The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-02-01
From the New York Post.

From the New York Post.
N FORMER Wall street man. rather
WI famous for breeziness of state
ment, remarked the other day
that good times were surely coming, for
he noticed that people were wearing their
old clothes. The remark was, perhaps,
meant to cause smile, yet it was really
only statement of the tremendously i'm
portant factor which personal thrift be-
comes in situation like the present. In
times of bounding prosperity it is very
easy for people to assume a contemptuous
attitude toward petty economies. The talk
is of making money, not of saving it,
But panic brings out the economic
truth about the relation of savings to new
business operations. 'It must always be
remembered writes Lord Welby in the
Contemporary Review commenting on the
American panic, that the capital required
to extend business and to open new fields
of trade can only be supplied from the
savings of the world. But there is
limit to these accommodations, large as
they are, and, if the passions of the world,
the extravaganza of the world. and, above
all, the growing needs Of the world trench
too closely on the accumulations of the
world financial stringency will inevitably
be the result" And it is a fact that even
the most trivial form of saving becomes
a large financial operation when generally
practiced.
How much can the American nation
save by wearing its old clothes this year?
The report of the census of manufacturers
for 1905 shows that the factory product
of mems clothing for the year was valued
at $685. 1851 One-third of this, or con-
siderably less than one-third on the basis
of retail prices. would more than equal
the entire balance of trade in this coun-
try's favor for the month of December,
There were s36, 1853 worth of felt
hats sold in 1905. By wearing their felt
hats so per cent longer than they have
been accustomed to doing, plain Amer
leans can in a year effect saving great
er than the estimate of Mr.. Rockefeller's
total benefactions during 1906, the record
year for philanthropy.
Yet it is not always with clothes that
people first adopt a policy of retrench-
by only one-third for only one-half a
year the amount they spend on fresh beef,
leaving all the other items of the BUTCH
er's bill unatered. That six months saw
ing would be greater than the sum paid
last October over the counters of the
company which endured the longest run
in the history of banking institutions
Contract by the same proportion the con-
sumption of all kinds of meat-and many
well qualified persons think this would
be abundantly worth while. on hygienic
grounds alone-and a sum equal to the en-
tire government surplus on November l.
1907 would be saved in less than 10
months
AS to the commodities which are classed
as real luxuries, the facts are equally
striking. Enough cigars were withdrawn
for consumption in 1905 to provide about
eight and one-half cigars per week for
every cigar smoker. on the assumption
that one-ffth of the total population, in
GLIDING babes in arms, may fairly be put
down in that class. Even for mere pur-
poses of illustration, no one would be
cruel enough to suggest treating the cigar
as the colonists once treated their tea.
But in a great emergency like this. the
average smoker might consider cutting
down his allowance to one cigar a day.
That trifiing act of abnegation would
make a difference iii the country's cigar
bills of more than $3,5O0,OO0 a year.. Sta
tistics show that we are not whisky
drinking nation at our worst. Yet we
could save 100000 a year on whisky
alone, and still give one-fifth of our pop
NATION stiff dram every Saturday night.
Beer Is another matter In the recent
piping times our per capita consumption
OF this beverage, babies and all, rose to