Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1903-12-30

ana tNe Ola man WOrk1M| DFa Nai+
ary think seriously ubont himseil
says tte Chicago Amedoan. n
you talk to g man who has e15 3
week salary he viii say 10 You;
~ can lust manage 70 live on Il
rarely Well-but l can't save q
cent. I see no hope ahead Tor the
future"
The man with a salary Of 600
q week viii say, In exactly the
same tones:
81 can Just manage to live on it
and keep my family deceRtly. But
I can't save q cent. I don't know
what would become of my child.
rem II anything should happen to
me-"
And it is always the same story,
no matter what the salary or wages
the full amount lie always spent,
Il Is difficult 10 make ends meet
and there is nothing left over to
show for long years Of work.
To the man Of small salary it
may seem absurd to talk Of the
man With ten or twenty or thirty
thousand dollars annual salary
spending every cent and being al
ways behindhand-yet that is what
happens almost invariably.
This writer knows one indiVid-
ual with q saIaried income about
the same rs that Of the President
Of the United States, and that fool
feb person is always worrying
about meeting bills, the same as
the man with $40 or e15 q week.
The president Of q great railroad,
q man whom every .inhabitant in
this country knows by name, drew
an enormous salary for a number
Of years. Yesterday when his
employer hundred-time mil
honaire-died, this salaried man
had nothing to show for his years
of work. He was an old man, and
the sons of his late employer COM
bined together to provide for him.
He could tell a very good story Of
the extravaganza habits that come
Of a fine salary.
The purpose of this editorial is
not to make the salaried man feel
foolish, or merely to convince him
that he is extravaganza. Unless
some useful suggestion were made
this page of white paper would be
utterly wasted.
Let as consider, therefore, why
it is that the salaried man with a
steady, regular income Is nearly
always the man who has nothing
saved up against a rainy day.
Why is it that the rich man in
telling his life story nearly always
describes some business venture,
some enterprise that he went into
Of his own account, as the basis of
his success and fortunei
In the first place, we do not ap-
preciate that which comes without
any special effort. What We can
do easily and regularly We take as
q matter of course.
The man working for himself,
with the element of uncertainty in
his work, is compelled to realize
the possibility of future Difficult
ties. Constant change, fuctua.
tions in profit, keep him out Of a
rut and alive to actual conditions.
The man with a salary simply
looks upon that as a minimum.
He arranges promptly to spend all
of it, no matter what it may be-.
He knows that he will have il this
week, and next week. He usual
ly thinks he ought to have a great
deal mOre-sOmetimes he ought
to, and sometimes be deceives
himself.
If he had a house and sold it, if
he even had a horse and wagon
and sold them, he would look up
on the purchase money as capital.
He would feel that be ought to
keep that money, or at least some
of it, for a future day.
But not one salaried man in q
1000 realizes that when he draws
his weekly salary he is selling
himself his youth, his strength,
and his future prospects on the
installment plan. At the end of
q week when q man draws his sal
airy be has sold one week Of his
life and one the best weeks. tt is
strange that in a nation where 3
great majority Of WOrkingmen and
women work for 9 salary so few
realize what their salary means.
It means discounting the future
and selling yourself for weekly
payments.
a great many men and women
who work for 3 salary read this
newspaper and viii see this editO-
rial-several Of them certainly.