Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-07-07
ARE WE DISCONTINUED?

ARE WE DIScoNTENTED?
A British Journalist Who Says We Are
| Dissatisfied With Ourselves.
The London National Review, after
surveying the situation in this coun-
try, has reached the conclusion that
the American people are discontented
1t declares Americans were never so
we'll off as they are today, their future
never appeared so bright, yet they are
discontented, frightened of them
selves, fearful of what fate has in
store for them"
| 1t is just possible that the Review
may have sized up the situation in
correctly, although there Is some war
rant for its mistake If the expressions
of the press may be taken as a true
index of the state of American feeling.
But there is a suspicion in some
quarters that the discomfort in the
| United States is more apparent than
real, and that the most of the talk Is
purely for the sake of talking, except
when it assumes a political form,
then there is another object in view.
Our British contemporary says from
the tariff to the teapot nothing escapes
the vigilant eye of the reformer who
calls to high Heaven to witness the
iniquities Of the tariff or the devasta-
tions wrought by the teapot. The tar
iff has made the American people rich
and powerful; therefore, 1t must be re-
formed. In the teapot lurk poverty
and disease; therefore, it must be reg
| ulated."
A writer clever enough to note
| idiosyncrasies Of this sort ought not to
take outward appearances too serious
| ly. He ought to give us the benefit
of the doubt and size up our growls at
their real worth, and find in our brags
true indication Of our actual feeling.
For curiously enough side by side
with our propensity for self-detrac-
ton and depreciation we find the old
tendency to exult over material and
other manifest sorts of progress. When
the orator or statistician Is not doing
politics" he is still calling attention to
the fact that no nation in the universe
every particular as the United States.
Long ago the claim was conceded
that the American workingman's
standard of living was n .er than that
of any other worker Ill the globe. Re-
Gently the British board of trade gave
official sanction to it, and the state
ment has gone forth from that source
that no matter how much higher the
price of provisions and other things
are in the United States, the American
worker gets more of them than his fel-
lows elsewhere, and incidentally his
sayings are very much greater.
If the National Review thinks the
American workingman is unaware Of
these facts it may disabuse itself of
the idea by noting that he shows no in
clination to seek to better himself by
emigrating to countries where things
are nominally cheaper.
But the knowledge of the superiority
of his position does not keep him from
grumbling, nor, so far as that goes does
it prevent the middleman, whose op-
portunities to make money are not even
remotely approached by the interme-
diaries of other countries, from find
ing fault with a condition for which
he is held responsible by those who do
not form part of the distributive sys-
tenn.
There is nothing seriously wrong in
such manifestations. Perhaps 1t is a
good thing for the American people to
keep in a state of discomfort. The
contented peoples are by no means to
be envied. Their lots, measured by
American standards, are not happy
ones.
Even those people who live in coun-
tries where prices are extremely low,
and where the cost of living, by the
exercise of the acquired virtue Of fru-
gality, can be kept down to 4 or 5
cents a day, are not regarded by our
workers as models for imitation.
Indeed we will have none of them,
and insist that no greater disaster
could happen to Americans than to be
compelled by force of circumstances to
cultivate the habit of cOntentment.
The National Review doesn't accept
this point of view. 1t seems to think
that because in so many particulars
the American workingmen, and for that
matter other than artisans and labor
ers, are so much better off than peo-
pie in other countries they ought to be
thankful and avoid the vice of grOwl-
ing.
1t reads a lesson to those that are
misled by the chorus of growlers and
tells them that for the man who is
willing to work, who has reasonable
intelligence and the strength of will to
practice self-denial, and whose eyes
are open to his opportunities, the Unit
ed States offers not only a living, but
something better than that
True enough, but the American sees
no reason for surrendering his right to
growl even if things are all right. He
surrenders to the British, and the peo-
Pile of other countries, the privilege of
leaving well enough alone" and in
sists on trying to get something better
even if he incurs the risk of getting the
worst of it when he makes the trial.
San Francisco Chronicle.
A Swiss Charity Festival.-The an
nual charity festival known as THE
Little Flower" on behalf of sicn and