SCIENCE BUILT CIVILIZATION

SCIENCE
vs

CHAOS

s u

Akron, Ohte

DIRECTOR.
TECHNOCRACY
INC.

There IS Something New

Under the Sun
TECHNOCRACYnew, startling, fundamental
has invaded the mind of America with unparalleled positiveness and force.
Its original research summary, a simple statement of facts about the critical period through
which we are passing, startled the world.
The
questions it posed still remain unanswered.
Technocracy not only made the American people
fact-conscious, but confronted the entire nation with
the necessity for fundamental social change.
Technocracy's position is based on facts, not
rhetoric. Its message has cut deep. It has reached
more intelligent and functionally important citizens
in all walks of life than any other organization,
and continues to do so.
Technocracy's scientific approach to the social
problem is unique, and its method is completely
new. It speaks the language of science, and recognizes no authority but the facts.
In Technocracy we see science banishing forever
unemployment, hunger and insecurity of income.
In Technocracy we see science replacing an
economy of scarcity with an economy of abundance.
In Technocracy we see functional competence
displacing grotesque and wasteful incompetence,
facts displacing guesswork, order displacing disorder, industrial planning displacing industrial
chaos.
Technocracy is the attempt of science to build a
civilization worthy of the intelligence of Man.
Technocracy concerns itself with the continental
area of America alone. TECHNOCRACY marks a
turning point in American historythe birth of a
greater America. TECHNOCRACY contains all the
elements out of which great movements are made.
Howard Scott, the founder and Director of Technocracy, Inc., presents in the following pages a
diagnosis of the existing disorder and the design
of a New America.
Copyright 1938, Technocracy, Inc.

1R
' INTEU IN CANADA

TECHNOCRACY
SCIENCE VS CHAOS
The following pamphlet represents the substance of
an address given by Howard Scott before the National
Technological. Congress and the Continental Convention
on Technocracy at the Morris
Hotel, Chicago, 111. in
J u n e , 1933.
Men Must Live

HAT constitutes living? There a r e man y and

varied definitions, but, from the standpoint of the
technologist, living is a term used to describe t h e
functioning of any organism on the area in which it exists.
Let us view living, then, in t e r m s of function. All organic
mechanisms require food, water, air, and solar radiation in
some f o r m or other. They are capable of motion, various
metabolic changes, and reproduction. The h u m a n mechanism is d i f f e r e n t i a t e d functionally f r o m all others in
t h a t it is t h e only one of the entire series c a p a b l e of producing energy-consuming devices outside of its organic
entity. The history of the h u m a n race m a y well be stated
in terms of the ability of m an to consume ever-increasing
amounts of extraneous (non-human) energy. The limitation and stabilization of t h a t r a t e of increase is the
scientific problem of the not f a r distant f u t u r e .
The human mechanism consumes energy in its processes of osmosis and d i f f u s i o n ; when such processes
have reached a total consumption of 775,000 kilogramcalories per kilo of weight, these processes cease and
the ensuing state is known as death. This cessation of
osmosis and diffusion will occur on this consumption of
energy, regardless of w h e t h e r this consumption is attained in f o r t y or eighty years, although death as a rule
occurs due to other reasons previous to reaching the
above critical total energy consumption.
The h u m a n
being r a d i a t e s 912 small calories per square meter of
s u r f a c e per twenty-four hours, r e g a r d l e s s of size, sex,
age or disposition. It is not to be assumed h e r e t h a t all
organic life h a s t h e same energy f a c t o r s p e r unit of
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T E C H N O C R A C Y

weight in time. Cold-blooded animals, such as the snake

or lizard, consume not in excess of 225,000 small calories
per kilo of weight in their functioning lifetime.
Rates of Doing W o r k

