Page 155 - TAGR-Companion Text

ORGANIZED PLANNING 155
1033 Seems absurd, doesn't it? Well, the procedure described would be the only
1034 possible way these simple items of food could be delivered to the heart of New
1035 York City, if we had no capitalistic system.
1036 The sum of money required for the building and maintenance of the railroads
1037 and steam ships used in the delivery of that simple breakfast is so huge that it
1038 staggers one's imagination. It runs into hundreds of millions of dollars, not to
1039 mention the armies of trained employees required to man the ships and trains.
1040 But, transportation is only a part of the requirements of modern civilization in
1041 capitalistic America. Before there can be anything to haul, something must be
1042 grown from the ground, or manufactured and prepared for market. This calls for
1043 more millions of dollars for equipment, machinery, boxing, marketing, and for
1044 the wages of millions of men and women.
1045 Steam ships and railroads do not spring up from the earth and function
1046 automatically. They come in response to the call of civilization, through the labor
1047 and ingenuity and organizing ability of men who have IMAGINATION,
1048 FAITH, ENTHUSIASM, DECISION, PERSISTENCE! These men are known
1049 as capitalists. They are motivated by the desire to build, construct, achieve,
1050 render useful service, earn profits and accumulate riches. And, because they
1051 RENDER SERVICE WITHOUT WHICH THERE WOULD BE NO
1052 CIVILIZATION, they put themselves in the way of great riches.
1053 Just to keep the record simple and understandable, I will add that these capitalists
1054 are the self-same men of whom most of us have heard soap-box orators speak.
1055 They are the same men to whom radicals, racketeers, dishonest politicians and
1056 grafting labor leaders refer as "the predatory interests," or "Wall Street."
1057 I am not attempting to present a brief for or against any group of men or any
1058 system of economics. I am not attempting to condemn collective bargaining
1059 when I refer to "grafting labor leaders," nor do I aim to give a clean bill of health
1060 to all individuals known as capitalists.
1061 The purpose of this book – a purpose to which I have faithfully devoted over a
1062 quarter of a century-is to present to all who want the knowledge, the most