STATE HELP OR SELF HELP.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Some time ago you permitted me to contribute a brief letter to your columns calling attention to the danger arising to the formation of character from the all too ready acceptance of the doctrine that the State ought to be expected to do everything for the • individual without any corresponding effort of any sort on his part: I was a little pessimistic at the almost monthly evidences which were showing them- selves of the popular tendency in that direction.
I now see that the South Wales Miners' Federation have at their recent Conference approved the principle of a State pension of £2 a week to all miners at the age of sixty. This is a principle which if granted for one section of industry would logically be demanded by all other sections. Here, again, there is no suggestion of any contributory effort by the individual in the course of his working career. I make no comment other than to point out that we seem rapidly moving towards the time when everybody will rely on the State, and nobody will feel any need for thrift or self- insurance. I am afraid when that time arrives that individual character will have undergone irremediable deterioration.—
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