Epoch v. Era

Last year big & little U. S. men of business spoke much of a "new era." At many a dinner and convention they buried the old economic doctrine of Depression following Inflation in never-ending cycles. This year big & little U. S. men of business have talked little of new eras, and the Silence of 1930 has come down on the Song of 1929. But in Paris last week Adolph Simon Ochs, publisher of the New York Times, told the American Club of Paris not of a new era but of a new epoch. After admitting that business conditions throughout the world were not entirely satisfactory, that in some regions conditions were indeed acute, Mr. Ochs said: "I am an optimist and I am glad I am one. ... I think the day is not far distant when there will be little or no excuse for unemployment, when the reward for industry, inventive genius and political wisdom will far surpass anything heretofore known in the history of the human race. We are on the threshold of a new world and the utilization of natural forces that were unthought of and undreamed of a few years ago. A new epoch of man, a conquest of nature, is just beginning."

Basing his argument not on mere stock-market quotations, but referring to indices at once more lofty and more basic, Mr. Ochs continued: "We no longer think in millions but in billions. . . . Disease is being conquered. . . .The Parliament of Nations grows steadily in influence and respect. . . . International questions have nearly all been settled, and the problems of government have now become social and economic within the confines of the State. . . . Dictators are weakening. Democracy is triumphant." Foreseeing not only a general revival of world-prosperity, Mr. Ochs also specifically foresaw Germany as leading in the industrial renaissance. Said he: "I have spent a few weeks touring in Germany and there I have seen much. ... I have been impressed with the thought that Germany is making a marvelous recovery from the financial effects of the War. . . . I predict that Germany is going to lead the procession in a general revival of busi ness throughout the world and it will not be long before its ... indefatigable industry will make the whole nation vibrate with prosperity. . . . The competition of Germany in the markets of the world is going to sorely perplex creditor nations. . . . Germany's rejuvenation ... an interesting chapter in the history of economic endeavor. Peace has its victories no less renowned than war"

So spoke Mr. Ochs, who expanded from the Times of Chattanooga to the Times of New York in 1896, who knew that decency meant dollars, that good morals were also good business, that a journal did not need to be yellow to be profitable. Famed is Mr. Ochs's rebuke to an advertiser who thought that the paper's business department should influence its editorial department: "You seem to wish that the New York Times should go about as a mendicant, begging for advertising patronage. We will never do anything of the kind. . . ."

Meanwhile, readers of Mr. Ochs's Paris speech recalled that last week was also announced a general German price-cut in export merchandise, and that Rhenish and Westphalian steel producers were cutting domestic steel prices from 95-c- to $1.66 per ton. But whether lower prices resulted, as announced, from a desire to expand trade and stimulate production or from purchasers' unwillingness or inability to pay the former prices, remained largely a matter of opinion.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.