L work, i. e., expending

ET US consider a few comparisons in the rate of doing

energy.
The Khufu pyramid at Ghizeh has 2,300,000 blocks of
stone weighing 5,900,000 tons; it required the labor of
100,000 men several months each year for twenty years
to build this pyramid. If John F. Wallace had started in
1904 to dig the Big Ditch across the Isthmus of Panama
at the same rate of doing work, the job would have been
still under way in the year 2007, but not with John F.
Wallace or any of the others who had started it.
Even
assuming that the knowledge of sanitation had been
developed, under that rate of doing work, the problem
would be.just as difficult.
The Constitution of this country was written with a
sickle and a spade. It took ninety-six man-hours to spade
an acre of ground. If there had been no change in the
rate of doing work, we would still have to live under the
conditions of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Middle Ages.
The things around us today are not possible under that
former rate.
In ancient Egypt the currency was wheat. In the evolution of money, various commodities have been used successively: copper, silver, and gold. They started mining
silver lead ores at Laurion around the time of the first
Olympiad in 776 B. C. By 430 B. C. the hills of Attica
were denuded of timber to be used in smelting silver ore.
Mines were worked to depths as great as 600 feet. There
was no hoisting machinery, so access to these mines
was obtained by means of ladders. The miners carried
the ore up out of the mines on their backs. Due to the
fact that many of the openings in the mines were too
small to permit the passage of an adult, the children of
slaves were used extensively in these mining operations.
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HOWARD

SCOTT

Adult slaves, chained in gangs of ten or twelve, worked in

the larger openings in hand extraction of the ore deposit.
Similar methods were used in the Seguntheum mines of
ancient Spain. Under these methods of hand mining, a
definite upper limit was soon reached, and this rate
remained practically constant over long periods of time.
Energy and Physical Equipment

I n the fifteenth century, in the Saxon mines, the intro duction of gunpowder opened up new tunneling methods and went beyond the old methods' limit of the rate
of doing work.
Over a long period of social history, from the time of
the ancients to the invention of the steam engine, the rate
of doing work, or the consumption of extraneous energy,
remained practically constant; i. e., of the order of magnitude of 2000 kilogram-calories per capita per day.
Modern China and India are contemporary examples of
this same rate of doing work. When idealists speak of
China today, they say, "If only we could raise the standard of living of those 470 millions of Chinese to that of
our own."
Such idealism is foolish, for, due to the enormous
population of China and the very limited supplies of coal,
iron ore and other essential mineral products, it is quite
impossible to increase the standard of living of the Chinese very greatly above that which they now have. It
is interesting to consider the problem of famine in China.
Aside from a few railroads and rivers, almost the only
existing means of transport is the coolie. Consequently,
in an area of famine, even though an abundance of food
might be available at the railroad or river, it would not
be possible by means of coolies to deliver food to the
famine area at a distance greater than seventy-five miles
from such a source of supply. This is due to the fact that,
in making the trip of seventy-five miles and return, a
coolie would require for his own sustenance-all the food
he had originally started with.

TECHNOCRACY

The ancient agriculturist was the person who provided the majority of energy for the social system of his
time; in the old agrarian societies approximately ninetythree per cent of the total energy consumed was in the
form of sustenance. Today seven per cent of the energy
consumed in this country is for sustenance and ninetythree per cent goes to the operation of our physical equipment. The whole t e x t u r e of the social fabric is altered.
Technical Processes Alter Rate

NE hundred years ago we had a population of slightly

over twelve millions. In the United States at that
time seventy-five trillion B. T. U.'s of extraneous energy
were consumed per annum. Our population at the last
census was 122 millions, and in 1929 the energy consumption for this country was approximately 27,000 trillion
B. T. U.'s. Thus in 100 years our population increased
approximately tenfold, while our total extraneous energy
consumption increased 353 times. This change has resulted from the introduction of many new technical
processes.
Napoleon introduced tin cans. In 1929 we produced
over twenty-two billion tin containers on this Continent,
and 4,200,000,000 glass containers. Campbell's Soup
Company is the largest consumer of tin cans in the world.
In this same year 500 million tin cans were used by this
one company in packing tomato soup alone.
All of these things are evidences of a great change
in the rate of doing work. That rate has been accelerated
in time. In 1896 William Jennings Bryan made his
"Cross of Gold" speech. At that time there were 180,000
miles of American railroads, and almost 900,000 employes. In the meantime, the railroads in this country
have grown in mileage, reaching the peak in 1916 with
254,000 miles. The peak in employment in American
railroads was reached in 1920 with a total of 2,100,000.
Since that time the trend in railroad employment has
been, with minor oscillations, continuously downward;
the figure was 919,000 in March, 1933.

