14 
House & Garden 
WASTE IS 
BAD, BUT AN UN DISCRIMINATING 
ECONOMY IS WORSE” 
Howard E. Coffin 
Chairman 
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE 
Council of National Defense 
Miiiimmiiiiinmmi 
Editorial Note.— A man who has given more than two years of his 
life, uncompensated, to the National service,—a man known and respected 
throughout the business world—is worth listening to when he speaks. 
Air. Howard E. Coffin of the Council of National Defense sees our 
National problems in the large. He has no axe to grind except the battle- 
axe of Uncle Sam. When he warns us against the woodchuck role he 
speaks with complete information from the standpoint of authority. 
This is Air. Coffin’s message to his countrymen as reported in the New 
York Sun of April 20th—a message which the Sun says editorially should 
be “printed in letters of fire and put up against the sky to be read by every 
citizen daily so long as the war lasts.’’ 
.... 
“ AFTER nearly three years of refusal to take the European 
/y war and its lessons seriously,” Mr. Coffin said, “we sud¬ 
denly launched forth in a most feverish activity to save the 
country overnight. Patriotic organizations, almost without num¬ 
ber, are milling around noisily, and, while intentions are good, the 
results are often far from practical. Because of an impending 
and possible shortage of foodstuffs we have hysterical demands 
for economy in every line of human endeavor. IFaste is bad, but 
an undiscriminating economy is worse. 
“ GfOME States and municipalities are stopping road building 
^ and other public work. General business is being slowed 
down because of the emotional response of the trading public to 
these misguided campaigns for economy; savings are being with¬ 
drawn from the banks; reports show that some people have begun 
to hoard food supplies, and thousands of workers are being 
thrown needlessly out of employment. All this is wrong. Un¬ 
employment and closed factories, brought about by fitful and ill- 
advised campaigns for public and private economy, will prove a 
veritable foundation of quicksand for the serious work we have 
at hand. It is true that the President has said that this is a time to 
correct our habits of wastefulness. Certainly! But the keynote 
of his message to the people was this paragraph: 
“ ‘It is evident to every thinking man that our industries, on the 
farm, in the shipyards, in the mines, in the factories, must be made 
more prolific and more efficient.’ 
“T/TS'E need prosperity in war time even more than when we 
' " are at peace. Business depressions are always bad, but 
doubly so when we have a fight on our hands. The declaration of 
war can have no real evil effect on business. What bad effects are 
apparent are purely psychologic and largely of our own foolish 
making, for our markets are the same in April that they were in 
March. TVe need more business, not less. There is real danger 
m hysteria. Indiscriminate economy will be ruinous. Now is 
the time to open the throttle. 
