Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-07
A NATIONAL VICE


newspapers published in eastern cities,
prompted by the disclosures Of the past
month or so in financial circles in New
York, have discussed what they term
the national vice of wastefulness. The
Washington Post declares that we
waste more than any other people on
earth. On its essay on the frugality of
the French. more particularly the
French peasantry, the Post says:
France is. and for long years has
been, to the worlds bankers what
Egypt was to Israel when the lean years
came. In time of stress France is to
the rescue, and France has mortgage
liens on every country between the
Mediterranean and the arctic circle,
including Germany, even where mill
lions of French money is invested.
1T is wonderful people. The day
the child is born the parents begin to
save, and when that boy or girl is mar
ried there is a portion, or dot that
keeps the wolf from the door and makes
the pot to boil This is rural France,
where there are peasants who are mil
lionaires.
''It is not an extravaganza, but a
truth, that the average family of rural
France would subsist on what the aver
age family of rural America wastes. A
French farmer would no more allow his
plow to remain out all winter in the
field, in rain. in sleet, in snow, to rust
and go to all sorts Of rack and ruin.
than he would expose his daughters
piano to the elements. When the crop
is laid by the French peasant takes
the farm utensil to the storehouse,
cleanses 1t of all earth, oils it and puts
it away under shelter. 1t is not unrea-
sonable to estimate that the longevity
of a plow, or hoe, or an ak. or farm
wagon in France is five times what 1t
is in Ohio or Kentucky, in Iowa or
Tennessee.
"There are millions of plows standing
in the burrows in the United States,
left there when the season Of cultiva-
ton ended last July. Doubtless more
iron wedges are rusting in the mold Of
tho forest in this country, thrown away
as soon as the rails were split. than
there are In all our markets for sale
today.
"When q French farmer needs tool
he knows where to find 1t in his store
house. The average American farmer,
the possessor of sundry hoes last spring,
will go to the crossroads store and buy
new hoes next spring"
The Posts structures upon the Amer
ican farmer are pretty severe and. we
believe. in some degree unwarranted
But perhaps this critic, like the aver
age eastern writer, judges the entire
body of American husbandmen by those
whose fields of effort are bounded on
the west by the Appalachian system
But while he may have borne down
trife too hard on farmers as a class,
there is plenty of evidence to sustain
his general Indictment.
The wastefulness of many farmers
borders on the grossest profigacy. And
this vice is by no means confined TO the
husbandman. It is to be seen in many
other walks Of life-among mechanics,
clerks and wage-earners of other
classes. 1t is not confined to the field.
II is found in the pantry and In the
dining room, in the store and on the
street.
The pace set by the well-to-do is one
of the most powerful temptations with
which the ordinary wage-earner has 10
contend. The presence of thousands OF
automobiles on the streets of a city
makes thousands of relatively poor men
covetous the sight of evidences OF
greater prosperity makes them enVlous'
The lavish expenditure of money by
those who have plenty to spend incites
those who have it not to spend what
they have without regard to the future
And the American nation has been
as wasteful as the American individ-
ual AS nation we have squandered
most of our splendid heritage of forest
and field. Beginning with the extinc-
ton of the American bison. the noblesr
animal that, ever roamed the range, we
have slaughtered the elk, the deer and
other valuable game, big and little,
until now mere pittance is left. We
have permitted gold-hungry adventur-
ers crininally to denude millions Of
acres of virgin forest lands, with the
result that not only has millions upon
millions of dollars worth of unused
timber been destroyed, but millions of
acres of once fertile land has been
swept into the sea because of the great
foods made possible by such denuda-
ton.
We cannot go back and live our
national life over again, but we can,
by immediate legislative and executive
action, prevent the total annihilation
of what is left of this sacred heritage
of the people. We can at least show
that we have sincerely repented for our