HOWARD

SCOTT

Labor Power Displaced

Thirty years ago, on the Rutherford Branch of the

Reading Railroad, a single freight train hauled 1100 tons of
freight and required sixteen to twenty-four hours with a
crew of six men to make the division run. The subsequent development of railroad motive power shows a f a r
different picture. In 1928 the K-l type of locomotive
was introduced into this division. This engine hauled
7500 tons on t h a t same division in four to six hours with
a crew of five men. The net result of this increase in
efficiency is that all of the men who were originally firemen are now unemployed, and all of the firemen's jobs
are held by ex-locomotive engineers.
On the Lehigh, from New York to Buffalo, fast
freight trains used to require two locomotives and a
third was employed for express. Now a single K-l type
locomotive hauls the fast freight more quickly than the
old express. Consequently a single K-l type with one
crew is doing the work formerly done by three locomotives and two train crews.
If we had the entire motive power of the American
railroads modernized to the K-l type or better, we would
require only a very small number of the total railroad
employes of 1929 to operate our railroads. We could
further eliminate overhead if we abolished the present
system of freight classifications and replaced it by a system similar to the parcel post of the United States Government. With such a combination of improved motive
power and classification system, we could operate our
railroads on 1929 volume with less than 500,000
employees.
Glass blowers used to be "born" into their occupations,
until the engineer came along and devised a machine that
could blow glass. This machine rapidly eliminated the
glass-blower and represented the state of development
the industry had attained by 1920. At that time many
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TECHNOCRACY

people thought the mechanization of industry was at an

end. Then Colburn introduced the technological process
in glass manufacture, in which glass is no longer blown,
but extruded in one continuous strip. Practically no
human effort is required. One human being is needed to
watch the control board. God didn't make him good
enough to rival this machine in any other capacity.
The sheet process in steel manufacture used to be a
hot and arduous one. That is gone. Now the job is quite
clean and the running of a modern sheet steel plant requires the services of twelve men on the control bridge.
Such a mill rolls sheets ninety-six inches wide at a rate
as high as 760 feet per minute.
All the human being
has to do is watch the controls and read a magazine.
Scientific Approach
I A M giving you these illustrations for a purpose, because this is r.n entirely different approach to the social
problem. W e are not investigating or discussing human
antagonisms.
W e are, instead, finding out how to do

things functionally. The new method of functioning has

come about not because we have a Price System but because of technology and its consequent production of
change. Prior to the introduction of science and technology social change had been only a symptomatic sort,
such as changes in beliefs, morals, ethics, and dynasties.
The water in a river flows, but, if one looks at the same
river in succeeding years, it, shows in general very little
alteration. This the physicist would call a steady state,
since, although the water moved, the river shows no
appreciable change. The same comparison may be used
socially. Prior to the introduction of modern science and
technology all social systems show very slight change in
the dynamic sense as to the amount a.nd ways and means
of action, change in the technique of the means whereby
men live.
These past systems, may be said to represent a social steady state.
It is only since and
because of the introduction of technological procedures
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HOWARD

SCOTT

if)

that human social systems are undergoing

dynamic changes.

extensive

What U Wealth?

OW let us consider one of the most amazing of human

inventions, wealth.
We define a Price System to be any social system
whose means of exchange is based upon the use of one
or more commodities as units of value. Price System
wealth is in turn expressed in terms of the units of value
and is negotiated in the more advanced stages by means
of certificates of debt, gold, silver, or other readily portable commodities, but today more often mere pieces of
paper. Ultimately, under an advanced Price System, the
only valid wealth is monetary wealth, which in turn consists of certificates of debt. Therefore the only way to
create wealth under such a system is by the creation of
debt. Stocks, bonds, etc., are debt claims and must be
paid in interest and principal. Interest provides expansion, allowing the continuous creation of debt.

