“The marital relations of seamen would make an interesting subject, and I could tell you instances ...” Conrad, Lord Jim.
It seems that no homily or dissertation on the subject of thrift can be complete without the first quotation set forth above; for the plain and simple reason that in those words spoken by that immortal but unfortunate character, Wilkins Micawber, lie the very germ and essence of a true recipe for human happiness and contentment. Hence the appearance of the quotation at the head of this Paper; which paper is to deal in general with the subject of thrift, but more especially with the evident lack of that virtue among a sizable proportion of our personnel. Moreover in treating this subject it seems well to consider also a very closely allied or interwoven matter, and that is the marital difficulties and disputes of some of our personnel which are now only too prevalent. Hence the appearance of the second quotation; and inasmuch as the author concerned was a man who had lived and knew intimately the life of the sea and of seamen, he undoubtedly knew of what he spoke, and the quotation seems not out of place in this discussion.
In our own younger days I suppose that all of us received from our parents and teachers frequent admonition and constant example in the paramount virtue of thrift. We read stories of how the earnest boy carefully saved his pennies and thus eventually became a wealthy merchant; the illustrations in the book usually showing him in his store at the height of his career as a rather smug gentleman in a long coat and long side whiskers, benignly supervising the purchase of yard goods by a lady wearing a tiny hat and a huge bustle. I must admit that the side whiskers, smugness, and other attributes of the merchant always stirred a distinct feeling of repugnance in my childish heart, but nevertheless I did not question the truth of the lesson intended.
We knew that the savings bank on the main street kept open every Monday evening for the purpose of receiving deposits, and that it did a rushing business because practically every wage earner in town salted away a certain portion, no matter how small, of his weekly earnings. We were given little books at school, and it was considered only right and proper that we should take a portion of our weekly pocket money to the bank every week and receive acknowledgment of our deposit in the form of stamps pasted in the pages. It mattered not that our weekly deposit might be never more than five cents, the sought-for end was to implant a habit deeply in our youthful souls; which habit would cling for life, and as a result of its tenacity insure us in future years that comfortable feeling and that peace of mind which a few hundred dollars in reserve can so well engender. It was constantly pointed out to us, moreover, that debts must not be contracted except in dire necessity; then it was a sacred obligation to clear these debts as soon as humanly possible; and the spending of any money on luxuries or pleasure until we had paid all debts in full was something little short of a capital sin.
It is a universally recognized fact that the impressions and the teaching we receive in our tender years remain with us through life, and whether we are conscious of it or not, they remain the criterions by which we set up our standards of human behavior. Thus it was that I reached maturity with fairly definite ideas on the subjects of thrift and financial integrity; but I have begun to have serious misgivings in regard to these principles, and to fear that our younger generations hold them to be rather archaic and amusing. I have begun to wonder also if many of the educators of today, in their enthusiastic jettisoning of the older scholastic methods and standards, have not in their enthusiasm forgotten to retain the teaching of those basic principles of thrift and financial responsibility that are still so essential and which will never become obsolete.
All of the foregoing melancholy reflections are inspired by the realization of how much of the writer’s working day is usually spent on the investigations, correspondence, and disciplinary action incident to the marital affairs and the debt involvements of a certain proportion of our personnel. This proportion is not a very large one; but like every vociferous minority it makes itself so conspicuous that it appears much greater than actuality. Nevertheless it is large enough to constitute an annoying problem, and to demand an inordinate amount of time and labor. Aside from the realization that this huge expenditure of time and labor might be entirely avoidable, the feeling of melancholy and the doubts are but the natural result of interviews with the young men involved, and the consequent revelation of their standards and attitude in regard to moral and legal responsibilities.
The principal reasons for this condition are undoubtedly a lack of early training in proper thrift, and a lack of inculcation in proper standards of financial integrity and moral responsibility. Added to these we have that so-prevalent, present-day disease known as “Keeping-up-with-the- Joneses,” which is a malady that afflicts both king and commoner and wreaks havoc in either case, but when it descends upon persons with the small income of most of our personnel, then indeed trouble and misery are inevitable.
An indication of this unhealthy condition is that flood of correspondence which inundates the desk of practically every Executive Officer and provides him with the most burdensome and distasteful task of his daily round. Each complaint in this stream of grief must be given individual and careful treatment, and every effort made toward a final, equitable adjustment. Otherwise, perfunctory or indefinite action merely means that the problem will arise again and again until a proper settlement be made. Hence every case necessitates a thorough questioning of the alleged debtor or negligent husband, and in many cases the pursuit of the elusive truth is a long, hard, stern chase through labyrinthine channels, with the interrogator exhausted and still uncertain at the end.
