Technocracy Scored by Mason as Nation's Newest Fad for Depression Struck Americans--Says Figures Unreliable

Technocracy, the nation's newest fad, is a theory formulated not by a group of scientists carrying out investigations in a scientific way, but merely by a group of faddists, eager to put a few startling and unreliable figures before a depression struck people," said E. S. Mason, associate professor of Economics, in an interview yesterday. "It shows what a love of fads the people of the United States have, but you can't blame anyone for turning to any new panacea, however dubious, in a depression of this sort.

"There are two aspects to this new theory, a critical or negative one, and the constructive one," Mason continued. "I should say that the critical point of view is that the rate of technical change is so rapid that the price system offers inadequate possibilities of reabsorption for the laborers thrown out of work by economic change. The technocrats spend their time in drawing up charts to show that the price system is doomed and that unemployment will continue even in good times. But there are so many difficulties in getting accurate figures from which conclusions may be drawn that one is inclined to doubt the statements of the technocrats. When we hear reports that their figures on the increased production of steel per labor hour in this country during the last 50 years are 20 times greater than the actual increase, one is led to believe that this theory is not the result of unbiased or conservative thinkers.

"Another point they are considering is whether our economic system as now constituted can reabsorb the laborers thrown out of work by this change. In the past we have always been able to reabsorb all our labor, so we may think that we can continue to do so, but we must not lose track of the fact that the economic system of today is far more inelastic than that of the past century. Technological unemployment can not be passed lightly over, for it is a question that is becoming more and more apparent daily."