At this moment there" are in existence in this country

238 billion dollars of debt claims. As long as this Price
System continues, these debt claims will remain valid.
Abrogate these claims and you abrogate the Price System. The one basic rule of procedure under a Price System is that one must create debt claims against others
faster than debt claims are created by others against him.
If he does not succeed in doing this, he does not remain
in business.
In the physical world, wealth, if one should wish to
use the term at all, would be defined in terms of use, or
the rate of consumption. Thus under a Price System the
possession of the bonds of an automobile company would
constitute financial wealth; whereas, in . the physical
sense, wealth as regards, say, automobiles would consist
in being able to use them. Wealth in this sense consists
not in the ownership of a car but in the act of wearing
one out.

TECHNOCRACY
Science Now Has Social Objective

HE scientist views all the Price System concepts as nonsense, because in the physical world, which incidentally
is the only world we can deal with, there is no such thing
as value. There are, instead, only qualitative and quantitative analyses and measurements, such as size, weight,
energy content, velocity, temperature, chemical composition, etc. These things can be measured and expressed
numerically, but are not matters of value. The technologist is blamed to a certain extent because, in his creation
of energy-consumipg devices, he has played a mean trick
on the Price System that nurtured him. Today every alert
technologist knows that, whereas up to the present, in
this country and elsewhere, scientific pursuits have been
to a considerable extent cloistered, sporadic, and without
objective, the concomitant technology has so altered social
conditions as to set up a unidirectional social evolution.
And in so doing technology has produced such an array
of unsolved problems that the scientist, whether he likes
it or not, is being forced out of his cloistered seclusion.
Science itself, for the first time, must concern itself with
the problem of a social objective. The technologist created energy-consuming devices which, as a result of cupidity in exploitation, have compelled in turn the further
introduction and development of technological procedure.
So, quite unwittingly, you see, the technologist has sprung
another trick upon the entrepreneurs. For, if they continue to increase technical devices on this area, there will
be but one outcome. For this there is no precedent.
Science and technology have created their own ancestors.
And for the first time circumstances will make it possible for us to live without the entrepreneur.
America Is Unlike Europe

I AM trying to give you a general background. In Rus' sia throughout 1917by way of contrastninety-two
per cent of the population lived on the land. The conver10

HOWARD

SCOTT

sion of energy per capita on that area was of a low order

of magnitude. Malpatre, in his book, "Coup d' Etat,"
points out that a handful of men were able to effect the
change, taking over the power plants, telephone control,
etc., of Petrograd. A technologist asks how many telephones there were, for instance, in Petrograd in 1917.
The order of magnitude, in terms of the number of telephones installed and the number of kilowatts of electric
power, was that of Passaic, New Jersey. The telephones
and kilowatts of electric power of Newark, New Jersey,
at the same time exceeded that of all Russia. The problem was really a small one compared with ours here.
Italy, similarly, has not the resources, land equipment,
etc., for the introduction of Technocracynot in Italy as
an isolated unit, but only as a part of integrated Europe.
Italy has sulphur, mercury, and hydro-electric power.
She has no coal, iron,oil,nor most of the mineral resources
necessary to industry. Fascism in Italy has consisted in
the consolidation of all the minor rackets into one major
monopoly.
Compared with England

roat Britain,
too, has many movements for social
betterment. Great Britain is changing and is seriously groping in a blind effort to meet the consequences
of that change. But Great Britain's coal mines operate
at an output of 0.8 ton per man per day, as compared
with America's average of five tons per man per day.
While, according to British geologists, only six per cent
of the original reserve of Britain's coal has thus f a r been
rejnoved, they are mining in England shallow coal seams
as thin as thirty inches, and thicker seams at depths as
great as 3500 feet. The remaining iron ore in Great
Britain is of such low grade that for smelting purposes an
equal amount of imported high grade ore must be added
to the ore produced domestically; that is, fifty-six per
cent foreign beneficiation is necessary.
If coal were mined in Great Britain at the same rate per
man as in the United States, there would be another milll

