Glinipses of the sheets going to press, containing most interesting matter, the full-page
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A. Comfortable illustrations of classi
fied groups of ve hicles and tractors, together with my department's notinconsiderable gleanings, give me a comfortable feeling that this Overseas Number is going to be easily the best special we have produced. It is distinctly encouraging to the workers on this journal, to find such prompt and confident support. It was my mission to interview as many as 1 could, and to communicate with others of the manufacturers, and evidently they remember keenly our early missionary efforts in spreading the gospel of commercial motoring abroad. It will be readily appreciated by a careful perusal of this issue, that the worth of the pages devoted exclusively to a firm's own announcements has been fully recognized.
It seemed odd to me, when I encountered a few (indeed, a very few) firms who were not in the least interested in trade across the seas; they were, mostly, concerns which only possess rights of sale for the British Isles. One case I dropped across struck me as very quaint. The English branch establishment was selling motor fitments to an Eastern country, and found it was meeting strong competition ; prices had to be cut down and down. An appeal was made to headquarters. to be given still-lower prices. and eventually, when the profit had gone nearly to vanishing point, in con Not Competing Now. sequence of the unknown rival's pricecutting, the English house discovered, to its dismay, that it was its own headquarters it had been competing against. " Since then," he remarked to me sententiously, " we have practically dropped our efforts for foreign trade."
Mr. Punch recently rebuked a Canadian contemporary, which had been guilty of "lifting" one of his inimitable sketches, and I feel sure that genial satirist will forgive poor me if I follow his lead with two recent glaring cases of misappropriation from these valuable pages. It is not at the "Out and ionic" efforts that these maraudings have been directed; it is to the real part of the paper—the work of the brain department, as I term it in my admiring moments—. that the " picking " process has been applied. Our Editor refuses to take any notice of these most-unfair tactics, but 1, personally, do not think that they should go unchallenged, or be regarded as beneath contempt, as his silence in the matter only encourages others to do likewise. Why, it is but a few weeks back that one of his Editorials was reproduced, in the pages of an English contemporary, without any acknowledgment whatever 1 1, therefore, to adopt Mr. Punch's method, beg to acknowledge, on behalf of the Editors of "La Vie Automobile," of Paris, and "The Automobile," of New York, the lifting or " adaptation " of a chart, a link-motion diagram, and a sectional drawing of a part of a car A Belated Ackrwraledgment. buretter, all of which were originally prepared by a member of the Editorial staff for publication in the pages of Tax COMMERCIAL MOTOR. M. A. Lauret, of "La Vie Automobile," is guilty of appropriating one only of the three illustrations named, but it is not many weeks since, that a similar omission of acknowledgment in " La Vie Automobile " was noted by
us in this office.
Lancashire often sets a lead to other parts of the country, in matters appertaining to industrial enterprises. This is especially noticeable in connection with the summer holiday of the workers. The factories close down for an entire week or 10 days, no matter in busy times how far behind with orders, and the employees, almost without exception, migrate—each succeeding summer—to Blackpool or the Isle of Man : a small proportion, with more imagination and desire to see the world, seeks "fresh woods and pastures new," but everyone takes holiday. For a good span of years I represented in London a notable Lancashire firm, so I am writing from the inside and of that which has come within my personal knowledge. They manage it in this way. Each factory has its " Going-off " club, and a contribution of two to four shillings per week goes without intermission into this club's coffers. Then, when August and sweet September amble along, out come the savings, and, as I say, it usually spells Blackpool. Anyhow, the change of venue is excellent, and my reason for going into this is that factories in other parts of the country might do well to follow Lancashire niethods.
Lancashire's Way.
"Going-off" Clubs.
These reflections were stirred up within me by a recent visit to War
rington. I was call Workgirls at ing on Mr. J. H. C. Bockey. Brooking, at the
St. Helen's Cable Co.'s Works, and when I left it was within the luncheon hour ; the workgirls were busily engaged in a game of hockey, and very well some of them played too. I have ventured, only recently, to air my views on football and athletic clubs, in connection with manufacturing concerns, and it appears to me that Lancashire, with the. above most-interesting innovation, leads again.