'I by Reginald S. lay,entitled "Suggestiorra lor t,he borgsnization 01 the Instrument Industry after the War", appeared in the March Journal Snatijic Instruments. He ia concerned rimarily with the Bntisb instrument industry. hut &I1 weis snlmakers of instrumente should he interested in the ideBs expressed. Clay foresees keen competition for the British from France, Italy, Swltserland, Czechoslovakia,. the United S t a b , and prowhly Russih. He mo6t fears eompetltron from the United Staten because our inrtrument industry haa bacn lese disorganized'by the ysr thsn the British, snd hccaus WE have been able to maintain export8 and capture foreign markets even in British dominiods,dur~ngthe WBT period. He also fear% small-scele competition with our maas production metho&, and wmpetition by small fir,mF without adequate research staffs with larger firms maintarnmK staff8 of teehnicdly trsiuod x!search men. He has heard 8 report that malor instrument mskers here have orgenized themselves 80 thst each specializes io the manufacture 01 a given instrument and does not compete with the Speoialty dl other firms in the oryanization. Clay explores three mean8 to emhle the British instrument industry to compete. He believes that the first, protective tariff, wuld be maintained only BY loqg 88 the g ~ ~ e r n m e nconsidefs t. the instrument industry dewrvng of prut+ion, md that It would not enshle them to compete in forelm msrkets. The seeond is &n orgarisation of instrument makers to rentrict comytition and duplioation of effort. HE consider>:this idea in mme eta11 starting with a simple agreement among manufscturers to in a niven instrument and not to OOND& with the mci& a&slties of o&em, snd progreasing to complete nf all f i m n mnkins R riven tvoe of instrument into a 8hsk non-
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which s m d - x d e production metho& would be most suitable itad for which the market is largely independent 01 labor cwt8. To be successful in thia line of endeavor, he believes that scienti6r research would be B prime requisite; joint research atatla milintained hy the instrument menulnctumrs and the pooling of knowledge and experience would give maximum efficiency. Government subsidy o i research for instrument develo ment i s mentioned. Finally, to sell the products of this hi& developed specialty instrument goup, Clay reposes 8 world-wide sales organization. We in the C'niterfStatesshould he interested in these progoals. Our larger maaufncturora produce instruments second to none, but some bf them have a tendenoy to make only those i t e m for which the market is large. There ia, however, B real need for various ty e8 01 highly Rpeoislieed imtruments whwe the
