LETTERS TO A WORKING MAN.
LTO THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR:] Sut,—Relative to your "Letter to a Working Man" of January 11th, there is one thing grates on me as an economist who remembers the many stones thrown at his science,—your use of the expression " self-interest " without the reminder that the " self " of the vast majority of men means a circle of five and a fraction. The ordinary man, knowing no philosophy, thinks of the "self" as a "selfish beast" !—I am, Sir, &c., [Professor Smart's correction is most useful. The writer of the letters can only plead in excuse the desire to attain brevity of treatment. Professor Smart's point expanded is that for the majority of men self-interest in the economic 'sense is not selfishness, but the very reverse,—care for the family, for the wife and the children and all others dependent on them. The man who in Kipling's poem says— "I work for the kids and the Missis,
Pull up I'll be damned if I will,"
was not a selfish man. We have received a large number of long and controversial letters bearing on the "Letters to a Working Man," but regret that we cannot find space to print them.—En. Spectator.]
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