Blaming the Other Fellow

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 186, 4 May 1929, Page 19

Blaming the Other Fellow

£< "W TY T HEN trade is bad it is the easiest thing in the world to % m / blame ie other fellow for it. If we in Britain cultivated a little more enthusiastically the habit of blaming ourselves v v and then of putting things right, trade would soon begin to improve,” writes Mr. C. Percy Lister, managing director of R. A. Lister and Co., in the March number of the Advertising World. “In a small country like ours, with a vast population, we have either to export our goods or starve. At the moment we are not exporting enough, and thousands of our people would be starving if we did not provide for them out of public funds. To provide these funds we are taxed up to the hilt, and our costs go up in consequence. Hence it is more difficult to sell our goods. Hence more unemployment, and the vicious circle is complete. “Somehow or other we have got to break it, and we can best break U by pur pwn activity. We must break it or it will break us.

“Take the European markets for a start. We are often told that it is impossible for Great Britain to compete in the European markets. That, in my view, and I have proved it myself, is frank nonsense. “Every year I visit the bulk of the Continental markets from Lisbon to Lemberg, from Calais to Constantinople, to meet personally our agents and distributors. The result is that our trade is increasing from year to year in each and every country covered, with the exception of those where business is made impossible by the prohibitive tariffs. “In my opinion one member of every board of directors of manufacturing concerns should be responsible for visiting those overseas markets for which the products of his firm are suitable. In the case of my own firm we have fax some years followed this policy,”