ENGLAND FULL OF SNOBS

Evening Star, Issue 19894, 16 June 1928, Page 15

ENGLAND FULL OF SNOBS

' EVERYOME LOOKS DO-WH ON SOMEONE 1 had always believed Mussolini to be a man of outstanding ability. I now have my doubts, for (writes Horace Nowto in tho * Sunday Chronicle ) he is about to attempt to do away with snobbery. I say “attempt” advisedly. In trying to achieve the impossible lie suggests another Canute who forbids the waves to advance. Nor is this all. Mussolini’s life work has been tho overthrow of Socialism and Communism in Italy, But, in my opinion, snobbery is the most effectual barrier against these dreary creeds. When it comes to this ctnntry, the many who fear the coming of Socialism and' Communism have nothing whatever to worry about, as, since tho snobbery of tho Latins is as nothing to the snobbery of the English, we are much safer than they from the perils of Communism and Socialism. SNOBS EVERYWHERE.

England, thank goodness, has ever been tho horn 3 of arrant snobbishness. If yon do not believe me, read Thackeray. When Dickens was writing his immortal masterpieces Thackeray wanted to know who cared.two straws what his grocer and greengrocer thought about. And ho was a type of his kind.

To-day we have not the correctives to snobbishness which obtain on the Continent. Wo have not national military training and the education of all and sundry in the same schools and colleges. Wo are as wo are. And, as I will presently show, our snobbishness is a thing to bo thankful for. English society in the lump is divided and subdivided into numberless social strata. The further wo descend the social scale the divisions become tho sharper. !• lodged with a woman in a village who refused to know ■ her next-door neighbor because this woman paid less than she did for her suet. And I overheard a man in a restaurant reproaching Iris companion for knowing someone who lived in a £SO-a-year house. ASHAMED OF HER MOTHER. . Some years ago an elderly woman worked for me, and spoke honest Essex. She told me that when she went out and about with her daughter tho latter forbad© her mother to open her lips more than she could help, because this daughter was ashamed of , the other’s “countrified” voice. Yet when I met the daughter I discovered she spoke with an appalling country; accent. A year back 1 stayed in a hotel in Brighton. An obviously newly-rich woman was also there; and I heard her inform all and sundry that, before she spoke to any of the other visitors, she took care to learn on what floor their rooms were situated. Sho “could not know anyone who lived on tho two top floors.” A friend of mine was engaged in rescue work. Ho came upon a personable woman who had been a housekeeper, and now was out of a job. He gave her enough to go on with to prevent her from taking to shameful ways, and then obtained her work as a cook.

Yet, when he offered her this, she refused, to accept it. “Rather than come down to be a cook,” she told him. “she would rather live the life of tho streets.” This sounds unbelievable, but I know it is true. But as I have said, snobbery is not confined to any one class in this England of ours, fn the Army tho Household Cavalry look down on the other cavalry. Both of these think themselves vastly superior to the Guards. These last look down on the Rifle Brigade; the latter on tho Light Infantry regiments. And the whole lot of them think very small beer of,, tlio marching regiments. Wo all know tho story of a great lady who heard of how a marching regiment was cut up in a certain battle in Africa. SOCIAL GULFS. “What a merciful thing it was the so-and-so’s and not the —th! Then wo should bo grieved about men who really matter.” A friend of mine, a solicitor, went to a country town to take tho place of another lawyer who was away. My friend hunted, but no ouo would know him on the hunting field. Yet when he gave up the office and stayed -it rn hotel everyone was eager to know him. When "it comes to _ tradespeople, chemists refuse to associate with stationers; stationers look down on drapers; drapers believe themselves far removed socially from fishmongers; these last despise butchers; and tho lot of them would do anything rather than hobnob with an undertaker.

The widest social gulf is that which yawns between tho black-coated workers of tho lower middle class and the working folk. These black-coated toilers who drive a pen or a typewriter hate tho manlier sort, v.-hio > its hands, Tho reason nvohnldv is that many of the pen-drivers come from the working classes and want to forgot their origin. LABOUR ARISTOCRATS.

Tho workers themselves aro not free from snobbery. Although much is said about the solidarity of Labour I refuse to believe it until "tho skilful mechanic lies down, so to speak, with the wholly unskilled labourer. And as to those who represent Labour in Parliament, they are not averse from enjoying the social distractions of those they assail politically and otherwise. It is said that some of these Labour members maintain a, social aloofness which is worthy of the finest traditions of English snobbery. Thus I come to my point, which is that these acute social distinctions stand in tho way of Socialism and Communism. To be anything of a success these creeds demand first and foremost tho combination of all and sundry. Y'ct how can there bo any sort of combination between all and sundry when our unnumbered social divisions will, if by reason only of these divisions, refuse to co-operate? This combination. on tho face of it, is unthinkable; and, therefore, things as they are are safe. Another factor That makes for our safety is the increasing influence of women politically. With that more than adequate weapon, the tongue, they have always hold their own in tho home. Now they will have a big say in our political destinies. THE KEY TO HAPPINESS. And since women are far more snobbish than men. and the chief upholders of this all-British indulgence, Socialism and Communism with us are plainly out of tho running. I have said 1 was thankful for snobbery. This because it stands for more than its usual definition of having a sense of False values. Snobbery stands for pride of place, emulation, and the desire to keep one’s end np—sill qualities that make for progress. And snobbery makes- for happiness. Since it depends on class distinctions, vrhat would the middle classes do without an aristocracy to condemn and imitate? Indeed, snobbery is a shining essential of happiness. For does not this chiefly consist in looking down on someone we consider beneath ns?