ECONOMIC LAW AND " PROFITEERING."
LTo THE EDITOR .0T THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sis,—Certainly just now (if not always) the nation should " hold it very stuff of the conscience" to be guilty of no ex- travagance. We, like all old organized societies. are a race of snobs. That is to say, the next class below is too apt, cnn- scionsly or unconsciously, to imitate in its virtue: and vices the next class above. No appeal to the working classes can or will have any effect worth while until those who are above them in station, and who should know better, show a better example. While extravagance—especially in such things no luxurious motor-cars—is flaunted at every turn in the eyes of the people men,mny- preach until they .are black in the face without being listened to. The riohare.hetter. educated than the poor; at least, it is so alleged. tCertainly their , numbers are fewer; consequently they can. be .more .easily reached. It was claimed, I believe justly, that they did well in the days of voluntary recruiting. The need is. no. less aloe-, but how, much smaller the sacrifice! Evangelize 'the .well-to-do in the direc- tion of simplicity of life, and it will.,do more to. cure our ills during the next decade than .anything -else `Mr. Emery in his letter in last week's Spectator truly says that the abstention of the rich -would have . very little .direct effect, their numbers being so few. ,But really the. essence of the position is the moral outlook as applied to.national affairs. That set right, all else will follow. -It can only be done by beginning at the top. Study the „causes. of „discontent, come, into oontact with the working man, . examine the seeds, of Bolshevism, and . will it not be -found• that the .kernel of the, trortble was, pointed out hy Robert Burns in the lines:—
"It's hardly in a body's power To keep at times from feeling sour,
To see how things are shared," &c.?
In the matter of expenditure on redundancies, for the sake of the nation, if not for their own, the rich have the oppor- tunity of showing that prudent self-control is • the root Of
wisdom in times like these.--4 am, Sir,'&c., T.
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