Sept. 23.
When business depression it mentioned, the first idea that occurs to the mind is masses of the working class out of employment, hanging about street corners in their working clothes, not worrying in these times particularly about the future seeing that there is the dole, and generally accepting the situa~ tion with a considerable amount. of philosophy. That is th aspect of the case which i generally before the public, and legislators are at their wits' end to find a remedy for their hard Yot. What about the "blackcoated" brigade, however, who are apparently nobody's care, but who do not get the dole, and who receive little or no consideration from the politician.
very seldom that the "Liverpool Post" condescends to take any special interest in the affairs of Manchester, but that, it has done so in a recent number must emphasize the fact that the Lancashire cotton trade i perhaps in a worse condition than the average man not connected with it imagines. In the heart of industrial east Lancashire, a recent investigation showed that the unemployed numbered some 62,000, but apparently it did not take into account the number of clerical workers who were equally out of work, They number several thousands, but unlike the worker in' the mill do not come upon the dole, and apparently all they have for subsistence is what the Guardians allow them. It is a frightfully tragic state of affairs, for they have no powerful trade unions to cause Parliament to look after them, yet they are as necessary adjuncts to industry as the trade unionist who objects to the individual looking after more looms so that the price of the Lancashire pro duct can be reduced.
Nor is this the full tale of disaster. The small tradesmen, according to the "Liverpool Post" are going out of business in multitudes—that is equivocal language the report goes on to say:—Pawnshops in the same benighted districts are beginning to refuse pledges. Bad debts have accumulate ed to an alarming extent among the shopkeepers, and some desert remedies like soap kitchens wi have to be resorted to if the ing, winter is to be weathered by numerous half-starved faniles. To accentuate the gloom it is announced that the modern textile machinery of a cotton mill at Heywood is being packed up, and shipped to Australia re it will furnish the equip ment of a concern to be subsidized by the Australian Government. This is apparently not a specially large operation, but it connotes unemployment for a certain smaller number of people in Lancashire after it has become possible to visualize a trade revival. competition of subsidize elsewhere not the sort of thing that i likely to promote. confidence in Lancashire's being in the position of providing Britain's most important export.
In view of conditions such as have been indicated, every effort towards placing Lancashire in a position where she can compete with other nations in the cotton trade is bound to be watched with the greatest interest. At the head of the Lancashire Cotton Corporation is Sir Kenneth Stewart, who spent many years in Shanghai, and one scheme he has evolved for the betterment of the industry is the lo of coarse yarns to cloth manufacturers at a very low price with the object of production at a cost enabling them to compete with Japan and other countries.
The Corporation is endeavouring to produce facturers are colli orate with the Corporation in an endeavour to bring what is called the heavy trade back to Britain.
It is realized that! various experiments will have to be made by the manufacturers as to the types of cloth required and the suitability of the yarns, but the Corporation in fixing its prices indicates that it is prepared to bear its share in the cost of such experiments, presumably by the low. cost at which it is offering its products. It is a courageous experiment, and if Sir Kenneth Stewart succeeds where others have failed he will deserve well of Lancashire. The complaint against the British cotton industry in the past has been generally one of too great con-servetism, and, of course, it suffered badly from overlization at the end of the There have, however, important. factors at work in the meantime, and. at least one interesting though perhaps not specially successful attempt at mass production has been made. If the present effort succeeds it will take numerous people off the dole as well believe to a large extent the terrible conditions described above to which the men ace customed to work in the office of Lancashire have been re~ duced,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.