MOTOR AND CYCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 January 1926, Page 19

MOTOR AND CYCLE.

commercial motoring. RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. (By H. Massac Buist. —Copyrigh:.) London, Nov. .2. During the last fortnight the commercial motor vehicle movement came very widely under public notice in this country, chiefly apropos the splendid international exhibition under the patronage of the King which closed in London on Saturday. In face of the importance of this movement to the welfare of the community in general, and of the assurance we possess already that its expansion during the next ten years will be so amazingly rapid that at the end of that period it will constitute a larger movement even than that concerned with privately owned passenger cars. 1 have made it my business to conduct some experiments in testing the man-in-the-street/s idea concerning the position of the British utility motoring industry. 1 have also sought some assistance on the subject with a view to gaining a wider experience than one can acquire merely by one's own efforts. The very extraordinary result emerges that, nine out of ten British taxpayers, questioned when travelling in public conveyances —steam train, electrio railway, tram or omnibus—are found to believe that the utility motor vehicle is one of the protected British industries. 1 was not able to find anybody who has not visited the recent exhibition and who would believe that there was there shown an imported car of trans-Atlantic origin with the reproduction of a Union .Jack on the radiator. Lastly, 1 have not found anybody objecting to the effects of the measure of protection obtaining in respect of the passenger car movement, it being widely recognised to-day that the introduction of the duty on privately owned passenger cars has in no wise limited, nor otherwise prejudiced, the utterly free choice of the individual

buyer in this country; has not sent up the cost of ears in general; has resulted in a large reduction in the cost of Bri-tish-made motor vehicles which are, nevertheless, presented either in more elaborate or in otherwise improved form so that they are cheaper in a double sense; has increased employment for skilled labour at home; and has consequently decreased the call on dole geld. WHENCE AMERICA FEARS COMPETITION. In regard to the British utility vehicle industry, in its present condition it is not on the point of revival, as many publicists would have us to believe; it is only throwing dice like a gambler because, though the menace of Slough has been removed, for the rest it is open to scarcely less menacing and far longer enduring assaults in the guise of competition of a more unequal character than ever. The first reason is that the American industry has not begun seriously to provide competition in export in this field; but it is now ready to go ahead. The second is a point neither known nor realised on this side of the Atlantic, namely, that the highly protected American industry, itself operating in a country which, with two and a half times the population of ours, nevertheless uses over 25 times the number of motor vehicles. They are supplied from its own factories operating behind a high tariff*. Of course, it does not think the British motor industry can put up any serious competition, because cost of production is dependent on taxation, and scale of production among other matters, and America is assured of infinite superiority of situation under these heads; whereas our industry is not assured even of a reasonably fair share of its relatively small home market. But is the British public in this country aware of the fact that that is not all the competition that is coming? I am sure it is not, and of that America is very well aware. For many months past American manufacturers have been surprised that the Germans have been over in the States buying large quantities of American machines specially designed and only suitable for ihe mass-production of motor vehicles, alike of the utility and of the pleasure car sorts, our ex-enemies having any amount of cash to pay down for such goods, which they are importing on a scale so unprecedentedly large that it is no exaggeration to say that the American industrialists regards this as a very serious menace. Indeed, it is almost scaring certain of them because they know that German labour is much cheaper than their own, and that the German automobile industry has been grouped together and enriched by the acquisition of Austrian brains, consequently it is more or less prepared to embark on a policy of mass production of new designs, arrived at as a result of studying at first hand conditions obtaining in the world market overseas. The competition will begin in our own Dominions, in particular, in relatively a short time; and will be of the most intensive character that will constitute a very big menace even to the American trade in those markets. What chance shall we have ? CONDITIONS CHANGED IN PART ONLY. A consideration of the exhibits at the recent utility motor vehicle show revealed that in no country in the world is more advanced and practical designing ability placed at the disposal of commercial motoring; nor are any designs quite so suitable as the latest British ones for service in every country in the world, whether it possesses roads or lacks them. Seemingly, however, mere design is not enough. The Australian High Commissioner suggested at the luncheon inaugurating the exhibition that the price of the goods mustbe equal to foreign competition, and naively asked why ours were not? Which country is paying our -scale of wages per unit of output, and so forth? Not, be it understood, that there is any survival of that pre-war spirit which I used.to fight, notably in 1913, whereby there was a feeling of objection if the workers’ wages at the end of the week increased to any appreciable extent over previous high takings. The British manufacturer has been educated out of all that, though the harm of much of the Victorian attitude remains, because it is now being exploited so much by organised trades unionism, which, is nothing less than protected labour, and which wishes to limit the output of work per man. WTeit my investigations of manufacturing conditions on both, sides of the :

