The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-03-19

it for personal qualification. For the same reason we are not making any new car pets. There is more serious work for the spinners and weavers.
 INDUSTRY SHIFTED
 This drastic curtailment Of certain lines of production to make way for war business has not hurt business. It has lnorely resulted in a shifting of labor and business activity from the less es- sential to the v't.illy essential industries. To give a few illusti ations: PhoDpgraph factories are now turning out delicate shell parts. jewelry makers are pro- ducing periscopes watchmakers are ad- justing fuses, music roll makers have turned to gage making. baking ma chinery plant is manufacturing high ex- plosiye shells, a cream separator 1ac- tory is making shell primers, glaziers arc making cartridge clips. baby food factory is producing plugs for shells, the output of a textile machinery plant IS now making field kitchens, and an ad- yertising agency is making shell adap- ters. Everybody is at work, producing more and earning more tHan ever be- fore, but the output is war necessities.
 No great nation can go through tnis war without paying its share. Fronts and patriotism Go not mix. When Eng land entered the war, the London mer- chants expected to see tll sir ordinary trade disaorear, and they were ready to shoulder any burden the war iln- posed. But trade has not been wiped out. My own business has paid the Brit- ish treasury in two years $ooo.oVo III ex- cess profits taxes; the government takes 80 per cent of the increased proHtS oVer the prewar standard.
 LIVING SCALE RAISED
 The reason for this growth in re- . lx r. ting very high wages, and they are now raising their standard of living. But the more prosperous middle class nepnle have greatly curtailed their scale of living They are giving Up what the munition workers are gain ing. Their incomes and profits have been reduced, their taxes have been increased and they are feeling the cost of the war. There has been great leveling in England and this surely IS distinct social gam.
 The piano trade is typical. In our store we are selling a great many pianos to families who have dreamed for years of being able to buy them. But these are not new pianos--we can- not spare labor and materials for mak- ing new pianos any more than we can for building new houses. These are second hand pianos coming from the
 
 vide funds for buying war bonds and war savings certificates.
 If the merchants did business of millions of pounds sterling in moving these pianos from the homes of the rlore prosperous middle class to those of the highly paid intuition workers there would be no loss to the country. No labor or material would be con- sumed. excepting in the moving of the instruments Tn fact. the treasury would gain by the operation. because what is really happening is that the workers are transferring some of their spending power to the middle class and the latter are transferring it to the government. The moving of the pianos simply is way of getting part of the intuition wcrkers' spend ling power turned over to the nation
 Gondon merchants are not only aid- Ing the. government in spreading the gospel of war economy. but they arc.