The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-05-21
SPENDING MONEY.

Last week in these columns touched lightly
the evils of gambling and of the egregious error
of reformers to attempt to regulate gambling or to
prohibit it by statute A correspondent rather
good-naturedly chides as upon what he assumes to
have been the position we took the subject, but
he really strengthens our position by agreeing with
the main point brought forth. 1t is of the most
elemental characteristics of humanity to try to get
something without giving value for it. 1t is seen
in boys and girls Of very tender years. To trade
something of small value for something which in
their eyes seems desirable is of the first
tricks of the school boy And if the instinct be not
curbed by himself or his parents or teachers he is
very likely to develop dishonest streak in his char
acter, the prime requisite Of gambler.
We have said that it is one of the most elemental
characteristics Of humanity to try to get something
without giving value for it. This brings back to
the subject of spending money, a thing that is as
much an art earning money, and just little
harder to learn. If man bought so cent beef
steak took it home, decided that he didnt need the
meat and threw it into the waste bucket, his reck-
less waste would be criminal But if women finds
a piece Of silk marked so cents, buys it, takes it
home, doesn It need it, and stores away in the
is-well, that is reckless expenditure of money,
waste not only of the effort which gave her pos
session of the half dollar, but of effort of the
many hands which helped to produce the piece of
silk
boy with whom pretty well acquainted,
by dint of saving many nickels and dimes earned by
many hard knocks this spring became obsessed with
the idea of owning complete baseball outfit-a
uniform, ehest-protector, mask, bat, ball and
couple of mitts, He had the money to buy it, and
he could see no reason why objection should be
made since be had earned the money-it was his
and he wanted the baseball outfit. However, after
a consultation, in which it was pointed out that he
had walked from Sunday school for six months to
earn the price Of ball, that he had carried the
kindng nearly all winter for the price of the mask,
that many other odd jobs had been performed for
the other baseball articles, he decided to keep most
of his money and to content himself with one mitt,
ball and bat, for which decision he got the arti-
ces as a present. He learned the lesson Of count
ing the cost in labor of his money and he also
learned an easy way of working his "dad" for
what he wanted-two very valuable things for
small boy to know.
The expression is often heard SIT is easy to
spend money" or that some is good spend
er." 1t is our privilege to dissent from these opin-
lens usually, for it is of the hardest things in
the world to spend money judiciousy, and all the
so-called "good spenders'' throw their money
around as reeklessly drunken saior-or civilian
indicating the very opposite of good spender.
1t is not necessary to carry economy Of expenditure
to the point of miserlness for the udicious spend
in the very nature OF things cannot be miserly
But spending money injudiciousy -foolishly de-
yelopng into mania in this country. Grown men
and women have developed it to point where they
cannot restrain their desires to spend. 1t would
hardly be expected that such these will do other
than encourage the same reckless habits in their
children but how to spend money is one Of the most
important things the children need to learn
EFFECTS OF WATER.