Productivity Key to Plenty (1949)

for [Applause] here a quiet residential street in an average American Town there's nothing unusual about that you'll say no no there isn't as a matter of fact this is the sort of thing most of us expect to have sooner or later and a weekend free from work with a chance to take it easy in the afternoon there's nothing unusual about this either we expect pleasure we like it over there on the drive the family car after all well over half our families have a car though not always the latest model one to every five people the statisticians say about that radio too if you like any station you want going back I don't think he has a chance for this ball he's going to try for it anyway it's all part of the scheme of things even those of us who don't yet have it think of it as a reasonable standard of living running water who gives it a thought you have to have running water and you have it and a modern stove that's all a part of it along with the refrigerator of course these are things that just go with the American pattern of living most of us don't think about them much want music put some records on a machine put on several The Machine's automatic it will do the changing want more light there you are and if you should want to call a friend across the street or across the world there's the [Music] telephone there's a great deal more to this American way of life of course and it's all familiar enough it's familiar in the home and is familiar in the larger Community the main street of any town is almost the symbol of America that's where the stores are that's where we go shopping candy and ice cream buy all you want Hardware sure thing a complete Line shoes all styles and sizes gas oil water yes sir and free air too movies come early and get the best seats books the library is yours help yourself medical attention there's the doctor and the hospital education schools for everybody but do you really think all this just happened do you really think there's nothing special about it just listen to these statistics listen comparing America with the rest of the world we find that of the world's total population we have 115th 115th of the population of the world's natural resources our share again is roughly 115 but of all the goods and services produced in the world we in America turn out over 1/3 onethird of the goods and services those are the figures for the overall comparison now let's compare America with other countries in terms of what the individual can buy for a given amount of work in a normal peacetime year in such a year the average American worker for 1 hour's work earns enough to buy over seven loaves of bread in the same amount of time an Englishman earns five loaves of [Music] bread while an American worker is earning over 2 lounds of meat a Russian worker earns only a third of a pound of meat or to take an item of apparel An American in a little over 12 hours time earns almost four pairs of plain work shoes during that time a Frenchman earns only one [Music] pair in terms of average yearly earnings we get this comparison the white columns tell the story [Music] we'll come back to more statistics later right now the question is why is the American Income so much higher than the others a very simple example will help to answer that question here's a man making a bottle he's making it by hand take a good look at what's involved [Music] one man and a Helper and what's the output a little less than 50 bottles per man per hour now here's another man making bottles only he's making them by machines let's watch [Music] this one man one machine the output over 4,000 bottles an hour why is the American Income higher this is part of the answer we've learned to use machines we use machines to make our clothes we use machines to grow our food with machines we lay down concrete with machines we tear up concrete printing that's a machine job [Music] bookkeeping that's a machine job we put machines to work in a thousand ways from stitching shoes to stamping steel with giant hammers to scooping up the Earth 32 tons at a time but it hasn't been this way very long even with us let's go back a little the scene is 1850 at this time there were some machines in use of course the water wheel for example the wheel and the shaft the gears and the driving mechanism were made by local Craftsmen this was how grain was ground in the America of 1850 but machines even of this type weren't any too common for travel and for hauling there was the conastoga wagon hor drawn Lumber in slow for metal work there was the blacksmith with his hand tools and hand operated Forge a hand process like this with hammer and Anvil took skill and it took something else strong arms and a good pair of shoulders the story was pretty much the same with making Barrel staves it was a hand operation slow laborious and costly shoe making more of the same a hand tools hand skills muscle power it took time and it was tedious work to plow your land you followed behind a good strong team of oxen that was the scene in 1850 let's see how it looks to the statistician to summarize the situation in 1850 let's see how the work was divided among animal power Manpower and machines driven by wind water and fuel animal power 50% manpow 20% machine power 30% that's how the work was shared with animals and men doing very much more than machines taking all the work that was done what was the average per worker in terms of output per hour 27 cents worth of goods and services measured in present day buying power that was our productivity in 1850 27 cents worth of goods and services per man per hour that's how it averaged out what did that mean in terms of the standard of living what did a productivity of 27 cents per man hour mean to the general scheme of things what did it mean for the farmer it meant long hours for a low yield it meant crude implements and A Primitive [Music] agriculture to the housewife it often meant the difficulty of cooking before an open fire the fuel being wood that had to be cut by [Music] hand it meant the problem of making clothes by hand of cloth woven by hand sometimes it meant that skill in sewing was a required household art it meant the inconvenience of raising water from a well water of doubtful Purity sometimes it meant the trouble of preserving food as well as you could preserve it in sellers dug in the earth it meant sitting down for an evening meal only after a day of tiring physical labor it meant that the food on the table was plain food that the family often raised for itself that's how it was in America in 1850 that's how it was when most of the nation's work was done by the muscles of animals and Men that's how