The San Francisco call., 1898-03-28
A NEW PHILOSOPHY IN CONGRESS.

NdR. WALKER of Massachusetts is regarded " as one of the leading political economists in 1 ! Congress He is chairman of the House Committee on Banks and Banking, IS always one of the most conspicuous speakers on questions of tarf and finance, is director of bank and manutac- turing company, a member ot the American Acao- emy of Political and Social Science, trustee of the American Institute of Civics trustee ot Brown Uni versity and of Newton Theological Seminary and president of the board of trustees ot Worcester Academy He IS also several other knds of dgni- tary. and altogether who has right to say l am Sir Oracle, and when I speak let no dog bark
 This eminent master of social and political econ- omv has just propounded in Congress new phil osoohv and thereby won another title to fame. He achieved the distinction in the of discussion on the comparative conditions of factory operatives in New England and the Southern States, and pro- pounded his novel theory reply to an assertion of Southern Representative that owing to the smaller cost of the necessares of life in the South the South ern workingman saved more money out of his wages than the Northern worker Lest may be sus- pected of garblng MT. Walkers economic discovery we will quote exactly as 1t IS printed Tn the Con gressional Record the paragraph ln which he an nounced it to an applauding House. Mr. Walker said:
 "Let me say to the gentlemen the other side that each man in this country cannot per cent of his earnings or income without the nation going back to barbarism in hundred years. Under natural law and economic conditions it is only the few who can save The economic law of the is that enough will save-that enough dowed with acquistiveness and the administrative faculty that they will accumulate enough to employ the balance. All men ought not to save and do not save All spend that all may live in comfort It is in spending that civilization advances. Why have in town four or five men to-day who have fifty to hundred thousand dollars who yet live on an income of five six hundred dollars year. and if we all did it would all go back to barbar- ism They practically the worst citizens have. Daughter and applause.) I tell you it is in the act of spending the gets and not in the act of saving" (Applause)
 It is fortunate for Benjamin Franklin that his bones buried in Pennsylvania and not in the soil of his native State this doctrine uttered from the lips of Massachusetts in answer to thrifty speech from the of wasteful cavalier of the Sunny South would have ruffled his rest and made him uncomfortable in his grave. "A penny saved is penny earned' was Franklins doctrine and the old philosopher would hardly be able to comprehend such proposition as that of the
 Mr. Walker, 1t is safe to say, does not spend all that he earns He is content to leave to other men the advance of the nation. He takes his place among the ranks of the citizens and practices thrift while urging workingmen to spend freely This fact of course does not detract from the value of his teaching for no apostle of new creed can be pected to practice what he breaches The only point we make upon it is that the difference between the
 life and the lesson is SO striking that it needs eluci dation Mir. Walker should write a book.