TILE VALUE OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Mr. Selfridge does not attempt to appraise the value of private enterprise but merely seeks to defend it ; •and that not from " A Younger Point of View," but with arguments which were produced and acted upon before the- War and which were in part responsible for it. If the majority of a community live on the assumption that efficiency in the pro- duction or in the accumulation of wealth is the chief aim of an individual's existence, then private enterprise to this .end requires no further justification. But if a majority -of a com- munity choose to assume (as many individuals do) that material prosperity beyond a certain standard is a matter of only secondary importance, that majority might require to protect itself by the restriction of private enterprise agairist the rapacity of any individual who traded on the geneial indifference to the accumulation of private wealth.
The motives of people are not as Mr. Selfridge asserts imponderable. There is a science known as psychology, one of whose aims it is to study motives. If Mr. Selfridge can spare sufficient time from the pursuit of efficiency to read a few of the standard works on psychology, I think he might find that the desire for commercial efficiency is not one of the forces which have made of life a thing of beauty and of joy.
On whose authority does Mr. Selfridge state that compe- tition is " God-given" ? It is true that even for existence it is present between many living creatures, but it is also true (if the theory of evolution be accepted) that the harmonious co-operation of living cell with living cell has built up the whole of macroscopic life including Mr. H. G. Selfridge himself. And if we consider the history of that latest product of organic evolution—mankind—I am of opinion that every advance in his condition can be traced to men acting together in harmony and good will rather than against each other in rivalry and competition.
Mr. Selfridge states that " competition inspires the utmost use of every quality that human beings are possessed of." If this be true it raises competition to the level of that senti- ment of sympathy for humanity which was the inspiration of the greatest event in all history. He further declares that
there is tremendous pathos in the retirement into oblivion of the State employee." There is tremendous pathos in all retirements following a life-time of active work, but this pathos is neither deepened nor diminished by the nature of the employment from which the individual retires. More tragic than these is the spectacle of a young man—a young man who may one day, have power over many of his fellow- citizens—so educated in values that he can write of efficiency as if it were of more importance than the human beings who sometimes clog its wheels.—I am, Sir, &c.,
[While believing that Mr. Selfridge sought to do no more than put the case for private enterprise, we welcome this letter unreservedly. Efficiency is most certainly " not enough," and it is to the credit of the present age that co- operation is felt and practised as never before and that there is a growing recognition of the supremacy of the life of the spirit. Science is an excellent servant but a bad master.— En. Spectator.]
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