THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH

Following an extensive investigation of three year's duration, a group of distinguished scholars last week submitted its report on "Recent Social Trends in America." Perhaps the most important feature of the whole report lies in the significance which it attaches to the present depression. Heretofore, economists have been somewhat too prone to regard these times as only another of the periodically recurring economic and financial crises. This committee, on the contrary, sees this present depression as marking the conclusion of one entire era of American history and the beginning of new, and third chapter.

As for the truth of this conclusion, it must be admitted that it is in line with the continuity of American History, as these scholars have traced it out. The first period of this history, termed "Geographical Pioneering," saw the mere settlement of the land, and ended before the beginning of the twentieth century. In the second period that of Technological Pioneering," the Americans harnessed the forces of nature, and made the great achievements of industry. According to the scholars who drew up the report, this period came to an end in 1929, with our present depression. In their opinion the exploitation of the Nation's natural resources has now reached a maximum, both in amount and efficiency. The ability of industry to supply has now surpassed the power of the public to consume; and hence the need for rapid technological progress becomes less and less. The chapter ends, and American History enters a new era.

But if the conclusion is true, that this depression marks the beginning of an entirely new stage in American History. Then it is more than merely a novelty. Lincoln once said, "If we could first know where we are, and whether we are tending we could better judge what to do and how to do it." People act more wisely when they see the continuity of the whole. This is the service rendered by any report on social trends. Hence the tremendous importance of the committee's conclusion that "we have conquered nature: now we must take up the more intricate and delicate task of adjusting human relationships."