MACHINERY AND UNEMPLOYMENT
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your issue of January 10th, Mr. Sisley speaks like a cultured man who possesses a reasonable share of this world's goods. A roof to keep him dry, fires to- warm him within good walls, and good clothes to warm him when out of doors. With these necessities, he has his reasonable luxuries, the Spectator on Saturdays, all the books he requires, a telephone to book seats at the theatre, and a car to drive him and his family there in comfort.
It is easy for those who possess—and easier still for those who possess in excess—to overlook the advantages of possession. In all probability Mr. Sisley has never gone. hungry for two days, and—as a result—known what it is really to satisfy hunger. In all probability, he has never known what it is to hunger for a five-shilling book lying within grasp on a bookshop counter. Mr. Sisley should try to recall his boyhood when he had to go unsatisfied of many, many things, to realize that even in this country the vast masses can hardly satisfy their needs, and are so unused to luxuries that by middle age their desire for even ordinary things is atrophied.
Mr. Sisley must surely remember when the poor children of Westminster ran about without shoes to their feet. Would he reinstate the shoe industry of a hundred years ago, so as to " harden " the children by a reversion to this state of
affairs ? When a man, possesses nothing_ he can imagine the joy of possession. Mr. Sisley's letter proves that he is not a poor man. . . .
Whether or not we have created a machine so vast that it will control us is, perhaps, the greatest question of the day. Let .us remember, however, that in the past man has always risen superior to his difficulties, and we need not flatter ourselves—as the early Christians did—that Providence will stage the grand finale during the early twentieth century for our particular benefit:HI am, Sir, &e., Handel Close.; Canons Park, Edgware.
ROBT. H. SHARP.
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