Business in the future;

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VOL. XII NEW YORK. M A R C H , 1929 No. 3
"PEACE-PACTS" and "cruiser-pro-grams"
are terms which, to the busi­ness-
man, thinking about sales volumes
and net profits, may seem to be little
more than newspaper headlines. Indivi­dually,
business-men may appear to be
little concerned with agreements to outlaw
wars, or legislation to afford additional
naval vessels. Collectively, their future
may be more closely bound up with cruiser-programs
than appears on the surface.
American business-men, individually and
collectively, have a real interest in con­tinued
prosperity. A continuance of the
standards of living to which North Amer­icans
have become accustomed requires a
continuance of the present era of pros­perity.
The continuance of this prosperity
is dependent upon an effective demand for
the goods which North American industry
of necessity must produce in order to give
employment to the people of the country
and to its capital.
There need be nothing boastful in the
statement that this country is faced with
the utilization of a capital fund greater than
the world has ever known. With pardon­able
pride Americans may point to scien­tific
methods and labor-saving devices
which her industrialists have developed
to an amazing degree of effectiveness. The
result of this condition of affairs quite
naturally, of course, is mass production.
The effect of mass production is likely
to be an increasing supply of goods in ex­cess
of the purchasing power of the Amer­ican
public. Notwithstanding the fact
that the purchasing power has been ex­panded
by an unprecedented increase in
instalment plans, a time must be reached
inevitably, it seems, when the United
States will have a surplus beyond the
power of her people to absorb.
With no desire to be prophetic, present
tendencies indicate that this country is
destined to depend for continued pros­perity
on being able to place her exportable
surplus abroad. The under-absorption ex­perience
of 1920-21 should make this clear.
Recently published figures show the excess
of exports over imports for the year 1928
to have been 31,039,000,000.00, an increase
in the excess, compared with 1927, of over
50%. An exportable surplus without ships
and protection to shipping is like having a
supply of fur coats for sale in the Samoan
Islands.
Peace-pacts and cruiser-programs, as
complementary national policies, may ap­pear
incongruous to some. Perhaps,
America's continued prosperity would
have been assured without a cruiser-program.
Who can say that it will be
menaced by having one?
Business in the Future