in New England informed us that the first economy made, in the case of a firm that found itself unable to pay dividends, was the stopping of directors' fees. In our opinion a great deal of the available ability in England is being misdirected in many ways, among which is its utilization in an endeavor to force sales at prices above those of our competitors. More attention should be paid to reducing the costs of manufacturing our products, instead of vainly endeavoring to secure high prices from the purchaser.

To reiterate, American executives have no compunction in relieving their organizations of inefficients.

It is accepted in America that the path to progress and prosperity lies primarily in the reduction of costs chiefly by means of the greater and greater application of time- and trouble-saving devices, new processes, and the improvement of transportation. This clearly can be accomplished only by research. It is of such importance that American manufacturers are concentrating a large proportion of their activities on research and experimental work. Moreover, they devote considerable sums of money to this cause. American executives scour the world to obtain the best ability in the fields of research in which they are most interested. We would instance the well-known, large, and efficient research-department of the General Electric Company, which we visited at Schenectady. These laboratories produced, inter alia, the Tungsten filament lamp and the Coolidge X-ray tube.

The work of the Research and Experimental plant of the Ford Motor Company at Dearborn, Michigan, is truly amazing. This company procured the services of Mr. Carl E. Johansson, the inventor of the Johansson gauge blocks, upon which improve

ments are now being made under the supervision of this gentleman. The Ford laboratories discovered that it was more economical, taking into account cost and strength, to use flax rather than cotton in the manufacture of the body of motor tire covers. The company now grows its own flax at Dearborn. The crop is harvested, spun, and woven into covers at the Ford plant at Detroit. . . .

The anticipation of saturation in America's home consumption is rather apt to be overstressed. There are certain commodities that now enjoy a large sale among the richer classes but which will be produced in larger quantities when they are made available to the lower classes by a reduction in price. This point should be remembered when considering the development of our home market. The Ford Motor Company now produces two million motor-cars per annum, and in spite of this we found the company has as much as it can do to cope with the demand in the United States alone. We discussed this situation with two prominent Ford dealers from St. Louis, who said, quite definitely, that the potential market for Ford cars among the farming population of the Middle West was only as yet scratched, their own sales amounting to but ten thousand cars a year.

We now come to a point to which we earnestly wish to direct the attention of British manufacturers. It was generally admitted to us that the Americans have very little knowledge of marketing their goods abroad, so that, given the same quality and prices, they have a long way to go to compete with Great Britain in the development of selling organizations abroad. We are convinced that the attention of American manufacturers will, for many years to come, be centred on their home markets, during

which time it will not be necessary for them to make serious attempts to develop foreign markets. On the other hand, we cannot too strongly emphasize the fact that the general costs of production in the United States are slowly but surely on the downward grade. Unless other nations can equal their price and quality, the time is not far distant when foreign purchasers will find it advantageous to establish their own purchasing agencies in America itself. From the American manufacturer's point of view his products will tend more and more to sell themselves abroad on account of quality and price, rendering it unnecessary for him to find his own foreign market. This procedure has, of course, taken place in Great Britain in the past. The coal of South Wales, for instance, owing to its good quality and price, has attracted foreign purchasing agents who established themselves in Cardiff. This, then, is the nature of the danger of which British manufacturers must take notice.

To sum up, therefore, the lack of foreign selling experience on the part of American manufacturers, which has been responsible for belittling their competitive capacity in foreign markets in the eyes of British manufacturers, is entirely outweighed by their unquestioned ability to produce at low cost, and so will certainly not prevent the purchase of their goods abroad. . .

Labor-saving machinery has come to be regarded in England as a device for doing away with labor - meaning men. It should rather be thought of as time- and trouble-saving machinery. It is machinery for helping the workingman to increase his output and his earnings, and therefore, under proper management, to raise his standard of living.

