The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1904-11-16

POWER OF CASTE AND INFLuENc
OF THE lANDoWNlNG CLASS.
The Number Of Things That "Gcn-
tIemrn- Cannot do without Losing
social Prestige II Too Grent by
Far to Catalogue.

An interesting book might be writ
ten ON the influence of the English
landownlng class. Even In these days
Of ubiquitous manufactures, when to
look at map OF England is to wonder
how II Is possible for n landowning
class even TO exist, the social and po-
litical influence of that class IL some
thing more than maintained.
The ambition of every successful
Englishman Is to have ~ place in the
country" to get foothold on the ns-
plring 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 util-
ity OF the English country gentleman
will not be questioned by any one who
really knows England.
But Mt the same time II Is equally in
disputable that the sort of life he nf-
fects-the endless indulgence I'm 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 irrcsponsi-
BILE idleness and that the ncighborhood
in which he lives is rarely apt To re-
gard him as an apostle Of strenuous
ness.
The country" everywhere stands for
leisure, and so long as the country"
continues to represent the supreme OBJ
tect OF an Englishman's ambition and
his social ideal so long will England be
leisurely.
Again, in an old and stable land, with
social standards rs fixed as the social
foundations and governed by mon
archy, the conventions play an cuor-
nous part, and the conventions In Eng
land are all against hard work. II is
the leisure class that rules, that makes
up society, that holds all the positions
men naturally covet.
A sort OF -Four Hundred atmos-
phere permeates England. In America
one gets a Whit OF 1t on Fifth avenue
and at Newport, but in England one Is
never away from 1t. The number of
things, for instance, that gentleman
cannot do without losing social caste is,
in England, so prodigious as TO form
almost schedule Of forbidden In
dustries. There are some trades and
professions that are respectable" and
those that are not.
Only an Englishmnn knows which is
which, why doctor ranks socially
above a dentist, why n man who sells
should be irretrievably below the man
who manufactures, and he, the Eng
lishman, knows it by an instinct which
is born in him and which he never
examines and so cannot define. Any
one who can tell why the merchant
should consider himself and be con-
sidered by others the social superior
of the biggest storekeeper in the king
dom will be well on the way toward
understanding England.
The daughter OF n wealthy manufac-
turer OF kettles marries the owner of
the largest dry goods store in London.
Why should she be thought and spo-
ken Of as having married Il little,
though only little, beneath her? Per
sonally, do not know. l merely OBJ
serve, without attempting an explana'
tion.. that the man in the wholesale
business is more looked up to than the
man In the retail business, that while
the former is not averse to talking
abotit his affairs, the latter is only too
anxious to "sink the shop" and that
social position in England is regulated
by host Of perfectly Fictitious and
conventional considerations more read
fly felt than expressed.
Such graduations exist of course to
some extent everywhere, but nowhere
are they so stereotyped, nowhere do
they strike so deeply. as in England. j
have never yet been able TO discover
an Englishman who had not the social
privilege OF despising some other Eng
hshman, and the lower one penetrates
In the social scale the more complex
and mysterious and the more rigidly
defined do these lines of demarcation
become
The point is that throughout England
the sense OF the nobility of work for
its own sake, If not actually lost, has
become so confused by the intrusion
of quite alien factors that the sphere
of action open to n young man Of what
ever rank is sensibly circumscribed.
The country, while democratic in form,
is not democratic in spirit. 1t has not
accepted and does not subscribe TO
that gospel Of work which lies at the
root of American strength, American
success, American democracy.
Any one who has looked into English
trade unionism must have realized how
largely 1t Is mixed up with class spirit.
The worldngman who knows that his
employer drives down to the Office at
half past 10, takes a couple of hours
for lunch, Is home again shortly after
and thinks himself somewhat Of
''hustler'' II he is content with three
months holiday in a year is not likely
to have a keen appreciation of the dig
nifty Of labor. His ideal insensibly be-
comes that of doing as little as he can,
of striving to reproduce on his own
~,lono hia apnpl0var'a m0dp of life and