London of to-day;

              54 HASKINS & SELLS September
The London of To-day
By ARTHUR M. LOVIBOND,
Manager, London Office
A RETROSPECT of life in London dur-ing
the last two years brings to mind
a picture of increasing difficulties on one
hand, and of hardships borne with patience
and cheerfulness on the other. The ex­igencies
of war have forced the Government
to impose restriction on restriction, so that
there is as much Prussianism in England
as in Germany itself, with the important
difference that in England it exists with the
consent of the people and is enforced in a
co-operative spirit as a temporary war
measure. Essential foods are controlled as
to quantity and price, and preference is
given to the forces and to hospitals in the
distribution of such products as cream,
fruit, and jam. Private cars have disap­peared,
newspapers are curtailed, and can
be obtained with certainty only by regular
subscribers, and at every turn one meets
similar restrictions. But while everything
is down to rock bottom the Government
appears to have firm control over the source
and distribution of all necessary supplies,
and nobody feels the pinch of want; there
is employment for all and that, combined
with high wages, enables everyone to meet
the increased cost of living.
The accountant finds his clients' offices
filled with women and girls, many of whom
have never worked before. They are in­dustrious
and, in general, efficient, but the
lack of experienced supervisors leads to a
certain number of errors and delays in clos­ing
the books. The English system of ac­counting
requires that practically all post­ings
be checked, and when the time comes
to render the periodical statement to the
home office in America, if an error has not
been found by the client's staff, the auditor
is expected to find it.
Until recently there has been much pre­judice
against so called American account­ing
methods, including all labor saving
devices and office appliances, but the exam­ple
of American efficiency shown in the war
hitherto has done much to change this atti­tude,
and agents of American office equip­ment
report larger sales and inquiries than
at any time in their history. I made a point
of inquiring of the members of the Ameri­can
Luncheon Club what they thought of
the prospects for American business in
England after the war, and all agreed that
it was likely to be excellent.
The disturbance to the current of life
caused by air raids is difficult to see in its
proper proportion. The casualties have
probably been properly reported, and while
the material damage has been great in indi­vidual
cases, yet compared with the size
of London it is actually negligible. The
real success achieved by the raiders is in
the loss of time to millions of workers, and
decreased production in factories is noted
even after night raids. But if the Huns
hope to break the spirit of the people they
are accomplishing the opposite result.
There have been some nervous break-downs
and a few people have left London, but no
approach to a general panic has ever been
visible.
The greatest appreciation of American
participation has been shown on all sides, and
public and press frankly acknowledge that
had it not occured the Allies would have
been defeated, at any rate on land. Our
troops have been cordially welcomed on the
few occasions in which they appeared in
London, and a great demonstration took
place on last 4th of July. A baseball game
between the American Army and Navy was
attended by the King and high officials, and
a crowd of 40,000 people cheered whenever
they got a good lead from the wise rooters.
As a humorously inclined client of ours put
it, "We not only gave you your indepen­dence
but also show you how to celebrate."