* * * * We would do anything we could
to help the great Exhibition at the White City, known as the British Industries Fair, and the subsidiary exhibition at Castle Bromwich. Certainly, they have our very best wishes, especially that they may convince foreign buyers of the excellence of British materials and workmanship, skill and taste. The Exhibition in London of goods from the Dominions and Colonies is very welcome on grounds of sentiment and of business. We hope there will be a real Imperial enthusiasm • without the remotest chance of the revival of any of the ridiculous misconceptions of which we . heard after the Empire Marketing Board's last Exhibition, as though that Board had forgotten that this island is part of the Empire. We have written in a leading article upon the Lancashire Cotton Trade. Here we will only say that there is a better prospect of the intransigeance of the employers and employed breaking down. The masters have rejected the proposal for an inquiry by a Statutory Committee and proposed a small Joint Committee to report upon the costs of production. Our hope for the industry still lies in the fact that in no other has there existed more frankness or more knowledge of trade conditions shared from top to bottom, or more examples of successful negotiations in good times -and bad. We rejoice to see that in Shipbuilding the Masters' Federation is offering a small advance of wages. This shows their courage and good sense, -if it is economically sound, and it is the best hint we -have -yet had of optimism for the future.
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