New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-01-29
ENGLISH OR MOTT
Mr. RUSKINS JEREMIAH AND WHAT Is AT
THE BOTTOM OF IT.

worthy Police Magistrate the other day. IL is ho0
quite clear what provoked this embarrassing ques-
tion-whether because o prisoner carried IT,
volver or because the crowd ran away wneh ne
tried to use 1t on police inspector MT huSkih
Is ready with an answer. There are rev ques-
lions. perhaps none, for which he has not an
answer ready. ave are not ceasing," replies the
vrcat art writer. "because for the last thirty
rears at the least we have ceased to be English
Ana he proceeds to explain in series OF anti
ihettoal epigrams what the un-English or anti
English changes Of the last thirty years at the
least really are.
One Of them, I grieve to say, concerns the
Great Republic. "Once," cries Mr.. Rusldn, we
imported from America neither meat nor man.
ners' It Is to that great English organ Of the
great English lower middle classes, The Daily
Telegraph" that this deliverance is entrusted.
The great English organ Of the great English
lower middle classes takes it for text, and ex-
pounds the text after its manner; manner OF
which II has, in Journalism. o monopoly. Ameri-
can manners" pleads our champion-champion for
che nonce-" are not all evil" This may not
pcem bold defence, but we are bound to suppose
u kindly meant English visitors note that a
lady can travel alone through the States and find
help and chivalrous defence from every man she
meets Nay more Boston has been described by
. Kansas visitor as place where respectablIty
stalks unchecked. And there are thousands OF
American cities both East and West, open to the
same Western reproach. MIR. John l.. Sullivan
also stalks unchecked through Boston; yes. and
through London, and 80 Nh. Ruskin's allusion may
be, suggests our stalwart defender to the promi-
nenoe in London Of Yankee pugilists. MIR. Rusl1in
chooses to seolude himself from society and his
authority on manners is impeachable If he
would quit the soltudes Of Brentwood more often,
and visit London, and not confine his visits to
picture galleries. he might have something to say
Of American manners more pleasing to the Amerl-
ems themselves, and more true. He would hear
English women acknowledging their debt to their
fair American cousins There are American
women in London who have lent grace and deli
caey and brilliancy to the society Of which they
make part, and sometimes the most brilliant part
american mannersP Where are there any Detter
will Mr.. RuslSin tell usp
Bat the American part Of this discussion is only
IN episode Mr. Ruskin's Indictment against his
own country is a sweeping one. and he puts In the
'front.' Of it-or as his first count II the lawyers
insist upon it-swindllng Swindling was not
formerly the method OF English trade'-in other
words swindling is now the method OF English
trade and that is why the trade has ceased 60 DO
English This is q point on which the SHOP
keepers organ ought to be strongest but IL
hardly does more than meet MIR. Ruskin with
negative. Even the negative is presently quail
fed; and in curious sentence: We DO not
believe that there has been any increase OF
swindlng out Of proportion to the spread OF trade
and the augmentation of wealth" What Is this
but saying that the spread of trade implies ana
involves the spread Of swindlingr The lawyer
who holds a brief for his client. as does This
middle class organ for the shoplleepers, Is not
going to admit his clients guilt. But suppose
few who know anything practically OF Engnsh
trade customs would deny that Mr. RuslIln is
night and that swindling in its various COM
mercial forms has increased is increasing ana
ought to be diminished. The manufacturing ara
srading world in England act but too faithfully
on Mr. Bright's melancholy maxim that adulter-
alton is only form Of competition
nNo long continued National industry or trade
can be built on q basis Of deceit" says the shoP
keepers organ. The answer Is they can ana are
There is the oft-quoted case OF the mdnch"s1er
cotton goods They still command the markets OF
the world. They are VIGOROUSLY adulterated' Dut
the first thing which the markets OF the world
now require is cheapness, and IL half your COTTON
IA SIZE calico can be sold cheaper than II IL were
all cotton. Then if everybody cheats what choice
price for honest goodsP I was told last year that
the last great house in Manchester which had held
out against this form Of competition had given in.
They had to elect between abandoning tho busi-
ness and adulterating their goods to meet their
dvals' prices and they elected for adulteration
The only thing the British manufacturer does not
adulterate Is his profits.
What was IL that gave the Stores their great
had IN
do with IL: the certainty of getting honest goods
had at least as much. Both point the same moral.
The whole retail trade Of London was rotten. The
buyer was charged enormous prices for what ne
did not get; for shoddy instead Of cloth; Tor
chicory instead of coffee; for sloeleaves called
tea and the like throughout. certain number
of men with fixed and generally narrow incomes
undertook to do their own trading, buy genuine
goods of Wholesale merchants-for there are still
genuine things to be had at a price-and sell to
their comrades at profit large enough to cover
expenses and pay fair interest on the capital en-
ployed. Out Of this modest beginning have grown
the great concerns known as the civil Service
Stores the Army and Navy Stores, ana
others Their turn over amounts to millions
yearly, and every pound OF 1t is proof that the
trade it superseded was rascally trade III
were not afraid Of offending the just suscepti-
bilities of my friend Mr.. Godlin might add that
it WAS also free trade. 1t is under the Tag OF
Golden and in the rame CT the coming millennium
that English trade has reached that condition
which one of the foremost Of English writer's calls
swindling.
What would Mr.. Rusl1in have said If before he
published his spenetic letter he had seen the oli-
cial report of the torpedo expedition of last May
He hates torpedoes. and he may rejoice over the
mishaps OF the torpedo boats, English though they
be- There were twenty-four Of them Ihey
started on a trial cruise in the morning. they
steamed back again in the evening; all that were
left of them Sixteen were left eight had been
disabled; exactly onc-third Of what was called
q frstclass torpedo feet Engines broke ana
broke down nk-brasses were fused, wire