River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-11-18
False Economy.

The most extravagant living is cheap
living. A meal of the very cheapest
food is very apt 10 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.
1t has a 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 a. your business, lessen your
snap and vigor, and so lose your mon
ey. Cheap things, when they are poor
things Gas in most cases they are), cost
far more than good things. You buy
cheap trunk. 1t bursts asunder if
compliance with the effort and prayer
of the baggage-slinger, betrays secrets
lets eats out of the bag, and so costs
far more money, and pains bcs des-
than a good one. You buy as #
cheap clothes.
They look cheap 10 commence with
1t is not good business recommends
ton to 'looK cheap In three weeks
the gloss is worn of. 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 a
second or third class recommendation
from them to that class of people who
Judge man by tie ''cut of his jib.
and, grumble at it as much rs you
may, these are very necessary class
of people to make n good impression
on. So cheap dressing is very extraya-
CANT 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 little money, 10 be
of little or no use, care on your mind.
an expense to your pocket, and bring
er 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. Ii cuts
down lower and lower until at last
no profits is left anyone. Then the
factory stops. The workman has moth
ing to do. The boss fails, abscOnds, or
goes into other business. Competitive
cheap labor does not tend TO make ar
lists. 1t does tend TO make imitators,
copvists, and counterfeits. \ skilled
needlewOman-one who took an arts
tic pride in her work-said TO me after
weeks experience in one of New
York's great retail bazaars, where
scores of cheap dresses lin the latest
-, L. div
There is no encouragement 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,
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 encourage
the making of shams, limitations,
counterfcits. You encourage work
done without conscience, and only for
cash. You discourage honesty. You
discourage the doing of work in which
should he put brains. skill, care.
conscience. 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
dealing. If YOU buy where you can
buy the cheapest, without 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
cheapest article and patronize the man
determined to sell lower than all YOU
are putting money in the pocket of the
man whose policy is to cut down lower
and lower everything be sells. If you
are making brooms for living and he
is selling them, il is his aim TO force
you, directly or indirectly, to make
your brooms for the least possible
money. The world of manufacture is
now engaged in the endcavor to make
every body do its work for as little
money as possible in making as good
au article as possible " ben You 90
into the manufacture OF shoes or hats you
set your wits at work to get other pco-
ple's labor for the least possible money
in making those shoes or hats. You
want the work done aud 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 perpares it.
or freights it to you, gets Il 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 is their strength, skill, |
and intelligence for as little money as /
possible, so that when all that strength |
and skill comes to you in the shape OF /
a hat, coat, pair of shoes, Kettle, /
4 shovel, or tin pan, you can get four,
six, eight or ten times as much for the /
work you do in selling it as they have
done in getting it ready for you to sell.
If ssyou (be you laborer or merchant,
capitalist or trade-unionis) buy very
good article at very low price, you
yourself or having made
a good bargain. Do you ask. WAS
the man fairly paid for his labor who
made this ariicle?" DO / ask it?
When am trying to beat down the
price 90 rot say, with the psalmist,
1T is naugbt--it's n poor piece of
goods, anyway" but when | a1 gone
my way 90 | not boast of my bargain
and hold it up before my nejghbors
and say: 10! | bought this pan for
it costeth 10 cents else
But am my brothers
Keeper Prentice MuJord, IN san