THE SPENDING AGE.

Northern Advocate, 22 December 1919, Page 3

THE SPENDING AGE.

REFLECTIONS ON AFTER-WAR

MADNESS,

It is difficult (observes the New York "Evening Post" editorially) to be hard on the suddenly affluent washerwoman who is investing pare of her "old man's" bewildering wages in mauve crepe-de-chine garments which are quite useless to her, but are at the same time the banners of her emancipation from the need to boil soup-bones several times and wear some one's cast-off dancing slippers in a snowy backyard. Thousands who all their lives had never had a proper breakfast, sufficient changes of clothing, or a wholesome dwelling naturally lost their heads when they began to earn eighteen dollars a day— but with the promise from their union leaders of thirty by Christmas, and after that more and more. The very poor whose wages have been rising have a childlike belief that all those green bills will buy everything forever. For a long whil c they saved desperately, and it seemed to make no difference in their condition. Now, a monetary miracle having been wrought, they would mak e the rest of their days one enormous outing.

We have for many years had our permanent class of extravagant spenders who were expected and exhorted to spend because they were rich. It seemed desirable that great fortunes should not lie fallow. Now the great fortunes are paying great taxes, and those who an 1 issuing orders to builders of motor-cars and hats are not the members of old wealthy families. Nor are they of tha nouveau riche persuasion, for they are innocent of social ambitionsThey only want luxury for themselves. To the impression they make upon society they are superbly indifferent. They have become a new type which is to-day so numerous that it cannot be ignored. They shun responsibility or ties of any sort. During the war they made loud outcry against Government restrictions. Now with full purses they swarm at the jeweller's, furrier's, haberdasher's. The women display deathly white noses and mouths which, like the poet Neihardt's poppy are "a visual shout of red." The men have vague features and cigarette complexions. They travel by subway but they pay ten dollars for a dinner and five for a tie. Their assistance is keeping prices starvation-high for those who do recognise responsibilities is gigantic. They are helping us to present the world with such a spectacle of shortsightedness and lack of restraint as I has not often been beheld.

The explanation of the victory of spending over saving may lie in the growth of economic independence for all the members of a family and in the increase of U'ansient residence.

Name and station no longer depend upon having a "place" and a bank account. With the disappearance of neighbours goes the need to maintain a position, which used to be a potent stabilisei-. man does not cherish pennies in order that heirs who at sixteen are niakng more than he may profit by them. In this age of the houseless entertaining is suffering a decline. People entertain themselves, not their friends. For what object I should a man save, except tp pay for his funeral? To many that is no great inspiration. The head of the house has lost his former state. When fyery one,, like Faust, is hailing the flying moment the prospects for sober diligence are not dazzling. Perhaps the best beginning of reform would be a restoration of the old homestead, the old neighbour and the family that had to be taken care of.