Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-02-24
RICHARD A. PROCTOR's PLAN FOR
PREVENTING IT-EVERYBODY
EATS TOO MUCH.

lite better on halt the quantity.
During the Franco.Prussian war
the government, desiring to have
their soldiers in prime condition,
supplied 20 each man daily sau.
sage weighing one pound, made of
pea flour, bacon, sage and other
ingredients. This was ali the solid
food the army had during the ardu-
GUS campaign, yet they tbrived and
grew fat, and worked harder and
better than when rations we're more
liberal.
The improvement in health, if
this forced regime is pursued, will
be noticeable at once, and the ex-
penses for eatables reduced almost
one.half. 1t will also develop an
appetite FOR plain and healthy
things, and the poor man will take
more delight in his frugal fare and
experience more gastronomic pleas
ure in its consumption than the
millionaire with all his epicurean
delicacies at command.
1t is urged that few people know
what an influence this food ques-
ton has had IN determining the
amount of freedom that the bulk Of
the community enjoys. The diff
ference in effects must be distin.
guished between mere cheapness Of
food and abstemiousness in the use
of food which enables men to put
by a part of their earnings and so
obtain independence.
1t is not desirable to live in a
country where life can be support
ed for a mere nothing, because the
incentive to labor is lost and the
people become lazy and lmprovi'
dent. In illustration of this, the
Peruvians and Mexicans Of old
times lived chiefly on bananas,
which grew as prolific as weeds
They thrOve for awhile and multi
piled, until the OverproductiOn OF
population brought them to a most
degraded condition.
The worklngman may not be
able TO become a capitalist by such
savings as would result from halv'
ing-lst us suppose-the amountol
food that so many 10 all classe'
consume to their detriment, writes
Mr.. Proctor, but the saving of two
or three dollars weekly in the ex
penses of the workingman and his
family supposed to include two OF
three other workers. would signify
! in the course of only a few wears q
sum which, to such a family, would
be of great Importance, not merely
for what it could purchase, but fol
the anxleties that it would remove
even though for many years not a
cent Of it were touched, and it un
derwent no change but the increase
resulting from the steady accumu
lation of interest.
1t may seem to many readers
that all this is very trlte. 1t is
nothing but the old lesson that We
can most of as save a portion ofouI
expenses, and that small savings
steadily made, mount up in the
long run to large sums. There
may be recognized, however, these
points of novelty in what | have
suggested:
First, the diminished outlay fol
food is not only indicated az al
effective remedy against poverty
but as q means of securing i'm
proved health and longer lasting
life, and secondly, the indirect gaiI
is scarcely less than these dlrec
advantages, nay, may even be re
garded as greater, if we cOnside
that life is scarce worth liviuI
without freedom, and that there
can be no full freedom even undeI
the ireest form OF government
where the bulk of the cOmmunlt.
! is hampered in means.
TIE effects, further, OF th'
diminished struggle for life woul(
be important, as depriving capita
of much of that portion of its con
| troll over labor which must be re
garded as unjust and Injurious
Were such care shown in the du'
limitation of tba food supplies o
the bulk of the community as seems
desirable, the steady though SLOW
communications Of small capital II
the hands of the many would II
the long run enable the working
classes, without strikes or othe
undesirable Interruptions OF tn
progress OF trade, to secure JUS
wages-seeing that they would N
longer have occasion to max
forced sales OF their iaoor, =
practically they row so often DO.
In the course of somewhat longe
but q1ite measurable time inter
walls there would arise an ap
preciably more even distribution o
capital than at present prevails
labor would rise in relative value
while in absolute value capita
would at least not diminish, eveI
ifit did not actually increase.-
Ne,c York Journal.
Saving is not always economy.