THE CRISIS AT HOME.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 19 June 1926, Page 4

THE CRISIS AT HOME.

AIASS PRODUCTION THE REAIEDY.

IMPERIAL COAIAIERCIAL UNITY IMPEiR ATIA r E. DR. AIcGHIE’S lAIPRESSIONS. "While on a visit to Great. Britain aucl America recently, Dr. J, AlcGhie, of Hawera, brought an intelligent judgment to bear on the problems confronting Great Britain to-day, and. the following notes, which he supplied to a Star reporter, are full iof interest.

Dr. AlcGhie says : “Aly main impression of America was that it is a beehive of industry, very prosperous, keen and clear in business, and the essence of trade is mass production. The people are very hospitable. All that is demanded of an individual is efficiency, this social position being, of no kelp to him.

“It was with a. very depressed heart that I sailed up the C'yde. "When I last sailed up the river, in 1917, jl could hear nothing but the r-ivetter at work. Every slip- had a ship being, built or repaired. I can never remember seeing the Clyde idle before. Last year only every tenth slip had a ship in* dry dock. From the tail of the bank up to the city hundreds of young men were playing two-up, and loafing around with their usual mufflers on, and a string of whippet dogs. "We in New Zealand do not know what poverty is. "We, do not know* what lack of employment is. In England, Scotland and Ireland one sees .poverty, not altogether because of unwillingness to work, but because there is no work available.

“Work is essentially production—the producing of raw materials, and the manufacture of these raw materials into the finished article. But there must be consumption of the primary products, and a consumption of the manufactured articles, to create the need for further production. That is the essential factor in producing constant work. Briefly, Britain has lost some of her markets—coal for Instance, t had an opportunity of going down a mine iu Bothwell. The manager showed me proof that the owners had lost £4OOO .in the previous six months on the work-ins: of that mine. That could not last. With the cost of living so high, it wa« impracticable to cut cjown the miners’ wages. Why should. there be a loss in coal mining? Because since the war the wor'd consumption of coal is less. Every boat that I was! on was an oil-burner. Practically the whole Navy burns oil now instead of coal.

. “As ready money is of no more value to Germany than coal, she can undersell in the few- remaining coal markets. “As another example, let me take motor-cars. I had the opportunity of going through the Albion, motor works at Scotstown, near Glasgow. America builds her car in about 12 minutes. The Ford is run directly off the moving take where it as built right- into -the yard from where it is taken delivery of by the dealer. It is an article for sale. You can buy it, and, if you feel inclined, you can smash it in front of the men who built it, and so- long as you had paid for it these workmen wouldn’t care." In the A’bion motor works each vehicle is tested in the works. It is next given a thorough test on the road, then brought- int-o the works .again, taken down, and any high spots in the ; bearings are ground before it is re- > assembled as a perfect product. Hie ' Scotsman, has taken pride in his job. It is the mass production, ‘the so. many at so i much’ of America, as against the production of one perfect- finished article which can boast- of -being ‘British made.’ “While I was in London the following message from the Prince of Wales, then in South America, appeared in the paper: ‘British goods are still considered the best in South America, but it is quest ion ahe whether the increase un quality is recognised as proportional to increased prices and length of time of production.’ This message was occasioned by the placing, of a large order for woollen and cotton goods by Argentina in America, against a. quotation from. England could not supply the goods under eight months, while America undertook to supply in six weeks, at less than three-quarter the cost asked by Manchester. It comes down to the same thing—mass production.

“But with mass production must go mass consumption. It is a fact not readilv aunreciated that America can consume 80 per cent, of her own production. Great Britain is going into mass production. The Cowley cars prove it. But ishe can-do it- very mucli more successfully when her colonies and Dominions form a commercial ‘United States.’ and when the products of her co’onies are manufactured in Scotland and England, and 80 per cent-, is consumed within the Empire.”