Evening star., 1934-02-04


gance and the acquisition of more
money. Getting and spending, we
lay waste our powers" Women in So
ciety, who might have oodles Of
leisure. are engaged in a fierce COM
petitive scramble which hardly leaves
them time for a best-seller or a beauty
shop. Sheer ostentation is evidently
hard work, and the ladies, bless 'em,
ought to demand an N. r. A. code.
Our millions of unemployed might
have constituted at least a temporary
| leisure class. but nobody is harder put
to it than one who has nothing to do.
Professors are overworked with exam
nation papers and campus rivalries
and the leisure which military and
naval men might enjoy is spurious, for
1t is spent in pulling for "the next
war" shooting craps or dancing on
the quarter deck. As for sculptors,
painters. writers, actors and architects,
they are as hard pressed as the dis
employed and the other part-time
workers.
For the most part, our spare time
is spent not in fruitful leisure, but in
the talking picture palace, in an au-
tomobile, at cards or in front of a
| radio. Instead of enriching us, it
makes us poorer in purse. Paul T.
Cherington says that since the World
War our expenditure for recreation
has more than doubled. In 1919 It
was considerably less than two bill
lions and in 193O-deSpite the de-
presslon-more than four billion dol
lars.
John w. Davis. once a candidate
for the presidency, was aghast on his
return from a European jaunt to
learn what his Democratic colleagues
were doing about the 3O-hour week
tsuch week. allowing 8 hours nightly
Tor sleep, leaves 81 waking hours un-
occupled. He thought it would de-
, morallze the masses. His conviction
1ound wide expression. on the part
OF employers and temperance So
cletleS, when agitation began for an
8-hour day in the factory. Yet. in
spite OF the cry of capitalists that
the time set free would be spent waste
lully or Wlckedly, and of the tenn
+ perance advocates that it would bring
an orgy of drunkenness. the Republic
survived. Although the achievement
OF real leisure is still an air castle.
there is no good ground for asserting
that 1t can never be realized. We
have yet to learn, as a Nation, that
time not spent in gainful employment
may be the time most richly gainful
! for ourselves.
Franklin's Philosophy.
Nobody, l suppose, has expressed an
American philosophy of life more &C
curately than good old Ben Franklin.
He was free with his advice and he
was continually advising against
leisure. His writings were a part of
the organized propaganda against the
elght-hour day. and those who are
/ most fearful Of the hour day
, are his lineal descendants In Europe,
when eight-hour legislation began 20
be enacted. several governments set
up commissions to study what the
worker might. profitahly do with the
time thus set free. and there have
been six international conferences to
deal with the subject. No administra-
tion in this country has ever taken
the matter quite so seriously, although
Herbert Hoover did say once that we
, should organize for the enjoyment Of
leisure
A lot more than enjoyment is in
volved. Education far tranScends the
/ introduction of amusement into bleak
lives. 1t is highroad to community
health and individual character, an
opportunity to provide prophylactic
against the ills of the Machine Age.
1t would have its effect on the ma
chine itself. for it would bring better
goods into the market. better houses
to live in, more personable clothes 20
wear. more wholesome food to eat
and likelier books to read
OStensibly we have sounded the
death knell of the jazz era On every
hand We are being assured that the
emotional instability of that period ITS
irdlScrimnate taste and feverish rest
lessness. its excited search for sensual
excitement and its tom-tom music are
a thing of the past. But even if We
have got rid of the worst symptoms
of an age We are not yet assured
of a cure. The chills and fever will
return unless our great industrial pop
ulations and our millions on the farm
learn to develop their inner resources
which must be the foundation Of
fertile and effective leisure
If We continue to play by proxy. as
spectators at the foot ball field. the
squared circle and the theater; If
we are dedicated permanently to the
pursuit of hand-me- down amuse
ments and external excitements and
cannot use our creative gifts to make
this emergency an opportunity. then
red revolution itself offers no such
threat to modern American civilization
as does leisure. That is not an alarm
ist statement; nor need anybody be
stigmatized as Pollyanna who ven-
lures to believe that this quick and
resourceful people will meet success
fully the demand created by the crisis.
After the fitful postwar fever we
may acquire that tranquil poise. that
sanity as communities and that COM
pleteness as individuals which bespeak
a leisure vitalized and luxuriant.