it was when America's productivity was 27 cents per man per hour of work and yet times were changing even then yes times were changing and looking back on it now we can chart the changes in American productivity 27 cents worth of goods and services per man per hour in 1850 But Rising Year bye slowly but steadily the 1860s more sailing ships displaced by steam steel taking the place of iron and productivity Rising the 1870s coal production up more railroads more steamboats More Steam Engines at work more furnaces and factories and productivity Rising the 1880s telephones coming in more Machine Tools in use more and better machines and productivity Rising the 1890s internal combustion engines dynamos and electric motors and productivity Rising [Music] by 1900 50 years of steady progress and as a result how is the work shared Now by animals men and machines animals just over 30% men roughly 15% machines more than 50% with the greater use of machine power what happened to productivity 56 cents per hour in present day buying [Music] power 56 cents worth of goods and services that was our output per man per hour at the turn of the 20th century 56 cents worth of goods and services per hour more than double the output of 50 years before what was the key to plenty we were beginning to find the [Music] answer put the resources of the earth to work that was part of the answer and in the years that followed more than ever before we dug into the Earth to tap its reservoirs of power the stored energy of coal could power our machines and we clawed out of the Earth by the hundreds of millions of tons and hidden beneath the soil from Pennsylvania to California from Illinois to the gulf there was oil and in oil from deep in the earth there was energy to power the truck and the tractor the automobile and the plane the ship and the locomotive and the power of falling water that could do our bidding we barricaded our Rivers impounding their flow of power we harnessed a source of energy as Bountiful as rain we put the Dynamo to use we mastered electrical power yes we were learning the answer Prosperity rests on productivity and productivity rests on power power and the skill to use it power and the willingness to use it in the decades after 1900 we grew as never before our output per man our rising and with it our standard of living and we weren't just Building engines we were building a way of Life some say the machine took over but what actually happened was that we took over the machine the machine that created new Industries and new standards of welfare for all the machine that did away with some jobs but in the long run made many more the energy of the earth harnessed through machines that was the combination that boosted our productivity we became the makers and the builders we became the masters of production we became the Shapers of the technological age power in the machine shop and productivity Rising power in the factory and productivity Rising there had never been anything like it before in all history nothing like it we in America had found a key to plenty only as productivity Rose could our prosperity rise and productivity rested on Power and the Machine [Music] we built the greatest productive plant the world had ever seen but it didn't all just happen investors big and little who put up the capital required to expand our productive capacity they were all behind it men of science research and invention they were all behind it engineers and technicians men of industrial knowhow they were all behind it management sales and advertising Executives they were all behind it and the millions and millions of Americans who make up our labor force they were all behind it that was the combination that gave us what we have let's see how the picture today looks to the statisticians if we summarize the situation today we find our sources of energy divided up like this animal power 2% man power little more than that machine power [Music] 94% that's our division of labor in America today and what of our productivity $140 worth of goods and services that's our output per man per hour today 1.40 worth of goods and services let's compare that with 1850 five times as much productivity up five times in a century of [Music] achievement and with the rise in productivity has gone a reduction in working hours from 70 hours a week 100 years ago to about 40 hours a week on the average today and most important of all per capita income has matched the rise in productivity five times today what it was in 1850 these things productivity has given us these things and a standard of living without equal in the world well do we take it for granted or do we realize how our output per hour yours and mine affects the goods and services we can buy affects the kinds of houses we live in affects the conveniences we can enjoy do we appreciate what productivity means to our physical well-being do we see what our educational system rests on do we understand what must be done to provide more Recreation for all do we know how to offer youth an even greater future here on Main Street USA well so far the record looks pretty good from 1850 to 1900 we doubled our productivity from 1900 to the present we improved the rate of increase until today our output per worker per hour is five times what it was a century ago can we do even better tomorrow what do you think one thing we do know all of us will benefit as our productivity increases if we want more income more jobs more Leisure we must see to it that nothing stands in the way of technological progress yes we must all see to it if there's a better way to plow the ground we must use that better [Music] way if there's an improved method of picking cotton that will increase the output per man per hour we must use that method if a machine can take the place of digging ditches by hand we must use that machine wherever we have facilities that can be replaced by more efficient equipment we must use that [Music] equipment and along with the continued use of the old where it does an important job we must be prepared to make increasing use of the new and always we must look to our basic sources of power today oil coal and gas today hydroelectric power tomorrow perhaps we will add the power of the atom so how do you want it where do we go from here you will help make the decision you will help provide the answer you in the in the shop you in the office you in the factory you on the construction job you designing dresses you designing Machinery the record is plain enough productivity is the key to plenty but we have to use the key and on how we use it rest the future welfare of all the people on all the main streets in [Music] America