This is something like an industrial revolution. It represents an annual increase in productivity of about 2.3 per cent. Such an annual rate of development will challenge comparison with anything in our history. From 1865 to the turn of the century, the average annual rate of advance was of the order of 13 per cent, according to the computations of Mr, Colin Clark, and in the first decade of this century the rate fell to one-half of that pace. It seemed, indeed, that there was some grim law which caused the rate of increase of productivity to fall. But the war put an end to that. Despite drastic reductions in hours, the rate of productivity had by 1924 returned to the 1913 level, and since then, as these figures show, it has gone ahead powerfully. It is true, of course, that this only applies to the factory trades. The three-quarters of the workers who do not find employment in factories have not increased their productivity nearly as rapidly. But The most significant conclusion which can be drawn from this table is that increases of productivity in the second period have been remarkably wide-spread. Even the textile industry has shown a great increase in efficiency—cotton spinning and weave ing and textile finishing and wool and worsted have all done very well indeed. It was expected that the steel industry would make a good showing, and the motor trade has evidently had a rapid reduction of real cost of production. But it is certainly surprising that so uniform an advance should-have been shown. Clearly this result has not been at-lained by a few dramatic inventions. Part of it is caused by mechanization, Part by the transfer from steam.to electric drive—the consumption of electricity by the factory trades increased by 40 per cent. in the five-year period—and part by the improvement of organization resulting from the growth of large-scale units.
There is no evidence whatever that this growth of productivity has reached its peak. Indeed, when the new factories which have been built in the last three years—factories like the new Ebbw Vale steel and tinplates plant, and the hundreds of new plant extensions up and down the country reach full production and appear n full in the production statistics, then we shall probably see another dig increase in dustrial productivity; It is by no means impossible that th output per operative in 1940 will be as much higher than that of 1935 as the output per operative in' 1935 was higher than in 1930. It is perhaps significant to point out that the expanding industries are those of which the productivity is increasing fastest. The opportunity for further electrification is very great, and the opportunity for reducing real cost by concentration of output upon most efficient plants is considerable. A further rapid advance of productivity. is more than possible.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.