The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1890-12-13
For the Democratic Advocate.
Waste and Want.

MEssRs FpIToRs Permit me to offer few
thoughts for the times in regard to waste and want
Now waste and want are twin brothers, the one is
a spendthrift and the other beggar. They always
90 together, or rather the one follows the other,
treading on his heels. Where the one spells the
other weeps.
How often yea we may say, how generally, are
waste and want found in different PERIODS OIL
the same life The proud master, who in the days
of prosperity abuses his mercies, often finds him
self oyertaken before he is aware by pinching want
As pride, even so also profigacy, goeth before
destruction, and extravaganza before fall
That this is so experience abundantly proves.
That it must be so Gods law and justice require
Abused blessings are always in due time taken
away. and sorrow follows. The instance of the
prodigal who first wasted his substance in riotous
living and then suffered want has its basis in deep
and unalterable laws, and will come to fulhlment
in all time There is not neighborhood into when
the ADVOCATE goes that does not furnish an ilustra-
| tion of this truth moments reflection will call
to the mind of the reader half dozen of instances
where individuals and families who once rustled
in gaudy dress rolled in luxury, went forth In all
| the pomp and pride of inflated vanity, and sneered
at those who were humber, and therefore, worthier
than themselves, are now in actual want. IL may
be- in some cases. still covered by appearances kept
want still Through the rents of the sham and the
show you have occasional glmpses of the dreariness
Within and this the more dreary because, by former
extravaganza, pride and contempt of others, the
victims of Just retribution have cnt themselves
away from the sympathies of those to whom they
might otherwise now look for aid and comfort.
What butextravagance is it that has brought upon
us the present financial crisis which has OF is about
to throw the whole land into confusion? Nothing
else There is no war there is no famine, there is
no pestilence in the land. None of these fearful
judgments from Heaven are afflcting and Furnishing
| u.s. Seldom has our country been more quiet sell
| dom more fruitful seldom more healthy. Men
have been able to labor and their tolls have been
rewarded with rich increase. Yet trouble is or VIII
be upon us; alarms and cries ring through the land
men are running TO and fro for fear Winter is al
hour doors, with all its prospective wants while
business is being paralyzed thousands are ont o.
EMPLOYMENT and the whole order of things lies in
confusion as it were.
What has done it but extravaganza That this i:
the case appears at once when we ask the question
who are suffering from the crash? Not the regular
business man; not the economical, thrifty farmer
not the mechanic who has pursued quiet and
regular course; not the man who modestly labor
and moderately lives These it is true may feel the
panic and indirectly suffer from it; but it is to them
only noise without and afar of, which will only
affect them as a salutary warning, inducing them
still more to simplify their wants but it canno
move them from their foundations. Those tina
suffer are the heroes of speculation those who have
expanded their business on fictitious capital; nam
moth manufacturers and bankers, whose ambition
for wealth extends to millions, and who propose tt
make these princey fortunes in the course of few
wears With these the crash begins and must come
But saddes among the sufferers are those who labo
in these mushroom establishments-who. instead o
pursuing quiet and Independent business OF thei
own have suffered themselves to be drawn i'll b!
these vast whrlpoos of business monopoly, wher'
they slayishly hang mere dependencies. Thes'
when the pile explodes go down with it as part o
| it. Thousands then at once thrown out o
employment without any other business to fall baci
upon for the very reason that these business monop
olies have rooted up and absorbed all the smalle
details of individual enterprise
We may smile at the primitive and simple time
when shoemakers, weavers, thinkers, and so of thu
rest were scattered over the land, and even wen
about as tinerans, instead of being mere parasite
upon giant establishments that often rule with al
iron rod while they prosper, and dash all tina
depends them to pieces as potters vessel whel
they themselves go down with crash-we ma,
rdicule those the reign of old fogyism and prais
the sea Of companies and manufacturing kings
the age of progress; yet we fear not to say that
the two extremes the first is the safest and the best
Capitalization of business is a Capitalization o
power and this is fearful and always dangerous IL
unworthy hands. And how few are fit for the trust
Even though they may receive it modestly, and us
it honestly for time, how soon and how surel!
does prosperity bring pride and tyranny. "Jeshurar
waxed fat and kicked" Nor has he been the las
who has done so. 1t is mutual dependence which
makes society, not the monopolous absorption o
the many by one God might have made forest o
one tree but then the crash of one would have beer
the ruin of all. Wisely has He made it to consist
many independent growths so that when one fall
others are unaffected. In like manner does thu
safe, regular flow of business depend upon thu
absence standardization and monopoly. As social!
every family best dwels in its house, so in bust
ness let every one build up himself and serve other
on an independent foundation-and not hang him
self to the fearful wheel of another mans precariou
/ fortune I.S.G.
Ne1p Oxford, Pa