Allied to this subject is the enormous waste caused by ignorance of cookery. A really excellent dinner
in France or in Switzerland is often made from materials which would be despised in this country. Anyone who is in the habit of roaming about the country on foot or on a bicycle will know that in many parts it is impossible to get a decent meal; the provision made is frequently nasty without being cheap. In rural districts in France delicious meals can be obtained at a lower price. Domestic economy should be taught in every school, and to people of every rank, but the teaching should be practical. I remember wishing to see in an excellent school something of the teaching of domestic economy, and found the girls and boys, instead of learning to cook, were learning what was called science, writing down in copy-books "the operative principle of tea is theme." This kind of pseudo-science, teaching people to write a jargon which conveys no meaning to their minds, is one of the things which is called education, but is really mental demoralisation. The process may be continued, perhaps, in classes on "practical citizenship" for adolescents, who will be taught to say "the operative principle for the amelioration of states is democratisation." Great improvements in the teaching of domestic economy have been made during the last few years in many places, but there is no doubt that an enormous amount of waste is due to ignorance and neglect in the choice and preparation of food.
Again, every possible effort should be made to encourage habits of thrift, and to provide satisfactory modes of investment for small savings. As regards this question, War conditions have positively had a beneficial effect. The need for all classes to contribute to War Loans has been recognised; facilities to enable the small investor to contribute have been carefully arranged, and the War Savings Committees have done admirable work in bringing the question home to the people. The result has been on the whole most satisfactory. Not only has a very substantial sum been provided towards meeting the cost of the War, but habits of thrift have been fostered, and the
sense of having a stake in the country, a direct financial interest in the national funds, makes for order and will form an element of stability in national life which will be invaluable.
Notwithstanding the "ingrained prejudice against thrift" among the majority of all classes, which is a marked characteristic of the English nation as compared, for example, with the French, the number of holders of national securities has increased enormously. Before the outbreak of the War it appears that only 345,100 persons held securities of the British Government. It was estimated that at the end of the year 1917 Government securities had been distributed among no fewer than 16 million persons, including 10 million holdings of War Savings Certificates.[[8]] It was further estimated that "during 1917 over 51 millions were contributed to the Post Office issues of War securities, which, together with the net value of nearly 64 millions from War Savings Certificates and an increase of deposits over withdrawals in the Post Office Savings Bank of no less than £5,683,000, provides in all a sum of £120,723,000 odd, the total contributions of small investors during the year." Since the beginning of the War the contributions of small investors already amount in all to a grand total of about £253,000,000.
Care in expenditure and a habit of saving will, in view of the financial position after the War, be alike necessary; the nation cannot afford waste in any form; after the War, as well as during the War, the national welfare demands that any balance beyond what is required for healthy life should be saved and made available to meet the national needs, including not only the fulfilment of the national obligations, which is an imperative condition for the maintenance of credit and prosperity, but also the provision of the means for future betterment, material or moral. We do not wish to reduce useful expenditure, but to get money for what we need by increasing production and
by more careful spending. It will be a time for all classes to refrain from expenditure on luxuries or ostentation, or in fulfilling those imagined claims which convention imposes. In different ways almost all classes are fettered by these conventional obligations. How much of the expenditure of a person with fairly good income is devoted to things which give him no additional pleasure and confer no real benefit on himself or others! Both rich and poor waste great quantities of food, sometimes because they are afraid of being thought mean if they did not do so. There is a strange power exercised over our acts and our liberty is curtailed by the opinions of our neighbours or members of the same class. Much might be accomplished if we could enlist these conventions on the side of economy. Why, for example, should it not be considered "worse form" to take on the plate good food that is not wanted and leave it, than to eat peas with a knife? How greatly did an alliance with Mrs. Grundy support morality in mid-Victorian days! If we could turn social observances from encouraging extravagance to promoting economy, it would go far towards eliminating national waste.
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