The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-06-15
The Curse of Cheapness.
National Provisioner. |

I When will men and women learn that
the cheapest goods are almost always
the dearest and that the highest priced
goods, ceteris 1oariJuS, are generally
the cheapest in the long run: AS to
the truth Of this assertion there can
be no question. Every householder,
every housewife, every wage Garner
knows that cheapness is the trade
: mark OF shoddy, and that for anything
really worth having the full value OF
money must be paid. This is true of
products and, in spite of bargain
hunters and greedy SPECTATORS this
will hold true of all products as long
as men continue to buy and sell.
! Cheapness is one OF the curses OF this
age. Cheap c,othes, food, houses ana
cheap books-for such there seems TO
be a perennial demand, and the result
is that men and women, otherwise IN
teliyent, wear flimsy garments, eat.ad-
ulterated food, live in BuddenslnS
houses and crowd their book shelves
with paper covered novels and ephe-
neral, flashy magazines. The oolect
ofcourse, is to save money, ana equally
of course, this object is never attained.
It would be if cheap articles were as
durable and otherwise as satisfactory
as high priced articles, but they are
not and never can be. Cheap clothes
look we'll for awhile, but they don't
wear and are far dearer in the end than
clothes which cost twice as much.
Similarly, cheap houses look we'll for
awhile, but they soon need repairs ana
are really far dearer than more SUD-
stantial and less pretentious houses
which cost few hundred dollars more.
Unfortunately the cheap articles are
nowadays in vogue, and the result IS
that a large amount Of money Is wasted
and, owning to stress OF conpe1illon'
wages are being gradually reduced to
the starvation point. Even the cheap
est goods cannot be manufactured OF
brourht into the market without tue
aid of human hands. but they can be
manufactured and brought into market
at the lowest possible cost and to our
shame, be it said, manufacturers ana
dealers vie with one another in finding
ont what this lowest possible cost IS
and in reducing the wages of their
workingmen to that point. For this
barbarous state of things competition
is undoubtedly to blame. II every
branch of business the aim Of Inautac-
turers is to undersell competitors ana
if possible drive them out of the market,
and the easiest way to achieve this
aim is to pay starvation wages ana
thus produce the cheapest possiole
goods. We clamor for cheap Shirts
cheap cloaks, cheap cigars, cheap fooo'
and the result is that in all our great
cities thousands of men and women
are working like slaves for miserable
nittauce which barely sutfices to keep
the breath of life in theil i'll fed, Ill
clad bodies.
The only remedy for this crying evil
is a healthy public sentiment-in other
words, a crusade against cheap goods.
Philanthropists mean we'll, but they
are on the wrong track. Instead OF
relieving distress by eleemosynary
gifts they ought to fight against the
commercial system, which IS the cause
Of starvation wages. ''Ehe laoorer Is
worthy of his hire" and no articles
are worth buying which have been
produced by i'll paid laborers. more
over, it is a sheer waste of money to
buy articles of inferior material ana
quality. There may be for the seller
considerable profit in such articles but
there certainly is none for the pur-
chaser. On the contrary, they gener-
allv prove to be very expensive to the
purchaser. Hence we claim that II IS
not only the duty, but that it IS also
the interest, of every American citizen
to close his purse strings tightly when
impor;uned to buy cheap goods. Cheap |
goods mean low wages, and hrsV CLASS
goods mean high wages, and hence 1t
naturally follows that when high wa
ces are paid for first class goods, and
there is a healthy demand for sucn
goods, prosperity for all classes is oouno