T E C H N O C R A C Y

lion unemployed miners to contend with. Sir George

Paish and I have had several discussions about technological procedure in England. The British wanted to raise
their standard of livelihood to the American levelwith
the same rate of production as we have here, by area,
space, etc. In automotive transportation nine million cars
would be required to raise England to our standard. Assuming that existing plants and.structures remained the same,
there would not be sufficient room to park this number of
vehicles and certainly not enough to operate them. You
have that condition in many parts of the world. Foreign
trade is founded on that type of fallacy. It is not possible
to change the other countries and to make them like
this one.
Unemployment and Debt Claims

HAT has been going on in this country during the

last decade?
Since 1920 the production per man-hour as shown in
69,000 establishments, as compiled in the statistics of the
U. S. Labor Bureau and the Industrial Conference Board,
has been rising continually. Since 1930, to May 1 of 1933,
the production per man-hour has risen 39.2 per cent.
W h a t is the significance of this? According to figures
checked by the Alexander Hamilton Institute, there were
17,000,000 unemployed May 1, 1933. A recovery to the
1929 level of production of goods and services would result in the full time reemployment of only 5,000,000 of
those now unemployed. All we have to do is to increase
that rate, and Roosevelt and the present, administration
in the National Industrial Recovery Act will step on the
gas. The National Industrial Recovery Act does some
beautiful things. It says to the bondholders that there
will be a guarantee of interest and principal.
It tells
widows and orphans they will be cared for. To manufacturers it says tha t profits will be increased, the
market guaranteed, and production levelled o f f .
It is doubtful if any of these things will be accomi
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HOWARD

SCOTT

plished, except the latter. It is certain that not all of

them will be accomplished, because several of them are
mutually exclusive. If you level off American industry,
there is no chance to create debt fast enough to operate
the physical equipment. If you can not create debt, you
cannot maintain a Price System. Technology throws
people out of work. It is wiping the bottom out of all
values. If you eliminate the possibility of growth and
therefore can not continue to create debt, then the interest rate and return on investments will approach zero.
Under such a condition it would be possible, in fact probable, that if you did deposit money in a bank, you would
not be able to get the same amount out, since the bank
would have to charge for the privilege of depositing.
How can we continue to operate under this fallacious
financial setup ?
W h a t W e Have, W h a t W e Might Have

N THE other hand, the operation of this continent

from a technological viewpoint has tremendous possibilities. On this side of the picture Technocracy has
made some interesting calculations. If the wheat Of this
country had to be produced with a spade, it would take
5,000,000 men to produce 800,000,000 bushels. If the
soil were tilled with the best equipment, it would take
less than 5000 men to produce 800,000,000 bushels per
annum. Or consider the subway system; the total number of people employed in a subway f a r e collection system is greater than the total number of employees actually operating the mechanical equipment of the system,
including the power plant. From an energy standpoint
it is cheaper to provide free local transportation.
This type of calculation requires that we dispense
with a number of old habits of thought. Take the matter
of the kind of income we could afford to have. We have
been conditioned to the idea t h a t jobs are different and
men are different and therefore justly receive different
compensations. Consider, however, the fact of the enorif)

T E C H N O C R A C Y

mous expenditure of effort necessary to keep the records

to maintain this differentiation of income among the
people of this Continent. It becomes technically unsound
to attempt to differentiate between incomes when there
is plenty for all, because of the cumbersomeness and costliness of such practice. We have arrived at this, not
from any philosophy of right and wrong or human equality, but from the simple technical reason that to do otherwise would cost too much.
How would such a system work ? In all social orders,
until today, men have been penalized to live. Some particular group has always discovered that under the rules
of the game it could gain advantage. Means to prevent
this did not exist. If technologists were operating this
country, they could not afford to penalize anyone. The
cost of collecting would be greater than the advantage
gained and, moreover, this would upset the income balance of the country.
Energy V s . Money

