New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-01-25
HARD TIMES AND ECONOMY.

Our exchanges through the whole month OF
January bring to US appalling accounts OF the
destitution among the labOring classes, the
people who would work if work was to be had.
Mills and manufactures all over the country
are closing or running on shortened time /;
mechanics and retail dealers, finding their stores
and shops deserted by customers, are discharg-
ing half their hands; and, as at Washington,
the employees dismissed from the Government
service remain without work. and in many
cases absolutely without bread. The same
story is rcdupIicated in every town and village
On every side incomes are reduced and on
every side there is retrenchment. The Ameri
can people are learning for the first time the
lesson not only how to deny themselves the
things which they can spare, but those which
they cannot without stringent lack OF comfort.
Theaters are deserted, restaurateurs and
caterers find their Order-books empty, fashion
able talors and milliners grow despairng;
households are kept up with half the number
of servants. Even the physicians complain
that sick patients prefer the risk OF dying to
the certainty of a doctors BILL Wherever a
luxury can be spared, or dollar saved, it is
done.
Now, one word on this matter of retrench-
ment. 1t is a twO-edged sword and cuts both
ways while 1t saves AS life it is murder to
b. Whether it is prudent or even Christian
thing depends wholly on circumstances. The
mistress of an establishment dismisses ser
want, and so gains, let us say, 81 per week.
The servant is without "a per week and food,
and is so much the loser. She adds one to
Al IS 81
much the loser. If these 81 are spent for a
bit of useless finery, who is the gainerf We
shall be told, the fashionable modiste or jew
cer; but these purveyOrs of luxuries have had
their Summer and harvest, and if they have
not provided for this Winter time, they should
he the first to feel its cold. Or suppose, as Is
the case in large number of families the
money saved is laid away for rainy day
not invested in any way, but literally boarded.
The great mass of silver pieces now III circu-
lutiOn, dated before the war, proves how wide
spread this habit of boarding is among our in
land population. Every dollar removed from
circulation now makes the chance OF recupera-
ton less for business, and adds another weight
to the mass of misery. Every dollar judi
ciously spent goes its way giving work, re-
kiNlnp tIHlC, HulUS many HuhSiy hV"'"'
We urge our readers not to think they are
helping themselves or their neighbOrs when
they simply greedy become misers. Let us
economic strictly, not only in dollars but pen
MES if need be; but let economy be the de-
nal of ourselves selfish pleasures, which bring
employment and comfort to nobody. lndr-
yidual action in the present hard times may
do much; let every head of an establishment
or a household reduce the wages of his or her en-
ployGs instead of reducing their number. Give
work whenever possible instead of aims; and,
above all, let nothing 20 TO waste. The half
worn clothes stored away and forgotten, the
scraps of cold victuals thrown out as garbage,
would keep many poor body from want and
soul from despair. The more refined and Gull
tured a man and woman may be, the more is
it their especial work to see TO these things.