• THE EMPLOYMENT OF GOLF CADDIES [To the Editor of
the SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—I think that none of your correspondents writing on the subject of improving the condition of caddies has suggested the only remedy, which is that caddies should not be employed at all.
Caddying is a parasitic occupation of the worst kind for the impressionable years of adolescence, and golfers who habitually employ them should ask themselves the question whether they would be willing for their sons to take up such employment. Not only have these luckless youths no future, but they are actually unfitted for employment which requires hard work and high standards, and the undesirable background of the golf course and the club house helps to increase their unpro- ductiveness.
The association with adults only in their hours of amuse- ment disposes them to envy, and envy bids them imitate people with whom life seems nothing but recreation and of whom they do not see the serious and honourable side. The boy learns to be a nunkey..anda.tout, his one test of character is the willingness to tip, and the one test of success the ability to do so, and his one ambition, and indeed his only prospect, is to learn to play the game better than his masters, and ultimately teach them for still more tips. The failure to' admit that the evils mentioned are inseparable from the Occupation and not a question of organization is due either to want of imagination or to dishonesty.
Nothing can be done till the golf player's conscience is too sensitive to permit his prostituting the glorious possibilities of boyhood to his recreation, or until the. law assists the golfing conscience by making it illegal to employ caddies, which I hope will be done one of these days when the State is courageous . enough to tackle thoroughly the question of juvenire 'employ- ment.—I am, Sir, &c., H. G. Aui:i.. St. Olave's, Tower Bridge, S.E.1.
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