OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3339, 13 March 1918, Page 11

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

(Fbom Oub Special Ccbkesfcndmct.)

I BRADFORD, December 27. PAST YEAR SEES LONDON SALES ABOLISHED AND STATE CONTROL DOMINANT. The year 1917 will ever be remembered in tne wool textile trade as a period which waa entirely dominated by State control. ' The liberty of all sections of the industry has been greatly .interfered with, and tho sooner, the time comes when the galling restrictions can be removed the more pleased everyone concerned will be. Try as one will, it is very difficult indeed to find any aspect .of State control which anyone desires to see remain as a permanent part of the business conditions of the West ( Riding. It is admittedly recognised that the principles which have been enforced have been inevitable, and.that if trade been left to pursue its own course -disaster' / would have .been unavoidable. It cannot be; too strongly set forth, however, that j while the application of the principles- has J been necessary, many of the details have j been carried out witnout proper regardMo the. best interests' of the trade, and even of j the nation at large. The feeling among the most practical men is that considerable. sums of money could have been saved, and much internal disorganisation.. avoided, ifdifferent methods had" been adopted. Meu..*i without knowledge •of what was' required '■''■'■ have been allowed to occupy positions .of/' '*"'- great responsibility. It is quite true that the services of many practical and capable men have been enlisted, but if more ;of " the same calibre had been called in it would have been much better for the entire industry to-day. Crying over spilt milk is now useless, and. if there is anything for -, which the trade ought to be thankful it is 'that there have been men of sufficient grit and determination to withstand the en- ■ croachments. of those in whose hands their, present and* future prospects would have.been doomed. LONDON '^W. Eor -iully six months the manufacturing machinery in the. West Riding and other consuming areas has been kept running without a series of saler> being held 'in ■'. London. It seems strange to think that a public event of so great interest to woolusers as-the holding of a series of auctions' in London should be omitted for so long a , period, particularly as the sales had dome ■to be regarded as vitally connected with the life of the wool textile industry. It ; ,■ was early in the nineteenth century when the first sale in London was held, and since x then auctions have taken place at regular periods right down to last April. During the first six months of 1917 auctions were held at intervals, but any description of ; them which can be given will quickly show I that they were greatly changed compared with their The first sale of the year, which was commenced on January 4, was really the last sesies of 1916/ which had been postponed. Efghty-one thousand bales were available. The report was cheuiated in Bradford that no particulars of the auctions would be published, and certainly less freedom was granted yin this respect than had ever been the case before. At the opening only the best wools rnaintaind their prices, and as the sales proceeded it was evident that confidence was not being maintained. At the clcse nearly all wools were cheaper than at the end. of the last' auctions held in 1916. The' depreciation in poor-conditioned greasy merinos was as much as 2d to 3d per lb, and even superior- merinos were l£d lower. The only exception to the lower scale of values was found in medium slipe crotsbreds, though these did not always realise full rates. The second series, which were held in February, were the. occasion of an advance • in prices, but the opportunities of wouldbe buyers were greatly curtailed by the Government increasing the number of withdrawals. A-.change took place in the selling arrangements. In January wool owned by the Government /was offered in the catalogues along with" privately-owned wool. Government manufacturers picked out the . lots they wanted, and these were withdrawn and supplied to the mills at which they were intended to be used. The limits placed on wools owned by tho Government we.ro in many cases extremely high. Prices offered "for greasy merino wool, though higher - than the January basis, did not result in the wools being allowed to'go. Several' offerings were withdrawn at limits as much as l£d to 2d per lb above the prices bid. These wools were valued on a market basis, but the Army Contracts Department added 3d to 4d per lb. An evidence of the scarcity of crossbred wool was found in the - withdrawal of several lots of Port Philip scoureds and New Zealand slipes. These were actually on show, but when the '"time came to sell them it was announced that they had been taken by the Government. One feature of the third series was the operations on Italian account, aa well as the presence of orders for America. Owing to the scarcity of freight from Australia to the United Kingdom, no direct shipments were allowed to Italy. Considerable inquiry had been coming forward from tho manufacturing districts of that country, and efforts were made to secure licenses, because raw material was urgently needed. Had it not been that London brokers had orders for Italy, merinos would probably

