STANDARD OF LIVING

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 74, 29 March 1932, Page 7

STANDARD OF LIVING

POLITICAL MOUTHING FORTITUDE OF BRITAIN (From "The Post's" Representative.) NEW YORK, 3rd-.February. A tribute to British fortitude in these times of depression—the more remarkable as it is presented iv the space occupied by its regular advertisement— is paid by the Harriman National Bank. This institution has always expressed its admiration for British acts and British ideals. One recalls that, when Kipling was gravely ill, three years ago, the Harriman National Bank used th<? space usually devoted to its advertisement to express to the readers of the New York "Times" its grave anxiety for Mr. Kipling's condition and its sense of the loss to the whole world his death would mean. "The English," says the bank, "appear to be taking misfortune with greater fortitude than ourselves. They are applying themselves practically to the solution of their problems, which are the same as ours. They are meeting their troubles face to face. Great Britain has balanced its Budget. Are the English, by sound thinking and hard work, going to beat us to the goal? Shall we let them "get the jump on tis"? They will if our spirit is gauged correctly by such newspaper advertising headlines as "Lazy days in the Sunshine"; "This year of Sports, 1932!" "Theodore Eoosevelt said that Americans 'make a fetish of words.' Are we not doing just that, unthinkingly, unintelligently, in ballyhooing for prosperity in the adjuration to 'maintain the American standard of living,' instead of rolling up our sleeves and getting to work? "There is no standard of living. A standard is a fixed and definite measure like the yardstick at the Greenwich. Observatory. Politicians mouth the phrase to their selfish ends. 'Let us maintain the American standard of living!' They speak of a standard, and think of a scale. They know it cannot be done. They know that tho wages and salaries of the past ten years cannot bo maintained, but they also know that the dollar buys more to-day than ever before. On this point they keep eloquent silence. "Would that there were a sound, sane, sensible standard of living— good nourishing food, adequate clothing, comfortable housing, healthful relaxation, and so on} not forgetting high moral and spiritual standards. It were a consummation devoutly to be wished that wo could all maintain, without penalty, the scale of living we enjoyed before the depression, which, now, according to authority, is happily on its last legs. The so-called standard of living in tho 'twenties was on the scale of two automobiles instead of one, palatial apartments, luxurious foods, sports, and games ad lib. the year round."