The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1919. GERMAN TRADING COMPETITION.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 September 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1919. GERMAN TRADING COMPETITION.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post: and Waimarino News.”

Trade relationships between Britain and Germany were resumed on the first of this month, and what transpired on the first day in England constitutes an object lesson British traders and people cannot afford to neglect. Everywhere in London, the cablegram states, Germans were rushing the re-opened door with greatest zest and civility. Newspapers are advertising astonishingly low prices and promises of immediate delivery. The German sellers are themselves pointing out the further advantage to buyers of the low rate of German exchange 'and cheap production. Germany- is 9. 'defé‘a'te‘d nation; it has suffered from a’ well-maintained blockade during thegreater part"‘of the war period,’ and raw‘ material has only been procurable with the greatest difficulty and at the highest cost, and yet German coniinereial ‘travellers, by their presence, Samples of merchandise, and promise of immediate delivery, doiuonstrate a fact which‘ must prove somewhat depressing to British people in all parts of the World_ Whether the feat of industfial production has been performed by Germany, or any other people in similar circumstances, it .is an achievement to marvel at and to admire. That aspect which concerns people throughout the British Empire most is to know how Germans have been able to prosecute their ordinary industries while their country has been blockaded; while their powers of offense, defence and endurance have been strained against the o\'erwhellning armies of the Allies; while Bolshevism, Sparticism, revolution and counter—revolution have racked society; while kings have fallen and the heads of Republics have been raised, and political dissension has .been general everywhere from east to west. VVlly Germans have been able to accomplish so much under defeat in War, revolution and blockade, while Britain has not yet recovered from .the shock of war sufliciently to place any of her industries on anything approaching a stable basis, is a question that will exercise the minds of most British people. Britain and her Allies have never lost control of the sea, therefore it would be surpri:-ing if they were not able to supply Germany with consignments of food, and a limited quantity of raw material, which is all Germans could liave hoped for, and yet, in a nmrvellouslv short space of time, German traders are practically laying seige to the trade of Britain, offering their goods at, in some instances, hundreds per cent. below what British traders are charging for an article of equal value. ‘Engineering supplies are quoted at about half the price of British; German C‘lll'istnlas goods are being»; bought up by English shopkeepers. the prices being irrcsist.ible. British textile manul‘n.cturers are assailed, they complain that they are tremendously 112111dicapped owing to the extreme cheapness and higli quality of German dyes; but surely they cannot claim that the difference in cost of dye in a yzu-<l or‘ cloth makes it two hundred per cent. more costly to produce than German cloth. German textile industries have been starved for want of wooland cotton, while, although cot?ion has been in short supply in Britain wool has at all times been plentiful, and the supply at this time largely exceeds the Home demand. It has been said, with some show of probability. that the calamitous condition of British industries is attx-ibutable to ill-conceived methods of apportioning profits. While British manufacturers increase their earnings by levying liigh percentages of profits and thus kecping down demand, Germans increase their incomes by a small profit on.as large an output as they can CHSDOSC 0f by Well-organised systems of Inal'keting..v,,~The result is that the Ollfllut of Br.iti,sh» factories is positively

[puny in comparision with the output .of similar factories in Gcrmany_ The ‘Federation of British manufacturers is perplexed and astounded at the nature ‘of the German commercial invasion, ‘and the [various trade sections are lmceting to discuss the situation, The ‘prevailing opinion is that largely ingereased protective duties will have to ‘be placed on importations, but it is .apparent that no duty that would illlakc UP the difference between Gerlman and British prices would be tol'erated by the people. It is also apparent that the higher the duty levied ithe higher lllllSt the cost of living, ’and sequentially the higher the cost lot production. Take the one article quoted in the cablcgram, the same {quality of piano British-makers charge; £135 for, the German's are Offering‘ at £3O and are guaranteeing imme-} diate delivery. No protective duty 13: ‘possible even that would bridge the! |difference in such prices; and‘ what imust be recognised is that no possible} pdifference in cost of ‘labour and‘ [material combined can ever explain] }such a difference in completed value. ‘But suppose British and American »Governments did attempt_the imposiition of duties that would bring the iGerman piano and other commodi-« ties up to what British and American manufacturers ‘felt inclined to charge for theirs, it is not believable that British and American t-rade in the protected articles would extend one mile beyond the. shores of those two countries. There is a spirit. of determination Dervading all British dominions to have inditcc-ct taxation abolished as far as it is possible, and it may be at Once realised that New Zealand people would n!.*.\*er agree to any duty that forced then: to pay £135 to a British manufacturer for that which they can . buy f‘or.l German makers for £3O. It seems that there is no loophole of escape from the contention that the British system rests upon high prices on limited output, while Germans increase. their volume of income by a minimum‘ safe basis of"profit that will ensure an ever-increasing output_ Which system is right and nai:-.iral was amply demonstrated over _the greater part of the world «before the war. Internationally, no_ people charging high profits can buildup’ "any exporting traicle, for no British Dominion’ people" will ever pay five times as much for a reel of cotton as "they canpui-chase it 101‘ from Germany, simply’ to allow 'D:itish cotton spinners to beeome‘m.illz-;.n-1 aires. Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic races have developed their systems oil commercialism on divergent lines, tllcl essence -of one is to limit output by giving the least for the highest price; the other secures a world-wide demand. and maximum output by exacting ta-. lowest safe return for-the cost involv-I ed. The Teutonic system has enablcdi German traders to attack the otherl system at its .<.ola.r plexus, and consteipiatioii is spread over - all British! trade, _so much so "that hurried conferences are being held throughout the i lan_d_ British trading methods havei brought British leaders of industry‘ face to face with.appal-out ruin, andi they are, it‘ is said, appealing to Gov-I ernment to save them with increased‘ customs duties. Henry Ford’s words! are food for thought at this impasse; | he said, “if I cannot produce motor} Cars and sell them at as low a. price] as manufacturers in any other country I am in the wrong line of business and 1 I will quit it.’—’ Henry Ford, in these words plainly tells the world that not system of protection can compensate for the power to produce at. a lower cost, and, incidentally, he says that markets will revert to the possession of those who can sell on the‘ most at~i tractive forms and prices. The value of what this Dominion produces will! be determined by European demand; farmers can get no protective duty on rln-Er products that will help them. thorei”:orc it cannot be expected that they will consent, as their values go clown. to pay protective duties on What they purchase merely to mechan--501111)’ keep a. certain number of men in business. A%{lglo—Saxons must be willing); and able to produce and manul"ar:tul‘c as cheaply as other civilised‘ races, if they will not, or cannot, there l can be but one result. Too much imhortance cannot be" _g:iVoll to the Labour Covenants of the Peace Treaty. as they provide for a 10V011iT1§i UD Of Labour in all those countrie.sn Wliere labour has been inhumanly un-' (l4‘Daid and provided for. Civilisation} is hold back by such peoples, and it! is stated that an unfair. if not dishon-, est use has been made of those buck-I “"“"‘l Paces by more civilised traders} establishing their factories amongst them. where labour is shamefully underpaid. Be -that true or false it has defillitely and overwhelmingly been impressed upon British masters of industry that British trading preeminence must become a thing of the Dllsl’ unless a sane!‘ level of profits is adopted. a level that will operate towards the highest attainable "olllme of output. Germany has shown‘ the British people that the high cost Of living is largely the result of ext°l'tiollafe profits, profits that can no 1011881‘. in face of Teutonic competition, be maintained.