London, Aug. 4
Yesterday the Ford Motor Company annownecd reductions in price of £25 for ordinary touring cars, of 30 for the chassis, of for delivery vans, and of £50 for one ton standard trucks. With this announcement most of the newspapers regard the expected trade war as having started. It is so long since any prices were cut in anything that people have almost got inclined to believe that never again would we return to the old di strenuous commercial competition and the announcement, while it has almost thrown the motor world into panic, has created quite a feeling of cheerfulness on the part of the public, not because it is particularly fond of Ford cars but because it does like to sec some firm which realizes that high pric cannot continue indefinitely. Th one representative of the motor trade remarks: "It will upset the whole market, for it~ means that competition has begun in deadly earnest and that a general fall must inevitably follow—unless British producers are content to sec foreign cars dominate the market"
It will be recollected that just before the motor show at Olympia last year practically every Britis firm calmly raised its by about 50 lo 80 per cent without the slight tion of the step. It public were able and, ther would be willing. to pay. levied this extra charge not met on future output, but on all vehicles which were actually for sale at the time. Consequently. no one has, riy sympathy whatever with the ni for trade. and all its dismal protestation: of coming disaster leave us quite cold. Our great fear in that "cutting" of this n ture cannot occur: in many in. dustries because as a result of the war there have been formed many powerful groups and aggreg' tions of capital that we are practically at the mercy of all those on whom we depend for any objects used in every day life.
Is tug Grip or TAY Trests.
In this country few people have any idea of the strength of these groups, because they all trade un: der separate names, and even when their share capital is controlled from the outside no public announcement is made and the view continues to be held that private firms which have long ceased to be independent are carrying on their trade on the old lines. Thus Messrs. Vickers control at least a dozen other firms, and are interested in about a score more while small_groups are formed by other organizations of an equal standing
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.