DOES EXTRAVAGANCE HELP THE POOR?
It is often affirmed that it does. Those who believe this would do well to ponder the following words of the noted author, John Ruskin:— “Do not cheat yourself into thinking that all the finery you can wear is so much put into the hungry mouths of those beneath you; it is not so; it is what you yourselves, whether you will or no, must sometime instinctively feel it to be—it is what those who stand shivering in the streets, forming a line to watch you as you step out of your carriages, know it to be; those fine dresses do not mean that so much has been put into their mouths, but that so much has been taken out of their mouths. The real politico-economical signification of every one of those beautiful toilets is just this, that you have had a certain number of people put for a certain number of days wholly under your authority by the sternest of slave-masters, hunger and cold; and you have said to them: ‘I will feed you, indeed, and clothe you, and give you fuel for so many days; but during those days you shall work for me only; your little brothers need clothes, but you shall make none for them; your sick friend needs clothes, but you shall make none for her; you yourself will soon need another and a warmer dress, but you shall make none for yourself. You shall make nothing but lace and roses for me; for this fortnight to come you shall work at the patterns and petals, and then I will crush and consume them away in an hour.’” “As long as there are cold and nakedness in the land around you, so long there can be no question at all but that splendor of dress is a crime. In due time, when we have nothing better to set people to work at, it may be right to let them make lace and cut jewels; but as long as there are any who have no blankets for their beds and no rags for their bodies, so long it is blanket-making and tailoring we must set people to work at—not lace.”