The Next Step: A Plan for Economic World FederationNearing, Scott
History
The Next Step: A Plan for Economic World Federation
Nearing, Scott
Economic history
The second step in economic reorganization is the recognition or
establishment of local, district, divisional and world federations of
the local, district, divisional and world industrial groups. This second
step must be taken in order that there may be some authority competent
to deal with those problems which are common to two or more of the
groups in question.
There are two general types of problems that the federations of
industrial groups will be called upon to handle:
1. Those problems involving inter-relations between the various
producing groups, such as the factory workers, transport workers,
agricultural workers and the like, that must exchange their products
and receive from one another the materials upon which existence
depends.
2. Those problems which are common to all producing groups simply
because they are common to men and women who are trying to live and
to function together. The water-supply, roads, education, are
questions of this type.
Problems of the second sort, and the issues raised by them, cannot be
entered upon at this point. The same federal authority that is charged
with the control over inter-industrial problems will likewise charge
itself, in each instance, with these common questions not immediately
related to industry.
This is not an attempt to under-estimate the importance of
non-industrial problems, but to confine attention, for the moment, to
matters directly related to production, with the conviction that when a
mechanism is developed capable of handling the industrial problems there
will be less difficulty in taking care of those not so closely related
to industry.
6. _Four Groups of Federations_
The issues arising between industrial groups, and those problems common
to all groups, will best be handled by federations having a
jurisdictional scope parallel to that of the separate groups of which
the federations are composed. If these component groups are local
economic units, the federation will be local in character. If they are
district economic units, the federation will have a district as its
sphere, and so on. By this means, there will be created a series of
federations or joint organizations, beginning with the federation of
local economic units, and ending with a federation of world industries.
Throughout this enlarging series of federations the principle of local
autonomy will be maintained in all of its rigor, and no matter will be
referred to a federation that can be handled by a local group. At the
same time, the principle of federal authority will be asserted, and
those matters that concern the welfare of more than one group of
parallel jurisdiction, will be referred automatically to the federal
authority under whose control the group in question falls.
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