The more he made the more he spent. He
squandered his financial substance on fine cigars, expensive clothes,
and excessive drinks, while his wife bedecked herself in gaudy finery
and installed pianos or phonographs in her house. No one thought of
To-morrow.
Just as it took the shock of a long succession of military reverses to
rouse the English mind to the consciousness that the war would be long
and bitter, so did the abuse of all this temporary and inflated war time
prosperity bring to far-seeing men throughout England the realisation
that the British people, and more especially those who worked with their
hands, were booked for serious social and economic trouble when peace
came, unless they saw the error of their wasteful ways.
"What can we do to stem this tide of extravagance and at the same time
plant the seed of permanent thrift," asked these men who ranged from
Premier to Prelate. No one knew better than they the difficulties of the
task before them. In England, as in America, thrift is more regarded as
a vice than a virtue. Like the taste for olives it is an acquired
thing. To spend, not to save, is the instinct of the race.
But there were other and equally serious reasons why all England should
buck up financially and make every penny do more than its duty. First
and foremost was the terrific cost of the war that every day took its
toll of $25,000,000; second was the enormous increase in imports and the
diminished flow of exports, a reversal of pre-war conditions that meant
that England each day was buying $5,000,000 worth of goods more than
other countries were purchasing from her; third was the human shrinkage
due to the incessant demand of battlefield and factory.
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