STATE OF FUNK

Hokitika Guardian, 26 July 1932, Page 2

STATE OF FUNK

I’liEteEXT SPIIUT OF DJSTIUJST

“SITTING TIGHT” HABIT.

Nine out. of every ten people to-day are living in a -state of funk. They are sitting tight with their hands in’, ulicir hip pockets in:.sing their only weapon of defence. It k not a gun, or even a knuckle duster; in these tiines such ’things a.lO not considered to be. weapons at all. In their pockets are their few . remaining pound notes. J.t is a disgusting spectacle. The British people, renowned . for the.r strength and courage, June put tiiOiatrek- in L.s.d. They hope that if there should be another economic brawl they, will be able to hit someone over tlie head with the bundle of notes, and so save their own skills.

\lt is judo funk. We are terrified of being “broke.” We are mortally afraid of dismissals, wage cuts, tax increases and another financial c-riois. We iue shivering in corners waiting for the worst.

This man is cutting down his personal expiiii-es to a few shillings a wfeely, and putting the rest away in a dibx as a- safeguard; that man is ■afraid ’to spend another penny on his , business in ca-e the “world-wide depression in trade should continue.”’ VVel,l-to-clo tenant© are moving into •smaller houses, Barents are 'taking their children away from private and public schools in order to save fees, .- All this ha© led to distrust of one’s

neighbour. The credit system has been tightened. The tailor . will no longer wait so long for his bill to be settled. He wants ready cash. Debt© are called in sooner everywhere. ;•! Where there is intense distrust there can be no credit; and if we rule out credit, We shall have to go back to barl'enug loaves for fishes again. And in a- modern world that is out of the question.

So here we are, afraid to spend, afraid to start enterprises, afraid to marry, afraid to have children, .almoist afraid to stir from the fireside. It is natural’that our credit is no longer very good.

LACK OF TRUST. •If 1 wanted to start an ambitious concern that had every chance of turning out to be lucrative, no one would back me. Whoever I approached would say that they had no money; that they did not like letting their money out of their sight, for fear they didn’t get it back. They didn’t trust me. Documentary guarantee would fail to . reassure theih; they no longer put their trust in -scraps of paper they would tell you if they"’were honest: about it ; yet they put their trust in ' the pound note. If this isn’t the nioney-in-the-fitdeking principle over again I am very wide of the mark. ‘ : “This i© no time to begin new ventures,'’ people are saying. That is just, the trouble. They are going'to sit tight until the “trade revival oomes. They, are going to wait for something to turn up. If the flowers in the garden look beautiful this year f they will plant their bulbs next'. Mr Smith and Mr Brown are spying on each other’s allotment to see how the potatoes come up before they plant their own. The truth is that neither Smith nor Brown has planted any yet, and the seedsman has been almost ruined by their caution, and the housewife is finding it hard to 'get potatoes. Smith grumbles when there, are none for dinner, but it’s nobody’s, fault but hi© own. And we are bringing the next generation up to be like this, too. Fireside talk as I know it these days is not- about battles lost or won, or cf heroes of romance. It is of economy, bankruptcies, debts, sayings, unemployment and that great stand-by of the Jeremiahs, “The world-wide depression in trade.” Even the radio emphasises tliec-e “difficult times.” We are becoming a nation of self-commis-erators, and there is never a tonic.

PHILOSOPHY OF GLOOM. The children, amid all this, must be getting a gloomy philosophy of. life. The usual fairy ’bales of to-day are of the man who had his wages iiicreascd or the employer who took on a couple of hundred men. The most important part of the Lord’s prayer has become “Give us our daily biead;”

The way. out of all this is a little mbre self-confidence . and encouragement; a little less safety first and a little more adventure. In the year 1000 everyone thought the . world was coming to an end. Enterprise stopped; people thought it was no use going on. They Aaited, but nothing calamitous happened. Things were in a bad way, hut still they waited, as we are waiting now. Then the heads of the Church realised that the world would crack up unless they did something about it; so they announced that a mistake had been made in the calciilal tious, and the world would definitely cud iy tlie year COOO. Immediately the people got busy again. All it needs to-uay is for someone to say pretty strongly that the world is not going, end yet, to set the wheels of industry going again. It needs, , someone to say that if wo go on watching one another we shall become a starving people. There is a story of a little boy who was stopped by an angry farmer. “Didn’t you see the notice?” the farmer bellowed, “trespassers will be presented?” “I ain’t a trespasser,’ 1 said tlie little boy, “I’m Jimmy 1 Jones.”

What we must say is “We, aren’t trespassers; we’re British subjects.’