Texas Business Review, Volume 16, Issue 4, May 1942 Page: 5
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TEXAS BUSINESS REVIEW S
period of time, and manifested in rigid control features,
by cartels or other organized methods, have to be seen
as institutional factors of the negative sort, bent upon the
maintenance of scarcity. It may be surprising to con-
sider the maintenance of scarcity through such organized
means as cartels as a manifestation of the institutional
factor of price economy. The philosophy of scarcity
stems from the limited concepts of the Middle Ages. But
the modern world cannot be circumscribed by the narrow
knowledge-range of even the 18th century; the world of
the 20th century is a function of the growth of science
and the problems engendered by the application of a
continuously evolving science to the ever-widening utili-
zation of natural resources on a world-wide scale.
Seen in the time perspective, the dynamics of science
and technology in association with the evolution of what
is ordinarily regarded as chemical industries constitutes
one of the most magnificent chapters in human history;
this perspective is one of the indispensable factors re-
quired in appraising the potentialities of the chemical
industry in Texas. For it must be realized that we are
face to face with new problems, whose solution requires
considerably more than the application of conventional
methods. The frontier of today consists not in the sub.-
jugation of new lands but in a comprehension of the new
problems and the mastery of new technologies for deal.-
ing with these problems. The new frontiers of knowl-
edge are no less fascinating than the western frontier of a
century ago. And in a broader, in a more fundamental
sense, the historical development of an industry is more
than a mere listing of gadgets as they have appeared on
the industrial stage and a compilation of production
data; basically, the study of the growth of industry
belongs to the field of social institutions, in which supply
and demand curves and price data tell us little of what
the fundamental factors of the industry really are.
There is, however, another phase of industry study
which also has been too much smothered by the con-
ventional though superficial methods that pass for in-
dustry analyses. This phase is concerned with funda-
mental features of the natural resources utilized and the
technologies employed in utilizing natural resources in
modern industry.
Natural resources are earth materials, and as such the
investigation of their characteristics and properties has
been carried out in the natural sciences. To attempt to
analyze or evaluate natural resources without the knowl-
edge and methods embodied in the natural sciences and
the use of the scientific method is of course an impossi-
bility; such superficialities obviously cannot contribute
to progress, and they are likely to delay or retard.
A similar line of reasoning is obviously applicable
to analyses and evaluations of technologies, for these
likewise are based primarily upon the natural sciences.
The social scientists have in general taken for granted
both natural resources and technology, and the field of
raw materials as well, except for a type of price studiesof the latter. Social scientists, such as Veblen, for
instance, primarily concerned with the evolution of
institutions have clearly seen certain phases of the
natural resources picture and of technology because of
the force of impact of these subjects upon modern
economic trends. To such institutional economists must
go credit for calling for a more complete evaluation
of the place of natural resources and technology in
social development. But even the institutional eco-
nomist is in no position to analyze or evaluate the funda-
mental factors inherent to natural resources and tech-
nology, unless he has the adequate scientific ground-
work and is willing to use the scientific method; and
when he attempts to deal with natural resources and
technology without a scientific background he neces-
sarily relies upon opinion rather than science. Reliance
on opinion inevitably means reliance on biases of one
sort or another rather than upon an objective point of
view, the aim of which is truth and comprehensive
understanding. Even the institutional economists have
failed generally to recognize that' science, itself is an
institutional factor and that the drama of the growth of
the sciences is part and parcel of institutional and social
development. In today's world a lack of knowledge
of .the natural sciences and a lack of appreciation of
their place in modern society is nothing less than
tragedy.
One aspect of the tragedy is, and it is rather obvious,
that the use of unscientific methods in dealing with
science or the fields for which science only provides
the background must result in confusion and waste
motion. The other aspect is that scientific studies and
analyses of natural resources and technology not only
contribute to a comprehensive understanding of these
fundamental factors as related to industry, per se, but
also that such studies provide in themselves magnificient
opportunities for an understanding of the "particular
go" of things in today's world. Without such studies we
are like fishes with poor eyesight becoming adjusted
to the darkness of underground caves. Furthermore,
the full-fledged use of the scientific method in the social
sciences is still to be realized.
Fortunately, we have available the results of scientific
investigations which give a comprehensive view of
natural resources and of technology, and the great in-
vestigators in these fields have always been concerned
with the vital consequences of their scientific knowledge
as it pertains to human welfare. Unfortunately, many
of the results of these scientific investigations have not
yet reached the text-book stage. Moreover, we have only
begun to appreciate, for instance, the vital significance
of contributions made by the great body of American
scientists, and of what these contributions mean to the
American people and the American way of life. Per-
haps the stress of emergency and crisis will aid in
crystallizing -some of these bigger concepts in such a
manner that henceforth they cannot be pushed aside or
relegated to inconspicuous places. Every period hasTEXAS BUSINESS REVIEW
s
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University of Texas. Bureau of Business Research. Texas Business Review, Volume 16, Issue 4, May 1942, periodical, May 1942; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1204006/m1/5/?q=+date%3A1941-1945: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.