VOICE OF THE WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 11, 14 January 1933, Page 16

VOICE OF THE WORLD

"Machinery has been for many years] visibly displacing men Men or from employment in all Machines? industries. No economic processes can ever find remunerative work for them else-1 where, for science is progressively diminishing the demand for manpower," Sir Harold Bowden wrote recently in a letter to."The Times." "An agricultural revival, emigration, a universal five-day week (were this possible) would act as palliatives, but the mechanisation process will inevitably continue and be intensified." These conclusions were challenged by Mr. P. Sargant Florence, professor of commerce in the Birmingham University. "Though in some manufacturing trades machinery appears to be displacing men, this is not true of industry and commerce in general, and it is incorrect to say that no economic processes can ever find remunerative work for displaced men," he wrote. "While in manufacturing industries the numbers actually employed between 1924 and 1929 increased about proportionately to population, the numbers employed in building, transport, distribution, and services increased from 3,549,000 to 4,148,000, well in excess of population growth. Clearly the greater the output from manufacturing industry as a result of mechanisation the greater

+ ♦♦* »++-»•»♦♦♦♦♦♦ UMH+-H-HH is the number of persons required to sell or serve that increased output, since this cannot usually be done mechanically. The consequences of the introduction of machinery are not, in my opinion, beyond the possibility of mitigation through a policy of shorter hours, if the practice of working multiple shifts was extended. In that case, while work was more evenly distributed among available labourers, efficient machinery would be worked longer hours and tho fixed overhead machine costs considerably reduced per unit of product. This reduction would allow lower prices and increased sales, and might even permit the same wage to be paid to labour as before." • ' "If saving is a wise restraint from luxury spending and not Habits of a curtailment of healthy Thrift. spending, then |the nation is strengthened and the character of the citizen raised." This view was expressed by the Prime Minister in a message read during a broadcast talk by Sir Spencer Portal chairman of the Trustee Savings Banks' Association, and received for transmission to the president of the International Thrift Institute, the Marquis G. di Capitani d'Arzago, who has been collecting opinions on thrift from the Governmental heads of countries which are represented on the institute. "It must be the concern of all Governments at all times, but more especially at this time of wdrld economic depression," Mr. Mac Donald also stated, "to encourage habits of thrift among the people." After pointing out that the total volnme of savings in the three great thrift institutions—the National and Scottish Savings Committee, the Post Office Savings Bank, and the Trustee Savings Bank—represented over £1,100,000,000, he/stated: "It is my earnest wish that those who are generously working for the cause of thrift in every nation may continue their excellent work and thereby benefit not only their own country but the whole world for the furtherance of peace, happiness, and prosperity." Major-General Seely, chairman of the National Savings Committee, speaking at the South-Eastern Regi&nal Conference of the National Savings Movement of Folkestone, said that the habit of saving was'now ingrained in the people, and nothing that1 could happen would prevent them from doing that elementary wise thing—balancing their own budget, laying a bit aside for a "rainy day," and with the rest being as generous as they could to others. He urged everybody to try, as far as they could, to spend in a way that would help those who were out of work and those who were less well off than themselves. * 4» » . Broadcasting a message entitled "A Warning to Humanity," Warning by Mr. H. G. Wells said:— Wells. "We need to organise Foresight very urgently indeed. Because it is not only that men will be able to get at and see and talk to their friends anywhere. They will also be able to get at those they suppose their enemies witli an equal facility. How long do you suppose it is before this becomes possible—that men -will be able to pack up a parcel of explosives or poison gas or incendiary matter, or any littlo thing of that sort, and send it up into the air to travel to just any chosen spot in the world, and drop its load. For my own part I do not think it is going to be so very long before that is practicable. Our military people still stick to guns that carry only twenty miles or so, or aeroplanes that must fight their way through, lostile aero-

planes and gun-fire, to drop whatever they do drop. But nobody believes that these things mark the extreme range of offensive activities. Air torpedoes for anywhere, bomb, gas, and flame delivered whenever you like, or don't like, at any time, this is one of. the manifest possibilities to which all this improvement in communication is leading. Either we must make peace throughout the world, make one worldstate, one world-pax, with, one money, one police, one speech, and one brotherhood, however hard that task may seem; or we must prepare to live with the knife of the stranger always at our throats, in fear and in danger of death, enemy neighbours with the rest of our species. Distance once was protection. For good or evil, distance has been done away with.' This problem of communications rushes upon us to-day—it rushes upon us like Jehu, the son of Nimshi. It driveth furiously. And it evokes the same question: Is it peace? Because if it is not to be peace^ foreseen and planned and established,'then it will be disaster and death. All my life I have seen the abolition of distance becoming more and more complete. In a little while there will be no more distance left and little separation. Before another halfcentury has passed everybody, so to speak, will be oh call next door. For

all practical purposes we have not even begun to think yet wnat we are going to do about this abolition of distance. We are all of us behaving .as though there were no need whatever to adapt our lives and ideas in any way to these new conditions. ... We are abolishing distance—heedlessly, recklessly. Isn't it plain that, we ought to have whole Faculties and Departments of Foresight, doing all they can to anticipate and prepare for the consequences of this gathering together, this bunching up, which is now going on, of what were once widely dispersed human relationships." ». • * "We in England," said Professor Gilbert Murray, in a recent Reluctance speech, '' should make it to Disarm, as clear as we can that we seriously do want disarmament. I would even go further. Governments have all of them made tremendous professions in expressing their devotion to the cause of. disarmament. If they go to Geneva and build other new buildings in order to discuss disarmament, spend six months talking about it, and then spend another six months talking about it again, and then leave the impression in the end that they are not talkjng the truth, and that during that time they have been lying to us, I want them to realise that m the present state of the world it will be an extremely dangerous situation. I do not believe that the democracies of the world will stay patient if they b.elieve that their Governments are not sincere in this great matter A factor which we should realise is that all the reluctance to disarm comes-from the great Powers, which is quite natural ihey do not like to-agree to arbitration because they are. brought down on an equality with other nations; they do not like reducing armaments because the smaller nations are placed on an equality, with them. .The unanimous desire for a reduction of armaments and for peace conies from the middle size and smaller nations of the. world. If „-« speak to our Governments we can have at the back of our minds the knowledge that we have with us the public opinion of the enormous maioritv nf civilised mankind." . "The most melancholy man in Geneva is Derso, the famous Uninspiring Hungarian caricaturist, Geneva. whose work has bright- • ened up almost every international conference since the Armistice," writes the Geneva correspondent of the "Spectator." "'How can I draw any more profiles?' he complained the other day. 'All these faces are flat and empty.' And Derso is right the Thirteenth Assembly, at any rate up to the time of writing, has contained nothing to persuade delegates and journalists to shake off their lethargy From the moment when Mr. de Yalera resumed hi: seat in silence after a vigorous speech which, in old days, would have won him rounds of appluusi\ there have been no words, still less' deeds to thrill us. M. Motta, who has spoken at every League Assembly, did a useful service in reaffirming his faith in the s League ideal, and Lord Cecil 'Lord Eobert' still to every foreign delegate—was even more useful in his insistence that what was amiss was something about the Governments rather than about the League they had established. Many of us remain optimists, but we have to confess to ourselves_ that we are not sure how far this optimism is duo merely to a feeling that men cannot really be such fools as to all6w themselves to drift into another war." ■. . . . i . <-