July, 1910.] 



17 



Fibres. 



pects of new work, were decidedly more 

 hopeful than they had been during 

 the past season. The engineering and 

 machine-making establishments had also 

 passed through a very severe and trying 

 time, and there was good reason to tear 

 that a period of full activity for them 

 was not quite near at hand. 

 The great problem of unemployment 

 - was still with them, and it was impres- 

 sive to find that during the year 1908-9 

 3,253 men were registered as in need of 

 work, and if the distress be now some- 

 what lessened, the question was still 

 serious and pressing, for, while the 

 Government and municipal authorities 

 might combine to give temporary relief, 

 this great question must be seriously 

 considered in relation to its causes, and 

 constructive legislation enacted with a 

 view to a remedy. Another side to that 

 picture, however, might be found in the 

 fact that more than £2,000,000 was 

 deposited in the Savings Bank ; that 

 there had been about 8,000 new de- 

 positors for the year, and that of the 

 fully 50,000 depositors a large percent- 

 age of them were their bona fide work- 

 ing classes, a worthy tribute to their 

 sobriety and thrift. It was an easy 

 retrospect to recall the special meeting 

 of that Chamber held some years ago, 

 and the most exhaustive and important 

 debate ever held within it, when the 

 Fiscal question, otherwise Tariff Reform, 

 was fully considered in its many aspects. 

 It might well be that the views of 

 traders and manufacturers were biassed 

 on this momentous question, and so it 

 would be shortly submitted as an alter- 

 native Imperial policy to existing con- 

 ditions to the supreme tribunal of the 

 nation, and whatever the verdict might 

 be, they would continue to cherish the 

 hope "That the best is yet to be," 

 (Applause.) 



Mr. W. Mackenzie seconded, and the 

 minutes were adopted. 



JUTE AND FLAX TRADES IN 1909, 



(From the Dundee Advertiaer, 31st 

 December, 1909.) 



With all its faults and drawbacks the 

 current year has not been without points 

 worthy of study. It has not had much 

 of the money-making element for the 

 producer, but, generally speaking, the 

 merchant and exporter of the manu- 

 factured article have fared well, and 

 now and again handsomely. The spinner 

 of jute yarns has not, save in an 

 exceptional ease, found it profitable, for 

 he environed himself in the penultimate 

 months of last year with raw material 

 3 



at a cost which at no subsequent date 

 could be realised. He saved himself so 

 far by averaging his purchases, but 

 was seldom able to sell his wares to 

 advantage. The fates were against him 

 in other ways, and the whole circum- 

 stances of the year were not in his 

 favour. The manufacturer had his more 

 profitable seasons, when by judicious 

 selling of cloth and covering his sales 

 with yarns at the right moment he 

 managed to make ends meet and more. 

 But then the pendulum swung to the 

 other side, when he tried to repeat the 

 performance. Some of his earnings were 

 thus lost. 



The raw jute market was more than 

 ever of the Stock Exchange nature. 

 The result to those who thus dabbled 

 has been more encouraging than last 

 year, and a fair amount of recouping 

 has been done. Money was made and 

 lost, too, with remarkable speed, but 

 lucky hits there have been by the 

 majority, and no doubt about it. The 

 time for selling for a fall came, and 

 sometimes in opposition to every 

 postulate of reason the speculator went 

 in and sold and won. The moment for 

 buying in view of a rise arrived ; the 

 former seller was now the buyer ; and 

 more often than not scored again. All 

 through the season jute has lent itself 

 to these tactics, and it only required 

 courage and capital to ensure success. 

 Fluctuations were numerous in spite of 

 the fact that not only was there plenty 

 of the fibre, but it was in excess beyond 

 all expectations, and a steady down- 

 ward movement might naturally be 

 looked for. The consumer who bought 

 to store and use had not the same oppor- 

 tunity as the merchant who had no 

 machinery to think of nor customer for 

 yarns to satisfy. The latter invested 

 for the purpose of having a turn, and 

 sold as the margin of profit accrued, or 

 he anticipated a slump in the market, 

 and the golden instant for covering 

 came. It is sometimes suggested how 

 easy it would be to corner jute, but the 

 essential to a step of this kind has been 

 wanting for some years, namely, a short 

 crop. 



It is a high encomium to the stability 

 and honourableness of the staple trade 

 locally tbat not a single failure has 

 taken place. After a couple of years, 

 wherein heavy losses on raw material 

 have been made, this is something to 

 say, and it is immeasurably creditable 

 to all concerned. 



Two outside events of supreme import- 

 ance to our local trade occurred in the 

 course of the year. One was the Presi- 

 dential election in the United States, 



