Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1886-12-09
FALSE ECONOMY.
Why the Use of Cheap Articles Is In Real |
ity Rank Extravaeance

The most extravagant living is cheap
living. A. meal of the very cheapest
food o very apt TO be a meal of some
poor quality of provision. 4 meal of
such food gives little or no strength to
body or mind. Your strength of body
and mi6d is your main stock in trade.
1t has value in dollars and cents. A
steady diet of poor food may make
| you, if not ''sick-a-bed," si9k on your
feet, sick while at your business. lessen
your snap and vigor, and so lose you
mozey. Cheap things, when they are
poor things (as IN most cases they
are), cost far more than good things.
You buy a cheap trunk. 1t bnrsts
asunder in compliance with the effort
and prayer of the baggage-slinger,
| betrays secrets, lets cats out of the bag,
| and so costs far more money, and pains
/ besides, than n good one. You buy a
suit of cheap clothes. They look cheap
| to commence with. 1t is not a bust
ness recommendation to ''look cheap" "
In three weeks the gloss is worn off.
| They fade as a leaf. In six weeks they
| look as much worn as a really good
texture of cloth would be in four
months. You pay for two suits of
clothes more than for one good one.
You get from them neither wear,
quality or style. You do get Il second
or third-rate recommendation from
them to that class of people who Judge
a man by the ..cut of his jib," and
grumble at it as much as you may,
these are a very necessary class of
people to make Il good impression on.
So cheap dressing is very extravaganza
dressing.
Economy means the purchase and
use of the very best articles. so rs to
get the very best out of them. A sick
horse may be bought for a little money,
toe be of little or no use. a care on
your mind, an expense to your pocket,
and bringer to you of nothing but
worry. This is an eXtravagant horse.
Competition which seeks to lower
the price of every thing is the
death of trade 1t cuts down lower
left any one. Then the factory stops.
The workman mas nothing TO do. The
boss fails, absconds or goes into other
business. Competitive cheap labor
does not tend to make artists. 1t does
tend to make imitators. copyists and
counterfeits. a skilled needlewoman-
one who took an artistic pride in her
work-said to me after weeks eXpe-
rience in one of New York S great re-
tail baZaars, where scores of cheap
dresses I'm the latest style" were
turned out daily. There is no en-
enlargement in our workshop for good,
careful, painstaking work. The giSl
who can rush the most thread through
the most yards of cloth and turn out the
most dresses in reality not much more
than basted together. is the one best
praised and best paid by her employer"
When you buy such a dress You en-
courage the making of shams, imita-
tons, counterfeits- You encourage
work done without conscience. and
only for cash. You discourage honesty.
You discourage the doing of work in
which should be put brains, skill, care,
conscious and time. That is another
name for artistic work You are help
ing on fraud. YOu help rascality. You
oppose yourself to justice and fair deal
ing. If you buy where you can buy
the cheapest, without regard TO any
thing save the getting of an article for
the least possible money, you are en-
couraging fraud and injustice.
} You claim that your labor is lily
paid: Yet when you hunt for the
cheapest article and patronize the man
determined to sell lower than all, you
are putting money in the pocket of the
man whose policy it is to cut down
lower and lower the price of every
thing he sells If you are making
brooms for a living and he is selling
them, it is his aim to force you. di-
rectly or Indirectly, to make your
brooms for the least possible money.
The world of manufacture is
now engaged in the endeavor
to make everybody do its work
for as little money as possible in
making as good an article us possible.
When You 30 into the manufacture of
shoes or hats you set your wits at work
to get other peoples labor for. the least
possible money in making those shoes
or hats. You want the work done and
raw material raised for you and
brought TO you for the least possible
money. You don't care whether Tom,
Dick or Harry, who grows the article,
or prepares it. or freights it to you-
gets fair price for his work or not
You don't care how they live or
whether they get enough TO eat or
wear. You don't know them. You
don't want TO know them. All you
want of them isl their strength, skill
and intelligence dor as little money as
possible. so that when all that strength
and skill comes to you in the shape of
a hat OF coat, pair of shoes, a kettle,
a shovel, or a tin pan, you can get foar.
six. eight or ten times rs much for the
work you do in selling it as they have
done in getting it ready for you to sell.
If You (be yon laborer or merchant.
capitalist or trade unionist) buy very
good article at very low price, you
congratulate yourself on having made
a good bargain. Do you ask: Was
the man fairly paid for his labor who
made this article?'' Do / ask it? When
1 am trying to beat down the price do
L not say. with the psalmist: 1T is