Evening star., 1949-08-14
Britain's Dollar Crisis
Spurs Study Of Ways
To Boost Production
BY the Assoeioted Press

LONDON, Aug. 3.-The world rs
decision that a great deal OF
Britain's merchandise costs toe
much has proded British industry
into making a critical examina-
ton of its methods.
Productivity, ecomists agreed, is
a weak spot.
Too many men, according to
this view, are taking too much
time to turn out an inadequate
number of products. Time costs
money which must be added to
the price of commodities.
British exports aren't as well
come as they were, especially ir
dollar regions. Looking for the
reason, many trade specialists
agreed that Sir Stafford Cripps
chancellor of the Exchequer and
the country's financial planner
put a finger on the difficulty ir
his discussion of the dollar crisis
In the House of Commons.
Must Find Lower Prices.
The real way out of the present
economic troubles, said Sir Stat.
ford is to increase the productivity
of British factories. The solution
he proposed boils down to a neec
for more products per worker pei
day-more production in proper
ton to the capital invested in un-
dertakings.
1t was emphasized that Britain
must find the key to the door
marked lower prices" British
statesmen out in the buyers world
find customers lose interest when
they compare British price lists
with those of industrially more
efficient lands, particularly the
United States.
The salesmen's problems are
still manageable in sterling areas
because many regions lack the
dollars to buy much from the
United States.
Sales Dropping Sharply.
But the latest report of Harold
Wilson, president of the Board of
Trade, indicated the steep down.
ward trend of British sales in the
United States. He disclosed that
exports to America in June fell to
f2,983,00O ($11,932,000) from
f3.6O0,00O ($l4,400, ,O0O in May.
Exploring the reasons. special
lists at the Treasury and the Board
of Trade encountered examples
of striking contrasts in American
and British industrial organiza-
tions. Before the war convenient
generalization accepted by econ
omists was that the industrial pro-
ductivity of an American work.
man was roughly double that of
a comparable British workman.
Data for accurate comparisons
now is not available but it was
assumed that the general picture
has not changed greatly.
With the spotlight turned on
productivity, specialists of the
Treasury's economic unit studied
the record and decided that, if
the world generally were not so
upset, the record wouldn't be too
bad. Despite we'll known short
comings, Britain is making sJme
progress in boosting the indus
trial output per man. One way of
measuring productive efficiency Is
by study of the total volume of
industrial output, which in Britain
is a pretty accurate reflection of
the output of one man because
the number of workers Is fairly
constant. Efficiency is on the up
grade.
Comparison Based on 1916.
The Treasury takes the year
1946, the first full year after the
war, as a base which is graded 100.
The comparative production
figures for representative indus
tries in February, this year, are:
Cement and bricks ISL, glass
143, metals engineering and We
hicles 1873. chemicals 1873, textiles
139, clothing 1873, leather 95, foods
1T, tobacco and drinks 104, wooc
products 125, paper 1913, building
125 and gas and electricity 1877
Making less satisfactory show
ing Is the great, nationalized Goa.
industry. 1t barely reaches tar
gets and is considerably under the
production of prewar years. The
output in 1948 was 208,418, ,O0(
tons, compared with 287 ,000, 900 ir
1918 annd 231 $4,000 in 1899. But
miners now are bringing out the
coal at a rate of slightly more
than 100000 tons a week and
have good chance of reaching a
target of 210,000,00O tons this
year.
Efficiency Rising Satisfactorily
Viewed by itself, the gradual
increase in efficiency is fairly
satisfactory.
But the other side of the story
is that British imports have been
so great, the population has grown
so fast and the dollar gap in set
Elements has widened so swiftly
that productivity has not kept
pace with the needs. It is moving,
but not fast enough.
The large volume of imports
can. in the long run. be paid for
only with exports, and produc-
tivity is held to be faulty because