£l0,000 A YEAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1925, Page 6

£l0,000 A YEAR.

HIGHLY-PAID positions. CONTROVERSY IN LONDON. London, March 29. According to Mr. John Lawrie, managing director of Whiteley’s, who began as a draper’s apprentice in a small provincial shop, large businesses have scope for men worth a salary of £16,000, but are unable to find them. The Daily Sketch, which interviewed heads of large firms, states that it finds that these jobs are will-o’-the-wisps. Youth, knocking at the gate and anxious for a chance to show the stuff of which he is made, is unable to find an outlet for his energies. Sir Herbert Morgan declares that there would be plenty of talented young men available if given scope and opportunity. Some elderly leaders of commerce would have got nowhere if they had had to begin in these days of keener competition.

“If they can’t find men capable of filling big posts,” Sir Herbert said, “they are deficient in judgment and initiative and unworthy of the huge salaries they are drawing. It is useless for the head of a big business to sit in his chair and lament that he can’t find young men worthy of holding £lO,OOO jobs. Does he expect them to diop from the skies’ If they did, I do not expect he would recognise them. It is the duty of the heads of big businesses to attract young men of marked capacity. They ought to possess the instinct for spotting talent.” Mr. W. Reith, managing director of the British Broadcasting Company, says that older business men often regard able youngsters with suspicion. A common fault in big businesses is the placing of young men in water-tight compartments instead of giving them an opportunity for all-round experience. Sir Edward Manville, vice-chairman of the Federation of British Industries, said: ‘‘There is only a limited number of highly-paid posts, and I am not aware of any £lO,OOO job which is vacant. I know of an industry that would be willing to pay £20,000 a year to the right man. It is not the question of a vacancy, but of the opportunity to create a post worth the salary. Employers would not risk appointing to such a post a man with insufficient experience.”