BRITISH UNEMPLOYED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17593, 5 October 1920, Page 5

BRITISH UNEMPLOYED.

THREE THOUSAND AT CARDIFF TRADE SLUMP IN PROSPECT. A. and N.Z. \ LONIKMJ, Oct. 3. . There are growing signs of a coming slump in several branches of trade in Sheffield, Nottingham, and the Midlands. Many employers, owing to industrial unrest and uncertainty, have been unable to give quotations or to accept contracts. Three thousand workers, mostly seamen, are unemployed at Cardiff.

1 An informative review of the industrial " outlook in Britain was published in the ' London Daily Telegraph in August. ' The authority quoted classified the com--1 bination of causes responsible for the ' gloomy trade prospect as ; Exhaustion in European markets ; (2) high : working costs; (3). dear money; (4) > excessive taxation (5) American competition; (6) "psychological" causes. " There is undoubtedly a growing slump throughout the country," he said. 1 *' Many industries which four months ago ' thought their future secure for at least a j couple of years have had to face not r merely a fafiing-off in orders, but the cancellation of many already booked. It is a , mistake to attribute this entirely to the ; Chancellor of the Exchequer, although the nation's uncertainty regarding the I capital levy and the excess profits duty [ has had the direct result of tightening up financial conditions just when industry . required an abundance of cheap money. The floating capital required by a business to-day is from four to six times what it was in 1914. But I think the principal reasons for industrial depression are the stagnation of foreign markets, the consequent disinclination of manufacturers to risk caDital in a speculative foreign trade, and the enormous increase in working costs. European countries which had any money have now spent it, and they are so exhausted that they can produce next to nothing for exchange. And it is here that one of the psychological causes of the slump comes in. A few months ago it was widely asserted that prices would Boon come down if everybody stopped buying. This was true enough in regard to certain negligible commodities, large stocks of which had been hoarded in anticipation of a rise. But of the majority of British manufacturers _ there ■were no large stocks, and the prices of these things, in view of the high cost of laoour and raw material, could not fall. What was the result? Foreign buyers of British iroods read of this fictitious economy stunt,' and informed British agents, whose prices were already cut to the limit, that they would wait until the ' don't buy' campaign had brought the price still lower. "At present," he continued, " Germany is not a serious industrial competitor, but her demand for raw material will steadily increase, and that, with the continually rising cost of labour, will make it more and more difficult for the British manufacturer to compete with the American. Motor-cars, motor tyres, and semi-manu-factured steel articles are the principal lines upon which the United States is attacking us, but in the case of steel the demand is so great that competition in this commodity is not likely to hurt us very much in the immediate future. One further addition to working costs has just been made by the increase in railway goods rates. Upon coal alone this represents 2s per ton, an advance which will react upon almost the wholo of the country's manufactures. In view of the atmosphere of uncertainty which surrounds the manufacturer, it is not surprising if, here and there, he works up to his standard for excess profits duty, and then 'eases up.' Above that standard he only frets 7s for every pound he might make. He, therefore, decides that for so small a reward he cannot risk his capital in a foreign trade which, under present conditions, is little better than a gamble."