THE GIRL WHO WOULD GET ON.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 55, 11 April 1914, Page 7

THE GIRL WHO WOULD GET ON.

Bishop Green, addressing a branch of the Mothers' Union at Ballarat (Vic.) and urging upon them the im* portancje of home,, ideals of conduct and character, laid great stress on the fact that there is something' wrong with the social system of to-day, writes Flora Bee in the Sydney "Telegraph." The gospel of '' getting-on,'' he contended, was preached to the det' riment of all-finer feelings and gentle aspirations. In the wild rush for success, others were trampled upon and left behind, while success is only at* tained by the loss of higher qualities, such as sympathy and scrupulous honesty. Mothers, he averred, could do much to obviate this ugly greed and selfishness by not allowing l ( the almighty dollar" to be worshipped in the home, and held up as the only ideal worth aiming at. Everybody who read what Bishop Green said must needs agree with his conclusions and welcome such wholesome, sensible, and high-minded speaking. But it is not enough to dethrone one idol, and that idol the great god Mammon himself, and put nothing to worship in his place. Most of us worship money. Why? Because we have no imagination. We have, to be sure,

enough shrewdness and worldly prudence to see in money not the actual coins which jingle, but those tangible and very pleasant things which money will buy. But we hav« not the power, which only persistent thought and mind-training will give, to see that money is just absolutely nothing at all. If all the money in the world were suddenly to be miraculously eliminated within the next 24 hours, everything could go on exactly the same. Nobody would be "one penny the worse." Of course, everything would not go on exactly the same. There would be a shocking dislocation in trade and commerce. But everything could go on exactly the same, only we find it extremely hard to imagine it.

But that is because we are so dominated and bound in chains by the money worship system, that, instead of money being our servant, it is our cruelly tyrannical master. Mr Fels, the recently-deceased American-millionaire, gave his opinion about money in very plain terms. Sir William Lever is another who really—not hypocritically—> despises money; that is, he rates it at its proper worth, which is far, far below the estimation of the multitude. But these two are examples of men with imagination, the gift that is mightier than all the millions ever minted.Y

To get a long enough perspective on one/s part in life, to obtain a right focus, and to see things as-they really are, not as they appear to be, must form part of the mental "make-up" of the modern man or the modern woman who succeeds. To greet pay-day just because it is pay-day, and stands for no more than that, is the mark of a sordid spirit. The days of the mere moneygrubber are long past. In every for-

tune that is amassed to-day imagination plays a big part. Not, be it understood that form v of fancy which multiplies every million by 304. The romance of the world lies to-day in business, taking the word to mean all skilled work done for hire or payment, and the adventures of the climbers into the wealthy positions. But money, sought for with Scroogelike qualities of intensity and selfishness, never in itself produces romance. That is why the merely rich are so often repellantly stodgy. The romance lies in the life-stories of the seekers and the finders.

Women can exercise imagination in pursuing business. One field of industry in particular is woman's own; namely, the dress trade, and in no other branch of the world's work are there more of the romantic ups and downs that constitute the human appeal. Men, of course, are largely concerned in this trade, but it is eminently woman's opportunity. The best paid women workers to-day are connected with the designing and manufacture of dress-—and also the worst paid and the most cruelly sweated- Leave out, in this comparison, eminent actresses, singers, and writers, but. even in the professions now open to women, it is almost a certainty that the rank and file do not make as much as the successful dressmaker, the flourishing saleswoman, who is head of a department, or the dress designer. '' The designer is the heroine of the New York garment trade," declares a recent magazine writer. "She cries out for the novelist or the dramatist, who has colour enough to paint her romance. For she is a romantic figure. She is the girl who has the cabin 'de luxe' on the French liners, stops at the

Elysee Palace Hotel, declares her j»artiality for 'Showpan,' and encou/ages struggling artists." As a type %l the woman who succeeds in business, an example to the girl who would get on, the dress designer is about the most apt comparison to make, for the dress designer above all other qualities must possess imagination.