ave eased somewhat. As it was, this description was firm to hardening, superior merinos being Id to 2d per lb dearer at the close. /:', The last auction wae held on May 24, though it would be better to call it a distribution. All prices were fixed and printed in th- catalogues. The demand for crossbreds was interfered with by the fact that the Government had given the authorities control over private stocks. There we.re considerable weights of _ these, large purchases having been previously made against civil orders. Yet, if full opportunity had been granted, civilian purchases would have been much larger. The actual quantity was small. WOOL SUPPLIES. A question which has been frequently discussed during the past 12 months, and one to which too much importance cannot be attached, is that of wool supplies. The efforts made at rationing the trade by the Army Council hive in some vespects proved u!*B'»vsfactory. They have _ not been able to. enforco. all their own ideas and principles upon the trade, thanks to the determination shown by praotioal trade leaders. At the samfe time the policy they nave followed has been largely justifiable. The number of. woiking hours in mills wae curtailed on • the l plea that the quantity of raw material available was not sufficient to keep machinery fully oocupicd. This roused a Storm of indignation among spinners. Largely due to their agitation, & Committee of Inquiry was appointed, and upon the strength of its decision a return was made to nearly the uumber of working foour* ■vhioh had boea oommoi* before- the war. On<» reason _ why the Army Council wero bent on curtailing production seems to hava b««n that they had In mind the building tip Oi a large reserve of wool. A certain percentage had beeii lost at sea, though only & negligible one, and from a practical standpoint it scuma as if the idea of reserve* hag been oaxried to an extreme. The scarcity of tonnage has also had to b« reckoned with, and it is noticeable what «. change has como about on this matter compared with the time when wool supplies first began to be considered. It Is now admitted without the slightest reservation that tho scarcity of tonnage is the real reason why the department cannot seo their way to let supplies go into consumption more freely. At the present time there are indications that the authorities are looking a long way into the future; but it is to be hoped that they will not carry their ideas of reserve to an extreme and thereby deprive the industry of muchneeded material for manufacturing purposes, HOW THE TRADE HAS BEEN RATIONED. It ie interesting- to follow the course of events in connection with wool rationing. The Army Council arc masters of supplies, and upon their shoulders falls the duty of deciding what amount can be allowed to go into consumption during stated periods. Other duties have been delegated to bodies of men appointed for the purpose. At the time of writing we have tho Board of Control of Textile Production, which is the successor of two other bodies which failed to Servo the trade satisfactorily. This is perhaps putting the case in its bluntest form, for throughout tho whole of the year the

rationing committees have been largely at the mercy of the Army Council. If the latter did not grant adequate supplies of raw material, it followed that the quantity of tops, yarns, etc., available for spinners and manufacturers would not be sufficient. The first body constituted was the Central Advisory Committee. One charge brought against this was that it did not satisfactorily represent the trade. Organisation was taken out of the hands of traders and placed too much in the care of permanent officials. The consequence was that strong resentment was expressed, and eventually an Advisory Panel formed, but as this was really composed of tho same men, and did not bring about the introduction of new personnel of the kind wanted, matters were not much improved. The upshot was that the West Riding spinners, who have played such a leading part in opposing the methods of the department, rose up and strongly demanded that more satisfactory representation should be given. The final result has. been that the Advisory Panel ceased to exist as such, and that the duties of the new organisation (the Board of Control) became .more properly to be that of supervising rations to spinners and manufacturers. For a time machinery has been kept running fairly satisfactorily' by means of the quantities of tops and yarns which the respective rationing committees have given out. The situation as it exists at present has already been explained. The rationing committee have been able to work on a basis that supplies were adequate at least for the present number of hours which are being worked in mills, a return having been made from the 45 hours imposed to 60 hours per week. The allocation oeiiods up to the end of November extended over three months, but when the Board of Control met tho departmental officials to- consider the allocation from December 1 to March 31 the latter were not prepared to give an allocation sufficient to keep machinery running. After further consideration between the ' two parties an amendment was made; but even now~ the likelihood of keeping all machinery running full time is an exceedingly poor one. Already some hands have been dismissed, and though tho reason for the curtailment of supplies is different, it looks as if the attitude of the Army Council as originally set forth will be the dominating one. UNFAIR TREATMENT OF MERCHANTS. So far as the wool trade is concerned, merchants in all departments have suffered severely. Wool merchants, buying brokers, and yarn merchants have all received like treatment, and it will ever remain a grievance 'that in critical times like the present the merchanting community in the wool trade were treated with such great contempt. Indignation at this fact has been all the stronger because merchants in other businesses have been allowed to go on. No section of tho wool trade community has dono more to develop the trade in textiles than this, and when it is remembered that, in spite of all the hardships which have had to bo borne, those with machinery have, owing to the huge military demands, been in a practically safo position, and have been able to make good profits it has been exceedingly galling for the merchants to find themselves put out of action almost entirely.

MANUFACTURING BOOM. Ao stated in the above paragraph, spinners and manufacturers have, putting it bluntly, had the best end of the stick. Khaki and similar requirements have had to be catered for in quantities. It is quite true that civilian business has staad a very poor chance,, and the outlook for those whose machinery cannot be adapted for supplying military requirements, or for selfish reasons have avoided them, is anything but good. The war has brought an unprecedentedlv high standard of wages to the textile workers of the West Riding. In spite of warnings about short supplies, the pressure upon machinery has been very great indeed, and in more respects than one the year 1917 will stand out as a record. „ Looking to the future, no one can say, what is likely to happen. At the moment there is something in the nature of depression, largely due to the attitude of the authorities •already outlined on the matter of supplies of "wool. The end of the year is always a time when things seem, to fall somewhat flat, but the great desire of the majority is for the present hostilities to bo victoriously ended. Even then there will be great problems to face, and it will take a long-time before trade settles down into anything, like its own way. A vast State machine has been erected, which it would be disastrous to pull down all at c^" 1 , and yet the permanence of many of i ~0-etrictions etrictions which are now in force would mean that a heavy weight would be banging upon the wheels of progress.