In the course of these interrogations the most incomprehensible ideas, methods of thought, and standards of moral and financial responsibility are discovered. Many and varied are the excuses advanced by the men involved in debt or nonsupport difficulties, but in the great majority of cases the lack of proper training and standards is only too evident. The single men involved in debt usually have little or no real justification for their delinquency. The debt delinquents among the married men might be placed in two large categories. In the first are those men, usually with a wife of similar propensities, who go their cheerful, unworried way, making down-payments on furniture, radios, clothing, automobiles, and jewelry, without the slightest thought that the total of the monthly installments will consume almost the entire monthly income. Naturally they soon discover the impossibility of making all these payments, so they merely let matters slide and let the creditors do the worrying. When the inevitable complaints arrive on board they listen courteously to scoldings and exhortations on the folly of their ways, and they blandly promise drastic reformation; but it is very evident that they cannot see why all the fuss, and they fulfill their promises only under relentless pressure.
The second category of debt delinquents among the married men are those whose involvements can be attributed perhaps to misfortune and a lack of foresight. A few are afflicted with that bane of mankind, a careless, extravagant wife, to whom their troubles can be laid. However, the great majority consists of those who have rushed into marriage while very young, and with a young, inexperienced girl; expecting to live well and happily upon the magnificent income of a seaman or a fireman. Perhaps for a while such a feat is possible, but then the inevitable extra expenses caused by sickness, babies, and other contingencies which the romantic ideas of youth had not foreseen, quickly devour any slight margin of safety, and the man finds himself slipping into a morass of debt. Despite his struggles and despite his honest efforts to meet his obligations, he soon finds himself steadily losing ground, and he soon discovers that no human endeavor can make two plus two equal five; nor can it make a $60 monthly income cover a $75 monthly outgo. The result is a tortured, fear-ridden man whose naval life is a series of debt complaints, importunate and discouraging letters from home, and a ceaseless scheming to keep his family alive and his creditors placated. Such a man is of littlevalue to the Navy, and in the interest of cold-blooded efficiency his discharge would be well justified; but natural humanity makes such a course extremely distasteful and well-nigh impossible.
Of all the effects of a lack of training in thrift, however, there is one phase of our debt problem that is outstanding and a monumental example of human folly. This is the borrowing of money from those organizations known colloquially as “loan sharks.” Careful questioning of men either already involved in, or contemplating such loans, discloses many reasons for borrowing, but few really urgent or legitimate; and in those few the Navy Relief or the Red Cross undoubtedly would have rendered the necessary assistance. It seems, however, that the utter imbecility of such borrowing cannot be brought home to many men, even though they are shown that they pay interest at 30 per cent to 40 per cent per annum, and in one recent case, at 144 per cent.
The Bureau of Navigation issues warning after warning and cites many examples of the ruthless business methods of the loan companies. Furthermore, to discourage this business the Bureau forbids the use of allotments for repaying such loans, and refuses to further claims against delinquent borrowers. However, the heathen Chinee of whom Bret Harte once sang, with his “ways that are dark and tricks that are vain,” and even the famous Machiavelli could take a postgraduate course at the hands of some of these loan companies in the art of circumventing rules and regulations; and with the connivance of the borrowers, the money-lending business goes on apace.
Of somewhat similar nature were the high-pressure salesmanship and unethical methods that characterized the dealings of certain jewelry firms with our personnel up to a short time ago. Thanks, however, to the strong policy adopted by the Bureau toward these firms, debts for jewelry now form a very small part of the problem. But it seems that the same tendencies now find outlet in the purchase of automobiles, and annoying as the jewelry debts were, this new phase is even more plaguing and destructive. For instance, a diamond ring or an expensive watch never has been known to reduce itself to a tangled heap of scrap-metal shortly after its purchase, with the new owner sitting dazedly in the midst of the smoking ruins and slowly realizing some painful injuries and the more painful prospect of paying for that pile of scrap. Moreover, the purchase of a ring or a watch rarely is the direct cause of a badly-crippled wife a few days later, as actually has happened in some automobile cases. With such possibilities added to the certainties of fuel cost, expensive repairs, and the other outlays incident to operation, it is readily apparent that the automobile has added somewhat to the debt problem among our personnel.
