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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2955, 15 December 1916, Page 14

"We have got to double our national revenue and replenish the world with goods, find employment for our people, and raise the standard of living, to mention a few of the heads of the industrial problem," wrote _ Mr. Ernest J. P. Benn recently in discussing tlie coining trade war from the point of view of the British manufacturer. "Each one of these objects can be obtained only in one way—by making goods and selling them. The moro goods that are made and sold, the more quickly will we achieve our purpose. If we are to capture neutral markets, wo must make goods better and cheaper than the German or the American. If we are to hold old markets, we must give goods at least as attractive and as cheaj) as' those they previously obtained from Germany. "The whole problem is summed up in the one word 'Output.' The only people who know anything about output are the traders, the manufacturers, and the workmen, and yet strange to say these are the 'only people who are silent in these discussions. Peers, journalists, Lord Mayors, colonial Premiers, and other great people are busy telling us how we should act, but the men who have got to do tho job say nothing. Perhaps it is because they realise the futility of. these arguments on side issues. Tho problem is one of output, and the onlj people who can solve it are the traders themselves. It is simply a matter, of bills of lading and work tickets. The individualistic methods of the past have got to go. Wo have got to apply the munition method to our trade. The traders must be brought together and cacli industry so arranged that its output can bo multiplied to the required extent. AVo have got to think Imperially in trade matters ; we have got to give up senseless competition among ourselves in order to combine in competition against the Germans and tho Americans." Silent, But Busy. Tlie manufacturers of .tho United Kingdom, as Mr. Benn says, have not talked very much of what they are doing to maintain British trade to-day and prepare for the "war after tho war." But their present work speaks for itself, and enough' information is available regarding! their plans to show that their activity in preparing for the future is no less great than that of the Government Departments and official oigariisations that are labouring on their behalf. During the first two years of the war the British manufacturers exported goods valued at £830,000,000, a total above tho average of any other two years in the history of tho United Kingdom. They have maintained a great deal of their ordinary trade, actually extending it in some important directions, while at tlie same time producing munitions on a stupendous scale. Further, they have brought to hear upon, the problems of trade a new spirit of co-operation and mutual assistanco.i They are combining not merely to capture trade in tho markets of tlie world, but to secure, their raw materials on favourable terms, simplify their financial problems, and pursue scientific investigation. Federation of British Industries. - The now spirit is illustrated by the formation of the ;"Federation of British Industries." In Julj} last vepre-

sentatives of t'he British manufacturers gathered in London. The meeting was the most important ono of its kind ever held. The/men who were present represented not less than £500,000,001) of trading capital, and after discussion they decided to) form a Federation- of British Industries with the object of. promoting the co-opera-tion of manufacturers with labour, with the Government, and- with each other in support of their common interests and for the general good of the country. Only purely British firms were eligible for membership, and upwards of one hundred firms agreed to subscribe £1000 each at onco as a "preliminary guarantee" of their readiness to support the Federation. The now organisation thus starts its work with a capital of over £100,000. "In the generally representative and non-party character of the Federation, " says ono writer, "lies its peculiar fitness for the greatest of the tasks that confront it in the immediate future—co-operation with organised labour to reorganise and readjust the whole industrial machine of the country, in order to face and overcome the huge problems of the reconstruction period, and of tlie struggle ,for home and foreign markets; ... A satisfactory solution of the troublesome labour question, vrhich hinges upon the theory of the limitation of 'output, must be found by mutual consent)and concession if the future is to be .faced with any prospect of retaining and improving the industrial position of this country." Money and Research. The new organisations of manufacturers and traders aro showing their readiness to spend money and devote efforts to the furthering of scientific research and the training of skilled workers. They "are co-operating heartily, in many instances, with tlie Committee of the Privy Council for ftcicntifio and ludustrial Research, a body brought into existence by the Government, and containing business experts of th.e very highest standing. Such bodies as the British Engineers' Association are getting into touch with tlio universities and the technical colleges for purposes of research, and with the educational authorities in order to promote technical instruction among the young people, who will later become the nation's skilled workers. On every side in industrial Britain there is evidence of enterprise, farnseeing activity, and | a thorough-going determination to prosecute the trade with thebest of modern ideas and modern equipment.

A Survey of What Is Being Done. A glimpse at "what British manufacturers are doing to-day iu tho way of maintaining their export trade under war conditions is given br the "British Trade Journal," in surveying ihd export returns for the first seven months of 1910: "Of pig-iron wo have exported _so far. in 1916 about as much as in 1914. Wrought' iron exports are also as high as two years ago, China, South Africa, the Argentine, tho Bast Indies, Japan, Australia, 1 Now Zealand, ant! Chile buying freoly. Bridge, boiler, and other iron or steel plates are in great demand for France and Japan. In nails and rivets, tubes and pipes, anchors and chains, the quantities exported ai'e well maintained, while in steel bars and angles the shipments

liavo risen from 127,000 tons in tho seven mouths of 1914 to 406,000 ill tho samo period of tho present year. . . .

France, Russia, Spain, India, Ceylon, and Australia, contir.no to take fairly large quantities of general machinery, and South Africa ha 6 increased its purchases of mining machinery. Our exports are also reviving as regards sewingmachines for countries in Europe, South America, and Australia, and textile machinery is being shipped to 'France, South America, tho East Indies, Japan, the Netherlands, and Russia. Tlio great textile industries—cottons, woollens, flax and juteare also reviving, the total of cotton piece goods shiyped in the month being 471 million yards compared with 623 million yards in July, 1914.

If the British manufacturer can set that pace wniTe lis is giving tlio major part of _ his energy to tile production of munitions, lio will be a formidable competitor indeed when the war is over, and he can direct his efforts to tho securing of a second victory in the trade war.