GRIN AND BEAR IT

Hokitika Guardian, 16 April 1931, Page 2

GRIN AND BEAR IT

AMERICA TO-DAY. THE SURPRISE OF DEPRESSION. (By Lady Adams in the Auckland “STAR”). America reminds me of a young man, who. alter an extremely fioaßby yowl.i, has rather suddenly, b-.vn taken ill. Tbe yourg man goes to bis doctor, who diagnoses Ids complaint as being tbe outcome of too high living, 100 much fun, and not enough care of bis health. He prescribes quieter days and rights. less amusement. and exjik'ins to tie a Sound 'd lad that be has Been filing on bis health capital. The young man cannot believe it. ill health comes to tbe people next door—to bis friends —but, surely, surely it cannot conic to him. lie talks about it to everybody who will listen, explains hjs symptoms, feels his pulse in public, looks a(, his- tongue half a dozen turn** daily, and takes himself and Ids tonics with devastating seriousness. His older and wiser fi'ieiids regard him with grave eyes and hope that this uill be a lessoil to the young fool. OUR TERN. So with America to-day. If, lias always been healthy, prosperous, and Secure of itself. Hideous troubles have come to it.s friends and neighbours, and America has sympathised in t.he way that healthy young folk do sympathise with old and ill people ; in a kindly, but uinomprehemfiag way. Now, out of a dear anti deep blue sky lias fallen this money troublenot very serious, but .-serious enough to make America vor.d'r what lias haopen-'d to it. This sudden depression that has come upon tin* most prosperous country in lbe world D unbelievable; poor old Europe is depressed. and (.orrible things liaporn to Russia, and just think of India; yes—yes—but that’s all very wdl Listen to what lias happened to U.S.! The nation is startled, and docs not quite know the proper attitude to adopt. For tbe first time, over here, they are realising that there is an excellent little adage which advises people to grin and bor" : i :■"<] t'>c--are realising with a start that most civilised countries have been doing just that very thing fo r many years now. My idea is that, the in-t:i 1 men t ufiiti is at the root of much of thd trouble ; people here do not wait for things; they get them. They have to he paid for, but only a little at a time. Bo every young couple starts off with all they want, and no young couple is complete without a car, and ii radio, luid a police dog. and. of course, every kind of electric aid. including m frigiduirc for which bride would have all old ice-man dripping over her kitchen floor —and it all seems such tvai sailin'' l ; fm - the first two or three months. Then the instalments begin (o worry the young couple, "'ho find that every .lay is Fstalnient day—and very often that is the beginning of the cud of * , ’n instalment menage. A divorce costs less than keeping un a house, and freedom at all price is a slogan with a .swing.

RUTTING UP WITH THINGS (pie of my earliest lessons was that people must put up with things; that we are not sent into the world for the express purpose of '' ourselves; a us Till and an obvious lesson. 1 know a girl here who lias yet to learn it. Blie is a secretary, earning a good income, and she married a nice young nuuL in summer. Naturally she continued to “bold down her job.” A fortnight after she married, she told me with deep annoyance that ’ -- husband had bad tonsils. She wanted •him to go to hospital and have them out; he demred to try his doctor’s plan of dieting. The point is she was furious at having to cook carrots ev-rv minute, as she put it; quite evidently she cooked them with a sullen heart, and psychologists tell ns that carrots cooked with gaiety are better for people than the other kind. However, finally, lie bad them out, and I hope peace reigned with the beefsteaks. But didn’t he ask bis mother to Christmas, and didn’t his mother send, in advance, a fine Tom turkey, for the bride to cook? So now she is talking of divorce; yes, of divorce. And she tells me she can vet one “ on the ground of mental cruelty.” Comment is superfluous. I hardly like to write this for wise, longsuffering British readers, who see life clearly, and sg e it whole. But here j is a true story. , jn . r rr&WW'ffl'M]