War Time Etiquette

A World War I poster reminding Brits that it was poor manners and unpatriotic to dress in excess during wartime —Image from the Library of Congress

“Let our object be our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country.” -Daniel Webster

The well bred woman going the small from town to the big city finds that there are many points of etiquette as they exist in the big city that she must master. And we who have acquired our manners in times peace have found within the last of 18 months that there are many point of wartime etiquette that we must master. Just because we to know how to conduct ourselves according to well bred standards doesn't mean that we need know all the ins and outs of military etiquette or that we will be able to know just what to do in all the perplexing, circumstances that come up because of the war.

So it is that a good many persons, seemingly well bred, have acted in a most ill bred way concerning the fuel shortage. When you really think the whole matter over, the fuel situation is simply a war condition, and to put up with it it as uncomplainingly as possible is simply one form of patriotism. And public spiritedness and patriotism, in in these days, are in the best of form.

So the next time you are tempted to grumble about the small amount of coal on hand in your cellar, stop and think. Just think of anything you want to that will make you stop grumbling. If you can simply appeal to your own spirit of patriotism, do that. If you can plan out for your house some other means of keeping out the cold— like weather strips, windows, or storm doors and or open fires— do that. 

If you think you and your family can keep warmer if you wear heavier clothes, determine to do that. Anyway, plan to do something that will make you stop grumbling about this very unpleasant but seemingly necessary condition. Remember that in the present state of things, it is just as ill bred to complain about the fuel curtailment as it is to eat with the knife.

Now, there is another side to the bad breeding evidenced by the coal situation. It is in even worse taste to further take advantage of the situation of your own ends than it is to complain and grumble. The owners of apartment houses who try to save money by not buying all the coal they are entitled to are beneath contempt, of course. The man who simply grumbles and growls because his office thermometer won't register more than 65 degrees and the woman who sputters because her conscience makes her remember to turn off the electric lights in a room as she leaves it, are simply indulging in a little ill bred— or at least not very well bred— personal grouchiness.

An uncritical acceptance of the war and its inevitable results, has the greatest importance to the ones who are complaining the least. We take patriotism for granted in most cases in these days. But the grumbling patriot— the man who digs deep in his pockets to buy Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps, and the woman who works overtime for Red Cross, but criticizes and grumbles over each discomfort— runs the risk of being branded unpatriotic.— By Mary Marshall Duffee, 1918

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia