The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-12-02
FALSE ECONOMY.
The Cost of Using Cheap Articles-Secret
of Saving Money.

The Cost of Using Cheap Articles-Secret
of Saving Money.
The most extravagant living is cheap
living. A meal of the very cheapest
food is very apt to be meal of some
poor quality OF provision. A meal of
rich food gives little or no strength to
body or mind. Your strength of body
and mind Is your main stock in trade.
Ii has value in dollars and cents. A
steady diet of poor food may make You,
If not ''sick a-bed," sick on your feet,
sick while at your business, lessen your
snap and vigor, and SO lose you money
Cheap things, when they are poor
things Gas in most cases they are), cost
far more than good things. You buy s
cheap trunk. 1t bursts asunder in COM
Piiance with the effort and prayer of
the baggage-slinger, betrays secrets,
lets cats our Of the bag, and so costs far
more money, and pains besides, than a
good one. You buy a suit of cheap
clothes. They look cheap to commence
with. 1t is not a good business recon-
Mendation to ''look cheap" In three
weeks the gloss is worn off. They fade
as leaf. In six weeks they look as
much worn as really good texture of
cloth would be in four months. You
pay Tor two suits Of clothes more than
for one good one. You get from them
neither wear, quality, or style. You do
get second or third-rate recommends
ton from them to that class of people
who judge 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 a good impression on.
80 cheap dressing is very extravagant
dressing.
Economy means the purchase and use
OF the very best articles, SO as to get the
very best out of them. A sick horse
may be bought for u little money, to be
OF little of or no use, care on your
mind, an expense to your pocket, and a
brlnger to you of nothing but worry.
This is an extravagaut horse. Com
petition, which seeks to lower the price
OF everything, is the death of trade. 1t
cuts down lower and lower until at last
nd profit is left anyone. Then the fac
tory stops. The workman has nothing
to do. The boss fails, absconds, or goes
into other business. Competitive cheap
lbOOl nOtS uOl lcuI W Iildhc dTllSlS. III
does tend to make imitators, copyists,
ard counterfeits. A skilled needle
woman-one who took an artistic pride
III her work-said to me after week S
experience in one of New York great
retail bazaars, where scores of cheap
dresses lin the latest style" were turned
ont daily: There is no encoura cement
in our workshop for good. careful, pains
taking work. The girl who can rush
the most thread through the most yards
of cloth, and turn out the most dresses
III 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 encourage the
making of shams, limitations, counter
feits. You encourage work done with
out conscience, and only for cash. You
d scourage honesty. You discourage
Il e doing of work in which should be
F2t brains, skill, care, conscience, and
t,ne. That is another name for artistic
WU-k, 1Ou are helping on fraud. You
help rascality. You oppose yourself TO
justice and fair dealing. If you buy
where you can buy the cheapest, with
out regard to anything save the getting
OF an article for the least possible
money, you are encouraging fraud and
injustice.
You complain that your labor is lily
paid. Yet when you hunt for the cheap
est article and patronlze the man de-
termined 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 everything he
sells. If you are making brooms for a
living and he is selling them, it is his
aim to force you, directly or indirectly,
to make your brooms for the least pos
stole money. The world of manu-
tacture is now engaged in the endeavor
to make everybody do its work for as
little money as possible in making as
good an article as possible. When you
20 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 ma
teriaI raised for you and brought to you
for the least possible money. You
don't care whether Tom, Dick, or Har-
ry, 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 dom
know them. You don't want to know
tnem. All you want of them is their
strength, Skill and intelligence for as
l'ttie money as possible, so that when
all that strength and skill comes to you
in the shape of hat or coat, a pair of
shoes, kettle, Il shovel, or a TN pan
you can get four, six, eight or ten times
us much for the work you do in selling
II as they have done in getting it ready
for you to sell. Ii you (be you laborer
merchant, capitalist or trade unionisD
buy very good article at q very low
price, you congratulate yourself on
having made a good bargain. Do you
ask, WAS the man fairly paid for his
labor VINO made this article?n Do |
ask it? When am trying to beat
down the price do l not say, with the
psalmist, 1T is naught-it's poor
piece of goods anyway" but when l am
gone my way do not boast of my bar
gain and hold it up before my neigh
bors and say: ''Lo! | bought this pan
for a nickel-but it costeth 10 cents
elsewhereP' But am | my brother S
keeper?-P'enttce AuJord, in San
Francisco Chronicle.
At the New York Central Park on
Wednesday, while the new hippopota-
r,us rau fo, +ba t;r,o on