AWAKENING OF THE ENGLISH MANUFACTURER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9551, 26 July 1909, Page 7

AWAKENING OF THE ENGLISH MANUFACTURER.

THE CRY FOR PROTECTION. *■ How strong the demand of the English manufacturers has grown for protection against the crushing competition of foreign rivals in the home market is shown in the results of an interesting inquiry which the London "Daily Express" began six \ months ago, and has now completed Seven thousand firms engaged »n about 40 important industries were invited to reply to the following questions:—"lf the Government, bv an order in council, imposed an ad I valorem auty of 10 per cent on imported manufactured goods, and parts | in your line of manufacture, do you i think your trade would be increased thereby? How many extra hands do you estimate you would be enabled to emplo.y What you estimate your weekly wagebill would be increased by?" A large proportion of the manufacturers sanctioned publication of their names. For trade reasons many others were unwilling that their identity should be known and in many cases their statements are given under the numbers of the forms which they filled in. The inqury bears evidence of having been conducted in an impartial manner, on lines suggested by the methods of the Tariff Commission and of its imitator hi such investigations/2 the Board of Trade. Those who have read the series of reports issued by the Tariff Commission will have been prepared for the replies given to the "Express," and it will, perhaps, be said, that this jouralistic inquiry was superfluous. But the history oc the six years' tariff controversy in Great Britain, and especially the arguments used, by the representatives of labour, prove the necessity of emphasising obvious facts again and again as a preparation for decisive action on the question. The comments and estimates supplied by the leading firms engaged in electrical manufactures are very striking. In recent years there has been a heavy decline in the exports of this industry. Foreign firms are simultaneously securing a large share of the home trade. In the five years from 1903 to 1908 their imports into this country increased from £876,000 to £1,26,375. To the suggestion that there should be an ad valorem of 10 per cent on imported electrical goods, 78 British firm sent replies. Of these 48 were favourable, 21 evasive, and only 9 unfavourable. On the basis of the return as a whole it is estimated that the duty would result in an addition of 74,060 workers to the total number now employed in the industry, and a distribution of £119,600 per week in extra wages. From the motor and cycle trades 60 replies were received, comprising 38 favourable, 10 evasive, and 12 unfavourable. In this case the introduction of tariff reform would, it is calculated, provide work for 40,320 additional hands, and increase the sum paid in weskiy wages by £61,488. "We should not be disappointed," saya one firm of motor cycle and machine ,toolmakers, "if our increase in trade were not at least six times as much in three years'time should a duty be imposed." This Swift Cycle Company states that it could spend £BOO a week more in wages if relieved from severe pressure of French, German and Belgian competition. Similar calcualtions are made by Messrs S. F. Edge, Limited, De Dion Bouton Limted, and the Sturmey Motor Company. In some cases, however, it is suggested that the duty would have to be 15 or 20 per cent at least on private motors. The English silk industry, once by far the greatest industry of its kind in Europe, is being reduced almost to extinction by free-trade. Last year the value of its exports did not reach £1,700,000. In 1861, before Cobden arranged his comercial treaty with France, 116.300 workers were engaged in British silk manufacturing; according to the latest return the number is now only about 34,000. Foreign imports of silk into the United Kingdom last year were valued at £12.536,224. On the basis of the estimates supplied to the "Express" it appears that at 10 per cent duty would result in employent being provided for 11,780 hands in the home silk industry, and an addition of not less than £11,024 to the wages paid. The figure for other industries covered by the inquiry have yet to be published.