New-York tribune., 1907-10-11

laugh at the imaginary wickedness or throwing
away half-cigars unsmoked and letting the COOK
feed the family dog on the frigid remains OF
the daily roast. But the hard fact still remains
+ in spite of skeptlcism, that a nation of frugal
citizens in a land as rich as ours could well en-
dure without hardship all the snowy losses or
timber, fuel food supplies and minerals we nave
thus far suffered.
Economy is an art which men acquire as
rule, only through compulsiOn, and which, IL
not mastered in early years, is rarely learned
American business men can therefore scarcely
be blamed for the amazingly wasteful meth
DDS" which more than one visiting committee
Of Europeans says 1t has found on every hand
City children who have revelled in nurseries
filled with costly toys, replaced dd h6stum when
damaged country children who never had an
opportunity TO learn the value of food and fuel
and the way those commodities should be pro-
duced and used; children In general of all ages
and classes whom fond parents have refused to
instruct Systematically in the art of economic
ing, on the gentle theory that they'll have 70
get up against the hard world soon enough
"anyhow"-such children can never become
efficient business men except through unusual
genius and perseverance. And yet how many
Americans have been brought up thus! How
many of the next generation, tUo, are being
trained in the easy ways Of prodigality!
Some sOcalstic writer's have blamed the
wealthy classes for the outrageous extravaganza
of the times. The spendthrifts of gilded society
and the men who squander fortunes for social
and political prestige are they tell us, guilty of
corruptng 1.-The good old American traits of fru-
gality and economy" But this view reverses
cause and effect The snowy side of our ma
tional vice is mscOnstrued the cause of
recklessness in the kitchen, anthracite disspa-
ton in the furnace the disgusting habit OF
treating" OstentatiOn in the homes of work
ingmen and people OF moderate means. the
lOrdly tipping" system and all the other famil-
lar faings of the generation But follow the
history of our eminent squanderers and you
will find that they throw millions away be-
cause nobody ever taught them the art of max
ing the most of things They have simply imi
tated uncOnsciously the practices of their
elders and their comrades; and what they could
not do with the food. raiment and pocket money
their parents gave them they cannot do with the
property they earn for themselves. Our IA
nous prOfigates, then, are only the unluckiest
members of a large tribe; while their poorer
companions individual waetefuInnss is too petty
to attract the curious, they must suffer the
wrath Of the multitude. If one Of the victims
would only engage n statstician TO compute
the worth of property squandered or left un-
used by his eighty million critics he might rem
der a great public service. For at the sight
of the billions Of dollars fritered away annually
by the plain people. the country might intro
duce In every public school compulsory course
on Making the Pennies Count" What won
ders might such a course not work in time,
The day would soon come when 'Inter.Met"
stockholders could no more be looted as pas
time than a baby can he deprived of its stick
of candy