Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-08-07
NEW BRITISH TRADE PLANS
EXPLAINED BY HASKIN
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskio

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7.--Amerl-
can foreign traders will have to in
crease their enterprise and ingenuity
If they are going to hold their domi-
nant position in world markets
against the new drive which is to be
expected from Great Britain. The
American Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce has been ae-
complishing much toward expand
ing the overseas trade of the manu-
facturers of the United States, but
news now comes from London which
promises to produce a fresh source
of competition,
Great Britain for five hundred
! years has been one of the greatest of
| the trading nations. Her people live
chiefly by trade. They have done
well in the past, but the quickened
| pace of modern times has produced
new circumstances in which it has
| been discovered that the British EN-
pire must knit more closely her
scattered resources If she Is going
to compete successfully with the
Americans and with continental
Europe.
The new plan is expected to
achieve a gain which will insure a
continued lively trade for the island
Empire. Great Birtain's colonies
dependencies and dominions spread
| over the globe. The sun never sets
on the British flag. With the pas
sage of time and the eXigencies of
| politics, some of these mighty pos
| sessions have drifted away from the
mother country. Advices from Eng
| land now say that an earnest effort
| is to be made to bring them back.
On June IS, the last date for which
! figures have been compiled unem-
ployment in Great Britain amounted
/ to approximately one and a quarter
4 million persons. While this was a
/ decrease of some sixteen per cent
compared with a year ago, it still
! indicates an unhealthy surplus of
man power over opportunity for
gainful pursuits.
Two years ago when President
Harding regarded the unemployment
situation in the United States as suf-
ficiently grave to necessitate the call
ing of a conference, the unmploy-
ment here was not believed to be
much over 100000. Great Britain
has little more than a third as many
people as the United States, If Ire
land Is excluded, as it must be now
the Emerald Isle is a free state. This
means that Great Britain now has
an army of unemployed greater
than the one which existed in the
United States at the time of the
! Presidents conference.
Have Been Long Out of Work
The bad part about the British
| n rAl1 ic fhaf 10 Of 1nnp
standing. These people have been
out of work ever since the post-ar-
mistice business depression. There
has been a slow absorption of labor
but it has not been nearly so rapid
as in the United States, where now
the entire surplus which existed two
years ago Is employed and a de-
mand exists for still more men.
. This is the purely British side o.
the picture and it is one which has
caused much perplexity to the lead
ers of British thought and politica
r action. The situation has produced
a tremendous financial drain on th'
Lational eXchequer for IT has beer
necessary to pay unemployment
doles to the workless. Millions o
pounds a month are paid out by th'
government to the people TO
whom there are no Jobs Whei
Stanley Baldwin, now prime minis
ter of Great Britain and then chan
cellor of the Exchequer, was Il
Washington last January to nego
tiate the funding Of the British wa
debt to the United States, he showe
figures which made 1t clear tina
Englands ability to pay was definite
n ly limited by the extent of the sum
which must be disbursed to aid tn
unemployed. A large proportion @
British taxes NUT be diverted, not t
: public works or to the discharge c
debts, as in the United States, bu
i to support of idle work ers.
The other side of the picture
j this: Great Britain has vast dc
lminions, conquered either from say
S age or backward peoples or frol
the wilderness, by British enterpris
II and prowess, just as the west wa
conquered by the American pioneer
5 The Dominion of Canada, for IL
! stance, is peopled by only fe
more inhabitants than New Yoi
= city and its environs. This grei
u expanse of fruitful territory cri
for people to develop it. The san
Is true of Australia in even great