Old And New

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 852, 21 December 1929, Page 34

Old And New

NOTED AUTHOR COMPARES AMERICA AND EUROPE

Toil Versus Culture

Of the many prejudices which Europeans entertain in regard to America, the commonest and most dangerous is the belief that the dollar is America’s god, writes Emil Ludwig, the celebrated German author in the “New York Times.” To such assertions I habitually reply that a man who is merely rich, and nothing more, counts for more in Europe than in America, since all Americans work. It is true that people work also in London, Rome and especially in Berlin, but here work is not so highly esteemed. It is in its attitude toward money and work that we find the distinguishing marks of present-day society. In classical Rome the situation was just the opposite. The natural state of the Roman was leisure, and business was called “non-leisure” (“otium” and ((negotium”). A century ago, even 50 years ago, the highest respect was reserved for him whose genteel origin enabled him to live, with perfect manners and faultlessly dressed, in idleness. Today this type is losing esteem. Nowhere does the modern flapper picture the ideal lover as a pallid heir with long hands who carries her off to the castle of his forefathers and, while lightly paddling her across a lake graced by white swans, falls into an attitude of affected melancholy. Everywhere it is the self-made man who has come to the fore.

and the nobility's lofty position was

due to the fact that it surrounded and represented the King. There followed, in sharply defined classes, the officers, the functionaries, the universities. Considerably lower came manufacturers and merchants, and at the very bottom stood the working man. Somewhere in a nebulous category of his own was the artist.

In order to reach the upper rungs of the ladder one had to be trained in the officers’ club or the students’ corps. It was title which counted, not achievement, and when anybody ventured to accomplish something without first providing himself

Only slowly and reluctantly have the old families opened their salons to the gifted man of middle-class antecedents, and it was not until the war that the doors of the Ministries of Europe yielded to the bourgeois and the worker. European society—that is to say, the approximately 20,000 men and women, who, without any direct authority, determine good taste —was, at the end of the war, disconcerted by these intruders. To the old families no other course was open than to recognise the youthful vigour which had gained renown, power and wealth upon the battlefield, in politics and in business. But they took an energetic stand against the “new-rich” type. The man who became rich overnight, thanks to the war and the inflation, and snatched at everything With clumsy hands, guided by no education or breeding, cut a ridiculous figure and became the butt of jokes in comic papers and on the vaudeville £tage.

with a title he was quickly pounced upon and made a professor. , Hence Mephisto in “Faust” says to the student: “First a title must create the belief that you excel all other men in your profession.” PRUSSIAN SOCIETY SHAKEN These foundations of Prussian society were shaken even before the war. From the advent of Wilhelm 11. money made its Influence felt and was recognised,- though, grudgingly. But only after twenty-two princely houses had collapsed did the nation discover that the nobility only rarely produced outstanding men and that it could entrust its destinies to the

REFUSAL TO RETIRE What is still prized in American society, but in no sense in European, is continued activity. “Why do you refuse to retire and continue to go downtown every morning?” I asked one of the richest men in New York. “Because if I retired I should be forgotten by society within a year,” he answered. This reply impressed me. Europe has begun, since the war, to admit the self-made man into society and to excuse his origin (though his.origin should make him only the more interesting) ; but Europe continues to esteem and. to fawn upon the gentleman, especially if he be of noble blood, even though he may understand nothing beyond the construction of the newest type of automobile top or the shade of blue preferred for men’s summer .clothes. It is assumed that if a man can afford to be idle he must be rather particularly respectable. The dandy, who is without prestige in America, is still an interesting figure in Europe. Still, the social transformation has begun. When Sidney Webb, the distinguished sociologist, was recently obliged to become a peer of England because the Labour Cabinet wanted to be adequately represented in the House of Lords, his wife, the likewise distinguished Beatrice; Webb, refused to assume the title to which her husband’s elevation gave her the right. This was a noteworthy social event. Thousands of middle-class women have dreamed of one day beingaddressed as “Lady,” and have regarded this honour as the greatest privilege life could offer them. Here at last was a woman who knew her own value, since she had written books as Mrs. Beatrice Webb, and who knew how much she would lose if she suddenly became “Lady Passfield.” It was a turning point in the history of European society. The Americans have found an amusing way of dealing with nobility. They sometimes marry their wealthy daughters to an eminent title, thus blending the old with the new in much the way Napoleon tried to do in his second marriage, Yet I doubt -whether a New York banker would take a son-in-law *into his business merely because he was 3 duke—though in Europe, committees, newspapers and salons still adorn themselves with lordly names which are about as useful as a monument. NOBILITY’S CONTRIBUTION England is the only country in Europe -which has virtually solved this problem. Because there the nobility has always adapted itself to the changing order, and often even inaugurated changes, because .the merchant for centuries has enjoyed the fullest respect, and because the military life has had no attraction, the nobility has been constantly stimulated to contribute its best to political and business life in the interest not of the dynasty but of the nation. Only in England would it be possible for the brother of a secretary to the King (Ponsonby) and a son of a Conservative Prime Minister (Baldwin) to become active Socialists.

This is the reason that English society represents a sort of semi-rigid system, while the German might be called a rigid one and the French an elastic one.

In another sense, too, does society in England, France and Germany offer typical contrasts. The German used to dream, like Jacob, of a ladder leading to Heaven —that is, to the Emperor’s palace. In this land o-f functionaries the nobility was, it is true, at the top; but the age of a family counted for less than its rank,

middle classes—especially since at tlie critical moment the nobles were not to be seen. But now that decorations have been abolished in the republic, the mania for titles has increased. ENGLAND'S SOCIAL CULTURE It is a result of their respective characters that the English have the most highly developed social culture, the French the least developed; for the English have the most hospitable, the French the most reserved society in Europe. The Germans manifest a pronounced resemblance to the English in this respect. Nevertheless, these two societies

possess in common a northern quality —which characterises the French also. South of the Alps it is very different. Even for those whose wealth enables them to escape to some extent the exigencies of the climate —to protect themselves from the sun by cool walls and window shades and from the cold by all sorts of artificial heating—these elementary conditions remain significant. . In Italy and Spain, where the sun and the clear blue sky lure everybody into the streets, a general type of sociability had to develop. The loge in the theatre is more important than the chimney corner at home. And since in the south people live more moderately for hygienic reasons, supper is replaced by the general reception (the ricevimento) at 11 o’clock in the evening, where there is a rustling through large rooms, but neither serious conversation nor cozy corner, where neither cuisine nor cellar is of interest. Here where more titles than anywhere else are to be found and where many have nothing to do the next morning, we find the old European social spectacle in its most traditional form —in new Rome, too, although the Fascist! mostly have no time to appear. When I compare, in general, European society of today with that of America, it seems to me to manifest more pretension and less humour. Among the Europeans the Englishman surely has the least pretension and the most humour. But in the capitals of Europe it is unfortunately impossible for a man of standing to walk up to another, in the American manner, slap him on the shoulder and say, “I’m glad to make your acquaintance at last!’’ No more would a European venture publicly to summon another to speak after a luncheon or dinner, and yet this custom and the readiness of each one to respond provoke interesting discussion. They are older in Europe; they have already seen so much. Who, for example, could give ancient Paris a thrill? It required a 25-year-old boy who had flown across the ocean. In Berlin, especially since the war, people are more lively, more open, but there only work is valued.