The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1904-11-16
SOCIETY. IN ENGLAND
POWER or CASTE AND INFLUENCE
boF THE IAVDoWNiNG GLASS.

POWER or CASTE AND INFLUENCE
or THE lANDowNiNG CLASS.
The Number of Things That . sGen-
| lehman" Cannot Do withoat Lssins
social Prestige Isns Too Great by
Far to Catalogue.fA IS E 4 q
An Interesting book might be writ
ten on the influence Of tile English
iandowning class. Even siil these days
Of Ubiquitous manufactures when to
look at map of England is to wonder
how lit is possible for "a landOwning
litical influence of that class Is some
thing more than maintained. tssti
The ambition of every successful
Englishman is to have "a place In the
country" to get foothold aon the as
piring territorial ladder, and the ranks
of the landed gentry are continually
being REINFORCED. more so perhaps to-
day than ever before, by recruits from
the Industrial army. The Immense utll-
ity of the English country gentleman
will not be questioned by any one VINO
really knows England.
I But Mt the same time it is equally In
disputable that the sort of life he at
fects-the endless indulgence III sport.
the salmon stream. the grouse moor
the hunting box. the pheasant preserve
and SO on--is on the whole one OF more
or less harmless and often irresp6nsi-
hle idleness and that the neighborhood
in which he lives is rarely apt TO re-
gard him as an apostle OF strenuous
ness. ~ ks}-
The country" everywhere stands for
leisure, and so long as the country
continues to represent the supreme oD
iect of an Englishman's ambition ana
his social ideal so long will England De
leisurely.
Again, in an old and stable land. with
social standards as fixed as the soclai
| foundations and governed by mon
archy. the conventions play an enor-
nous part, and the conventions in Eng
land are all against hard work. 1t is
the leisure class that rules. that makes
I'D society. that holds all the positions
men naturally covet.
| A sort of -Four Hundred" atmos-
phere permeates England. In America
one gets a Wifi of it ON Fifth avenue
and ut Newport, but in England one is
never away from it. The number OF
things, for instance. that gentleman
cannot do without losing social caste Is
lin England, so prodigious as to form
almost schedule of forbidden In
ldustries There are some trades and
professions that are respectable. and
those that are not. a.s#
Only an Englishman knows which il
which, why doctor ranks socially
Iabove dentist. why man who sells
should be irretrievably below the mar
who manufactures. and he. the Eng
llishman, knows it by an instinct which
lis born in him and which he never
Iexamines and SO cannot dehne ANY
one who can tell why the mefchan
should consider himself and be con
Isidered by others the social superior
lof the biggest storekeeper i'll the king
idom will be well on the way toward
understanding England.
The daughter of a wealthy manu1ac
lturer of kettles marries the. owner o.
the largest dry goods store in London
lWhy should she be thought and spo
ken of as having married nttie
though only Il little. beneath her! fef
IsonaIly, l do not know. merely Oh
lserve, without attempting an eXplana
ton. that the man in the wholesale
business is more looked up to than tn
man i'm the retail business. that whil
Il the former is not ayerse to talk IN;
about his affairs. tire latter is only to-
anxious to .'sink the shop and tina
4 social position in England is regulates
10y a host of perfectly. Fictitious ant
conventional considerations more read
. lily felt than expressed.
i Such graduations exist of course {
4 some extent everywhere but nowher
lare they so stereotyped. nowhere d.
4 they strike SO deeply. as in England.
/ have never yet. been able to discoye
I an Englishman who had not the socia
privilege of despising some other Eng
!, lishman. and the lower one penetrate
in the social scale the more compile
and mysterious and the more rigidl
defined do these lines of demarcatio
lbecome. r,-ss-zr = ~ ~ .ss. -sef.
, The point is that throughout Engian
I 1.-THE sense Of the nobility of work 70
Its own sake. if not actually lost. ha
j become so confused by the intrinsic
, lof quite alien factors that the spher
of action open, to a young man OF VIVA
lever rank is sensibly circumscribet
1.-THE country. while democratic In form
lis not democratic in spirit. 1t has nc
accepted and does not subscribe I
that gospel of work which lies at til
lroot of American strength, America
success, American democracy. d
ANY one who has looked into Englfs
ltrade unionism must have realized no
, largely it is mixed up with class spiri
The workingman who knows that h
employer drives down to the office
Ihalf past 10. takes a. couple or houl
/ for lunch. isShome again shortly afte
. 8 and thinks himself somewhat or
hustler" if he is content with tire
, | months holiday in year is not liKel
| 10 have a keen appreciation Of the oil
nifty of labor His ideal insensibly o.
comes that of doing as little as he ca
of striving to reproduce on his oW
/ lplane his employers mode of life az
Of regarding work as an unpalataD
interruption of the real business OF e,
istence Hence the "ca'canny" pole
Of English trade unionism.-Sydne
Brooks I'm Harper's Weekly 81
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