The Principles of Economics, with Applications to Practical ProblemsFetter, Frank A. (Frank Albert)
General
The Principles of Economics, with Applications to Practical Problems
Fetter, Frank A. (Frank Albert)
Economics
3. _For a high efficiency of production, as a whole, conditions must
favor the best organization and direction of industry._ Industry is
dependent primarily upon natural resources. Climate, rainfall, iron
deposits, fuel, supply of wood or coal, predetermine in large measure
the limits within, and the direction in which, the industry of any
community can move. The progress of production depends also on an
increasing efficiency of labor as embodied in individual men, and upon
social and political conditions making possible an increase of capital.
But--a condition as important as any of these--production is dependent
also on a wise combination of the factors. Social, political, and
economic conditions must be such as to call forth the factor of
direction and control of industry, to make possible industrial progress.
This is one of the greatest sources of America's superiority to-day. It
has been strikingly said that it is now no longer "young America and old
Europe," but "old America and young Europe." America is older in
industrial experience; Europe, with undeveloped resources, awaits the
touch of American methods and machinery. There are dynamic forces in
American society not present in equal degree in any other. It is
therefore not alone the great resources of coal and iron,--equal
resources may be found in unexplored parts of the world,--it is the
dynamic social forces, invention, enterprise, and organization, which
have brought America to the forefront in industry. Her natural resources
have thus yielded an incentive and a premium to enterprise as a sort of
by-product. Absence of caste, political liberty, the democracy
following the spread of the frontier, have not made it possible for
every one to succeed, but they have made it possible, as nowhere else in
the world, for real ability to scale the barriers of birth, poverty, and
hardship. A conservative population never can equal a progressive
population in industrial efficiency. It has been remarked that America
has little to fear from Oriental competition so long as the avenues of
education and enterprise are open to her young men, insuring her the
highest capacity in the organization and direction of industry.
[Sidenote: Growing specialization of industry]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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