WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 October 1929, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

MASS, PRODUCTION. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, October 15. % The United States and massed production go together, for it is impossible to think of one without associating the other with it. American economic organisations spend more -than ,£4Q millions per annum on applied science, and research. Qjie-Ahird .of thip sum is contributed by the, Government, Sind the other two-thirds are raised by the industries concerned'. ( Firms such, as the United Steel Corporation, General Electric Company,. U.S, Rubber, Company spend annually . many millions on industrial research .yyork,. and the .General Motors Corporation has a building

with an area of 25,000 square feet,., with eleven floors, solely- devoted to ' industrial and scientific; work in connection with the question of mass production. It is sqid.- that for every inhabitant of the United States to-day ' ten machines slave, yet in Europe.,they are afraid that with the increase of massrproduction mankind would be en--7 slaved ;to machinery. Mass (production in the' .United States , has become possible only' en ac| count; of there being a demand for it under/ present livipg conditions, and has become intensified by tbe nhture otf mass production.'. High wpfees : . in the ■ United iStgtes -are practicable only because production itself is high. Not only the employers, but also the ✓ representatives of the employees, the •trade unions, officially declared that high wages are not only useless without mass production, but are dangerous on account of the consequent 'rise in prices, which only produce’s a vicious circle. The business man working under' modern; scientific business principles has realised that the' highest composite profits are obtained from each gain however, small,; and that adequate wages have a favourable effect on sales. Only as a result of mass production lias it been possible to pay higher wages VVhich , have contributed to the increase! in the ptlrchasjj; ing power of the masses, thtis enabling, the corresponding:.sales in or mass consumpfipii,-..,; ;,'j \ There some'-truth in the .contenT' tion that, the Agierjpan .as; much ofj ' a type as the goods he is buying ;'he is * like them in waste, and requirements. But when; more ; gOo'dS "ore perpetually produced 1 the point of-over-production-must sooner or later be reached, sales must fall off an'd-the'danger otf unemr ployment make, its\appearance. That, danger has. not«yet. been reachedj Today goods . are, , consumed in America totally unknown.,' a slmrt time ago*- orconsidered a luxury. New methods arise continually. • • " "• The standards of life among all classes are improving, and also the joy of. life and life’s happiness, in short the poverty line is steadily receding, One in six of America’s population owns a motorcar, rind there is a tele-phone-in every other house. When, these blessings,, begin to overflow, then America will have to consider the question Of exporting a. certain part of its over production. It is then that the American business world will realise that it is necessary to modify its tariffs to enable Europe and the rest off the world to sell more to her so tha't she in turn may sell more to them. On the'other hand Europe, which is : going along the same way as America, only a little more slowly, will find that the need to effect sales brings in a rude contact with'tariff walls, which are always becoming more formidable. Thus, as one writer remarks, the United States of Europe may one day in the future become an economic fact. It may be that the world will then have three great economic territories: United Europe, Pan-America and the Pan-British World Empire. And when these three great states come into being they will’ have to unite with each other in order to exist. They will thus bring about the Economic Pan-World, an organisation economically united and with perfect harmony one with the other, the best guarantee against war. Behind, the high tariff walls United Europe cannot expect to flourish. Trade is not war but an exchange of goods. In peace the neighbours of a country are just as important as its internal market, and the prosperity of the world’s economic system depends on the flourishing condition of different countries. Mass production needs no tariff walls.