EARNESTNESS IN RECONSTRUCTION.
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IS THERE NOT just a danger that our war-worn manner of talking in terms of hustle is nothing more than a manner? Our enthusiastic adope tion of the idea of reconstruction, before the wheels of wa' had barely begun to slow—are these not signs that we were merely talking I
With the spur of so-called patriotismaernoved, to say nothing of the growing consciousness of the dread of possible defeat, is it not a fact that, /Isla nation of workeri at any rate, we are not living up to our newly-recorded professions? It is not yet to be forgotten that last Christmastide a very great many of us were glibly priding ourselves on "having got over the reconstruction period a great deal more easily than confirmed pessimists would have us anticipate." We thought it our duty, as a recognized trade journal—and one be it noted in the hands of representa el& tives of every trade with transport problems—to warn our readers at that same festive season that, as a. matter of fact reconstruction had not then even been considered, that it was still a problem for solution for many months ahead.
Yet, here we are well on into the summer, sixmonths later, with the peace formalities only jest being. ratified, and can it honestly be declared that there is any very considerable evidence of the new methods, the mass production, the world Campaign? Are we not, as a matter of fact, with the exceptions of bigger premises and plant and a too-ready eagerness to inflate our financial commitments, ma-king a far worse ehow now than we ever did before a-s a producing community ? It is all very well to point blankly at the demands of labour, but what -new methods of tackling these new demands have we evolved during the past six months? Outputs are steadily climbing downwards and not upwards. Costs are rapidly increasing in every direction. And, so far as our somewhat exhaustive knowledge .of happenings goes, there are no effective means yet in existence of tackling these .almost overbearing and certainly most serious problems. Is there not a. grave danger that the motor vehicle industry, unexpectedly smothered with demands for output; is lulling itself into a self-complacent state and hoping'the position will improve without the necessity of anything drastic becoming necessary ? This whole question of reconstruction, which is now at last presenting itself for solution, is goingto be the mast difficult. problem that this country has had to face for".the past 100 years not excluding the . years of this last and of previous wars. Is it generally known that vast orders for electrical machinery • for the reconstruction of Belgium have definitely been lost to this country already? Do-,we realize that rails and railway material for India and South Africa • are being ordered in vast quantities in America? And that what has happened with rails and electrical goods is quite certain to happen .almost immediately with the motor vehicle ?
, No! We are not tackling the gigantic problenwof reconstruction in the right way—if we are indeed actually tackling them at all. We are perilously near relapsing into our old-time apathetic and complacent mood. Mass production is on everyone's lips but hardly anywhere else ! Increased output, and in creased wages as the result, is a state of affairs that we have not even begun to consider seriously. The productien position is a vastly more serious one than is audibly :conceded, and if we are notkmistaken, it is our duty to utter a word of warning to the industry, of which we are so proud and with. whichwe have been intimately associated so long, that the present congested state of order books, the patience and long-suffering of purchasers and their relative disregard for high prices will not last for ever—nor indeed very long. We must do more than talk about production. We must get on. with it on a vastly increased scale. We must no longer allow the present labour position to endure unchallenged. Wemust start doing what we havebeen talking about for months past—even if there has to be a, lot of knuckle-rapping in the doing of it. Otherwise, there will very shortly be black days ahead for our own industry and for most others,upon which the country-now depends for its high-priced and poor-quality bread and cheese. Not much longer will users bid at auction 2,000 guineas for a three-ton chassis! The day will very soon be here when orders will again want getting, and if we are still then only talking about production, we shall not be in a position to exert sales pressure. Industry has grown bodily, but has it yet correSpondingly increased mentally ? And that is what surely is implied by " Reconstruction!" What evidence as yet is there that any of us have learned "the lessons of the War ?"