The secret of prosperity of an in

dustrial country undoubtedly lies in the use of every means for increasing the productive capacity per capita, coupled with a managerial policy which provides every man with an incentive to increase his turnover. In Great Britain management has, in most cases, failed to provide this incentive. As a consequence labor, in self-defense, has had recourse to protection through trade-union organizations, and for this labor cannot be blamed. Owing to the failure of management to convince labor of the advantages of increased productivity by paying, in some proportion to output, hard cash in wages at the end of the week, the introduction of time- and trouble-saving devices has been looked upon with disfavor and even suspicion by the trade-unions. This has driven the unions to the opinion that limitation of output is the only means of maintaining wage rates and employ

ment.

In Great Britain progress in industry, for this reason, appears to have come to a standstill, and it has been left to the management of American concerns to continue the industrial progress which commenced in Great Britain.

Our aim should be to raise wages. We cannot do this unless we provide appliances for increasing labor's productivity.

There are certain natural resources in Great Britain the potential value of which does not appear to be fully appreciated. We refer chiefly to the available water-power. In Great Britain the idea prevails that the only water-powers of value are in North Wales and Scotland, possibilities of low fall developments on every river in the country being ignored. It is striking to find that, although the Ford plants at Detroit are comparatively close to the coal-fields, the company has found it economical to

develop a head of only seven feet, six inches, on the Huron River to produce seven hundred kilowatts, not to mention several other smaller developments undertaken by this concern.

American business aims at the complete elimination of outside finance, the tendency being to use banks merely as clearing houses for payments and receipts. Not only is this of advantage to the business, but it also relieves the banks of the risk of financing, by means of floating or funded indebtedness, badly managed concerns.

Many British authorities have attributed American prosperity to the wealth of her natural resources, her considerable home market, and the influx of gold. America has really stumbled upon the secret of success owing to the fact that the scarcity of labor forced her, out of sheer necessity, to concentrate on the adoption of timeand trouble-saving devices. In Great Britain we have never experienced this scarcity of labor. We are fortunate in having a quality of labor second to none. Our workmen are well educated, intelligent, respectable and respectful, honest and conscientious. Moreover, we have in our people, apart from physical fitness of the first order, latent talent in the shape of initiative and ingenuity and a determination to face every trouble we can dig up. Taken

altogether the foregoing represent an asset of far greater value than the whole of the natural resources of America.

With regard to America's considerable home market it should be remembered that, in proportion to the size of the country, her population is smaller than that of Great Britain.

In our opinion the influx of gold has merely been responsible for stemming, for a temporary period, the steady downward tendency of the level of prices in America.

While Government can assist in a return to prosperity by legislation directed against the pernicious system of price-fixing rings, which undeniably exists in Great Britain, success can be achieved only by individual initiative and effort on the part of the management of industrial concerns. As a proof that the difficulties that such a management would have to face are not insurmountable, we would mention that at least one British firm to our knowledge has already adopted, with striking success, the lines of policy generally indicated in this Report. The wages paid by this concern have already risen to approximately double the standard trade-union rates.

An exemplary lead by the Government in drastic cuts in national expenditure would provide an incentive to the elimination of waste.

I DOUBT if any event of recent years has attracted such world-wide notice and attention as the forthcoming single between (what I think we may rightly call) the two best women players in the world to-day, Mlle. Suzanne Lenglen, of France, and Miss Helen Wills, of America. I cannot but think that it is not only from a tennis point of view that this match should prove to be so interesting, but also from the fact that these two girls possess temperaments of no ordinary character, and that therefore the contest becomes a great deal more enthralling for the reason that each one will approach it in a very different way.

Mlle. Lenglen, of course, is known to us all as the greatest woman player of the present day, 'the eighth wonder of the world' in fact, as a very wellknown personage once remarked during a speech made in her honor. Not the least of her charm is the fact that she is able to produce her game without any apparent severe concentration and with an entire absence of that dreaded 'tennis face' which is so very unattractive and at the same time so very easy a habit to fall into, when all the muscles are strained to the utmost attention and each stroke seems to be made with a visible and at times painful amount of effort. With Suzanne there is none of this, and even after the hardest rally I have often seen her look round to smile at her mother or possibly one of her many friends among the

1 From the Outlook (London Independent weekly), February 13

spectators. She is never unsmiling, although never for a moment unconcentrated, and her eye is even quicker than her foot, which is, indeed, saying a great deal. There is no question with Suzanne of why she produces such a wonderful game. There is nothing miraculous about it; it is simply because she has studied the foundations of the game to their utmost, and therefore her footwork, her placing, and her timing -all three equally important for perfect tennis- are exactly right.

