Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-12-31
THE SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
ruE oAJsF OF POVERTY.

THE CAUSE OF POVERTY.
A New York charitable organization /
which has Investigated 500 families that
have called upon it for help during the
past year reports that the cause of the
poverty of 10 per cent of these people is
intemperance of If per cent sheer shift
lessness and of the others lack of employ
ment, sickness, death, and inability to
spend what is earned to advantage.
Probably similar investigation in any
other large city would disclose about the
same proportions, and the only remark
able feature of the report is that it rec
ognizes what is generally lost sight of in
such studies, the inability of large class
of people to gee value received for the
money which cons titutes their income,
weakness which is much more general
than is often supposed and which there
is no organized effort to remedy.
1t is plain enough to us all that
penny saved is a penny earned, but 1t is
not so clear that a penny well spent is
worth two that are unwisely parted with.
The great majority of people who need to
earn money are able to do it, and in this
country
command more than the bare necessaries
of life, but there are great numbers who
barely live upon their incomes because
they part with their earnings foolshly.
In this we do not refer to the amounts
that are worse than squandered for
strong drink, in gambling or other vices,
or even to the cost of innocent amuse-
ments; but to the waste and loss in the
purchase of what is or is supposed to be
necessary.
OF those who try to be prudent and to
buy as well as they can, not a great
many can be said to succeed perfectly.
They buy one thing when another would
be better, they buy what they do not
actually want, and they buy at the wrong
places. In word, they lack the ability
to make dollar go as far as it should
An illustration:
We know two school teachers, both of
whom are entirely dependent upon what
they earn. Their salaries are the same.
They pay the same price for their board
SO far as appears Que dresses as well,
travels as much and has as full measure
of comfort as the other; but one is barely
able to pay her bills, and the other saves
about a hundred dollars "A year. One
knows what to buy and how to buy, and
the other does not.
When it comes to very poor people,
who live, as the saying Is, from hand to
mouth it is well known that they get
much less for the little money they have
than DO the more fortunate, for the same
amount. OF necessity perhaps they buy
in very small quantities; coal and wood
by the basket, -four by the half dollars
worth, and other things in the same pro-
portion; and buying in this way they
pay an enormous price
Next, they very often buy the cheapest
goods in the market, which are generally
the dearest in the long run. Again, they
lack Judgment in selection, and as to val
ues. Finally, when they have made
their purchases, they lack the facilities
necessary to use them to advantage.
There is waste in their cookery because
their stoves are poor or their fuel is
scant, and they lack some of the things
necessary to compound meal. There is
waste in their clothing because it must
be worn in season and out, in all wealth
ers and upon all occasions. There is
waste in their furniture and bedding be-
cause it must be used constantly. There
is waste in their fuel because they do not
have enough to keep a steady fire, and
their tenements are poor and cold. The
poorer they are the less they get for their
money, and to this is due in many cases
the fact that they are objects of charity
Mirror and Farmer.