The well-known adaptability of the British manufacturer is being shown
in O. new and curious way, for it is evident that though there has been a recent spurt in shipbuilding and some slight stirring in other heavy industries, the staple industries of the North are still depressed. The increased employment is in new trades which have sprung up in the main south of a line from the Wash to North Staffordshire. The most important of the new trades are artificial silk, the electric trade (including wireless), the transport trade, the building trade, the motor trade and above all the distribution trades. These are not depen- dent upon coal to the same degree as the northern trades. It is not to be supposed that the old industries are migrat- ing to the South. Sufficient new employment is being found in the South to account for the extraordinary fact that 47 per cent. of the total number of insured persons arc now south of the line from the Wash to North Staffordshire.
