LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week" paragraphs. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym.—Ed. TIIE SPECTATOR.]
PERSONAL LUXURY AND PUBLIC NEED
[To the Editor of TIIE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I have been hoping that someone in a position of authority would draw attention to the very noteworthy facts of our community life, which when set in relation to each other are at once disquieting and hopeful. (1) The first is that for the last 50 years numberless new activities have been set going for the betterment of social conditions and for giving oppor- tunity for the development of a higher life for all citizens. These efforts involve incessant and very urgent appeals for voluntary contributions. (2) The second fact is that along with a considerable response to those appeals, personal expen- diture upon luxuries has been going up. by leaps and bounds.
(1) As to the first there is no dispute ; but few of us realize how novel is this feature of civilization. Sixty years ago an undergraduate at Cambridge could spend four years without once being asked to subscribe to any charity whatsoever. As to (2) a correct diagnosis is difficult, because figures are seldom obtainable, and nearly all luxuries begin by being useful ; but unless sternly restricted become first superfluous, then baneful. It is not denied, however, that just during the post-War heavy taxation and greatly curtailed resources an influence has been at work to turn some luxuries of 30 years ago into necessaries of life today for all who think they can afford them. That influence is simply the power of fashion which, if unchecked, becomes a tyranny. While yielding to it, compassionate people are sorely distressed at their inability to help charities crippled for want of funds. How is it then that they do not forgo what they admit to be wastefulness, and having done all that is possible cease to fret ?
The most plausible answer is that it is impossible to dis- criminate between luxuries and things that are useful, or anyhow required by our station in life ; and all round us we see people of high character and eminent in beneficence living as comfortably as their circumstances allow. It is also said in derision that the whole subject is hackneyed and tiresome. Certainly I should not waste good ink in writing this letter if that word " impossible " were correctly used. The discrimina- tion required is not even difficult. It is made roughly by everyone who justifies his standard of comfort by the plea of prevailing fashion, and yet is secretly uneasy when he thinks of the unemployed.
Nor is the subject hackneyed. It would be if the foolish fashions were confined to the self-indulgent or apathetic groups of people ; but they are not so eonfined. The fashions have spread stealthily but rapidly among the most philan- thropic and self-denying of the community. In this fact lies the novelty of the situation and also its hopefulness ; for there are thousands of men and women who, if only the truth can he brought to their attention, will alter their habits of expenditure to the benefit of all concerned.
But supposing these conclusions are disputed. What are your facts ? In answer let us take note of a practice which in moderation is commendable but, which in excess in mere tomfoolery. I allude to the multiplication of memorials to the dead, and of testimonials to the living : to every official on retirement who has done his work fairly well. Soon we shall decorate every citizen who has done nothing but exist for 20 years somewhere, without asking whether he has not merely cumbered the ground. I could give details of a grotesque folly when a portrait was given to a popular resident for no reason whatever except that the proposal was made in his presence and no one dared to say no. Every subscriber disliked it but the recipient most of all. Again, what is happening about cosmetics ? It has been stated in a weekly journal that they now form by far the biggest industry in the world : a recent phenomenon. Or tobacco ? As soon as the word is used indignant protests are heard. Here is another crank tilting against a _perfectly harmless and indeed necessary relief from worries and a help to brain workers. Granted : but is everybody quite comfortable on hearing that whereas 30 years ago cigarettes were offered in rich eountryhouses only after dinner now they are lavishly pressed
upon the guests, some of whom at home do not smoke at all ? Does everybody approve of what happened a few weeks ago when a kindly hostess entertained four young men for five days and 900 cigarettes were consumed ? Again ; when medical opinion would admit that three a day would in many cases be beneficial, is that any justification for men smoking 60 a day who are officially employed in urging their fellow citizens to more self-denial ?
" Well, is it not a waste of time to flog a dead horse ? These fashions are ineradicable now." That may be so. among the unthinking multitude, but what about the 20 per cent. or so who readily acknowledge that in these times to wring the hands over starved charities and to throw away millions a year merely because others do so is defiance of Divine Law : not only self-deception but disobedience ; wilful and deliberate, when once the facts are known ? The appeal is to this section who unwittingly in one luxury alone are throwing away three millions a year. Be it noted, this esti- mate has not been disputed by any one of the men of light and leading to whom it has been submitted ; and meantime the support given to the work of Missions, Moral Welfare and the saving of souls—work directly commanded by Christ— is dwindling. All over the world for the want of a few guineas our missionaries living on a pittance are being withdrawn from their work just as it was bearing fruit. We have arranged that they sow in tears, but forbid them to reap in joy.
I think it was Dr. Gore who used to say that if every British Christian would think daily for two minutes on the Day of Judgement the world would be transformed for the better within a year.—Yours faithfully, E. LYTTELTON„
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