"WHAT IS THE COUNTRY COMING TO?"

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 40, 16 August 1915, Page 2

"WHAT IS THE COUNTRY COMING TO?"

TO THIS EDITOR. Sir] — For the last twenty years his Honour the Chief Justice has never let an opportunity slip of directly, or indirectly by innuendo, lecturing the working class ; sometimes it is gambling that is our vice/ sometimes drinking, sometimes thriftlessness, but now it is the pictures and theatres are the subject of adverse comments. I just wish to point out that the. Supreme Court of this Dominion is the very last place on earth to take the opportunity of lecturing, us. The reason is obvious, for neither tiie unfortunate in- the dock nor those at whom the remarks were addressed have the right of reply. Now the advice is economically unsound, and J. M. Robertson, in the "Fallacy of Thrift," proves it, and i^it is gambling, why not discuss it with our betters, with all branches of the Patriotic Societies, instead of edu eating our children in all forms of the vice. If it is " Business as usual," how are we going to help the Empire by ceasing to buy new clothes or cheap hand-me-downs, or closing the picture theatres, which bring a little pleasure and variety into our awfully drab and weary lives? Oh, for the fragrant cigarette, say "our boys, at the front."' "No," aa-ys his Honour, "it is a waste of money," forgetting that war is waste, and capitalism is built on waste, and even a war the magnitude of thie oc« may be one of our best educators, for by the destruction of the surplus product which cannot be absorbed by the social organism^ and by removing it from the market, it helps to avoid a crisis^ This country is all right; the best in the world ; from poverty to absolute destitution we have no fear. It is only the rich that need fear. Butter is a luxury, meat we can do without, but for heaven's sake let none of us take on a spirit of pessimism. After a great war an era of prosperity usually sets in, for the same reason that prosperity usually follows a great crisis. The longer the war, the greater the destruction of property, both actual and potential, the greater the prosperity that Will follow it. — I am, etc., INDUSTRIALIST. 15th August.