A Time to Speak
By JOHN BENN
AHOPEFUL development is at work in British industry which, if encouraged on a wide enough scale, will do much to solve economic problems and foster social content. A few years ago many company-reports did not contain a single word to show the trade in which the particular firm was engaged. Today, not a moment too soon, progressive concerns are taking the public into their confidence on what the firm does, what are its aims and ideals and how it serves the nation.
Former practice lent colour to the criticism that industry was only- interested in making profits and obscured the fact that profits were dependent on success or failure to provide a service to the public. Many of my generation, which grew up in the First World War and fought in the Second, were deeply worried in the 'thirties by the maladjustments of the old order which culminated in the tragedy of the depressed areas. We have been equally worried since 1945 by the frustration and muddles of the new, and are convinced that the prescription for economic well-being will never he the monopoly of any political party.
Hard work and common sense, personal initiative and responsibility, quick decisions at all levels, fair dealing and a sense of service—these are some of the factors that keep the wheels of industry turning in a democratic society. And, since these factors are so much needed in the nationalised industries (where sheer size and weight of numbers make for inertia), any steps which promote them are serving a national purpose. Here, I think, is the answer to those who hesitate to advertise the merits of private • enterprise because of political implications. As shareholders, they ask, include members of opposing parties, can a company rightly spend money supporting one side ? In the long run all forms of industry will benefit from educating the public in fundamentals.
At the moment, overriding all political differences on economic policy, is the urgent need to pay our way as a nation vitally dependent on overseas trade. Much more therefore needs saying about the City's contribution to the nation's housekeeping. It is fairly easy to understand what a coal- miner does. We all use his product; we all realise that mining is a dangerous trade, and so the miner rightly commands the popular respect. It is far less easy to understand that a City worker is equally productive. Quite intelligent people are apt to regard the City as concerned mainly with financial manipula- tion of a get-rich-quick kind, and as the head of a City firm I constantly find that even thOse who work in the Square Mile are not all alive to the importance of their business. Yet this knowledge would be a spur to the still greater efforts now demanded of all of us, whether we go to work in overalls or bowler hats.
How many people are aware that the City's overseas gross earnings last year paid for twenty-four per cent. of the nation's imports of goods and services, so providing the food and raw materials from abroad for at least 12,000,000 of the population•of our crowded islands ? In this context I use the term City to include the parallel exchanges, markets and shipping services in other great towns besides London, which all contribute to these vital earnings, equal last year to 5s. 10d. in the pound of -the United Kingdom's import bill.
This brings me to the export drive, a theme now used effec- tiveliin some manufacturers' advertisements. A chemical firm describes how the problem of " cargo-sweat," whicb disfigured the bodywork and upholstery of motor-cars in transit through tropical seas, was solved by paint-research chemists, " thus helping a British car-manufacturer to maintain a valuable export market in Australia." (The copy-writer might well have • added " and so helping to buy wool and meat for the British working man.") The quality of team-work is brought out by a firm of civil engineers whose announcements are published " to show what British workers can achieve in spite of difficulties, given oppor- tunity and backed by enterprise." The erection of a new television station in the Pennines, 1,750 feet above sea-level, involved working in swirling cloud and sometimes drenching rain, the stones having to be hacked out of the snow and thawed over coke-braziers. " The men never gave in. They not only finished the work on time; they made a good job of it. They worked with a will and they worked as a team."
As these two examples are taken more or less at random from advertisements in current newspapers, I cannot refrain from commending Lord Burghley's lead (also reported a few days ago) in taking the shareholders round the works of a radio firm before they attended its annual meeting. Eighty shareholders took advantage of this admirable procedure, which might well be widely adopted. It follows that such firms are keeping their employees posted on the value of 'their daily job, showing how each process contributes to the finished pro- duct and the product in turn to the national need.
An advertisement I saw as an undergraduate in America thirty years ago made such a lasting impression that I offer the idea to any British manufacturer who may happen to read these lines. It showed a student shovelling coal into a boiler, and, in extolling self-help, concluded that, far from missing advantages enjoyed by richer undergraduates, this young man" was " learning the amount of sweat a ten dollar bill represents." American business has long believed in " public relations," and for some time past the American Advertising Council has been conducting Press campaigns to create " a better informed democracy." A typical statement explains how machines have lowered prices, reduced hours, raised wages and made extra jobs. The investor's part is also dealt with, and, instead of being represented as the villain of the piece, he is shown to be a friendly partner whose savings are essential to business development. Under the general heading " The Cure for Suspicion is Knowledge," the Atlantic Monthly is publishing sponsored articles in which advertisers express their views on economic and political problems. The damaging effect of high taxes on enterprise is attracting much attention just now.
It may be asked whether publicity of this kind can ever make much impression on the mass of the British people, since the resources at the disposal of modern Governments have not so far sufficed to bring home, for example, the gravity of the dollar gap. It was long ago said by Goethe that " he who would succeed in accomplishing anything must work within limits "; effective advertising should therefore aim at the think- ing minority of all political persuasions whose influence is out of proportion to their numbers. Many of these are the floating voters, who are estimated to comprise at least ten per cent. of the electorate. These are the folk who'chip in when a speaker is getting too far from the facts, whether at a public meeting, in a railway-carriage or a bar.
We are still not out of the wood as regards overseas payments, and unhappily we are sorely divided in our political life. This is, indeed, a time for industry to speak, for the qualities which made Britain great in the past will do so again under the right leadership.
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