ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 821
An Englishman Gives Thanks
This is an Englishman's thankojfering to his country after the Great War. The
letter appeared in The Times in 1919, when all were looking forward to the
Great Peace.
No one knew the writer then, and his example was not widely followed; but it is
now known that the man who laid this tribute on the altar of his country was Stanley
Baldwin.
IT is now a truism to say that in August 1914 the nation was face to
face with the greatest crisis in her history. She was saved by the
freewill offerings of her people.
The best of her men rushed to the colours ; the best of her women
left their homes to spend and to be spent; the best of her older men
worked as they had never worked before, to a common end, and with
a sensed unity and fellowship as new as it was exhilarating. It
may be that in four and a half years the ideals of many became dim,
but the spiritual impetus of those early days carried the country
through to the end.
Today, on the eve of peace, we are faced with another crisis, less
obvious but none the less searching. The whole country is exhausted.
By a natural reaction, not unlike that which led to the excesses of
the Restoration after the reign of the Puritans, all classes are in
danger of being submerged by a wave of extravagance and materialism,
It is so easy to live on borrowed money ,* so difficult to realise
that you are doing so. It is so easy to play; so hard to learn that
you cannot play for long without work. A fooPs paradise is only the
afternoon to a fool's hell.
How can the nation be made to understand the gravity of the
financial situation, that love of country is better than love of money ?
This can only be done by example, and the wealthy classes have
today an opportunity of service which can never recur.
They know the danger of the present debt; they know the weight
of it in the years to come. They know the practical difficulties of
a universal statutory capital levy. Let them impose upon them-
selves, each as he is able, a voluntary levy. It should be possible
to pay the Exchequer within 12 months such a sum as would save
the taxpayer 50 millions a year.
I have been considering this matter for nearly two years, but my
mind moves slowly; I dislike publicity, and I hoped that someone
else might lead the way. I have made as accurate an estimate as I
am able of the value of my own estate and I have arrived &t a total of
about £580,000. I have decided to realise 20 per cent, of that amount
or, say £120,000, which wiH purchase £150,000 of the new War Loan,
and present it to the Government for cancellation*
I give this portion of my estate as a thankofforing in the^fim
conviction that never again shall we have such a chance of giving
our country that form of help which is so vital at the present time.
F.T.—21