Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-07-25

New York Bulletin July .uth.I
There are but few words in the YER
nacUlsr 90 badly or so persisteuty mis-
understood IS tnis; but that veiy clear
headed northwestern journal, the CGica-
20 Inter- ocean, seems to know what it
Is tsIki1g about when II says. "ECOn0-
my, economy - That's what is gCiug
TO bring u out OF the present trouble.
That's VITA. is going TO bring us to specie
payments and put gold dollar in every
mans pocket instead Of g deprecated
OEe''-Rnd a lot more Of such twaddie.
But We think there never was g greater
delusion than the notion so often ex-
pressed that the economy Of living is m
creasing the wealth Of the country. To
illustrate this, let US suppose that the
eight million Of families in the United
States so economic their expenditures
in the next year that the entire cost Of
living shall be fifty dollars less in each
case. This would seem TO be in addition
Of four hundred million dollars TO the
nations wealth. But is it so? Let US
see. The only way that family can
save fifty dollars is by consuming that
much less Of something. 1t may be in
food, or clothing, or in luxuries; but in
whatever it is, ii dlminisbes the sale or
hire of these articles by that amount,
and il it diminishes the demand for
these articles, the loss must fall some
where. Let Us suppose, for instance,
that this four hundred million dol
lars Of imaginary saving were
made by the consumption OF less to-
baCc0 and the diminished use of car
riagss aud horses. Would not the loss
fall on the tobacco. growers and manu.
g., fol 10
the carriage manufacturers and all their
army OF wOrkmen and employees and
would not all the prOprietOFs in these
lines Of business fail, and would not the
cessation Of demand for the articles used
in making carriages affect other BUSH
ness interests and make losses in au
endless variety OF ways? Orlet us sup
pose the economy IS in the use of coffee.
Would it not ca use immense failures in
that trade in various parts Of the world,
and the effect Of these failures be re-
fiected upon our own country in the loss
OF trade with those parts OF the world?
Or let rs suppose it is in the use OF lums
Der. Would not the surplus stock of
lumber in this county be SO reduced
that those who had paiu for the labor to
manufacture the lumber he ruined, and
would not all their employees be idle I'M
til the surplus stock was fused up? The
fact is, that the diminished demand for
anything which custom has brought in
10 general use must diminish the de-
m8nd for labor, and thus the loss in this
economy falls heaviest at last on the la
b0rer, but from him is reflected on the
retail trader, and from him again to the
wholesaler, and so on around in an end
less succession of reflections until it has
produced general depression in in
dustry and trade" There is a
good deal OF common sense here.
People have had SO many hOmiiies upon
ecOuOmy-in the abused sense Of the
wOrd-withiu the past two yesrs, that it
will do no harm to stop now and see il
there is not some danger of pushing the
thing to an extreme that in effect will
be the reverse of economy. Il IS posi-
BILE to mediate too closely upon thrifty,
close cutting Benjamin Frankiin's max
i'm, elbow to save q penny" because,
in trying to save the penny, if we d.
not take care, We may lose q pound.
The man who gradually reduced his
hOrse's ratiOus down to the ''little point
of nothing" doubtless fanCied himself a
first-clsss economist, but as the animsl
died just as he bad got him down to one
straw day, his economy is not OF q
kind to be commended. Economy in
its place, in opposition to extravaganza,
prodigality, waste and all that, il n eX-
cellent thing-theTe is no dang rst
we shall ever have too much of il tat
like other excellent things, 1t is liable
to be, as it often IS, misunderstood and
abused.