THE CYCLE OF DEPRESSION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,-1 agree with all you so admirably state in the suggestive article in the Spectator of the 12th inst., but I altogether fail to see that the practical remedy you suggest would be of value. The Lancashire workmen, you say, and Mr. Morley, see clearly that we have too many cotton goods, and so propose to ask us to lessen production.
Admitting that we have too many cotton goods, which I greatly doubt, the cure proposed by Mr. Morley and his Lancashire friends is exactly opposed to yours. You suggest the advantage of removing a large part of the capital now invested in cotton factories, and investing it in silk-growing ; Mr. Morley suggests that the whole capital should remain in Lancashire, and that the price of cotton goods should be raised, by an artificial restriction on its productiveness. I wish to explain to you how this operates. I am a manufacturer of an article at present very cheap. I require to win £600 a. week ; about exactly £300 is required for wages, and £300 for depreciation, interest, and charges. Whether I run my machines ten hours a day or five hours, my fixed charges are alike. If I go five hours, my wages are £150; expenses, £300; total, £450.. A ten-hour day,—wages, £300; expenses, £300; total, £600. It is manifest that if I run five hours a day, and get no more for my goods, I shall be £150 a week worse off than I am now, even if I deduct the whole of the time lost (which is in practice impossible). from the wages of the operatives. The result of my going short time would be that a French opponent would instantly get all my business. What we need is exactly what you suggest, viz., the closing of a large number of our mills, the reduction of cost in increasing the out-put of plant. This is by far the most effective way to cheapen cost. To increase the working week from 56 to 60 hours would be equal to a reduction of the wages of my workmen of 15 per cent.
I am reluctant to say it, but I fear we erred in reducing our hours, with India and the Continent running against us 72 hours, a week. What will cure our trade is for every man to do his very most and his very best, for every mill-owner to make his costly plant as productive as possible. The mills costly to work or badly man- aged must altogether stop, and the principle of the survival of the fittest must be allowed full play. It is hard to write this, but it is true, as every practical man, acquainted with the management of a factory subject to keen competition, knows by daily experience.
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