building trades operatives, but it is permissible to expect that the 
benefit would be a very real one. 
The non-exporting trades are not in contact with, and perhaps 
are not fully conscious of, the very serious position of the country at 
the present time. 
It 1s, however, of interest to note that some of the non- 
exporting trades are moving in the direction of a reduction in wages. 
The natural law by which trade even under the most sheltered 
conditions must inevitably face an uneconomic policy renders this 
unavoidable. 
PUBLIC UTILITIES, TEXTILES, BOOT AND SHOE, ETC. 
There are other industries which directly or indirectly affect, 
and are in turn affected by, Engineering. 
For example, electricity, gas and water supplies serve engineering 
works and also use products of those works, as well as of the Mining 
and Iron and Steel Industries, and therefore also of Transport. 
The Cotton Industry of Lancashire at one time supplied the 
greater part of the world’s needs for cotton goods so that textile 
machinery made by British engineering supplied the greater part 
of the world demand for such machinery. Those conditions no longer 
exist and in view of the competition of other countries, especially 
India and Japan, are unlikely to return unless costs of production 
in this country are very much reduced. 
Other Textile Industries such as the Yorkshire Woollen Industry, 
show similar depression and, consequently, cannot give orders to 
the Engineering Industry for machinery and spare parts. Slack 
export trade in the textile trades means slackness in the shipping 
trade and, as we have shown, in that way engineering is again 
affected. 
Again, the industries making boots, shoes and clothes are all 
depressed. Tables appended “H” show the import and export 
figures in the cotton and woollen textile and boot and shoe 
industries. 
Below are set out tables showing the unemployment in gas, 
water and electricity supply industries, the cotion, textile, and 
boot and shoe industries.