24 AUGUST 1934, Page 19

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]

" SIR,—Mr. Austen Albu in his article of August 17th suggested that the victims of the industrial system were being reduced to a " sub-human level of intelligence." He quoted as evidence of this low level, the conversation of factory girls, in which the Opposite Sex, Conditions of Work, Films, Girl Guides, Gossip, and Clothes, were frequent subjects.

Surely this statement needs substantiating by ,some evidence that a higher standard of conversation exists outside the factory. Does Mr. Albu think that the Opposite Sex plays no part in the conversation of artists and actresses, or Scandal and Gossip in that of the University Don ? And why does he, without explanation, assume that conversation about Girl Guides, Films, and Clothes shows a low level of intelligence ? I hope this letter will be published, if only because the article as it stood constituted a slight on factory workers ; and I doubt whether Spectator readers themselves will accept the implication that talking about " Conditions of Work " (features disliked) ; entertainments such as " Films " ;. or such absorbing interests as are summed up in the words "Opposite Sex," is in itself an evidence of "sub-human