DEFEAT THE FRUIT OF VICTORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1916, Page 6

DEFEAT THE FRUIT OF VICTORY.

p::ain words to British Manufacturers. GERMANY'S HOPES. f®y Manfied E. Manuel). We are a peculiar people. We have generally shown ourselves utterly unable to tackle any problem without adopting a sprits of party eries which became shibboleth?, rtnd to-day, in the midst of a struggle in which we have shown ourselves singularly united, the same phenomenon pres-nts itself in our discussions of what is to be our trade policy when peace succeeds war. "Never again" is the latest catch-word--never again will we, in our after-the-war trade policy I permit Germany to flood our market.--, never again will we allow our ct.mtre-eial positions to be stormed by the subsidised attack of the Huh manufacturer, never again. This is typically the case-of the busi-ness-like agenda for the coming meeting i f the Association ,-f Chambers of Commerce, a summary, of which has appeared in the London Daily Express. In h.is. hi.we »r. there is'a ray of sunshine—three resolutions addressed not it, the authorities, but directly to the manufacturer of fireat Britain, The first, submitted by. the Norwich chamber, and to be moved on behalf of the executive '-committee of the association, places on record for the benefit of future generations that this war has viown that the national strength in times of peri l lies in the power' of prediction rathe' than in the poss 4 -- sion of exchange values Not only in time of peril, but. at all times! The other day resolutions, submitted by the Birmingham and Newcastle chambers, urged the adoption of flic decimal system o; coinage and metric wei«hN and measures. 'As to the rest, they r.ge the Government to do this—to inquire into that—etc., etc. It S eems to me, however, a business man with experience of conditions at home and abroad, that we need less of the political and more of the commercial, fewer "f the smooth-sounding phrases and more of the liusmof - methods.

In 4ni rt, flip ful'iro commercial supremacy of England lies in tli<! hands of the menufaot.urers far more than in those of the p' liticians. All the laws and regula iions in tiro world will not maintain onr U'ade position .unless the English manufacturer tackles tile post-war problem! from e, completely different standpoint from that which lie has adopted in the past. Of what use. I ask, : will he all the victories on land arid sen, all tine sacrifices -f money, all the flowing of the nation 5 life-blood in the cjiuse'of liberty, if that liberty is to be jeopardised twentr years hence by the unbusinesslike nr i|s of tin' English miiaufaetur<i" l< irow, by jiis inability to grasp the 11;,( ir!,unity, by the return of the employer and the employee to the antiquated methods of pre-war days? ; Germany has foreseen the possibility. T>'\ l-["llTerich, the. Imperial Secretary of Finance, has twice made a statement :>hich nas not been understood in Eng. iuid by many and which has Ven smiled at by tho-" few who grasped its .••"anii'.g ''We Hermans can strfhd it f we become pocrer, as we remain

'.vliiit we are," he said, "but. if England becomes impoverished that would ""an 'fiinis Britamiiae.'" What did Helfi'ericll mean? The answer is simple: England's power is her

•'•cumulated ive r ,!i!i' Germany's wealth is hcv power of production.. If England spends her wealth she will have nothing, wlr.'reiis Germany will still have I.IT bus'-nesi 'ability, her technical traimns, and her commercial skill to rebuild the industries, even as she built them up in the 1.-.st- twenty years."

The Germans' 'commercial qualities were once described by a famous Hun economist in the following words:— "Love of industry, order, and thrift, perseverance fnd endurance in research and bn-iness, ard honest striving aftei imnrWiient.''

"England will have nothing." says Hell!', rich . . . unless the English man'.i fhctnrcr rises to ihe occasion and shows a similar power to produce, r simil.r. ability to Seize the opportunities, a similar v.i'l to succeed. If not. Helfi'eiii h will hj; right, and defeat will be th" fruit of victory.

The Government can help, of course, and chiefly in the direction of an improved consular so-;-ice to inform the manufacturer at h 'ine of what is required iii the fi.rngn markets; the banks can assist materially by granting iinvre facilities for .financially sunporling industry and commerce; the working classes can p'.av their part in the flit .ire trade v. nr. even as they are doing their best at the moment. In what, then, have (lie English manufacturer? methods been at. fault? In what have til.'. Germans 'hr>e:i successful? It will only be - .necessary, generally speaking, to answer the first question, and this reply r-ify be summed up in one sentence: The English manufacturer has ff.ilen und'-r li e e"r tt " of success—the success of his areeEt?rs.

He thrived in the past because he could not help it, because England had (he mastery of the seas and the greatest mercantile flee!, and because he had no cou.riercial cnupctiter. But he has sh'own himself singularly inept in mett" ing modern 0] position in which it must be admitted ho-has received little assistance eitlie •, l\o:rt the Government or til.' backs.

Th. l manufacturer appears to have oieriookei ii.e f;u.-t that other markets requii<- different goods from the hum" 1113,1 koi--di.U'cro)it, say, in shape or form, texture and quality. TTe makes the article that was made by his grandma I her. Tt was good enough then, and it must be good enough now. Ho tries ! 1 live on (he hereditary independence which is a legacy of bygone prosperous days.

He invoices Ms poods in an obsolete manner and in a way very often unintelligible to the foreign buyer, and—prcato?r error of all—lie runs not even tlie si i:;l; tost commercial risk, and never sets a syrat to a mackerel. Thi> I can a typical ease which happened within n;y own knowledge.■ A certain article was required by a London manufacturer's agent. He wrote to both an Knglwh and a (iernian maker. The former stated that tlie mould would cost £5, and that unless a certain quantity was stipulated he could not accept the order. Then there was the usual question of charges for the cases and the packing. The German maker, however, divided the in'tial outlay on the mould over a rca'uiable quantity of goods and quoted, in t'be instance I recall, 3s 9d. a dozen for 5(10 dozen, fifty dozen in a case, case and packing free. His initial profit ;ras small, but on the, recpat orders, on r.liicli every manufacturer should look, le made that £5 extra on every 500 |o"?n, equal to an additional profit of

ir.ore than 5 per cent. Need you ask who got the order? There was recently published an offi--inl list of "key" industries—industries with which the commercial structure could not exist—And .what struck me in particular aboht this list was the fact that it eoni.pris'!:! a large proportion of trades in which sixpenny and, to a loss extent, of course, shilling articles formed the chief output—that is, goods which are sold in the shops at Gd and

In this field of trade in particular the English manufacturer has shown a depressing shortsightedness. No maker can turn out better. goods than the Knglish, but it is not every market that requires expensive articles, and the Merman manufacturer has, by dint of sheer hard work, commercial training for the young, and systematic business methods, captured just that cheap goods market in England, the colonies and the American continent.

. It is this war, moreover, which gives the English manufacturer his last chance of throwing off the fateful inertia which lias characterised his methods of the last twenty , or thirty years, and wliich the German manufacturer has turned so successfully to adva.ii.i"during that period. The war sliouh. prove a blessing, for it has shown the manufacturer how articles can be made on a large scale, and how they can be turned out rapidly and cheaply.

Let him turn the lesson to account, let him grasp the golden opportunity to secure the markets of the world 'by manufacturing what these markets require, and by packing and invoicing them, not in the manner of his forefathers but in accordance with the requirements of the moment. We were once rightly accused of "killing Kruger with our mouths"—do not let. us try to strangle German trade in the same risky fashion. We have learned our military and naval tasks. I.et us re-learn those of commerce also, so that the new conditions which will arise from the blood of our warriors shall be a lasting memorial to their grand efl'orts, a new England, supreme in trade as she is on the high seas.