CHAPTER XIII

STANDARDIZATION

" Go call a coach and let a coach be called,
And let the man who calleth be the caller,
And in his calling let him nothing call
But Coach I Coach! Coach!"

St. Louis, Missouri.

LAST night I had a long discussion, with a gentle-
man of weight and consideration in this city, on
standardization as an outstanding feature of
American life. He took a rather melancholy
view of it. It was one of many conversations I
have had on the same topic, and mostly in the
melancholy vein, with thoughtful people all over
the country, I have also read much invective
against it in books written both by Americans
and foreigners, but without being convinced
either by the conversations or the books that it
constitutes, as so many of them maintain, a new
curse imposed on the country in addition to that
pronounced in the Garden of Eden* Standardi-
zation is indeed a favourite theme of domestic
critics with a turn for pessimism (a numerous
class in America) while foreign observers are apt
to cite it as " the first thing that strikes them/5