The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

368 THE FREEMAN Junethat continuance of crude techniquesfor using men as drayhorses necessarily condemned Indianworkers to low, productivityand a meager living.Conditions ChangeCritics of business fall into thebooby trap of assuming that everythingis static. More than fourdecades ago, oil authorities wereforecasting that in eight yearsthe supply would run out. Theyproved to be astigmatic, perceivingonly the then known reserves.They overlooked the fact that,with incentives, wildcatters wouldferret out new sources of supply.And when, if, and as we consumeall the known supplies of fossilfuel, the creative side of man willfind substitutes in such newertechnologies as atomic and solarenergy. And in the process, theydoubtless will achieve a measure ofpollution control.The new enthusiasts in ecologycarry a good cause to unreasonableexcesses. They ascribe utterirresponsibility to businessmen.They assume that corporate executivesare solely concerned with"the bottom line" on the profitand-lossstatement, and the deviltake the hindmost. They lack theimagination to sense the opportunitiesfor improvement withinthe system. Earlier in the century,there was in some aspects offarming, for instance, and in theindiscriminate cutting down oftrees in the forests, a seeminglack of concern for the future.But protests were heard; therehas been measurable progress inthe development of scientific agriclJlturein place of the primitive"n1ining of the soil." And in Oregonand elsewhere pioneer effortswere undertaken to avoid the de~nuding of forests with the newconcept of tree farms with newplantings to replace cuttings.In the American system, theguiding motto should be the linefrom the poet Louis Untermeyer,who wrote: "From sleek contentment,keep me free." Progress isnever enough, and the operatingprinciple of topflight business'management is: "Let's seek to dobetter tomorrow what we appearto be doing well today." The con- 'tinuingvigor of the Americancompetitive system depends on theknowledge and courage of the elitewho understand its functioningand have the means of communicatingthe benefits to others.Fear of TechnologyWhat we see today is a recurrenceof the simplistic revolt inthe nineteenth century of menlike Samuel Butler, who decriedthe Industrial Revolution. In hisErehuJon in 1872, Butler appearedas the enemy of the machine.