The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-08-15
Thrift.


ingly quotes the old opinion that the vola-
tile French are wiser than they seem,
while the grave Spaniards seem wiser than
they are. It may be hoped that whatever
the Spaniards lack in wisdom will some
day be made good to them in experience if
they persevere in their commendable efforts
to correct the errors of theory and practice
which have made Spanish affairs an enigma
to all the world outside of Spain. But while
Spaniards have in their past history often
gone very gravely and deliberately about
the doing of things suicidal to the interests
of Spain and of themselves, Frenchmen
have oftenest displayed q rather remarkable
habit of regulating their affairs wisely and
prudently, albeit apparently in q reckless
off-hand fashion. The truth seemingly is
that French Ievity, when probed in the di-
rection of real and substantial interests is
man, and especially your Frenchwoman, is
person of taste, possessing O native ge-
MUS for the thorough enjoyment as we'll
| as for the ready production of whatever is
artistic, alike in the concrete affairs of
every day life and in the domain of alb
stract art. But taste is not extravaganza,
and art Is nothing if not frugal. The highest
and the truest art, whether in painting or
In tailoring, may for present purposes fairly
enough be characterized as the capati ty to
produce the greatest results with the least
expenditure of labor and material. French
sdilOIluS duO OTcbemGhlUR, COOklD2 and
clockmakiDg, cost less than the tailoring
and dressmaking, the cooking and the
clockmaking of most other countries where
these things are done equally we'll, partly
because the French do them with greater
! ease, and partly because they do them with
greater economy than the artisans of most
other countries. With all their love of the
pleasures and the elegancies of life, the
French are constitutionally a nation of
workers and economizers. They enjoy
what they may in the present, but they
aim to get their enjoyment at the smallest
cost, and above all things keep a shrewd
eye fixed upon the future. While the
English nobility about the time of the
Conquest manifested their greatness by
feasting themselves and their retainers on
unlimited beef and beer, the Norman
French noblemen fed frugally, lived tenn
perately, and devoted their money to the
building of noble castles and their strength
to enterprises of warlike ambition in
England, Italy and the East. This frugality
of body and of pocket characterizes the
French people of to day, and cannot
without error be overlooked in estimating
the actual and potential resources of the
French nation.
1t is, indeed, an accepted principle of
political economy that four or FIVE years
suffice to any veil governed country to
make good by increased economy in con-
sumption aud increased energy in produc-
ton the waste and destruction even of the
most destructive wars. Under wise financial
and tariff legislation the Northern and
Western States should have ceased to feel
the worse effects of our civil war at least
five years ago, instead of feeling the worst
reaction from them as we now do, ten years
after the close of the war. And it is very
certain that the poverty which to day
Expresses most of the Southern States and
anet Is the industry and commerce of the
whole country, is due less to the, war than
to the bad government by which industry
in those States has been discouraged, ham
pered and crippled since the war. The
rapid recuperation of France since 1870 is
of course largely due to the fact that it has
most happily escaped the bad government
which has been the curse and the blight of
American Industry for the past ten years
but no people less thrifty, economical and
Industrious than the French could have
come 80 baoyantly out of such disasters az
the French have done.
This economy is not spractised by the
French people under the spur of immediate
necessity, but with an eye to future com
petence. There are few artisans or farm
laborers who have not q greater or less
hoard OF gold on hand which they are
always ready to invest in undoubtedly
good securities, and which has long been
an unfailipg resource upon which the Gov
ernmeRt can draw in time of necessity.
Napoleon the Third got all the money he
needed upon his accession to the imperial
throne, and skillfully secured for his Gov
ernment the support of the masses, by
Offering an attractive loan in bonds of
very small denominations which were
eagerly bought by the poorer classes
throughout the Empire. 1t was from these
seemingly exhaustless boards, individually
large or small according to the income of
the possessors OF them, that the greater
part of the German indemnity was paid |
or converted into n home. debit and il |
is FROM the same source that coin
enough, and far more than enough, lie
offered for every safe and attractive loan
that is put upon the market by the French
or by French municipal
This admirable thrift would
have but little inducement for being if
ready means of utilizing email savings
were not held ont to the people. That in
ducement is to large extent found in the
excellent credit which the French Govern
ment has generally been wise enough and
honest enough to maintain. By so doing