NDER a technological system, money as we now know

it would no longer exist. Debt could not be created.
There would be a medium of distribution but not one of
debt value or exchange. This medium of distribution
would have to satisfy the following conditions:
1. It would designate by functional number the
goods or services purchased.
2. It would designate the purchaser by function
and by sex, and show whether the purchase was
made prior to, during, or after the fulfillment of
his energy contract (service period with the
Technate).
3. The point of origin and point of consumption of
the goods or services would be shown numerically.
4. It must be non-exchangeable between individuals
and consequently not susceptible to being lost,
stolen, or bestowed as charity.
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HOWARD

SCOTT

5. It will be valid only for the time period for which

issued, which period is determined by the time
required to make one complete industrial cycle
(for the North American Continent this period is
about two years). One's income, being valid only
for the time period for which issued, can not be
saved. It can only be spent or else forfeited.
The purchasing power of the individual would depend
upon the operation of the physical equipment and would
be a prorated division of the energy consumed
in the given area
during the given time period,
after the deduction of that part of the total energy spent
in the construction of plants, etc., and fixed charges for
such other items as are not directly distributable to indi
viduals. Thus the income of the individual can be altered
only by a change in the rate of expenditure of energy
by the social mechanism as a whole.
The only way for an individual under Technocracy
not to participate in this income would b e :
1. To leave the Continent permanently.
2. To commit suicide.
3. To induce the state to execute him.
Energy Certificates

THESE energy certificates, issued to individuals, would

resemble somewhat a cross between a traveler's check
and an ordinary bank check. They would be similar to a
bank check in tha t they would represent no denomination
until a purchase of goods or services had been made, and
the denomination of the cost of that particular transaction
would then be indicated on the certificate surrendered in
the process. They would resemble a traveler's check in
t h a t they would be issued to a particular individual and
would not be valid except as identified by that individual.
Hence they could not be stolen, exchanged, or given
away, and would be useless in the hands of any other
person.
On this certificate would be a number, according
I

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TECHNOCRACY

to a system similar to the library cataloging

system,
identifying the person to whom issued by function and
geographical position.
Diagonally would be a color band, one diagonal to
designate a male, the other a female. The holder of a
male certificate would not be allowed to purchase female
apparel, and vice versa. Thus, one's relations to the
opposite sex would depend entirely on personal merits,
because for the first time it would be impossible to
purchase favors.
The background of this certificate would be one of
three colors. If the first, it would signify that the holder
had not yet begun the fulfillment of his or her energy
contract for services to theTechnate. If a second color, it
would signify that the holder was engaged in the fulfillment of such an energy contract. If a third color, that
would signify that such fulfillment had been completed
and the owner had retired.
The income of the individual would continue
until death.
This income is not to be thought of as
in any manner a payment or reward for services done.
True, the individual is expected and required to fulfill a
period of service according to his capacity and ability
during his lifetime, but the income is a per capita share
of the net available energy and is not allotted on a manhour participation basis.
The Four-Hour Day

NCE such a system was beyond the preliminary stages

of reconstruction, such a period of service should not
exceed four hours per day, four consecutive days at a
shift, and 165 days per year. For a period of about
twenty years, say, from the ages of twenty-five to fortyfive, this period of service would be known as the fulfill16

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SCOTT

ment of the energy contract. The income received, however, made possible by virtue of our possession of energy
reserves, would be several times the present average income in this country, and many times greater than any
possible contribution of services by any individual.
Purchasing would be effected by means of surrendering energy certificates properly identified in return for
goods and services. The cost of any particular commodity would be determined entirely by the energy consumed
in the process of its production and delivery to the point
of consumption. There would be no profits. The entire
physical equipment of this Continent would, of course,
be owned and operated bythe Technate.
Every item of
goods or services would, in the functional numeration system
mentioned above, bear its own particular catalog number.
Should an energy certificate be surrendered in payment
for any commodity or service, it would be cancelled by
having punched through its face the functional number
of the item purchased. It would then be pushed through
photo-electric control recording
machines, which deduct from the inventory the item purchased, and simultaneously, from the purchaser's account, the amount of
the item purchased.
Since the system of certificates and accounting used
would be uniform throughout the Continent, all inventories and accounts would be relayed continuously by wire
to central headquarters, where in this manner would be
maintained a complete and up-to-the-minute inventory of
the physical operation of the entire Continent as to rates
of production, stocks on hand, and rates of consumption.
The rates of consumption would be ascertained by
sorting the energy certificates cancelled, such sorting to
be done photo-electrically, according to the status of the
purchaser, the geographical division, and the item purchased, providing the maintenance of complete statistical
tabulation, even to minute details, of every significant
physical and social operation.
if)

