Adams County news. [volume] (Ritzville, Wash.) 1898-1906, 1902-11-19
Keep Busy and Pay AS You %.

Keep Busy and Pay AS You %.
TO keep abreast OF the luxurious
tastes and habits of the fashionable
world, in majority of cases, means
either debt or dishonesty; and between
debt ard dishonesty there is frequent
ly but the slightest shade.
No man can live beyond his income
without fraud; somebody must foot
the bills. Ii in the habits of an ex-
travagant life we incur liabilities
which our assets will not cover, it is
of little consequence whether we make
good the deficit by borrowing, or by
putting our hands into someone's
pocket without saying "by your
leave" says the Tacoma News.
public sentiment, with reference
to this matter of debt, has put itself
into such open conflict with the prin-
ciples of justice and right that no
teacher OF morals can wisely hold his
peace. The best speech that John
Randolph ever made was when he
arose in the continental congress and
said: 'Mr. Speaker, l have found the
philosophers stone; it is, Pay as you
go.' And one of the best OF the many
good things written by Horace Gree
ley is this: Avoid pecuniary obliga-
tions as you would pestilence. Hun
ger, cold, rags, hard work, contempt,
are disagreeable; but debt is simply
worse than ALL
One may look in vain through the
tables OF the Mosaic law for any pre-
cept, unless it be the eighth, bearing
directly upon this matter; but the
spirit which underlies and pervades
the whole Decalogue is summed up
in the good advice of Paul, Owe no
man anything A disregard of this
injunction is the bitter spring from
which flow nearly all our domestic
crimes and scandals. Welcome the
day when our people will prefer honest
poverty to gilded shame; when they
will see how much better to stand
secure on the lowest round Of the
social ladder than &c grow dizzy at
the top; when the plain honesty OF
Franklin and the republican SIM
plicity of Martha Washington shall
supplant the manners OF the public
reception and the club room; and
when men shall blush to contract a
debt, and be glad and proud to eat no
bread except that which they have
earned by the honest sweat OF their
brows.
We say naught against the tastes
and habits OF the wealthy; Int we in
woke shame and contempt On the
spectacle of poverty aping xealtk.
Cleopatra may drink W pearls in her
wine with IMMUNITY, but ii Cinderella
borrows pearls to drink them with
her wine, it is quite another thing
Yet this is what We read OF or observe
every day in the tragi-comcdy OF social
life; borrowed tinsel, counterfeit rank,
sp!endor won by false prc:enscs, men
protesting to be rich while owing
more than they own.
The real guilt in many cases Of
public crime is rot SO much in the
dishonest act as III the manner OF lie
which pI ompts ana requires it.
There is 10 moral lesson equal to
constant employment in the decieas-
ing Of crime and reforming criminals.
We seldom see man arrested while
at work. II suspicion of criminality
falls upon man who has steady en-
ployment every possible clue is sifted
to the bottom to shield him from even
the suggestion of wrong doing. The
working man is always given the ben
eft OF the doubt. lie carries no evil
dence OF guilt. When a man is stead
fly employed his mind is at case and
contentment is marked on his coun-
tenance. If he commits crime there
is something wrong in his makeup
or habits. Under ordinary conditions
he is above suspicion. This situation
illustrates the necessity for universal
prosperity. Men who cry down fac.
tories aud industries and try to pre-
vent the increase of labor employing
concerns are agencies OF criminality.
We want more prosperous communi-
ties, more steady wolkingmen and
less idleness and vicious habits.
NUGGETS.