The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1920. BRITISH TRADE OUTLOOK.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1920. BRITISH TRADE OUTLOOK.

Tliere are indications that the industrial spurt in Britain, the result of which was evidenced a short while back by the large increase in exports, is likely to be followed by a depression that will have a serious effect upon the workers. A recent cable states there are great fears that there will be considerable unemployment during the coming winter, trade being already slack, particularly in cotton, woollen, boot and other industries, with the result that mtfny factories and mills are already working short time, while thousands of workers have recently been discharged. Meanwhile, food prices are still rising, though the prices of manufactured goods are stationary, or slightly reduced. It is significant that .manufacturers and wholesalers are credited with the belief that the maximum has been reached, and that they are displaying a tendency to reduce prices, owing to the depression in trade and the public's severely restricted purchases. A more probable realson for reducing production is that the manufacturers and wholesalers, having realised that high prices and short supplies go hand in hand, and having reaped a rich harvest by means of unpreeedently high charges for their goods, are by no means disposed to return to moderate prices, and are therefore restricting output, causing unemployment, and adding fuel to industrial unrest. There is nothing in the state of the money market to warrant any reduction in legitimate industrial enterprise. On the contrary, it is stated that the money market is becoming "more comfortable," and that the position has been eased by the Bank of England indicating a desire that rates should not become too stiff. Manufacturers are well aware there is a large unsatisfied demand for goods, especially cotton and , woollen, at reasonable prices, and they are finding by experience that the public, sooner than be exploited, have severely restricted their purchases, and there is no doubt that if this policy of self-denial were universal it would have an appreciable effect 'in bringing about cheaper goods. It is stated that Manchester manufacturers are reducing wholesale prices by five to fifteen per cent. If this is true, it is too absurd to be worthy of consideration, for by the time the goods reached the consumers all signs of the reduction would have disappeared; whereas a fifty per cent, reduction, or more, would keep all the mills fully employed, and still return handsome profits to the manufacturers. It will be noticed that the wool trade expects the sales to open dull; that the Home trade has very few orders, and that, with the exception of fine merinos, wool will be cheaper. The position, therefore, appears to be that the manufacturers are not only determined to keep up prices by restricting output, but will also endeavor to "bear" the wool market by declining to purchase except at considerably lower rates. Manifestly the result of such tactics would be felt in the Dominions is iwo yays;

the producers of the raw material will obtain lower prices, and the purchasers of the manufactured goods (including the wool grow-' ers) would still have to pay the present heavy charges. The phase, of the trade situation that cannot, fail to be regarded with grave anxiety is the effect of all this exploitation on industrial unrest, and the outlook in this connection cannot be viewed without apprehension, for there must come a time when the conflicting elements will clash, unless exploitation gives way to fair profits, labor becomes reasonable and gives of its best, and the cost of living reduced. In Britain the position appears likely to assume a more unfavorable aspect than in the Dominions. The epidemic of selfishness has reached a virulent stage, and is being fed by the lust for gold, the disease operating in a vicious circle. How it is to be exorcised, and the industrial temperature reduced 10 as to preserve sanity, is, it m, i be admitted, a difficult problem.