BRITISH OPTIMIST.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3406, 10 February 1920, Page 7

BRITISH OPTIMIST.

U.S. COBIPETITION N(_)'l‘ TO BE FEAREI). ‘ ‘AV l¢}Rl‘(‘AN>‘. ‘PI;-\i\' la) - _'Gl{ l£.»\’l‘Eß CAUSE FOR UNEASINESS.” i Amid all the pessimistic talk rela-I ting to the industrial and comnierrsiul outlook of Britain, it is ret‘reshin-g to come across someone who takes a cheerful view of the position. Mr E. Mackay Edgar, head of the e.it_V house of Sperling and Co, has known the United States intimately for 3. quarter of a. century, land has Very little fear of American competition. ‘fTa.ke,” he says, “this question of the American exchange. It. looks a very bad thing for us when the pound is only worth about seventeen shillings in New York. and in a way it is‘. But it. is very much worse for the Americans. It means that we cannot 'zi£t”ortl to purchase in the Uilit.e<‘. States, that we will buy anywhere except there. America wants to export all she can. She is loaded with goods and products, the joutput of which has been enormouslj,~' 'stimulated by the war. She has paid lextravagant can-d utterly mTs.°couonnic {wages to produce. tlreui, anal she has done so in the ezzpectutioit that Europe would have to purchase them at a.n__v figure. But the European (lemand is falling off. She must either sell at 21 loss or cut clown production. We talk EL lot here about the demands of lal_)our. We gru'mb'le at the high cost of living, but our difficulties in that :'espe<:t are nothing to Auierictfis. Everything tliei-e—pl-oduction, prices, Wages-—llas reached such :1 sl~:y—high level that the <’ll'Op when it eomes——and it. will come —will be nothing less than a crash. I often hear-.d it debated across the Atlantic whether New York wusggoing to become,tlie finaiicizil centre of the World. I am confident that it will be g at Very long while bet.'ore the

SUI’REI\IACY OF I'.OI\”DON IS SHAKEN.

London to-(lay as predC«min':mtlyi the centre. and clearing house of international trade and finance as ever She was. Moreover you can get '3. safe 8 per Cent almost. a.ny'where you like in America. It is still a country in the making, with a huge margin for (levelopment and boundless opportunities. Why should. an Arnerican iiivestor forsake the 8 per cent, bacl'{‘ed by securities with which he is familiar and on which he can keep an eye, in onder to put his money into some foreign enterprise at a greater risk and with -.1 lower return? Or take, again, shipping I do not fear Arneriean competition. Why not? In the lirst place because their yards cannot turn our, and will not be able for :1 long while, to turn out, the special ships for speci'.ll trades which are the backbone of the Britislr mercantile rfiarine. Hecomlly, because their costs of construction are very far ahead of ours. Thirdly because their expenses in operating‘ a ship are also at least 30 per cent heavier than 01.1r5.l Fourthly, because they have nct even the beginning of that wontlert‘ul network of shipping agencies which our own people have built up round the world. Fifthly, because a mercantile nlarine, whichxis a necessity ‘to us is a. luxury to them. Sixthly, because the instinct of the sea has been very greatly impaired on the other side of the Atlantic and because the ordinary American can always get a better-paid and more congenial job on.land. Ten years from now we shall have won back all that the war has t'ol'eed us to ‘yield, and American shipowners will be very gladly transferring their vessels to the British I‘egister_ l\'or, again, am I greatly disturbed by .»\lnerica ’s BURS’I‘ INTO IN"l‘l:lßi\"ATlOl\'AL COMMERCE.

It has been the product of the war, and it may not long out live it. Her domestic market of 110,000,000 people is so secure and so ample and the demands -that. her natural growth must make on her bankers Hiillitl manufacturers are going‘ to be so prodigious that a decade hence the smaller profits and longer credits of international ‘trade will have little |a.ttraction for her people. But I have another and strovnger reason for not being alarmed. by the prospect that lies before Great Britain. it is that predominance which Anierieu enjoys by reason of her cominaml of vast natural resources is a 1-avidly wasting asset. Excessive and improvident exploitation, the growth of the country, and the high consuming power of the people are using up her Supplies astonishing rate. The developed stocks of those metals and ininerals which represent the real key industry either lie in the British Empire, or are very largely controlled by British capital. Before very long .a\lnerie:l will lrave to come to us for oil, eopper, and I)(‘l'lH.l]il~_‘ the ironore she needs, ;in.~‘t as she has come to us for wool. That, is why the removal of the Treasury I'eslricli()lls on the export of British capital €ll'll'O'llll i-' E 0 enormously important. It gives us‘ a chance to consolidate our-‘posit-Emu and to keep in our liands the Contrxi of these essential r:.iw 'lnaterila.~‘~. '.l‘r)-" and look ahead ten I}‘! fifteeii yeIH'S. and you will see that it he Americans, ‘and not ourselves who have

the greater C'flLlS;_l for uneasiness. What seems to me to be clearly marked out is -.1 working alliance between British experience and American capital in the development of these ko)’ pos'lti(ms.”