BY FORD TO UTOPIA
ONE does not take up books on America, written by peripatetic English lecturers, with very great confidence in their value, Too often what the author said in Boston sounds very like what he said in Buffalo, and the party, judged by its periodic photographs, does not seem to have changed much between
its visit to Grand Rapids and its visit to Denver. But we must admit that this book of Sir Charles Wakefield's is some- thing of an exception. True, the bulk of it is a description of his lecture tour with the British Sulgrave Delegation ; but even this part is illuminated with flashes of interesting obser- vation. At the beginning of the book, however, are four or five chapters on various American subjects. Of these one stands head and shoulders above the others. It is Chapter Five, which Sir Charles Wakefield calls " Fordism and the Future of Industry." As a matter of fact it is rather an exposition of Sir Charles' own industrial philosophy, seen in the glare of the great Ford factory at Detroit.
Again, it is not always that one approaches statements of the industrial philosophies of our great capitalists with confidence.. Too often one discovers that they consist of the simple and straightforward dogma that with the single excep- tion of the activities of the Trade Unions, the world is indusr trinity perfect, and that all we have to do is to keep- it so. What, then; is our shock of surprise when we find that Sir Charles has a clear grasp of the revolution in economics which the mass production of commodities is bringing about, and of the complete revision of our ideas that it entails.. " Ford- ism " Sir Charles Wakefield defines as " the highest form of modern industrial production, in which control is exercised by a single authority, intent upon service first rather than profit-making as prime motive." Fordism, he tells us, is being applied to industry at large : " I saw enough to realize that we are already in sight of the ' semi-final ' stage of all-sufficing production. What is to happen when the principles of mass production are so widely adopted that production universally overtakes effective demand ? "
Here, then, we have a great industrialist clearLy realizing that production is not enough. He has heard, as he ex- pressly states, the parrot cry in this country in 1920 of " Pro-
duction and yet more production." But what, he asks us, shall we do when our mass production of manufactured goods
reaches (as, as a matter of fact, it has already reached) the saturation point of " effective demand " ? First, he has the courage to tell us, we- must increase wages. Here, then, is a man who is willing to break away from the present insane demand of our leading capitalists for a reduction in wages. But as Sir Charles says, this wage adjustment would at best be a " comparatively temporary expedient." Then he goes on to a suggestion which will be of peculiar interest to the Spectator readers who have followed the correspondence on the subject of " Grow Your Own Food "":—
" Ford has given us another valuable hint. I believe one of his smaller factories is also- a farmstead : the men work at certain seasons in the factory, and at others on their farm. This is an idea we may have to develop. Having brought civilized life up to an unequalled pitch of complexity, and the means to satisfy all our material desires up to an even higher pitch, we shall have to reduce the tempo, so to speak, and give our achievement a rural setting, where :perhaps it may have a better chince of survival. There need be no sacrifice of either culture or comfort ; rather, with our practical needs met in a shorter working life, there will be a new zest in the activities of ' leisure.' We shall do what a select few now do, rest secure upon a basis of complete material provision, and find the joys of emulation and competitive exertion in the arts and sciences, or in the pursuit of physical perfection or athletic eminence."
But the best of all, Sir Charles has seen the obstacle which now prevents the realization of this Utopia :-
" That will be the hardest of all—to accustom ourselves to the altered ' balance' of life ; for that is what have. happened. Once the generality of mankind see, it proved beyond cavil that all that is needed can be produced in abundance, our system of struggle and stress will collapse like a pack of cards. We must be ready to replace it ; we must be ready to install as a system what Henry Ford and other pioneers in industry, what countless great men and noble women in public life and international crisis, have practised as a creed—the ideal of service first.' "
Frankly, that sentence beginning " Once the generality of mankind " leaves us gasping ! If we had found it in one of Major Douglas's innumerable little books, or heard it from the lips of Mr. Wells or Mr. Shaw, we should not have been sur- prised. But from Sir Charles Wakefield . . . Evidently he is not quite comfortable about it himself for he adds :—
" All this admittedly hazardous theorizing is based upon the supposition that there will come a time when the march of science and engineering will permit the fullest needs of the human race to be satisfied with very much less exertion than is needed to-day."
But he has an uneasy feeling of the truth, which is, that that
time has already come, and it is only what he calls " certain restraints inherent in our traditional way of life " which prevent our entering upon this great new development.
We cannot help feeling that it is greatly to be regretted that this extremely important chapter was buried in Sir Charles Wakefield's account of his American tour. But perhaps he was right ; perhaps it is we who have done him a disservice in disinterring it. What, for instance, does the City feel about the ex-Lord Mayor who is thinking along these lines ? Such clarity of vision and such temerity of statement are not well liked by mankind, whose worst fear is to be jerked out of their comfortable ruts and kicked along the
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