Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1874-02-18
The Law Of Accumulation.

Everybody knows that money
makes money, but it is not everybody
that pays attention 10 the modus op-
erandi BY which this is brought about
and the practical consequences which
follow
Schoolboys arc taught the rule of
compound interest, but nine ont of
ten Of them forget all about it for the
remainder of their lives. Yet this
principal has more TO do with tho nc
cumulation of large fortunes than any
other cause whatever; and II has
bearings on the increase of wealth
aud on the ratio style Of expenditure,
both personal and national, of which
the practical character cannot bc
ovcrrated. t.f.f
We read in a paper few months
ago Of the death Of an eminent Lon
don capitalist, who left the enormous
fortune Of three millions sterling
This old gentleman was over ninety
years of age at his death, and it is
pretty evident that he was man OF
quiet habits and moderate expendi-
ture, letting his capital accumulate
from year TO year by its own natural
force. Now, it is only when it has
been in operation for long series Of
consecutive years that wc sec what the
force of compound interest is. For
the first few years the augmentation
is almost imperceptible, but when once
tho power Of increase has become de-
velopej, il goes on at an augmenting
ratio, until the results are almost in
credible. There can be little doubt
that in tho case just mentioned, the
wealth accumulated after the natural
duration of life had been reached was
far more than all the seventy years
previous.
If money can be invested at eight
per cent, and the interest roinvcsted
at the samc rate, it will double itself
in five years. Allow ten years for
this to take place, owing to loss of
time in reinvesting, and We reach the
remarkable conclusion-renarkable
we mean, to those who have not thot
about it--that if man can lay by a
thousand dollars at one and twenty,
and let it accumulate at compound in
terest, it will amount to the enormous
sum Of thirty thousand dollars, if he
lives to tho age of seventy, TO sixty
thousand at eighty, and 10 hundred
and twenty thousand a, ninety. This
is the secret of the large fortunes OF
the great bankers and capitalists of
Europe, whose money goes on accu-
mulating for generations, and aug
ments with prodigious rapidity after
thirty or fifty years have passed on.
The process, however, may be re-
versed. A man wastes or spends a
thousand dollars ncedlessly by the
timo he is one or two and twenty
What is tho effectl If he lives till
seventy he will be thirty thousand
dollars poorer for it /; or, we will say, he
will have lost the chance Of being thirty
thousand dollars better off than he is.
We then arrive at the general truth,
that .he younger man is the more
valuable money is to him. We have
seen what thousand dollars is 10 n
man Of twenty.one, viz: the making
Of n fortune; but a thousand dollars
to man OF fifty would beof compar-
ativoly small account.
Suppose a man begins life with eco
nomical habits, and by rigid self-denial
aocumulatcs five hundred pounds by
the time he is twenty. Eve. That sum
will amount to competency by the
time he desires to be free from the
cares of business, and he can then
(and indeed for years before) have the
pleasure Of laying out his money free
ly, ard without fear, in gratifying bis
tastes or in doing good.
But if be is inclined to crafty his
tastes when young, to buy, wo will
say, expensive furniture, or to minglc
freely in society, SO that he never
saves at all until be is five and for
ty, what good will five hundred
pounds do him thcnY 1t is, of course,
good in itself, but as the foundation
of competency il is utterly made
quate. II would only amount to two
thousand pounds at sixty-fivc, and not
TO a competency till long after three
score and ten.
The points Of the whole matter are
therefore this: Every dollars avcd in
youth is worth thirty dollars in old
age; every hundred dollars spent in
foolcry or fnery before Eve and TWEEN
ty is simply three thousand dollars
thrown away of provision for the
time when work must bo a burden.
Let our young men in business
think of this. They arc exposed, on
entering life, to innumcrablc tempta-
tions to spend Let such be steady
resisted. The true course in youth Is
quick saving and careful economy -
BY and by time will come when
this will bear it's legitimate fruits
Then is the time for opcn.handed
freedom in expenditure, when tho
judgment is inaturcd, when tho knowl-
edge Of tho world is acquired, and
when capital has been accumulated TO
such an extent that even if there is
no more saving, there need bc no fur.
ther anxiety. Merchants and Manu-
fdcturers' Rerielc. =
4 Iron IN PLANTss-So far as lnvosli-
cations have shown, iron forms no Co.
seniial part of the plant or animal, yet
without il oil growth and assimilation
cnnao IL snnds aro nlunnd ON n Iililo