Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-18
SELFRIDGE SEES
BRITISH RECOVERY
Former Chicago Merchant
Discounts Unrest In Fleet.
Win Spend So, 000,0 900.
nr cahle to rae staf.

By Cable to The star.
LONDON, September ls.-"Foreign
observers will do we'll. in my opinion, to
discount heavily all pessimistic reports
concerning the issue of the pending
British crisis" II. Gordon Selfridge,
former Chicago merchant, who has
founded IN Great Britain one of the
greatest general stores in the world said
today. He furnishes jobs for $4,000
people and Is famous for the intimate
knowledge he cultivates not only OF in.
dividuals of his own staH, but also OF
British workers in general and of em-
ployers large and small.
MY personal estimate of the situa-
ton" Mr.. Selfridge added, may be in
ferred from the fact / am carrying on
exactly as If no financial strain ex-
listed. Salaries in my business are
maintained. Letters have reached me
from employees volunteering to accept a
reduction of pay il it seemed to me
right. To such letters reply thanks"
and mo" Not everywhere. perhaps,
employers will or can adhere to this
rule, but great numbers. think, will.
Within a fortnight I shall start work
on an addition to my present building,
costing 100000"
Fears Result OF Unrest.
what do you think of the unrest in
the British Navy and the rumored dis
affection in the Army?" Mr.. Selfridge
Il think It will create good deal
Of ill-grounded rejoicing in Moscow, '
he replied. Our Russian friends habit
ually make the mistake of thinking the
whole world is tempersmentally and
mentally Slavic. It isn't. And, par
ticulariy, the British are not Slavic.
They are British. To be British, as to
be Slavic or to be racially anything
else. is to be peculiar. The Briton's
fundamental popularity is that he can
be a doughty scrapper for what he
thinks are his rights without losing his
pride of nationality
But was not sitting on the anchor
chain-defying orders-in Cromarty
Firth serious occllrrence?" he was
asked.
ITO be sure 1t was. Technically 1t
was in the highest degree represensible.
It was that direct action stuff which
Britons generally reprobate. But it
wasn't revolution. 1t wasn't even in
cipient revolution. There was nothing
revolutionary about it. 1t was simply
a case of British sailors standing pat
against what they, considered an in
tolerable wrong. Let any one move ag-
greSsively against this country and he
will not find British seamen sitting on
the anchor chain, nor will he find Brit
ish soldiers in mutiny."
Doubts COmmuniSm's Gain.
"You don't believe that communism
has spread much here?" the reporter
inquired.
IT don't. II I know the average Briton
at all-and I ought to know him-he
Is almost uniquely good-humored, un-
historical and uncommunistic. These
are trying times. One mustn't expect
everything to go with absolute smooth
ness. A great economic revolution is in
progress. Radical readjustments involve
extraordinary social stresses. Great
Britain is moving out of semi-feudalisn
into competitive modern life. She no
doubt has moved too slowly, but she has
moved in the only way she could-ac-
cording to her historical and psychic
determinants.
"I predict she will win through and
once more compel the admiration OF
mankind. The individual upon whom
she depends is one of the sturdiest fell
lows know. He is not only uncommu-
nistic, but sagacions. The idea that
he is either ignorant or unable to think
is wide Of the mark. I believe he viii
see the national situation as 1t 1S--the
necessity to redress the fiscal balance
and keep the pound firmly based upon
gold. Men, not mobs, are the hope
everywhere, and the British man and
woman seems to me all right"
Expects General Election
"Shall we have a general election
coon, and a TARIFF" he was asked.
IT fancy so. I expect an election
within six weeks or thereabout. The
situation, Of course. is murky and the
politicians are lodging love it.
art the controlling factors-fhe need