The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-27
WHAT A MAN COSTS.
The Journey From the Cradle to the
Grave Is Expensive.
v Redford STANDARD. J

New Bedford Standard.)
Has it ever occurred to you to try to
calculate the cost of a mans passa &c
from the cradle to the grave?
1t is one of the essential characteris-
tics of a civilized community that its
members are mutually dependent upon
one another for the means of existence.
Even the agriculturist who grows MS
own food and whose wife spins and
WeaveS the materials of clothing-even
he cannot live upon his own labor I'M
less he has a surplus. The man who
lives in the center of commercial life
is forever taking money from one set
of men and giving some or all of il to
another set. Fortunate is he indeed if
the dollars come in a little faster than
they go out; for they are hardly got,
and too easily spent.
1t costs money to come into the world
for the doctor and the nurse have as
much right as the baby TO a living.
Nature ordains that a man must eat
to live; civilization ordains that ne
must pay to eat. The law and the eli
mate demand that we shall have roofs
over our heads and clothes upon our
bodies; neither can be had without mon
ey or the equivalent of money. From
infancy to old age one is surrounded
with other peoples hands outstretched
for dollars; and even when the er<l
comes the dead mans purse is opened
TO pay for his interment
Strike an average of the annual cost
OF your life; now multiply ii by the
number of years you are entitled by hui
man calculations to suppose that lire
may last, and you will be surprised at
the result.
You are perhaps a young professional
man earning $1,000 a year You are
&c =.
pate, OF course, that your income will
increase every year. Consider, how
ever. only the bare cost of your own
personal maintenance, the money spenr
IN your education. in nursing you dur
ing the ills Of childhood, the cost or
board, lodging, clothing and other es-
Sentlals 10 your health and success.
suppose we take it ct an average of
$1,000 year The Insurance company
tens you that from its point of view
you nave another 81 years to live Ii
that is SO. when you depart from the
world at the age of 81 you will have
paid $4,000 for the right to live SC,
long.
The paupcr who begins his DAYS in the
WoFkhouse. and ends them there at so
Tor those who depend upon the efforts
OF others for their support generally do
it as long as they can--even he costs an
least $4,000 to clothe and house ane
feed.
The man who spends his life in prison
costs more because he has to be rne.e
securely housed. and because the cosr
OF catching and convicting him mus
De added TO the cost of keeping him.
Even the nomadic hobo costs not less
than 500 for every year he lives his
wasted life He spends little, it is true
upon clothes or lodging or anything
else. but If all the goods that he gets
oy begging, bullying and thievine be
addeo up together with the expense en-
talleo IN preventing him from getting
more and in moving him on from nIacs
to place, II will be found that his life
from frst to last entails the expendi-
ture OF a sum which, if expended at his
birth, would have procured him an an