Geologist Into Food Scientist
D., JAMES RORTY; PHILIP NORMAN. M.
Geologist Into Food Scientist By JAMES RORTY and PHILIP NORMAN. M.D. TwKNTY YEARS ag-t a young British g.-nlogist was studying aerial photos of the South African veldt, looking for evidence of...
...Here are two examples taken from (i.M's report to its stockholders: "AJ, Buirk, a newly designed electric welding machine makes it possible to speed up welding of Diesel engine crankshaft balancers from 8 to Sti per hour...
...In effect, he was prospecting for copper from the air...
...Conservative business journals are already predicting the highest profils m history for 1948...
...Bruce Balrd, president of the National Savings* and Trust Co., who as president of the District of Columbia Bankers Association presided at the meeting, Is one of the trustees, Nelson explained...
...It cannot be settled by full-page propaganda ads by C.eneral Motors and other corporations...
...This problem,,must be solved by removing the basic rau-es of the unrest...
...General Motors has stated publicly that they expect their volume of production to increase 50 precent over 1941...
...Here i* an example of what Increased production did for Oners I Meters between 193» and 1941: Wages went up 37 percent...
...The Government should encourage building," he declared...
...What you do is to eliminate your negatives from the air, and then explore your positives intensively, on foot, with a pick and shovel...
...It can be done...
...He knew what every competent food scientist knows by this time: that health goes back to the soil through an unbroken linkage of soil, plant, animal and human nutrition, that if you break this chain at any point, both the soil and the life it supports start sliding down hill...
...Thus South Africa loet a promising geologist and America gained an assiduous investigator in the closely related fields of soil chemistry, plant pathology, horticulture and nuli i tion...
...All would have gone well, perhaps, except that Reynolda and Columbia Metals became greedy...
...Hit clients use about iorty percent lets fertiliser than the average citrus grower who buys, or is sold, as much of the standard mixtures as th* salesman thinks he is able to pay for...
...They, too, needed those trace minerals...
...Bui, apparently, not great enough...
...Management must learn that human engineering is as important as production engineering...
...Sometimes he fed them i.t the soil in solution...
...Here are a few of the facts: The total profits of U. S. corporation* in 1944 were $25,000,000,000, or five and one-half times their average prewar profits...
...the state is one big soil laboratory, exhibiting more varied and complicated soil deficiencies than you...
...These examples, multiplied a thousandfold, give you an idea of the march of the machine...
...This promises to be the most elaborate landlords' lobby that Washington has ever seen, and will deserve the most watchful attention...
...Meanwhile he became engrossed in the plus and minus factors of the Florida soils...
...It want...
...that they produce not only more, but better fruit...
...The presence or absence of certain minerals in a given soil is reflected by the species, the density, and the color ol the vegetation that soil supports...
...Howard twitched the location of the suprrior seed, but couldn't fool the rats...
...Hy hie...
...A ten acre grove ander Howard'* management groaaed $22,000 last year...
...As a result, Symington went to Congress this week snd put the question squarely before Cspitol Hill: Does Congress wish to grant subsidies to new aluminum processors...
...Profits fpr an economy o( full employment, full production and full contumptivn...
...Thousands of scientific reports, many of them highly disturbing to the status quo of both agriculture and the food processing industry, have long been bulging the technical journals...
...Name < ailing will not solve our problem...
...But we did convert the auto industry to war production because we had a war to win...
...li' is understandable that the public is alarmed at reports of growing labor unrest...
...in a period of seven years...
...than in the patt three yean under rent control...
...Sometimes he fed them to the leaves of the growing citrus trees in the form of s spray...
...1941 profits were high enough to have 9'v*n every GM worker a 30 percent w*ge increase without raising the price ·' 'art one cent, and still the corpora-ll»a would have made $235,000,000 in >rnfitt, because of that 21 percent In-tr«eas in volume...
...Out of these three findings there arise, as naturally at the chicken from the egg, three rtther uncomfortable ques...
...Working conferences of labor and management should be called immediately in every baaie industry to discuss a realistic wage program, industry-wide wage agreemeata baaed upon equal pay for equal work, and a guaranteed annual wage...
...Til ? question of higher wages is a question of fact...
...In August, 1940, when we proposed the conversion of the auto industry to wsr production, these gentlemen who now say you can't raise wages without increasing prices »aid we could not convert the auto industry to wsr production...
...1940 was considered a high profit year...
...n 1941...
...t. If we teer« at smart at rati, wouldn't we $tmrt yelling for nutritional grading of eitrui and of ker fr*»k rnnd ?? ace.tied food*'/ 8. it it possible fkai nth,, farmer* beiidu the Florida eitrui yiowtn ait hemp told too muck badly balanced fertilizer, lacking in c***ntial traf element* —and even hy their own co-opt at thatt Waqes, Prices...
...Feeling protected against Alcoa competition, inasmuch as Alcoa has been declared by a court decision to be a monopoly...
...a runaway Federal budget, and the tremendous expansion of public housing into a political weapon through a $4,000,000,000 program...
...Even the seedt are better...
...There is no sign as yet that anybody Is even considering having the (Joveru-ment stay in the aluminum-production field to keep the greedy corporations in line...
...The tremendoua economies and reduced unit cost of production which will flow from this 50 percent increase in volume will enable GM to grant our 30 percent wage demand, maintain 1942 prices, and still make a very substantial profit...
...Rent control is one of three major dangers faring the real estate and banking business...
