St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-08
, FARM ECONOMY.
The Experience and Observation
of CIarkson, of the Des Moines
Register.

The Experience and Observation
of Clarkson, of the Des Moines
Register.
young man inquire of a venerable gen.
tleman, who had accumulated large
estate, what the secret of his success
was. He said it was: when you earn
Is cents per day, spend only so cents of
it and keep out of debt" That infor-
nation, simple as it was, has had an
important influence upon life's trans
actions. And if it were lived
up to by a large mass
Of laborers, mechanics and all
classes of wage workers the world would
be a great blessing. The rapidly in
creasing riches and consequent willtul
and wicked extravaganza of large
class of our population is corrupting the
minds and misleading the practices of
the great mass of workers. Whilst the
riches are increasing, paupers are null
tiplying much faster. There are twice as
many, according to population, of those
who ask and receive aid now as did
| fifty years ago. And yet the wage
worker receives twice as much now as
then. The articles of food cost no
luOlCs ClllN nOU DQIl 40
as then. Wage workers of all
classes, both male and female, are
not prospecting as formerly. They are
not weekly, monthly and yearly laying
up portion of their wages as then.
They live more eXtravagantly, spend
more recklessly, and fOolishly aping
their neighbors in fashionable follies.
Mechanics appear, at least large pro-
portion of them. not to attempt to make
any provision for the future. When
they make SIS or SIS per week, instead
of permanently investing at least one
third of the amount, they spend it all.
Then, if work fails, or the man is taken
sick. or any member of his family, so as
to keep him from work, the family at
once becomes an object of charity, the
rents are unpaid, the butchers bill neg
lected. The man becomes discouraged
at the accumu lated debts, until he be-
gins to debate with himself whether he
ought to try to pay the old debts. So
soon as he does that-when he begins
diate his obligations, he is gone. He no
longer has that keen sense of honor
which teaches him to regard as sacred
his debts. Then he is no longer man.
His pride, his ambition, and all of the
impulses which nerve and sustain a
man in life's conflicts, are gone. He
has no confidence in himself. and
his neighbors have less. But if a
man lives by rule, uses the plain
necesSarieS of life, and scOrns to
ape the follies and corrupt practices of
the growing cussedneSs of the world,
and lays up carefully at least one-third
of what he earns, soon he will see there
are better days for him. A little weekly
and annually saved, the increasing ac-
emulation of interest, the increasing
ambition, and the renewed energy will
soon build or buy house. Then the
expense of living decreases, and the
saving can be more, until imperceptibly
the man with his family find themselves
in comfortable circumstances, respected
by the world, his financial credit estab-
liShed, and he is enabled to enter other
enterprises than as a day laborer.
We have seen these things worked
out and demonstrated all about us for
the last siXty-five years. The man who
spends as he goes soon has nothing to
spend but is broken down in spirit,
credit and character; but the man who
weekly saves portion of his earnings,
economies in his business, soon places
himself among the hOnOred and re-
Spected. 1t Is as certain as the revOlu-
ton of the spheres. But the man who
saves nothing sinks lower in spirit,
enterprise and character. He soon be-
comes too INDECENT to work and not too
proud to beg. And he goes down as
fast as gravitation will take him. Trust
no man who not regularly save and lay
up a certain per cent of his wages.
There is no hope for him. He will be-
come sour, abuse those who prosper by
saving and will live miserable life,
hating the prosperous and dying beg
gar. eff you earn rs cents per day,
spend only so cents of it,"