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58 THE SALARIED MASSES
general automatically links the right to a higher salary for employees
with increasing age', they say in their memorandum, 'in many cases
forms an obstacle not to be underestimated to the recruitment of older
employees.' This argument is unfortunately bound to be used. In their
despair some individuals made redundant accept the peace terms of
the enemy, himself often in a bad way. One of them advertised at the
end of April 1929, in a widely sold daily newspaper:
I don 't give a fig/or the union rates!
I prefer pay and bread. What employer would like a reliable, versatile clerk,
late forties, for in-house or regular ofl·site work?
Whether the man found employment is an open question. Some people
seem to have surrendered in vain. At all events, one laid-off 43-year-old,
who formerly had a salary of 800 Marks as an auditor and personnel
manager, reports in the GdA survey mentioned above: 'Although I offer
myself as an accountant and ask for only 200 Marks, all my applications
are rejected.' Apparently the ones to be counted lucky are those whom
a respectable settlement helps to parasitic independence. Others sell
newspapers or vanish into Berlin as tram conductors.
Behind the aversion for the elderly, extremely prosaic people sense a
further secret motive that they cannot comprehend. One trade-union
secretary, who is the epitome of pure objectivity, ventures on to the
open seas of psychology to interpret the phenomenon. 'We are dealing
with a mass psychosis', he says yes, he speaks of psychological
disturbance. The disdain shown nowadays for old age does indeed go
beyond its costliness. 'Young people are simply easier to deal with', is
an expression frequently heard. As if older people were not even easier
to deal with, if anybody would only employ them. The fact that they are
treated more ruthlessly than is perhaps required, even in the interest of
firms' profitability, stems in the last resort from the general abandonment
of old age nowadays. Not just employers, but the whole nation
has turned away from it and, in a dismaying manner, glorifies youth in
it..