Money to Burn At the moment when the people of
this country is being urged by every adviser who deserves a- hearing to lay out what money it has with a special sense of responsi- bility, and in particular to buy British goods whenever British products are available to meet its particular needs, the daily papers are finding it necessary to fill their pages for days with particulars of the Irish Hospital Sweepstake draw and interviews with the fortunate persons who have drawn• a supposed favourite. This is imagined to be a time of financial stringency, but Great Britain would appear to be full enough still of people with money to risk on a chance. It is true that hospitals will benefit, to the extent of 25 per cent. of the close on £3,000,000 subscribed, but no one pretends that solicitude for the sick and suffering has the remotest bearing on the success of the sweepstake. Only one motive actuated the titled and untitled subscribers, the insidious and profoundly unhealthy desire to get something for nothing. It is a sinister irony that the exhibition of squandering should come at this particular moment of national stress.
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