HIGHEST CITY IN ENGLAND.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16035, 28 January 1920, Page 10

HIGHEST CITY IN ENGLAND.

BRADFORD'S ORGY OP WEALTH. CHAMP A. ... AND PIANOS. BRADFORD, November 29. The London Tailor prophesies that of people. There are no new poor here, and only a few of the old ones, but there are plenty of new rich. It is commonly reported that one cannot walk up the steps of Bradford Exchange when the House is meeting without rubbing elbows with a post-war millionaire, nest spring and summer suits will cost 20 guineas because of the still increasing price of material. Bradford, where the cloth comes from, retorts; “We have more money per head of the population than any other city or town in the British Isles.”

Bradford, with its 300,000 people, pays more income-tax than its neighbour, Leeds, with nearly twice the number “although he may not always look it,” as one merchant said to me, confidently.

“We are simply sticky with money,” added the merchant. “Some men don t know what they have made.” Bradford is still on the crest of a wave of wonderful prosperity. Wool and topmerchants, yarn spinners, cloth manufacturers and dyers —through each stage in the trade millions have been made. Even the operatives, judged by ordinary middle-class standards, are exceedingly well-off. These remarks apply not only to Bradford, the capital of the industry, but with equal force to other wool towns —to Huddersfield, Keighley, and Halifax. The whole of West Yorkshire oozes money as it were.

SPINNERS’ PROFITS. Here are a few figures which give an indication of profits which the spinners have made. In June, 1914, the spinner paid 2s 7id a pound for standard botany tops, from which his mills spun the warn for cloth. He sold the yarn he made to the manufacturers at 3s Gd. That left a margin of lid a pound for the cost of production, and his profit. The spinner pavs 12s a pound for the same class of tops to-day, and he sells his yarn at 17s 6d a pound. Note the present day margin for cost of production and profit—ss 6d a pound against the pre-war lid. It is true that the spinners’ wages bill and production costs have gone up considerably, but not in proportion. Oue thing above all others that Bradford honestly dislikes is the excess profits tax. Merchant and spinner avow that it sets an unjust handicap on honest industry. Millions coming in mean necessarily lavish spending. General traders in Bradford are taking in their large share of the harvest.

“Our turnover now is four times as large as it was a few years ago,” said the head of one departmental stores. “It is apparent to us how much more extravagantly the women dress. Only the best will do for them. That applies to our old customers. In addition, we have a new class of ready-buyers drawn from working-class people who, before Bradford made so much money, never thought of coming, to us, and now they come principally for clothes and expensive articles of furniture.”

Luxury trades motor-car agents, jewellers and wine merchants all report toe same condition of things—abounding money and resulting eagerness to spend it. In spite of the delivery difficulty there are more new motor cars in Bradford that in any city one could find except Coventry, the birth-place of cars. An elaborate restaurant has recently been opened at the Midland hotel, equal to any in London. The place is crowded at every meal, and the Bradford business man does himself well. He drinks champagne, and talks wool the dinner through. The amusement places in the citytheatres, music-halls, and picture S ~ h f, ve a total seatin T capacity of 00,000. Allowing for continuous performances at the pictures, and two shows a night at the halls, those 30,000 seats are taken on an average each day by 10,000 people. The estimated bill for ■Bradford s amusements every night is Some instances were given me of how the mill workers spend their money. A family with several members working can easily bring home £3O a week, and not a few of the Bradford workers are burning money. Often nowadays in a i orkshrre worker’s house one can find two new and untouched pianos, sometimes m the same room. No respectable family can be without a piano; there‘iwo make for super-respec-tability.

One mill hand -went into a shop recenuy, and bought a complete set of table glass, everything for sherry, champagne, burgundy, port and liqueurs. He did not need them, of course, but he thought they would make a nice present for his wife. The millionaire spinner is at one end and the glass buyer at the other It it remarkable that suits will cost you more?