"Get Out Or Go Under!"

No financial review in the U. S. would have dared to close the year 1929 with a full-page cartoon showing the gigantic "Bears" of business depression advancing down a street of impressive financial buildings, while ahead of them with fear-blanched faces flee four men representing Germany, Great Britain, the U. S., and France.

It would not have been American to give this depressing cartoon the caption GET OUT OR GO UNDER: Bruin on the Bourse. But it was very British to do so, and very like the respected Manchester Guardian Commercial to come paddling serenely along with its Commercial Annual Review 1929, long after most citizens of the U. S. had been glad to forget there ever was such a year.

Boldly displayed without an accompanying article of any kind was a map of England and Wales--such a map as no living man could make of the U. S., for the necessary information does not exist. Entitled lugubriously WHERE THE SHADOW FALLS: Unemployment At A Glance, the map shows from official statistics of the Ramsay MacDonald Labor Government exactly the percentage of unemployment in each and every British county, not forgetting "Salop" the concise if nonsensical abbreviation for "Shropshire."

"All modern humanity," cheerfully begins The Commercial's leading article, "except for short periods the Americans, seems to be afflicted with economic pessimism. . . ."

Of its own district The Commercial headlines MANCHESTER FOLLOWS THE CROWD: Northern Industrials Fall With The Rest.

But despite all this the review, once it strikes its stride, brims with compactly presented, arresting news:

Coal Picks Up. In almost optimistic vein it is admitted that the British coal trade, hardest hit by the British General Strike and Coal Strike of 1926, and very nearly prostrate for years afterward, is now at last "convalescent."

"All the regular markets for British coal, except Spain, have this year taken larger supplies. . . . There is every reason to hope that the last quarter's figures will show a small profit for the whole year. . . . But very large mining areas are still working at a loss, while the profit for the whole country has been small." Though one would never suspect it by looking at the funereal unemployment map, some 50,000 more British miners have work now than during the same period a year ago, but some 150,000 miners remain jobless.

Cut-throat Shippers. "The annual increase in trade throughout the world" sighs The Commercial "appears to be . . . so very small as not even to be keeping up with normal progress in other directions."

How then explain the paradox that, with little or no increase in the volume of business they can collectively expect to get, all the great maritime freight carriers are building newer, faster ships? Explanation: each is girding to fight with newer, more efficient weapons for a larger individual share of the bone which is admittedly not big enough to nourish all.

Ordinarily a crack British freight line sells the old ships it is ready to discard to Lithuanians or Albanians et al.; but The Commercial pertinently recalls that several such old tubs have recently been broken up and sold for a song as junk, the owners preferring not to get a good price for them as ships for fear they would crop up in competition later, much as sellers of new automobiles look on "used cars" as a menace to their business (see p. 45).

Canada to Recess. Looking out at the Dominions, The Commercial sees A SHADOW OVER CANADA: Two Crop Failures In Succession, adds: "It is now evident that the trade of the Dominion has received a severe setback [crop failure . . . falling off in production . . . decline in earnings of industry . . . collapse of the stock market], and in place of the lulls which have occurred from time to time in the past six years there will be a definite recession."

Fool's Paradise. From Australia The Commercial's correspondent reported: "Recent events apparently justify the repeated warning of financial critics that we have been 'living in a fool's paradise. . . ." Probable decline in exports for the current year (1929-30) of as much as -L-30,000,000. . . . Undoubtedly the chief depressing influences were the decline in the price of wool and . . . a pronounced tightening in the international money markets [which] has seriously affected the capacity of London to supply Australian Governments with their usual quota of loan funds--from -L-25,000,000 to -L-30,000,000 per annum in recent years."

All this refers, of course, to the existence in Australia of one of the most daringly Socialistic governments possessed by any English-speaking community, a Labor Government supporting the high Australian minimum wage law. With other alarmed British authorities The Commercial asks: "Is Her Standard of Living too High?" but of course the cautious Commercial does not, like some other commentators, accuse Australians of being Socialistic loafers.

Bed Rock Business. South Africa is found to be in a period of "transition from post-War prosperity to bedrock normal business," having suffered like Australia from the fall of wool prices. Moreover the African "diamond market immediately became depressed" after "the great financial debacle in America" and "inevitably exercised an adverse influence on [South African] commerce and industry generally."

Lucky Ireland. Almost The Commercial's only bright page is that headed IRISH FREE STATE'S STEADY ADVANCE: The Shannon Scheme Completed.

Not burdened like Mother Britain with a disheartening War debt, pert Daughter Ireland has been stepping out for Prosperity. The business event of the year was of course the virtual completion of President Cosgrave's stupendous German-engineered project for hydroelectrification of the oft sung and storied River Shannon (TIME, Aug. 5). But The Commercial supplies many a significant fact about what has happened since Henry Ford changed his mind about "abandoning Ireland."

"The official figures show that the exports of tractors for October 1929, amounted to -L-296,000 ($1,438,560), against nil in the previous year,.while for the ten months ended October last the figure was -L-1,234,253 ($5,998,469)."

Decision by Mr. Ford to give Irish prosperity this potent boost was taken on the famed junket to England (TIME, April 23, 1928), during which King George and Queen Mary put etiquette in their royal pockets and went to the house of Viscountess Astor, where they were in effect presented to Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford. Long, informal and marked by cordiality on both sides was the ensuing chat between the King of Men and the Monarch of Motors, a chat which may just possibly have been momentous and lucky for Ireland.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.