23 JULY 1921, Page 3

No sane person suggests that hand-workers here should accept a

starvation wage in order to compete with Germany. We are perfectly sure, however, that British market after British market will be ruined if the workers do not produce in such a way as to justify high wages. That high wages are compatible with vast and cheap production has long been proved by America. But such triumphs are not won by fining a man for producing too much, as has just been done by a trade union here ; by preventing a bricklayer from laying more than 320 bricks a day when he might lay 1,000, or by raising objections to up-to-date machinery on the ludicrous theory that it will cause unemployment.