T E C H N O C R A C Y
A n Economy of Abundance

T H E operational as well as the sociological implications

and possibilities of such a controlled system are astounding. The quality of goods to be produced would
no longer be the cheap and shoddy variety turned out at
present. Instead the criterion by which goods would be
judged would be the energy cost per unit of service, and
those goods would be produced which by experimental
test were found to cost the least energy expenditure per
unit of service.
The'lVchnate would not be interested in the expansion of
consumption for its own sake, since no profits can accrue.
On the contrary, the need of conserving our raw materials
would discourage wasteful practices of all kinds. There
would be no advertising or salesmanship. As any large
retailer or udvertising concern now knows very well, but
for such practices the present consumption of goods
would be considerably reduced. It follows that in a Technocracy, where a very ample variety and quantity of only
the best goods would be available for all, the rate of consumption, instead of expanding ad infinitum, would probably tend to contract, or at at least reach a state of
equilibrium at a moderately simple mode of living.
Improvement Under Science

T horstein Veblen ,
in "The Theory of the Leisure
' Class," ably discussed the "canons of conspicuous
waste" and the "pecuniary canons of taste," as induced
by the existence of a Price System. Once revoked, as
they would be under a non-Price System of equal income
for all, it follows that social rivalry, which seems an
inherent characteristic of the human species, would have
to find other means of expressing itself. Consequently, if
one found it impossible to display one's superiority to the
Joneses by virtue of being able to live more pretentiously,
one would be obliged to find some more substantial manner of self-expression. The chief channel for that would
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HOWARD

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be the performance in the social system of a more important or responsible task than that of Jones.
In matters of design of equipment practically nothing
would be left unaffected. It goes without saying t h a t the
most efficient and automatic processes that could be devised would be used wherever possible. Under such a
control the use of automatic machinery would not, as
now, result in the evils of unemployment, but instead
would lighten the burden of all by equal amounts. All
industry, all social functions, would be conceived and
operated on a Continental scale.
This again is not a
philosophic premise, but is based on the fact that, under
a high energy system, every individual piece of equipment
is dependent for its own operation upon the operation of
the system as a whole. Since this is so, it is imperative
that the considerations concerning single units be secondary to the prime consideration of the operation of the
complete mechanism.
Industrial

Integration

A
homely illustration may suffice to make this clear.
Suppose that a group of designing engineers is assigned the task of designing an automobile. One, shall
we say, is a carburetor expert; a second, an ignition expert; a third, a transmission expert, etc. Now it would
be possible for each of these men to focus his attention
on his own particular specialty, and create tha t part as a
separate entity with a high degree of perfection; yet the
complete car, while composed of perfect parts, when
assembled would perform very imperfectly. This might
be due, for instance, to the fact that the carburetor was
of a capacity sufficient for a small car, whereas the designer of the chassis called for a car twice t h at size, and
other similar types of misfits.
If, however, the procedure had been reversed and it
had been specified tha t the car should carry a given number of passengers, should perform at a given speed with
a gasoline consumption of a certain number of miles per
if)

