The Washington times., 1921-04-30
GREAT BRITAIN SLOW
TO RECOVER TRADE
BY WIN. l.. MALLABAR,
International News Service.


LONDON, April 3O.--"It is idle to
deny that the hopes we held year
ago that there would be a recon-
struction of shipbuilding and revival
of trade by this time have not
been fulfilled
This was the keynote OF the address
given by the Duke of Northumber-
land at the annual conference of the
Institution OF Naval Architects. The
duke was elected president of the in
stitution for the coming year and II
was in the course Of his remarks
while acknowledging the honor con-
| ferred upon that he gave at some
length his views of British naval su-
premacy-occasional in q somewhat
pessimistic strain
1--WE are faced today with one OF
those periodical phases of depression
which shipbuilding, like every indus
try, has encountered" said the duke.
II believe that even the most expert
enced and far-sighted business men
never anticipated that IT would come
so early and so suddenly
LABOR PERTINENT DETERRENT.
This result has. no doubt, been
rendered more acute by host of fac
tors which are not directly connected
with the war.
I'VE have been-and still are-suf
fering from ferment in the ranks of
labor which is not really due to the
war. but is the most pressing OF all
problems today.
after the armistice a wave Of ex-
aggerated optimism swept over the
country. 1t was reflected in politics
by schemes of reconstruction involv-
ing an outlay beyond the country
means and entailing also the main
tenance and extension of Government
control over industries.
LABOR VS.. NATURALIZATION.
'Tn the sphere of labor this opti-
mism took the form of imagining that
the laws of economics could suddenly
undergo a change and that private
enterprise and capital could be super
| seeded by some new system in which
all the profits of industry could be
| distributed among manual workers
"Still 1t is impossible to doubt that
labor is realizing the fallacies OF the
various forms of naturalization
which have been advocated in the last
few years, though IL cannot but be
the subject of the deepest national
and social concern that the truth
IsHOuiu bhNc Dccu TcdIiZcu On1y ut INC
cost of the suffering entailed by wide
spread unemployment"
Continuing, the speaker said that
the main cause OF the stagnation of
industry and present unemployment
was largely due to the strikes and
threats OF strikes in the mining in
dustry, which formed the basis OF
every other industry. 1t was this, he
said, which had driven 81 itain's for
eign customers to order large sup
plies OF coal from America and had
thus deprived this country temporar-
lily Of its export trade.
FUTURE PRESENTS DIFFICULTIES
perhaps none of the problems to-
day present greater difficulty than
the future OF naval construction
said the duke. in conclusion. I'VE
might pride ourselves on the fact thar
we had succeeded in solving similar
problems in the past.
IF we have not always been FIRST
in inventive science we. have always
been pre-eminent in that greater wis
dom which consisted in 'he adapta-
ton of means to an end, which saw
the goal clearly before it and with a
due sense OF proportion, avoiding all
extreme courses of action, utilizing
every invention of science for the at
tainment and maintenance of that OBJ
ject which was the end and aim of ali
their efforts-Great Britatn's suprem-
acy on the sea-"