...Wages' that are fixed arbitrarily, either by management or by labor, will not work...
...Howard knew this literature...
...Sometimes hr mixed them with the commercial fertiliser...
...Rats dove to the bottom of the bin to select and eat the seedt of th* superior fruit grown with balanced »oll supplement...
...emphatic statement ke has come ?» understand only a fraction of the rusiplri relationships of aoil minerala, climate, and culture that determine success »i failure in citrus growing...
...but profits jumped HI percent...
...Why?—because production increased 21 percnt...
...American labor won the battle for pro-dud ion in war...
...to do the asm* in peace...
...These conferences would need to develop a new concept of wages nuited to the age in which we live...
...N'*w, here is the pay...
...Jti Sept...
...These wages enable millions to buy and use the products of our farms and factories, our service industries and our profession...
...1. What would happen to th* eifru* market if ALL th* growers «?·** Howard'* method...
...Howard has discovered, finally, that balanced fertilisation means i*ss fertilisation...
...The best wsy it could encourage new investment in building would be to do away with rent control at the earliest possible moment...
...1943 was even better...
...Another important factor enabling industry to raise wages is the tremendous increase in labor productivity resulting from improved technology...
...He has learned enough, however, to double, triple and even quadruple the production of the groves in his rare...
...In the case of the government's widely-aeaitered aluminum plants, that was taken by W. Stuart Symington, Surplus Property Administrator, to mean thai Alcoa may not get any of these plants...
...As it happens, Florida is a paradise for the soil scientist...
...We want to buy the things all the rest of you make, and we want you to buy the cars we make...
...We know that this larger purchasing power we are talking about must represent a larger volume of goods and services...
...prices up only 16 Percent...
...These conferences would afford labor and industry an opportunity to share in the responsibility of achieving maximum production and employment in their respective industries...
...In the last year of auto production— 1941— General Motors made a profit of $510,000,000 before Taxes...
...produced only 2,500.000 "et, and yet for every dollar they paid h> wages they made $1.02 in profits...
...Nelson won the applause, and the hearts, of the assembled bankers when he told them: , "Kent control, If made permanent, might be the first step toward practical extinction of the construction industry...
...I am certain that millions of farmers and small business men would be pleased to realize a return of 124 percent on their invest-mnt...
...The three main threats, he said, were rent control as a permanent gag on building...
...If we had taken only the increase in profits from 1940 to 1943 and had given it to the workers in the form of a wage increase, every U. S. industrial workei-could have had a 30 percent wage increase without increasing price...
...The key In these great profils Is a high volume of production...
...New multiple spindle drills perform 14 lapping operations simultaneously, superceding a single radial drill operation...
...Greater volume is •he answer to our problem of raising wages without increasing prices...
...Howard now has about a thousand acres of ritraa groves which are being fertilised ander his direction...
...The featured speaker was Herbert U. Nelson, executive vice-president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards, who called for banking support of the "newly formed National Real Kstate Foundation to mobilize public opinion for defense of the private ownership of property...
...It mu.-1 be settled on the basis of sound economic facts...
...Keynolda and Columbia are demanding "guarantee*" from the Government which amount to subsidies before they will consent to enter a bid for the properties or diacuas lesses...
...Wages must flow from our true productive potential and must reflect our ever-increasing ability to create wealth...
...Think of it—30 percent increase in wages to workers—no increase in prices to consumers—and the high 1940 profits to industry...
...Capital Comment private ownership must be done in such a manner as to foster competition...
...We want wages that buy things...
...29 this column reported that the Landlords' Lobby in Washington hail put up $500,000 for a phony "research" organization calling itself the National Real Kslale Foundation...
...The Florida climate cured Howard's hush fever...
...TwKNTY YEARS ag-t a young British g.-nlogist was studying aerial photos of the South African veldt, looking for evidence of mineral deposits...
...Now we ran raise wages without increasing prices because we have the peace to win...
...can shake a test tube at...
...For the past decade a revolutionary synthesis of these sciences has been in the making...
...We aren't kidding ourselves...
...As reported at the time, "the promoters of the outfit themselves described it as a "nationwide move against public housing and to safeguard real estate interests...
...Krom 1936 to 1941 General Motors earned (after faxes) a total return of 124 percent on the «lockholders' investment...
...This week there are further developments to report: The District of Columbia Banken Association held their annual fall meeting at the Mayflower Hotel this week...
...The tremendous profit made during the war prove* (shat wages' can be raised without increasing prices when maximum production is maintained...
...In 1981 Frank Howard ¦ came to Florida to recover from a bush fever...
...P. S.: OPA'reporti that landlord* hare never made greater profit...
...21 Percent increase in production enabled General Motors to increase wages ¦•ere than twice as much as price* ¦M still make »4 percent greater Profits...
...But the answer to labor-management relations cannot be found in screaming headlines or hysterical editorials...
...Our Aediting men must not again come home to' sell spples on onr street corners...
...At least twelve mineral elements are known to be required in animal and human nutrition and all of them have to come from the soil...
...Nelson announced that seversl trustees of the Foundation will meet in Washington this week to formulate further plans for action by the Foundation, which now has 3,000 trustees throughout the country...
...Howard started working with all twelve, including trace elementa like manganese, sine, and boron as well as the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium that make up the standard fertiliser formula...
...a 73-acre grove grossed $1*4,000 Howard has proved properly nourished tiers art more resistant to frost...
Vol. 28 • October 1945 • No. 42
