CANNOT COMPETE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 35, 10 August 1934, Page 13

CANNOT COMPETE

WITH JAPANESE MILLS

STRICTURES ON LANCASHIRE

AN ENGLISH ATTACK

"There .aro mills in Lancashire of which I am a director working to an ! efficiency, of production which is con- j siderably greater than any firm of textile machinists will guarantee from their latest machinery," said Mr. Hammersloy, M.P., in the House of Commons. "The charges, which have been publicly made, are of a character which implies that every mill in tho Lancashire cotton trade engaged in spinning medium or coarse counts is obsolescent. The exact words are: 'There is not a mill in the .British Isles sufficiently well equipped.' "I am challenging the accuracy of that statement and saying that in that efficiency of equipment and character of machinery which will give the greatest quantity of production from a good type of cotton, there are many mills in Lancashire today which will produce as much as and more than the most efficient modern plant which can be laid down. lam glad that the hon. member is in his place and proposes to say something, because the matter is one of very great importance to the county, and, hi my view, his general charge is levied without substantial foundation." The second reading of the Bill, "to make temporary provision for enabling statutory effect to be given to rates of wages agreed between representative organisations in tho cotton manufacturing industry, and for purposes con- ■ neeted with the matter aforesaid;" was 1 passed without a division, says "Public Opinion." An interesting, feature of tho debate was the discussion about : the efficiency of the Lancashire cotton i mills. In reply to the speech quoted above, Sir Walter Preston, M.P., said: '"I am sorry that the hon. member for ' Stockport spoke as he did; he reminds me of the ostrich which hides its head in the sand and thinks that nobody i else can see it. All the world knows , that the machinery of Lancashire is; old. Sir Kenneth Stewart made a statement two or three years ago that the ; average age of the weaving machinery tin Lancashire was forty years, and of ; the spinning machinery thirty-five. ■ Lancashire has bought practically no machinery since. v "NO HOPE." • "My hon. friend finds fault with a ! remark I made the other day. Ido not qualify it or withdraw it in tho slightest. I repeat that there is not in this ; country one mill spinning coarse or i medium counts which has a hope of ■ competing with the mills that are being used in Japan today. I have been,to Japan. "I and my staff went over a large number of mills there, and I am able to compare them with English mills because at my works we have details of the machinery of every English mill as ■ wbII as every foreign mill. There1 are no better operatives than those of Lancashire, and I have full admiration for them; they are the finest workers in tho world, but they are hopelessly handicapped in being asked to use machinery with which they cannot possibly compete with the Japanese. "By efficient machinery I mean machinery with some hope of competing with the rest of the world. I may have an old motor-car ten or twenty years old which is, wearing excellently, but it would be ludicrous for mo to take it to Brooklands to compete with, mod' crn rafting cars. That is what my Lancashire friends are doing today. "Since I made my speech I have- roceived a courteous invitation from the Master Cotton Spinners' Federation to go and see them. I am hoping to see them, and I am sure that when I meet them I shall be able to put before them such overwhelming proof of my case that I shall, convince them of the two chief things that I said in my speech. JHE LANCASHIRE OPERATIVE, "My first point is that there is not a mill in this country which can hope.to compete with Japan. My second point, which is by far the morb important point, is that, given modern preparation machinery, modern high draught ring spindles and automatic looms, tho Lancashire operative, who is .the best man in the world, can produce and market in India grey cloth, which is.l the big staple purchase in India, at a | price considerably below the price at which Japan is selling today. "The Lancashire manufacturer is a bit shy of owning up officially that his , machinery is obsolete, but if you 'talk j to him and let him see you know what j you are talking about he will admit ho ought to scrap the lot, but he will say that he has no money. ... ; , "When the figures' showing what could be done by modern machinery for j automatic weaving were first brought to me I was startled, and I would not believe th&n: myself. But I have since j been through those figures; I have had some half-dozen very hard-headed ! Lancashire spinners and weavers check-! in" them; my own accountants have '' been through them; a firm of chartered ! accountants have also been through ' them, and wo cannot find that they aro , wrong. ' .i '■ "If they aro not wrong, then aj ■ modern English mill, with weaving shed : attached, equipped v with automatic looms, can sell grey cotton cloth in. India a halfpenny a pound, cheaper than Japan is charging today. A haltpenny a pound is an enormous profit in the cotton trade. I was told by a wellknown spinner that a saving of onesixteenth of a penny in the cost of his ' spinning meant a 5 per cent, dividend, and yet our figures show that wo can market in India at a half-penny per poi'.«#» cheaper than Japan is doing today., SHOULD BE CONSIDERED. "With the whole of Lancashire practically heading straight down the road to bankruptcy, with eighty mills closed in Oldham alone, tho unemployment bill must be enormous in that county, and I suggest that this proposal should be looked into by the Government. ■ "It is worth their while to loan £9,500,000 to tho Cunard and White Star Lines in order to build a ship to regain -the blue riband of the Atlantic and to find employment for .a certain number of men in the shipbuilding trade. Here is an opportunity to find double employment; because if we reequip our mills and our weaving sheds we shall first employ builders and machinery builders, and when the mills are finished we shall have all' tho mill hands It work again. \ "I apologise for speaking on this matter at all, because as.chairman of a textile machinery combine I am an interested party, and much as I want to help Lancashire I should not have dreamed of rising but for the fact that the hon. member for Stockport has raised this matter." "- "I want to deal with a statement made ■by my hon; friend the member for Cheltenham (Sir W-.Preston),'which threw a serious aspersion on Lancashire. It was one of the wildest statements that I have ever heard in this House," said Lieut-Commander Astbury., M.P. << ... To let it go out to the world that Lancashire is totally inefficient and that its machinery is obsolete from top to bottom, will not only do LmiMshiro a great denl of harm, but is an . extraordinary perversion of ■ the truth. I would offer ;i challenge to my ton, friend iv regard to uiy_ own. works.

Tho cloth in toy works goes over the. machines at the rate of 120 yards a 1 minute. If my hon. friend will come down to my place and will increase mj; production beyond 120 yards a minute', then I will order machines from him. I want to make that offer because, whenever we speak about the state, of the Lancashire cotton trade we are always told that we aro not efficient, that our machinery is not up to date, and that we do not know how to run our places as well as foreign firms do."