The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1867-02-07
Eatlnx Up the Peanuts.


EatinS Up the Peanuts.
A little boy, calculating the chance,
OF making u fortune in the peanut
trade, stumbled on financial problem
which he asked his father to solve for
him. He could see how it was possible
to make money if no bought the nuts
at ten cents quart and sold them a;
twenty; but" said be, chow would il
be ii | eat up the peanuts MYSELF"
There are older people who, in man.
aging business, are puzzled by the same
problem. 1t is clear to them as that
two and two make four that ifthey
buy at fifty cents and sell at one hun
dred cents they will double their cap-
ital and they rush into business with
the expectation or accomplishing this
or something approximating it. How
is it that so many are disappointed ?
The answer is very simple. They
eat up their peanuts. When man be-
gins business, however large tho mar
gin of profits on his actual sales, if, at
the end of the year, he finds his per-
sonal expenses. his rent, his clerk hire,
and other contingent expenditures,
greater than the sum of his net profits.
he has simply eaten up his peanuts
de may avail himself of his credit, do
a tremendous stroke of business on
capital borrowed to make up the deficit
in his own, and struggle,on for years,
but in the end balancing Of the books
will show that he has not only eaten
up his own but his neighbor's peanuts
1t is wonderfully easy for man to
do this and still deceive himself into
the belief that he is getting on prosper
ously. His business transactions, he
tells you, foot up hundreds of thou.
sands per year. He employs hun
dreds Of factors, clerks, and porters
his store rooms are throngod; his sales
are enormous, his credit good, his &C.
commodation at the bank unlimited.
All looks prosperous, and he fancies
himself growing rich, and so do his
wife and children aud friends. He
launches into extravaganza, builds fine
houses, buys expensive furniture, pic
lures, books; keeps stylish turn. out,
and lives as becomes man dong
princoly business. His wife and chill.
dren, dazzled by the display of appar.
ent wealth, assume style of dress and
living suitable to their exalted position,
give expensive dinner parties and re.
ceptions, aud indulge in all the dear
pleasures and frivolities of high life.
Suddenly, some fine morning, tho
announcement is made, to the consler-
nation of creditors and the amazement
of the public, that this merchant prince,
or that manufacturing baron, has sus
pended payment, and when his liabili.
ties como to be set off against his assets,
it is discovered that he has simply eat
en- up his peanuts.
What is true ofindividuals is equally
true of corporations, States and nations
1t is hot what they have in hand Or in
reversion that determines their wealth
1t is what they make as compared
with what they expend out of it that
solves the financial situation. There
is scarely nation on the face of the
earth whose financial budget does not
show an excess of expenditures, de-
felt that must be made up by addition
al taxation, or if that is impracticable,
by loans that are left for the future to
take care of. The abilities of q gov
ernmeut fnancier are determined as
much by his ingenuity in supplying
fresh stock Of peanuts for immediate
consumption as in conceaing the
alarming consumption of the supplies
raised by extraordinary shifts and de-
vices. There is hardly State or mu-
nicipality in the Union that to follow
the illustration, does not eat up more
peanuts in year than it produces.
In other words. they are constantly
increasing the volume of their indebt-
edness, but going on with costly on
torprises, involving the expenditure Of
millions, and all the time cherishing
the pleasing delusion that they are in.
creasing the sum of thoir actual wealth,
whereas it ID simply case of eating
up the peanuts. Cincinnati CONNER
cidJ