T E C H N O C R A C Y

gallon, then in order to meet these specifications, the

separate pai'ts may vary in pattern only within strict limitations. In other words, it is not possible by h a p h a z a r d
integration of perfect parts to achieve a perfected whole.
Conversely, however, if the performance of the whole is
specified, the limitations of the parts are automatically
determined.
The whole, in the case under consideration, is of
course the entire social mechanism. The specifications
are that it shall perform in such a manner as to provide
economic security with equal income from birth until
death, at a high energy standard of living, to each and
every member thereof, a t the lowest necessary expenditure of human effort and non-recurrent natural resources.
The fulfillment of these specifications automatically
affects every functional sequence within tha t social mechanism. As a convenient illustration on this greater scale,
we may consider the problem of housing 150,000,000
people, at a minimum standard of housing per person.
Scientific Housing

T H I S is not a problem in architecture. It is a problem

" of construction and maintenance of buildings. It involves a consideration of materials. Materials must be
chosen of which there are ample quantities, eliminating
from serious consideration the so-called metal houses
talked of by some of the modern architects. It demands
material much more durable than used in houses of today.
Since a house is an operating mechanism, and therefore
an energy-consuming device, in order to keep the energy
cost at a minimum, insulation must be carefully considered. This and many more conditions are implied as a
consequence of the requirement that housing 150,000,000
people shall, when operated as a whole, fall within given
operating specifications.
Attacking the problem of housing in the converse
sense, as has been customary and is still the basis of most
of our current architecture, it may be remarked that
20

HOWARD

SCOTT

if)

there is no design or composite of designs in existence, in

the past or present of architecture, adequate to meet the
above requirements. Architecture, as it is now practiced,
occupies exactly the same role with regard to the problem
of housing as did the various experts in the case of the
automobile mentioned above. When housing is viewed
as a problem of construction, operation and maintenance
at a minimum standard for 150,000,000 people, architecture as it is now constituted, essentially individualistic
and anarchic, will cease to exist.
Exactly the same line of reasoning applies to every
necessary functional sequence from agriculture to education, communication, or public health.
Era of Peace and Plenty

I HAVE attempted to point out something of the evolu' tion and the rate of acceleration in the immediate past
in the technique in the means whereby we live. . I have
indicated that, due to the introduction of technological
procedures, which are totally without historic precedent,
we are witnessing the initiation of a social change which
is unidirectional and irreversible. I have shown that, due
to these technological processes, under a Price System unemployment has resulted and will continue to increase;
that the growth curves of industry during the fifty years
from 1870 to 1920 were expanding at a compound interest rate, that they have been flattening out, and tha t this
process started prior to 1920. This is evidence of industrial growth maturation. As a consequence unemployment will be even more highly accelerated, and the interest rate will tend to approach zero, due to the inability
to create f u r t h e r debt. The total consequence of these
simultaneous trends will be an unprecedented social impasse as long as operation is continued in accordance with
the rules of the game of a Price System.
On the other hand, I have pointed out that, with the
greatest array of productive equipment on the earth's
surface, with the lion's share of the earth's natural re-

T E C H N O C R A C Y

sources, and with the largest technically trained and

functionally competent personnel in existence, this Continent stands ready to move from an economy of scarcity
and poverty into an era of peace and plenty.
It's A n Engineering Job

I HAVE indicated a few of the details of what such a

' system would be like. I have not inquired as to
whether you do or do not like the idea. The events t h a t
are going to occur in this area within the very near f u t u r e
are not going to be respecters of human likes or dislikes.
The problem of operating any existing complex of industrial equipment is not and can not be solved by a democratic social organization. The executive of the telephone company is not consulted as to whether he likes
the design of the telephone, nor is the general public.
With few exceptions, you know nothing at all about a
telephone except, that by following a certain routine,
someone answers at the other end of the line. That is all
you need and, for the most part, all that you want to
know.
The problem of operating the entire industrial equipment of thisContinent is a technical problem so f a r transscending any other technical problem man has yet solved
that many individuals would probably never understand
why most of the details must be one way and not another;
but the services of everyone, in the highest capacity at
which he can perform, would be needed.
Fortunately, it has been demonstrated that, once the
basic necessities of economic security have been achieved
at a not uncomfortable expenditure of personal effort on
our part, we are so constituted physiologically that, by a
rapid process of habituation, we find and pronounce such
circumstances to be good.

22

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Functional Control Is Imperative