Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-07-21
THE RESULT OF THRIFT AND saw


When q man in embarrassment is
careful to reduce his expenditures, so
that more shall come In than goes out,
he is On the sure way to restoration and
better days. Viewing the United States
ia this aspect, we have good grounds
for cheerful expectations. What we
spend at home is Gall in the family"
Individuals may be poorer or richer
from tie change of hands Of property,
but the country has neither lost nor
gained. When we spend cur money
abroad, this is not always the case. If
we have bought material that we can
manufacture, so as to increase its value,
our spandings abroad will be sources Of
profit at home. So the English have
made money by spending 1t on Ameri-
can cottons. But, unfortunately, the
money spent abroad by the United
States does not generally go in that
way-silks, wines, prints made out Of
our own cotton, tea, coffee, and various
other objects Of consumption and luxu-
~, constitute the bulk Of our purchases
abroad. What we reduce in these pur-
chsses we save, and that saving is the
measure Of the speed with which
we are recovering our credit
and advancing toward prosperity. What
reduction we make in our foreign ex-
penditures shows itself in the rate at
which our imports diminish. These i'm.
ports are the thermometer that shows
whether we are leaving off excess Of ex.
penditures and living within our means
The usually dry figures of the import
table become, for this reason, invested
with interest, and we view their increase
or decrease as household watches the
water-mark from day to day, when an
inch or two of water, more or less, are to
them matters Of safety or destruction.
Turning to the import figures, then,
with this sense of their meaning for
every one Of us, we find such good
authority as the New York Bulletin say
ing: "The falling off in our import
trade, during the last two years, is one Of
panic" The returns Of eleven months
OF the past fiscal year are in. They show
the value of merchandise imported dur
ing that period to have been $426, 600, 600
against $490, SOC, 600 fer the same time
the previous year, S579, 100000 for
the same eleven months in 1873 4,
and for the same period in 1872 8.
S594, 4OO, 900. From 1854. 400. 600 to $426,-
400, 600 is a decrease of $16S, 600, COO
twenty per cent.-s large and very
gratifying rate Of decrease; a reduction
o. expenses that gives a chance for more
satisfactory housekeeping. The gratif-
cation this reduction gives is the greater
when we learn that one cause Of it was
that home products were largely taken,
where formerly principally foreign ones
were purchased. In this way money
hiss not only been saved from going
abroad, but has been applied to the en-
couragement Of American labor and
skill, and the development Of home re-
sources. In as far as it has led to this
result, adversely is a blessing in disguise.
1t breaks Us OF bad habits, and forces us
to act upon the wise principles from
which our want of prudence had per-
mitted US TO wander. The reduction Of
imports that has occurred came from
the substitution Of sound for unsound |
ways of dong business, and from the |
abandonment, to come extent, at least, |
of extravagsnt and luxurious modes of
living. The following table shows just |
how much every individual citizen,
on the average, has reduced his expend
itures for foreign goods, by showing the
amount OF that expenditure:
1s.,,F Vs,r- ATaOUnf s1er Ee06 Il