NORTHERN TRADE TREK IN ENGLAND DENIED

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7185, 4 April 1930, Page 9

NORTHERN TRADE TREK IN ENGLAND DENIED

Economist’s Challenge GROWTH OF SOUTH IS CALLED AID TO NORTH SHEFFIELD, March 21. The assertion that a new industrial revolution is transferring the economic prosperity of Great Britain from the North to the South is stated by an official of tho Chamber of Commerce here to be entirely out of accordance with the true facts of the situation. This view, which has of late received wide publicity in many parts of the press, is said to be based upon inaccurate deductions from unemployment returns and statistics of tho growth of population, and upon a misconception of the real relationship between tho new trades developing in the South and the heavy industries situated in the North. It' is a common mistake to take as evidence of the exhaustion of the North the flow of labour from North to South that has taken place during the last few years. But this transference, it is pointed out, is only tho compensating reaction to the flow of labour from South to North that occurred during the latc : war.

Result of Rationalising Similarly, it is a mistake to regard the unemployment returns as a sign of tlic decadence of northern industry. Slight increases in uncmploment are the inevitable first fruits of the. application of the policy of rationalisation to the basic trades of Britain, and will speedily be moro than neutralised when that policy becomes fully,, effective. For example, tlio recent ’ decision of Dorman, Long and Co., Middlosborough, to close down the only remaining active blast furnace of their group of three at Carlton Ironworks, Durham, is not an indication, as might easily be supposed; of economic distress, but of increased business efficiency, which enables the work to be more satisfactorily accomplished at the South Banks plant'of the new Dorman-Boickow combine. Looked at from this point of view, the unemployment returns are actually a measure of the potential prosperity of industry, rather than evidence of decline.

More at Work Yet a far truer conception of the real condition o| the North is gained, it is maintained, if the figures of those drawing unemployment insurance aie altogether disregarded, and attention is paid to•. the numbers of men actually at work. This city,, for instance, is usually held to be one of the worst-bit centre’s in the area; yet there are here to-day 10,000 more workers in actual employment than there were six years ago, and 20,000 more than there were before the war. But tho most mischievous notion ot all that has gained currency, it is stated is that the new industries that are developing in the South arc competitive with the North. The North indeed rejoices as much as the South itself over their springing up. Practisally none of these new industries docs any harm whatever to northern commercial interests, and sonic of them substantially assist these interests. The motor trade has peculiar requirements for special steels, requirements that provide additional employment in Sheffield. Again, the rise of. gramophone manufacturing companies in the South is of considerable economic importance to this city, which has of late taken to the manufacture of gramophone needles on an immense scale.

South Helps North Broadly speaking, the truth is that, the industries now developing m the South are supplementary to those m the North, and arc thus to the economic advantage of the country as a whole It is impossible for the isoith ever to lose to the South its supremacy unless some gigantic discovery in natural science (a discovery of which no slightest sign has yet appeared) changes the entire basis ot modern, industry;- for the. natural ic-. sources on which industry is at present founded are the practical monopoly of the northern parts of Great B Moreover, the North itself is developing new industries. Liverpool has taken to manufacturing such things as artificial silk and automatic telephones; a new seed-crushing industry ha? sprung up in Manchester, and the 'rubber and tyre trades have enorpioushy expanded in the recent past. It is also interesting to observe that, while in the last year the overseas trade Of the southern orts has fallen in value by £9,000,000, in the same period the | overseas trade of the . northern ports has increased by the immense sum of £19,000,000