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Page 37
There is this fact to be noticed in particular. Mr. Andrew Weir's
inquisitive mind had not merely mastered the grammar of shipowning but
had crammed the cells of his brain with the whole encyclop�dia of
commercial geography. He knew each season what the least of the islands
of the world was producing, and the crops, manufactures, and financial
condition of every country across the sea. He knew, also, the way in
which the various nations conducted the business of transport. From his
office in Glasgow he could see the whole vast labours of industrious and
mercantile man, that Brobdingnagian ant of this revolving globe, merely
by closing his eyes. The map of the world's commerce was cinematographed
upon his brain.
One thing more remains to be said. Mr. Andrew Weir inherited the moral
traditions of Scotch industry. He grew rich, but not ostentatious. His
increasing fortune went back and back into trade. He never dreamed
either of cutting a figure in plutocratic society or making himself a
public character. A quiet, rather shy, and not often articulate person,
he lived a frugal life, loving his business because it occupied all his
time and satisfied nearly every curiosity of his inquiring mind.
War came, and Mr. Weir was busier than ever with his ships. Not until
1917 did it occur to the Government that the work of buying supplies for
its gigantic armies was something only to be mastered by a man of
business. The nation may be grateful to Mr. Lloyd George for having
discovered in Glasgow perhaps the one man in the British Isles who knew
everything there was to know about commercial geography.
Mr. Andrew Weir entered the War Office in March, 1917, as Surveyor
General of Supply. The position was not merely difficult in its nature,
but difficult in its circumstances. Soldiers are jealous animals, and
not easily does the War Office take to the black-coated man of business.
Mr. Weir was tact itself. For some weeks the soldiers were hardly aware
of his presence, then they learned that the quiet Scotsman in the black
coat was saying the most laudatory things about their organization;
then they found themselves marvellously improving this organization
merely by acting on the most modestly given suggestions from the smooth
civilian; and finally the very greatest of them discovered that somehow
or another Supply had now got a wonderful "move on," and that among
other things this wonderful "move on" had brought the civilian on top of
them--still smooth and modest, still in the background, but absolute
master of the whole machinery.
Lord Inverforth's work soon involved not merely the care of the British
Armies but the care of the Allied nations. What did he do? Besieged by
the unconscionable rascals of the world, fawning or blustering to get
contracts at extraordinary prices, Lord Inverforth struck a master blow
at this international cupidity by obtaining control of the principal raw
materials and instituting the system of costing. Manufacturers got their
contracts on a fixed basis of profits. Lord Inverforth knew the exact
cost of every stage in the manufacture of each article he bought, and he
saw that the manufacturer received from the taxpayer only a small
percentage of profit on that cost.
The greatest thing he did at that time, and the bravest, for he did it
without authorization and at a cost of �250,000,000, was to buy up the
Australasian wool-clip from 1917 to 1920. In this way Germany was doomed
to defeat. England, so to speak, had the clothing of humanity in her
right hand.
But Lord Inverforth also controlled flax, hemp, leather, and jute, so
that the enemy's case was as hopeless as our own was secure.
These gigantic operations involved an expenditure of over �500,000,000.
They brought an actual profit to the British Government of over
�20,000,000, saved the taxpayer Heaven only knows how many millions, and
were conducted at an administrative cost of three shillings for every
�100.
Nothing like it had ever been done before in the world.
Early in 1919 Lord Inverforth was asked to clear up war's rubbish-heap.
He became Minister of Munitions. Within twenty-four hours his body of
expert buyers had become the Disposal Board--a body of expert sellers.
The property of the British taxpayer was scattered over four continents,
and in all manner of places in those four continents. It was composed of
350,000 different kinds of things.
At once Lord Inverforth was again besieged by the rascals. There was an
army of them, composed of many "rings," seeking to buy up these "waste
products of war" at a knock-down price. At the same time came the
blustering contractor, cheated by peace of his contract, with a claim
for millions on one ground or another.
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