The marital difficulties are usually of financial nature inasmuch as almost every case is a complaint in the matter of dependents’ support. The character of these cases runs the gamut from pitiful down to absolutely sordid, and their investigation is always a rather depressing occupation in view of the lamentable examples of human folly and lack of ordinary foresight, and the standards of moral responsibility that are disclosed. In regard to these marital disputes the Bureau of Navigation has very wisely taken the standpoint that the circumstances or the merits of any individual case cannot be considered by the Navy, and that there can be but one basic principle to follow in handling such controversies. This basic principle is: that when a man marries a woman he assumes the moral and legal responsibility for her support and for the support of the children of this marriage, and that this responsibility continues until he is relieved by action of the civil courts. This is a very simple, logical, and effective doctrine, but a large majority of the men concerned cannot seem to comprehend that this responsibility cannot be terminated otherwise. Hence a man will argue bitterly that the conduct of his wife has invalidated her right to his support and, notwithstanding all the explanations made to him of the civil law, he becomes a much-aggrieved and unjustly-treated man when he is directed to register an allotment for support until he can procure legal exemption therefrom.
The most difficult and perplexing question of all is what preventive and remedial action we should take in regard to this most unhappy condition. Of course the most obvious and most effective means of prevention in regard to the debt question would be proper education in thrift and responsibility, and this the Bureau of Navigation has attempted to accomplish with its admirable treatise on thrift, which is now part of the regular training courses. The general precepts and rules set forth in this pamphlet are simple and age-old but nevertheless still true, and while the following of these precepts by any man will not insure his becoming wealthy, it will at least prevent for him a large amount of actual and certain misery. The trouble is, however, that we do not get 5-year-old boys to train and educate; we get boys from 17 years on, well beyond the plastic stage, who already have had their basic training, good or bad. Consequently the task of the Navy in endeavoring to educate them in these basic principles is rather difficult, and in some cases impossible. Furthermore many are at that age when the solemn adjurations of their elders as to the wisdom and value of thrift and financial integrity are received lightly and perhaps with a snicker, as the rather tiresome preaching of a lot of old duffers who don’t know that the world has changed.
Preventive action in regard to the marital difficulties can be feasible; but to be effective it must be drastic. When we behold the heart-sickening spectacles of misery, sickness, and general unhappiness that can be attributed to the too-early, ill-considered, and financially-unwise marriages of the men concerned, then it would seem but a logical measure to prohibit marriage absolutely until a man has reached at least first-class petty-officer rating. Naturally there are many good arguments against such Draconian procedure, but surely if ever the end would justify the means, it would in this case. It is felt that with this regulation the possibility of marital difficulties would be reduced about 75 per cent and coincidentally our debt problems would be reduced about 50 per cent.
Specific remedies for the debt and the marital troubles are extremely difficult to prescribe because there are so many variables surrounding the individual cases. However, there are one or two general principles to follow which would go far toward accomplishing the end desired. With the provisions of the Bureau of Navigation’s letter Nav-5-K for guidance, the first and outstanding principle should be rigid insistence upon the prompt liquidation of every just debt, as far as practicable a final and definite adjustment of every disputed claim, and in the case of marital contentions, immediate and definite arrangement for dependents’ support until legal action has settled the matter finally. The next principle should be that whatever arrangement may be agreed upon, then rigid insistence be made upon adherence to this arrangement. The prime requirement, however, is that whatever action be taken it must be definite and final, and that matters must not be left hanging in the proverbial bight. Indefinite or deferred action in any instance merely means more correspondence and annoyance to a multiplied degree, and the same ground must be covered again and again by every succeeding personnel officer and at every new station, until decisive, conclusive action must be taken to settle the matter once for all.
Naturally, all of us will not agree upon the most efficacious methods of preventing and curing this most annoying condition, but the fact remains that it is something which warrants our earnest attention. When once it is realized how much time, labor, and expense the condition now requires (which could be put to so much better use otherwise) then the need for vigorous action by every administrative office concerned will be only too evident. We shall never be able to eliminate it entirely but we can eliminate a great deal of it, and in so doing shrink a veritable flood of correspondence and grief down to a mere languid trickle. Moreover in achieving this devoutly-wished-for consummation we shall have made a large contribution to the morale of everybody concerned, and especially to the morale of the poor Executive Officer, who after a few months of his grappling with this problem and his consequent immersion in all its paltry, miserable, and sordid features, must feel his soul wither like that of the first mate in Conrad’s story who complained that his “immortal soul was shrivelled down to the size of a parched pea” after one week of a certain disagreeable job.