The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-12
BY THE DUCHESS OF WESTyAIINSTE

anxious than I am to welcome such dawn the Duke of Sutherland casts-and no one is more aliv to the fact that it can only be brought nearer by the rich and the poor striv- ing to understand each other.
 The day has gone when the peer age was a thing apart, when there was was a great gulf between the aristocracy on the one hand and the masses on the other. The day is com ing when the rich will have to real ize that if they are not dependent on the poor there is at least equal dependence on both sides.
 am convinced that it is only by those who have money making a real effort to understand the difficulties of those who have not that we shall ever establish more harmonious class relations.
 Rich people do not realize what it means to be without the countless luxuries which are commonplace to them, but which are beyond the dreams of innumerable of their feI- low creatures. Some are being forced to realize it more now though.
 To understand the life of the poor is for the rich no easy matter. They have every luxury from babyhood up wards, and have never tasted life in the raw, without it's soft wrappings. 
 are cast in pleasant places to teach our children that thereare others who never have the good times they them selves enjoy.
 A Difficult Task.
 It is no easy matter. To drive home to a child who has always been waited on, always fared softly, always had his ponies, dogs, and everything else he wanted, and teach him that ether children are often hungry, cold, OVerwOrked is not so simply as it sounds. But there are little ways in which it can be done; and it should be done.
 In little ways one can teach small favorites of the Gods to realize pow erty Now that my own daughters are older always impress on them that they ought to see some of the dark side of other peoples lives.
 o course, one does not want to sadden childhood, which should be a happy time. But the younger years are the plastic years, and it is then that the lesson of consideration and sacrifice for others can be most last ingly taught.
 It may be argued that since the war it is the rich who need the sym pathy and not the poor, that the poor were never better off. It is not a r sound argument at the best of times, and even if it were the difference be- tween hard times for the rich and hard times for the poor is immeasur- able
 I iuite admit that the war brought unexamp1ed prosperity to the work ing classes. When the war broke out everyone anticipated that the poor would suffer horribly, and the Prince of Wales opened a special fund on their behalf, to which enormous sums were subscribed.
 Artificial Prosperity.
 But with separation allowances coming in regularly in families where the father was fighting, abundant em- pIoyment at high wages to those Jeff behind, and the restriction of drink ing, many humble households were in clover for four years. even read the other day that the big surplus left from the Prince of Wales Fund is being devoted to the help of disabled officers who cannot find suitable jobs.
 This prosperity, however, was arti f1cial, and the days of artificial plenty are over. We are being solemnly warned that we can no longer spend freely; that, in order to pay back oul debts, we must practice Thrift with z big T.
 Next winter will be hard one fol
 
 learned to appreciate before-littlt luxuries. The poor will have to re trench as the rich have had to learr to. But the margin between comfor and destitution is terribly near fo the poor, while destitution is beyont the horizon even of the rich.
 Hard times for the rich means house the less or a motor-car tn less, or a holiday the less.
 For the poor 1t may mean actua want.
 Back to Poverty.
 Those who were poor before tn war and comparatively rich while tn war lasted will very likely now. witt higher wages balanced by highe prices and taxation, be poor again.
 There is more need than ever tha those who have should realize tn hard lot of those who have not; an do all they can to mitigate that har lot.
 Above a1l those who are in nee should not feel they are dependent O charity, which to natures with an pride must be an unbearable feeling It is sym pathy and understandin that is wanted.
 It should be for the rich man to SC how he can better the conditions ( the life of his poorer brother. A ittl more real help on these lines woul go long way towards bring about real democracy.