AN AMERICAN VIEW

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2955, 15 December 1916, Page 15

AN AMERICAN VIEW

THE WAR AFTER THE WAR BRITAIN'S TREMENDOUS ACTIVITIES The cfl'ect of the war. upon industrial Britain is described from an American point of viow by Mr. Isaac l f ._ Marcosson, in a lengthy article contributed to tho Now York "Saturday Evening Post." Mr. Marcosson is demanding that the people of tho United States sliould prepare themselves for the coming trade struggle, "the war after the war," and ho depicts in vigorous language the awakening of British industry under the stimulus of national danger, A Costly Maxim. "Thirty years ago England was the workshop of tho world," writes the American.; "From the Tyne to tlio Thames hor factories hummed with ceaseless industry. Her goods went wherever her ships steamed, and that meant the globe. Supremo in. her insularity—at once her defence arid licr undoing—she bccame infected with the virus of content. Her steel was the best steel; her wares led all -tlje rest-. 'Take it or leave it!' was her selling maxim. When - devices camo along that_ saved labour and increased production she refused to scrap tlio old to make way for' the new. Born, too, was the evil of restricted output. Moss began to grow on her vaunted industrial structure. England lagged in the trade procession. _ But as she lagged ' the ■ assimilative German streamed in through her hospitable door. _ _ He served his apprenticeship in British mills; took home the secrets and methods of British art and craft. He geared them to cheap labour, harnessed produce to masterful distribution, and became a World Power. Before long lie had annexed the dyo 1 trade; was competing with British steel; was making once-cherished British goods." The Awakening. Then camo tlio-waiv It took a year ! of war to fully awaken Britain to'tlie" neeus of ffie • new situation,' but the awakening, when it came, was a very thorough one. "Forty-eight hundred Governmentcontrolled factories, working day and night, are sending out a ceaseless flood of war supplies,"' says M.r Marconson. "The old . bars of restricted output' are Howiij tfie oIU. sex discrimination has faded away; Women are doing men's work, getting men's. pay,' making tiifiinselves useful and necessary, cogs in the productive machine. They will neither quit nor lose their cunning when peace comes. That quantity output of shot and Bhell for war. means quantity output of motors and many other products for peace. You may say that quantity output is a. matter of temperament and that the British nature cannot be adapted to it; but speeded-up munitions making has proved the contrary. The British/ workman lias learned to his profit that it pays to step lively. High' war wages have accustomed him to luxuries he never enjoyed before, and' he will not give them up. Unrestricted outputlias come to stay. A New "Speed Up" Policy. ; '-'Five years ago the efficiency expert was regarded! in England as an ,in« trader and a quack; to use a ' stopwatch on production was high crime and treason. To-day there are thousands of students of business science and factory management. In the spinning districts girls in clogs sit alongside their foreman listening to lectures on how to save time and energy in work. Scores of old establishments are being reborn productively. There is the case of a, famous clwcolate works that before the war rebuffed an instructor in factory reorganisation. Last year it saw tlio light, hired an

American expert; and to-c'lay the output Wis been increased by. 25 per cent. Tho infant industries; growing, out of the ineeds of war and tho aasiro of self-sufficiency, are. resftng ' oca tho foundations of'the now -creed. 'Speed lip!' is the industrial cry, and. -vvitli it goes a wiioTo new scheme of national industrial education

"TGirmerly in Englanil tho standardisation'of plan and product was almost unluiown. l?or exampte, no matter how closely ships resembled each other in tonnage, structure, or -design, a separate drawing ;was made for each. Now on the' Clyde tho same specifications serve for twenty vessels. England has gone into wholesale production; and what.is truo of ships in the stress r/t 'Hungry war demand will be true -of scores of articles for trade afterward. The old rule-of-thumb traditions that hampered expansion have gone Standardisation., "Topical 'of the now. met/hods is, tho standardisation of exports, which have increased dnring the past year. In a room of. tho jbuilding ofVj&ho Board of Trade, down in Whitehall, and where tho ■ 'whole trader,, strategy of the war is worked out, I saw a ■ significant diagram, streaked with purple and .red lines, which showed the way it is done. Tho purplo indicated the rosters of tlio great-indus-tries; the red, tho number of men recruited iyoin; tli&n for / military service. No matter how tho battle-lines yearn for men, the-workers in the factories that send goods across the sea, are kept at their task. This diagram is the barometer. For exports keep up the Tate ot exchange and husband gold. . "England ia' creating a wliolo new lino of industrial dofence. The manufacture of dysstuffs will illustrate: This process, which originated in England, was peamitted to pass ■to the Germans, who practically got a world monopoly in it. Now England is determined that this-and similar dependence must cease. For dye-making she l'.as establi'slied a systematic co-opera-tion among State, education, and, and trado. la the University of Leeds a department in colour chemistry and dyeing has been established, to make researches ..and to give special facilities to firms entering the industry, all m.the national interest. A liuge, subsidised mother concern, . known as British _ Limited, has been, formed, and it will take the place of the great dyo trust of Germany, in which' the Government was. n partner. This procedure is being repeated in tlie I launching of an optical-glass industry; < this trade has also been in Teutonic .hands. • I coiiM cite many other instances, but these will show the new spirit of British commercial enterprise A Whip Hanti. "Everywhere nationalisation is the keynote of trade activity. Coal furnishes an instance: The collieries of the Kingdom-not only stoke the fires 'of myriad furnaces, hut drive the ships: of a mighty marine. Through lier control of coal, England has one whip hand over her Allies, for many of the French mines are in the occupied districts, and Italy's supply irom Germany has stopped. Goal means life in war or peace. Now England proposes a State control of coal, similar to that of the railroads. It means fresh power over tho neutral - shipping that coals at British ports. If the Government _ controls the coal it Mall bo in a position to stipulate the use that the_ consumer shall make. of it, 'and require him to call for his return cargo at specified ports. Such supervision, in war may mean similar domination in peace—another bulwark for British control of the sea." ' The American writer refers in detail to the far-reaching activities of the British Board of Trade, the proposed establishment of a British Trade Bank, ■ the formation of a Latin-American Chamber of Commerce in London: Tlie constitution of a British and - Italian corporation, and the linking up of British manufacturers and merchants in fighting organisations. He indicates plainly his belief that the new England is going to bo a tremendously important factor in the trade war.