Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-09-18
FINDS GOLF HURTS
BUSINESS IN i. S.
Expert Sees More Danger in
Long Week Ends. Than in
Foreign Competition.
by j. C. ROYLE.

Speea1 Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. September 1s.-Week
ends and weak arrangements are the
two greatest dangers faced by Amer
lean industry today. That is the
opinion of one of the foremost BUSH
has just returned from an investiga-
ton in Europe looking toward
American financing of European re-
Mobilization.
Foreign competition and the high
scale of wages now obtaining in the
United States are not dangers to be
feared, he maintains. and his opinion
carries weight in banking and bust
ness circles. Inefficient and careless
management he regards as respons-
ible for nine-tenthS of the difficulties
now being encountered by various
lines of industry.
Too Many Golf Courses,
THE trouble with this country" he
said, us that there are too many golf
courses here. We are beginning to
fall into the pit into which British
Industry sIumped some time back We
are commencing to look forward too
much to the week end. Not only that,
but business men and executives are
starting it on Friday and finishing it
on Tuesday,
when / came home | found my
sons hurrying to the golf links on
practically every weekday afternoon.
The excuse was that they had to take
customers there and that by this
means they could close business
which could be had in no other way.
The customers had a similar excuse
10 offer. maintaining they could do
business more advantageously on the
links than in the office. Each deluded
hlmslf into belief in what he want
ed to believe. The same error used to
obtain in the boom mining camps in
the West. where it was the theory
that 1t was impossible to buy or sell
al mine or conclude business deal
elSeW here than in saloon.
Fear Loss of Holidays.
1t is strange thing that. while
American manufacturers cry contipu-
ally that they want Europe reha bill
lated, they seem thoroughly unwill-
ing TO see Europs's debts to the
United states cancelled or to see the
countries OF Europe in sufficiently
prosperous condition to pay them.
ihey harp on the fear of European
competition. Any time a line of in
dustry with the advantages offered
by this country fears European com
petition, II ought To go out of BUSH
ness. What the business executives
really fear is that they will lose not
the1r markets, but their Saturday
afternoons off
The clear-headed. competent Amer
lean business executive is not afraid
OF our high scale of wages. He wants
II kept high. realizing that if he can
utilize this highly paid labor to its
maximum efficiency through proper
management and improved machinery
ne need fear no low-paid labor COM
petition.
French People Industrious,
motored one day I'll miles
through France. / did not see a sim
gle golf course. but | did see a lot
OF men and women working in the
nelds, not until the whistle blew, but
until long after the moon had risen.
However. if the trend is continued,
establishment of continuous golf
courses across the country may tend
TO solve curtaIlment of overproduc-
ton of agricultural products
OF course, this Investigator, whose
name Is not mentioned simply be-
cause the character of his mission to
Europe makes il inadvisablc at pres
ent, spoke hgurativeiy with regard
10 golf, but his statement assumes de-
cided Importance in view of the fire.
quent charges of labor leaders that
the move to reduce wages in New
England is the forerunner of Il de-
termination on the part of manufac-
turers to force a lower labor scale
Immediately after election, no matter
what party is successful.
Gompers' Views on Labor.
AS to efficiency of management. the
statement finds a ready seconder in
Samuel Gompers, president Of the
American Federation of Labor. who
declares that labor is entitled not
IN a 1iyin,r
American standards. but also to the
utmost efficiency of mana cement. ma
chinery and equipment, and that such |
efficiency would insure equal improve
mcnt Of the condition of employer
and employc-