BUSINESS BRAINS TO WIN THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3149, 30 July 1917, Page 6

BUSINESS BRAINS TO WIN THE WAR

ABLE MEN WHO ARE HELPING THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT

PERSONAL GLIMPSES

(By "T" in tlio "Daily Mail.")

Mr. Bonar Law recently astonished people by his statements us to tho number of business men now assisting tlio Government. He claimed fcr tho Ministry of Munitions, for instance, that it comprised "a body of business men more competent, I believe, than is to be found in any industrial undertaking in this country." Tho Clothing Dcp.irtaijnt of the War Office has now assisting it "something like 100 men who were in business before," he said further. And again, "The War Office' have had helping them, and have helping them to-day, men who could not be bought by any salary the House of Commons could possibly give them."

Only one or two rnmes were mentioned by Mr. Bonar Law, but the business men of Push and Go either in the Government or working in Government Departments have grown to be so numerous that a, bare list of them would fill a column. They are a great company! One reads the names of men who have greatly dared and wen through while working for themselves in industrial undertakings and commercial enterprises of a magnitude from which many shrank appalled. Now th*y are dariig and doing for* England. They have bridged and tunnelled, bored and built from China, to Pern; created great railway systems;' founded great businesses; controlled great combines; and all their consummate skill, knowledge, and energy is now directed upon the machine of State, and is getting from it an output and an efficiency which is staggering to those acquainted with (he old, slow, slack, easy-going methods. Men'who have Saved Millions. Some of them were alreidy familiar to the public before they tooi: oflic";; others were known as names; not a few wero c-uite unknown outside their particular business circles. How many o°ople for instance, know anything ot Mr. Andrew Weir, the canny Scot from tho'"lang toon of Kirkcaldy," who :s now Surveyor-General of Supply at the War Office? He is the head of a firm ot Glasgow shipowners, 'i'hey know him on the Clyde, of 'course, but even there they do not know much regarding his persmalitv; yet now he is a member of the \rmv Council, and by his shrewd business'methods is helping to save the country iCI.WIO.OfIO a week, It is reported. Tho Chancellor of the Exchequer has at his right hand as Financial Secretary of the Treasury Sir Samuel Hardmaii Lever To tho consternation ot politicians,' ho is not an M.P.-there was a debate about it in the House of Commons the other night-hut he is a firstclass business man, and his earlier worlc at the Ministry of Munitions fcavedjtbis country "many millions of pounds," as Mr. Montagu himself testified. Before the war Mr. Lever—ho was not knighted then-was the principal of the biggest firm of accountants in the United States, but being English by birth he came home to "do his bit." •Vll shipping is now controlled by nir Joseph Maclay. "You have called-mo in six months too late, but I will do my best" he is reported to have said when taking office; and be is dealing brilliantly with a complex and difficult situation He was a man to be reckoned with' on the Clvde-"Whnt will Maclay do though?" his business competitors always a.sked themselves—but beyond the bounds'of Glasgow he was not ivell known. He is often mistaken for Lord Morlev. Sir Eric Geddes, who after transforming our railway transport servico in Franco has now gone to bo Controller of the Admiralty. Tins had an interestin" career. Ho has been a lumberman in"the Southern States of Ameri-'a; operated the Baltimore nnd O'uo Railway; 'run railways in India: and was assistant general manager of the North-East-er- Railway till the mitb-eak of war. The head of the Air EoaTd is Lord Cowdray. The fame of S. Pearson and Sn>\ the great contracting- firm, is worldwide, and Lord Cnwdi-ny is Us He has personally directed tho manv marvellous engineering fonts which it has carried through in Mexi™. in Canada, and in this country. The Invention's Department of the Ministry of Munitions " under the control of Sir Ernest William Moir, who is a partner in the Pearson firm. ITis record of nohievements includes thc=e "incidents": Was in charge «f the southern cantilever of the TVth Bridge: was "esident engineer of the Hudson River Tunnel. New York; h«lp»d in the construction of the 81.-clr"-ill T u"nel. the G'-eat Northern cud City Railway, and the Admiralty Harbour v Dover. Trade Follows the .Flaq. Lord Rhondda, the President of tho Local Government Board, is an emperor of commerce. For some years he sat in Parliament, but Westminster disappointed him. Quitting politics, he applied his restless activity and business genius to widor conquests in the realms of commerce, and when at the call of the country ho took his present post ho was the head of a great colliery alliance employing between 25,000 and 30.000 men, and a director of -ifl companies. He rendered valuable service to the country on a business mission to the United States in the spring of 1915. Ho is a survivor of the Lusitania! The new President of the Board of Trade, Sir Albert Stanley, is believed to have paid one shy visit to the House of Commons since he was elected M.P. He brings American business training and experience to our trade problems, having been for twelve years tho manager of electric railways in America- before he came back to England—be was born in Derby—to become managing director of the Metropolitan District, the Central Railway, London, and other transit companies. Lord Rothermere, to whose work as Director of the Army Clothing Denartment Mr. Bonar Law paid so glowing a tribute, is a man of areat business capacity. He is president and wincinal founder of tho Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company, which is bringing prosperity to our oldest rolony. and more recently, as a relaxation, he founded the "Sunday Pictorial," which has a net sale of over 2,000.000 copies weekly., for manv years, until he and Lord Nortbcliffe retired from the Amalgamated Press, he was joint director of this business. V.i" largest publishing com-' pany in tho world. Mr. K«nnedv Jones, M.P., the Director of tho Food Economy campaign, is another man who made his fortune in newspaper enterprise. His strenuous effort largely helped" in tho early dnyS of the London "Evening News" and the "Daily Mail." Later he devoted his business expericw to a reconstruction of Waring and Gillows. Sir Alfred Mond, the First Commissioner of Works, who rommnndeprs hotels, tills the parks or erects Government offices as though by (he wave of- a magic wand, made a million as a chemical manufacturer, and his firm have the reputation of being most enlightened in their dealings with their workmen. This record does not pretend to be a complete survey of all the men from many businesses now direotfng the Great Business of Stale; but of itself it is a famous list. The old motto, , "Trade follows the Flag" is amended in this crisis. Trade directs the Elag. :