "Well, wherr de sto'm comes up, an' de fog comes rollin' in, Ah rings de lighthouse bell, an' Ah blows de lighthouse whistle, an'de lighthouse light jes' shines an' shines; but it doan do no good; de doggone fog hit jes' keeps rollin' in-jes' de same."

The President of tt " sl.r.l"rl "rr," Association told his members the other day in convention assembled that they should each of them individually adjust their production to fit the demand; and contribute toward an advertising campaign to keep their product before the public. Wise advice, good at all times, and under all conditions, but particutadty valuable now. As a matter of fact, there are just four fundamentals for the industry to follow:

First-adjust production tofit demand; second-don't sell for less than a reasonable price; third-create and discover new and interesting ways for using your product; fourth-tell the world about it. In only four of these four fundamentals bas the manu{acturing industry been lax in the past. They poured their lumber on the world whether the world wanted it or not; they took whatever price they could get regardless of its relationship or lack thereof to the value of the material; they did little or nothing to keep up with the public demand for change; their efforts to tell the world were languid, indirect, and largely impractical.

Naturally, when an in<iustry fails to measure up to its fundamentals, that industry suffers. And this industry has suffered. But we are coming again to times when the world will move, the business pulse will bound, and the great god Prosperity will again flaunt his perrnons in the sky. The past we cannot recall. But the future is ours.

After this long Gethsemane of pain through which we have passed and are passing, is it an iridescent dream to believe that the inertia by which this industry has beetr cribbed, chained, and confined, will be supplanted by an energized and coordinated intelligence that will at last bring that level of prosperity for which we have so long been hoping?

The other day I had a visit with a group of men representing a number of steel concerns. They were a keen, alert, attractive bunch. They talked building things. I asked them the direct question;-('\i!/hsn it comes to a big building job, how do you folks go about it?" And one of them replied without hesitation or camouflage:-"The first thing we all do is to see that the job goes for. STEEL; the question of which firm gets the order is of secondary importance." They were talking particulafly o'f sash, frames, trim, doors, etc. *{c{<

A famous economist of more than a generation ago wrote the following. See if you think time has proven or blasted his opinions: "There never was, there never can be in this world, such a thing as over pfoduction. As the production power of labor increases, the standard of living advances. When there is enough of necessities, the surplus energies of the nation turn to the production of luxuries, which in turn become necessities-mankind ever rising higher above the habits and conditions of the brute."

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