THE RETURN OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.*
THE title which Mr. John Corbin has chosen for his book does not quite explain itself. He does not mean that the middle class in America, which seems to be as hard hit as
the middle class here, has yet returned or is returning. All
he means is that it can and ought to return to its old position, and he stoutly encourages it to do so. Englishmen are apt to suppose that Americans have not suffered much from the
War as compared with ourselves. This book will correct a too easy assumption. The truth is that all the different parts of the world are so interdependent to-day that economic phenomena, like water, find their own level. The problem of the middle class is not peculiar to ourselves ; it is everywhere.
There is a visible danger that a class which is renowned for its moderation, its faculty for taking pains and its respectability should go under. The loss, of course, would be one of the best stocks from which a nation could possibly breed. But although we admit the danger, we do not want to exaggerate it. History shows that one class is continually merging into another ; unless the whole structure of our society should be changed no class would actually disappear. If it is true that those above may sink, it is equally true that those who are below will rise. Of course, when a class which is above secs itself being invaded and perhaps being overwhelmed by a class below it thinks that the end of the world has come. Within a few generations, however, the invaders, who by that time will be firmly established and be enjoying the name of their predecessors, will probably become the victims of an appre- hension also borrowed from their predecessors. So the world goes on. This much must be acknowledged by any- body who has any sense of history. And yet it need not debar us from recognizing that any period of upheaval or transition may be a very dangerous time, and that if it is not carefully watched permanent injury may remain.
What the middle classes, or rather let us say the prod fessional classes who earn their livings by their brains, ought to do is to have a proper conceit of themselves ; to profess their importance—which is a fact—and insist upon their rights without being unfair to other classes. Indeed, if the middle classes did not spontaneously do this in all countries they would be destitute of the spirit with which they are commonly credited. We have heard of a strike of doctors in Germany directed against the manual workers who withheld their labour ; we have heard of the middle classes of Winnipeg successfully organizing themselves to carry on the life of the city during a general strike of Labour ; we have heard of voluntary stop-gap workers enrolling them- selves in Glasgow during a dock strike. The answer to the preachers of class warfare is that every class has a right to exist. It is hardly accurate, however, to draw such sharp distinctions as Mr. Corbin does between the men of money, the middle class, and Labour. The frontier of each of these classes is extremely vague. In the truest economic sense we are all capitalists. The captain of industry is ultimately only the representative of all the shareholders, who include both middle class and Labour elements, particularly the former. On the other hand, we have to remember that an American of the professional class writes as a rule, and perhaps with reason, with a more convinced suspicion of Capitalism (which in America sometimes means great Trusts and strangling commercial operations) than the Englishman of a corresponding class would write.
As here, so in America, Labour is being paid at a higher
relative rate than brain workers. The War upset the old balance. The Marxians are now rubbing their hands with lee and recall the words of their prophet that the middle class had produced its own gravedigger. Mr. Corbin cites some representative professional salaries, as they stood about three years ago, to show how relatively low they have Men :—
"Let us compare their pay with that in the middle-class profes. sions. Clergymen, whose care is the soul, averaged 7'85 dollars a year, and university instructors only a little more. Full professors m our leading universities received as low as 2,500 dollars a year, and many a world-famous scholar received less than the engigeere pay of 4,520 dollars and 4,704 dollars. High public oflibials • Thritena7rof est middle Clan. By Alba Corbin. New Teat : Charles &filmes Sew. 110s. ed. net.] were in a similar plight. The Governor of Nebraska received 2,500 dollars a year. In Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, New Hampshire, and Vermont the governor received 3,000 dollars ; in Tennessee, Wyoming, Delaware, Arizona, Arkan- sas, and Texas; 4,000 dollars ; in Oklahoma and Maryland, 4,500 dollars. Thus, in thirteen States the governor received distinctly less than a ppscenger engineer. In seventeen other States the governor received 5,000 dollars a year, or only 296 dollars more than a freight engineer."
Having stated his case, Mr. Corbin exhorts the middle class of America to be up and doing. He tells it that it must organize itself, and he points with jealousy to the "Middle Classes Union" in Great Britain as an example of the right way to do things. He is, of course, not up to date with his facts. About a year ago the Middle Classes Union became the National Citizens' Union. The change of name was a wise one, for, though the original Union had carefully defined the sense in which it used the phrase Middle Classes," the title was unhelpful. Everybody recognizes the existence in a social sense of a middle class, but few, it seems, belong to it. "Middle class ! " resentfully exclaimed a lady
who was asked to join the "Middle Classes Union." My husband is a stockbroker." Mr. Corbin finds much the same difficulty and misunderstanding in America, and has a parallel to our anecdote. He describes the bewilderment of a reporter
who was instructed to discover the address of a resident in Brooklyn. Every person from whom the reporter sought information on the other side of Brooklyn Bridge professed Ignorance. Nobody would acknowledge that he lived in Brooklyn. We shall be much interested to hear what organization is evolved in America, for when Americans "get busy" about an organization something generally happens.
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