Devils Lake inter-ocean and Devils Lake free press. (Devils Lake, Ramsey County, N.D.) 1905-1909, 1907-10-04
The First Rule for a Husband and Wife
By William Jennings Bryan in Ladies Home Journal

beyond it those who help us spend our
money will criticise us behind our
backs and think the less of us because
of the deception attempted
1--WE cannot afford it" is a valuable
phrase; it is often worth a fortune
1t is manly phrase, and a womanly
phrase, too 1t will ALLEVIATE no one
whose friendship is worth having; as
a matter of fact, one is fortunate to
lose friend who takes offense at that
admission when spoken in truth. Can
dor is virtue which disarms criticism
and wins admiration, even from those
who lack it themselves
AS against the false pride of the
man who conceals his financial condi
ton from his wife, or which leads the
wife to adopt a scale of living beyond
the husbands means, let us consider
the merit of the opposite position
There is a pride that is justifable:
the pride of the man and woman who
|
promise with selfrespect They earn
what they can, and, having done the
best they can, look the world in the
face. They buy what they can pay for,
and are free from the servitude which
debt always enforces. Laying aside a
little each year they see hope in the
future instead Of despair. 1t is no
day-dream that pictures a larger
house and provision for rainy day
In such family child is not a dread
visitation, but welcome sharer of an
increasing store. Between the false
pride that means final disgrace and
agonizing suspense before exposure
comes - between this and the digni-
fed admission of limited means, who
can hesitate to choose the latter? And
yet thousands Of families today are
I filling the present with dread and SOW
ing the winds from which whirl-winds
spring because they are ashamed to
live within their means.
There is an element OF honesty in
this question, too, which cannot be
overlooked. Not that one who lives
extravagantly always intends to be
dishonest, but is there not lacking a
rightly-adjusted sense of honor? The
embezzler seldom enters deliberately
upon the commission of his crime He
borrows the money, expecting to be
able to pay it back, but loses it in
speculation or squanders it, and final
ly, when repayment is demanded he
stands forth violator of the law So
there is incipient embezzement in pur-
chases made when one is not sure of
being able to pay. For is it honest to
run accounts and trust to chance to
find the means with which TO make
payment? The landlord, the grocer,
the tailor and the dressmaker are in a
position to compare the various stand
ards of integrity, and some are deplor-
ably low. There are two ways of be-
ing untruthful: saying that which is
known to be false, and saying that
which is not known to be true And
SO there are two kinds of dishonesty.
the contraction of debt with the in
tention Of not paying it, and the con
traction of a debt without knowing
how it is to be paid
To be sure, there may be case, of
sickness or emergency when a person
must buy on credit, and in sucI! cases
honesty requires that the creditor
shall know the facts and take the rlsI;
voluntarily; but these cases should
not be COMPOUNDED with living beyond
ones means. A semi-intentional fraud
is practiced when to keep up appear.
ances one runs into debt without rea-
sonable prospect of payment and yet
the guilty party would probably indig-
nantly resent the charge of dishonesty.
Dishonesty in financial TRANSACTIONS
is blood relative of falsehood, and
there are several other members of
the family large and small. Extrav-
agance is in itself another form of I'M
truthfulness, for it is usually the act
ing Of lie Every young lawyer who
has commenced the practice Of his
profession with the collection of a.
counts gathers some amusing illustra-
tons of the prevaricatiou which is re-
; sorted to by those who buy without
knowing when or how payment is to
be made.
The mildest indictment that can ..e
made against those who live beyond
their means is that they are willing
to purchase tomorrows sorrow with
today's enjoyment, or, to state 1t more
accurately, are willing to make little
sacrifice today in order to secure a
large advantage in the future. And
yet, after all, this is quite a severe in
dictment, for one of the important
differences between the savage and the
civilized man is that the former must