Atlantic in 1 DI3 taught me is that the way to gel cheap goods and provide high weekly wages is not to limit the output of work by the labourer, nor to pay any attention to the total amount of money he takes home -at the end of the week, even if each skilled man pockets tICO for six day*’ work. That is what the American industry understands. But the trans-Atlantic manufacturer requires the individual workman to make as much out of his job

he can by turning oat as much as possible on the teraus fi:.;’d. hi other words, both workers and employer gain by big output per man. That i<s the only means of reducing the cost per unit of wage per unit of motor vehicle or other ware produced. Alas! after a world war. still such conditions do not obtain in this country to-day. But all die British manufacturers of np-to-uate vehicles have no objection to the individual worker taking home a.s much money as he can earn at the end of the week. Indeed, many agree that our me"hanic.s are bad|ly underpaid at the current rate of | wages. Yet profits cannot be made on ( ' output, under present conditions of outI put of work per man employed, despite the fact that the most up-to-date machinery is installed. THE SOLUTION OF SUNDRY PROBLEMS. The solution is that the individual workman must be -allowed to turn out mtore manufactured articles in a given time. Then he can take home more money at the week-end. As long as he does not, he lets the foreign workman get the market; whereas the mistaken notion obtains that idle, or partly idle, British factories is a sign that more work is awaiting the British operative! Again, in American factories there is not the difficulty we have -here of trade union demarcation, whereby, if a plank of wood to be shaped must be in part so many inches thick, and in part two inches or less thick, one is a carpenter’s job and the other a joiner's job, and never the twain shall meet. In America the employer is allowed to ask his employee to do what the employer wants because that is what the buyer wants done, and the buyer is- the. man who employs both the employer and the employee. That point is not recognised in this country yet; but our manufacturers understand it. When will organised labour ? Another problem is that unless we can get a bigger market for our products we cannot produce them on a sufficient scale to bring the cost of our utility motor vehicles down. The present prices are very little more than those of mass produced vehicles, our designs are infinitely better, and our materials are unsurpassed, as is . our workmanship. Secure our industry a fair share of its home market; and clarify the labour viewpoint by studying conditions abroad, and we should prosper and do notable things. Then there is. talk of using the Road Fund, of which the Treasury has complete control, to pay for this, that, or | the other thing—incidentally, the min- j ers—as distinct from fulfilling the bond by giving us roads for our money. Before any Government does divert the

Road Fund for any such purpose, lei it ■see that it is not putting a premium i exporting more cash from this com . to buy goods that can be built hero. ; the production of which would enormous sums in doles. In other words let the Government first protect the utility industry, at least to the nominal extent that obtains in the case of the passenger car industry. Nor is it. merely that it now has the machinery for doing <5O; it is a fact that the machinery used in connection with securing the import duties on passenger cars is largely ineffectual because of the impossibility of demarking the line that distinguishes a private from a co.mmer-, cial motor vehicle. Aa an illustration, observe how much of the money secured by the. officers at the port of importation is paid back again via Somerset House. For the rest, which country manufacturing passenger ears, or utility motor vehicles, allows us to export our machines free of duty into its borders? The answer is: none. All think us lunatics, though they are too alive to their own interests to publish anything on the subject. Meantime, something must be done to ensure that at least a practical share of our home demand for utility motor vehicles to the British workman and to the British manufat urers, who h?v? put forth machine-s worthy of -. hut who are powerless to comnnjt . I here is not a moment to waste. i hough an infinitely smaller movement to-day than that concerned with privately owned passenger ears, within ten years the commercial motor industry will be much the larger movement. FIAT-FORD REPORTS. With reference to statements cabled at intervals during the last four weeks by responsible News Agencies from the United States of America, and from the Continent of Europe, concerning an alleged agreement entered in to between Fiat and Ford, Messrs. Fiat (England) Ltd. now inform me that that information ie without foundation. Of course, this is without prejudice to the effort's of American financiers and motor manufacturers to secure control of important British motor manufacturing enterprises, General Motors’ arrangement with Vauxihall having been sanctioned by the shareholders, among whom were a* few dissentients.