You have only to hear her comments on the game to understand how perfectly she realizes the importance of these things. I remember, for instance, once pointing out to her a player whom a great many people considered to be a very fine exponent of the game, and her answer was, 'Yes, my dear, she hits well, but why does she not go for the lines, and why are her feet so slow?'- both remarks absolutely correct and showing exactly the peculiar weakness of the player in question, which in watching the fineness of her stroke I had completely forgotten. Suzanne is merciless on defects like these; to her they are the very beginning and end of the science of lawn-tennis. She cannot comprehend why players should not be able to anticipate the coming stroke, and, having done so, why they should be so long in hitting the ball when they have done so. With her, of course, she hits it at the full length of her arm and racket before it has reached the height of the bounce, and therefore gains

a second or two every time in advance of her opponent. 'Why are they so slow in hitting the ball?' I have frequently heard her say, and certainly she never errs in that respect herself. To beat Suzanne of the lightning feet one must be perfectly equipped at every point of the game, and, most important of all, one must be able to hit the ball even more quickly than she does herself a very difficult feat indeed, and one which I doubt if any woman living will be able to accomplish.

Having said which, let us pass on to consider Miss Helen Wills, or 'Little Poker-Face' as the Americans affectionately call her. To begin with, this young American is some six years younger than Mlle. Lenglen, and naturally it would be unreasonable to expect such finished perfection of style in one who has had but two or at most three years of first-class lawn-tennis.

Miss Wills undoubtedly plays a very fine game of lawn-tennis indeed the more so because she has nothing 'showy' about it whatever, from her straight well-placed overhand service to her powerful forehand drive and carefully hit volley; but the fact remains that to my mind she is a 'made' player, as the saying goes, while with Suzanne it is a case of natural genius, and therefore I can see insurmountable obstacles for the young American to overcome. Of course, Miss Wills has in her favor the perfect lawn-tennis temperament, and anything more wonderful than the calm with which she moves over the court without a smile or change of expression of any sort, but always equally reposeful and serene, I have yet to see. Certainly she has captivated the French people, heart and soul, and one cannot wonder, for her whole bearing and movements on court are delightful; in addition to which she is an extremely pretty girl. Her complexion alone calls forth a

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shower of compliments wherever she goes, and, as I say, her delightfully unassuming manner and complete absence of 'swank' complete the rest. To my mind her only weakness and it is a big one- lies in her immobility. She is not able, like Suzanne, to change the direction of her stroke at the very last second, nor is she able to 'take off' as quickly for each stroke as her French opponent. To counteract this, of course, she has indubitably a more powerful forehand than Mlle. Lenglen, while her backhand, although not showy, is an extremely well-placed and attacking stroke, which she can hit into any part of the court at will. Miss Wills has the true fighting spirit, and she will go full out until the last stroke has been played. She never tires, and at the same time she anticipates so well that her comparative slowness of foot is much neutralized.

I doubt if anyone in the South is looking forward with more interest to the coming match than I am, for I see in it great possibilities of great tennis played by two very attractive girls, and more than that one cannot say. Of course the betting here is fast and furious, and it is indicative of the respect in which Suzanne is held that no one is laying level money on the match itself, but only upon the number of games which Miss Wills is likely to secure in each set. To say that this match is by far the most important event of the present Riviera season is saying very little indeed. It is so much the most important that it has overshadowed everything else completely. Nothing else is so frequently alluded to as a topic of conversation. As I said before, apart from the tennis, which will be of the best, we shall see the French national temperament, volatile, quick, and utterly intelligent, as opposed to the calm security and dogged determination of young America.