England still has military initiative,
though it's hard to see how she's going to keep that
unless she does something to stop the degeneration of
the class she draws her army from; but what other kind
do we hear about? Company-promoting, bee-keeping,
asparagus-growing, poultry-farming for ladies, the opening
of a new Oriental Tea-Pot in Regent Street, with
samisen-players between four and six, and Japanese
attendants who take the change on their hands and knees.
London's one great stomach--how many eating places have
we passed in the last ten minutes? The place seems all
taken up with inventing new ways of making rich people
more comfortable and better-amused--I'm fed up with the
sight of shiny carriages with cockaded flunkeys on 'em,
wooden-smart, rolling about with an elderly woman and a
parasol and a dog. England seems to have fallen back on
itself, got content to spend the money there is in the
country already; and about the only line of commercial
activity the stranger sees is the onslaught on that
accumulation. London isn't the headquarters for big new
developing enterprises any more. If you take out Westminster
and Wallingham, London is a collection of traditions and
great houses, and newspaper offices, and shops. That sort
of thing can't go on for ever. Already capital is drawing
away to conditions it can find a profit in--steel works
in Canada, woollen factories in Australia, jute mills in
India.
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