SIR ALBERT STANLEY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3090, 22 May 1917, Page 7

SIR ALBERT STANLEY

THE "NEW BROOM" AT THE BOARD OF TRADE

BUSINESS EFFICIENCY AT WORK

Whitehall »nd Downinsr Street an elrew'n with cpbweb3 of "'Wait, and See' in consequence of tho advent of a. Gotejnment of Action (sa.va Mr. V. W. Wile in the "Daily Mail")- Nowhere has the new broom swept cleaner (hait in thai uncient citadel of dosnitoriness known as the Board of Trade. Across its hoars portals in Whitehall Gardens there is writ, to-day tho emblem, of EfEcioncy, (he cult of quick decision and prompt execution. Tn Sir Albert Stanley tho boanl has received a president who makes no claim to eminence except that of beinq a. business man who believes in business, loves business, and thinks that British business, efficiently shepherded by Government, is invincible. "Efficiency." That is the term which springs most naturally to the lips when you survey Sir Albert ,Stanley. ■ ' He eiudes.it with every word and Reslure. Hβ conveys another impression— of being a "big" man not only in stature, for he is a sood 6ft. in height snd i-traißht as a Guardsman, but in breadth of vision and grasp of what he calls his "fascinating job." Sir Albert lived in the United States until -ten years aso, though he is a Derbyshire man by birth and ancestry. As he has devoted his entire life to electric traction, his bearing may not be indecorously .described as that of a man known across the ocean as "a live wire." Obviously, too, to borrow a pother Edifonian metaphor, ho is filled to the brim with dynamic energy. It is fafo to prophesy that 'Whitehall Gardens will throb as never before when the Stanley- dynamo begins generating effioiency. kilowatts at top speed. Tho new President of the Board of Trade is Mr. Lloyd George's youngest Minister. Hβ will be 42 this year. Ho has the head and physiognomy of an actor. Sir Herbert Tree might have looked like him twenty years ago. Hardworking men in the United States grow bald and grey prematurely, and Sir Albert Stanley's dome-force testifies to the brain he expended in Huetledand. iHβ entered the field of electric, transportation when it was Tirgin Boil, even in tho United ' States, and helped to till it through every stajre of its progression. After organising and managing the tramways of the city of Detroit, Michigan, he was called to the genoral management of the Public Service electric railways of New Jersey. It was from that post that Sir Albert Stanley was summoned in 1907 to take charge of the traction situation in London. The present federation of tubes, omnibuses, and tramways wider one centralised control is his creation. ,

I believe I am right in Bayinp that Sir Albert looks upon the condition's confronting him in Whitehall Gardens as not dissimilar to those whioh he tackled successively, arid successfully, in Detroit, New Jersey, and London. Hβ looks upon the Board of Trade as a great institution whoso widely diversified interests need "fusing," just as the.tramway lines of Detroit and New Jersey and London required it. He regards tho Presidency of the Board essentially as a business mans portfolio and not an opportunity for speech-making in the House of Commons. Hβ' is busy on farsighted measures to root out the prewar hold of German industrial capital in such branches as the dye trade. Hβ sees no reason why German steal should over displace British, steel in. the United Kingdom. He is unconventional enough to think that there is little that Britons cannot produce for themselves. He wants every British trade and British trader, large or small, to look upon Whitehall Gardens as if it were a great banking institution, ready with sound counsel, keen interest, and paternal pride in the development of British, commerce. A Minister inspired by such enthusiasm for his "job" is a guarantee that the Department most concerned with Britain's economic well-being is at last in the right hands.