“No.” Tasked him if he thought that the farmers were prosperous and he answered “No.” I asked him if he thought that the white-collar classes were prosperous and he answered “No.” I asked him how then could it be pronounced that the country is extraordinarily prosperous if classes comprising about 50 per cent of its population are admittedly not so.
I do not think that we are having any such thing as prosperity in the United States at the present time. If for “prosperity” you substitute the term “activity” I will assent to the declaration that we have been having a great deal of activity. Now, we might conceivably institute a great building of pyramids as they used to do in Egypt, and we should have great activity in the production of stone and cement; also in metals if we saw fit to use them for ornamentation; and in many quarries and factories for the production of these things and on the railways for transporting them. We should have great activity in such circumstances and should get poorer in the process. We cannot reasonably hold that the process of getting poor has any connection with prosperity.
I have rather a clear idea that something of this sort is going on in our country at the present time. I conceive that we are building too many automobiles instead of developing our railways; that we are building garages instead of houses. To make an economic expression we are creating too much of consumption goods and not enough of capital goods; and we are letting our existing capital goods wear out.
When leading exponents of commerce and industry exhibit misconceptions on this subject, sincere without any doubt but based on superficial data, they do an
