Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MU5IC TRADE
VOL.
LXIII. No. 16 Published Every Saturday by the Estate of Edward Lyman Bill at 373 4th Ave., New York, Oct. 14, 1916
etitive Conditions After
FTER the war—what?" has become rather a common subject for writers on business subjects, and
it is difficult to pick up a general magazine these days without finding therein some article of
prophecy dwelling primarily upon the terrible situation that will exist in the United States when
•the European nations settle their differences and start out to regain their commercial prestige.
Much of it is true, but there is also considerable buncombe, particularly the threat of the flocking of European
workmen into the American field.
An unusually clear-headed and conservative review of "after the war" possibilities, however, was recently
presented by Edward N. Hurley, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, before a convention of Ohio
bankers, who made a point in his talk that the commercial danger from Europe after the war lies not in the
outflow of cheap skilled labor, or in the marketing of billions of dollars worth of merchandise at cut-throat
prices, but rather a new competition with industries that have been developed enormously in the matter of
efficiency during the period of hostilities. In his speech, which is well worthy the attention of every business
man in the United States, Mr. Hurley said in part:
"When we think of Europe we think of a continent engulfed in war, devastated and disordered, but we
must correct that conception. While in many respects we know little of what is going on in the warring
nations, we do know that within sound of the guns, almost within reach of the falling shells, Europe is reor-
ganizing her industries. Under the stress of a life-and-death struggle every effort is being made to obtain
the highest efficiency in the production, the distribution and the use of commodities of all kinds. Conservatism
in industrial ideals and methods has been blasted and shattered to pieces in the shock of war, old systems
that normally would have hung on for years have been discarded in a day, old equipment that would have
been retained for years has been scrapped as fast as possible for new installations of the most advanced types.
New processes are being discovered, new r inventions are being made, and new forms of organization are being
created. To illustrate: Industrially, France has been pre-eminently the land of small-scale, highly individual-
ized production, but she now lacks human hands. In France little farms that for generations have been
farmed practically by hand or with the aid of a horse or two, are being thrown together and farmed
co-operatively by tractors, gang plows and modern agricultural implements. France must rely on machinery.
Her business men are studying and are applying American systems of manufacture in factory construction,
in equipment, and in large-scale, highly systematized production.
"England industrially has been pre-eminently the land of yesterday. Conservatism was the dominant
characteristic of British business. While Massachusetts was making textiles with automatic looms under
conditions that permitted one operator to tend from sixteen to twenty-four machines, Lancashire clung to
old equipment and conditions, under which one operator could tend but four machines. But at last England
is aroused, and to-day American books on efficiency and scientific management are being bought by the hundreds
and studied all over England. The war has compelled Great Britain to make thirty years of industrial
progress in thirty months.
"Before the war Germany was probably the most highly organized and efficient manufacturing nation
in the world, but in Germany organization and efficiency have been still further developed, and, no matter
whether victorious or defeated, the Germany that emerges from the war w r ill be years ahead of the Germany
we knew,in 1914.
"These changes are of great concern to us. We may not realize this to-day, because things are coming
our way now, but we must look ahead to the future conditions we must prepare to meet. Almost before we
know it we will find a new Europe competing against us with war-sharpened brains and war-hardened muscles,
7C
(Continued on page 5)