Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1910-06-21
SIN OF THE NATION.

Figures Showing Road to Extrava-
gance and Pace We Are Travelling.
A nation heavily indebted. plungIng
rapidly deeper into debt, fast exhaust
ing the means by which the interest
upon its debt might be paid, yet living
thoughtless of tomorrow in une1am-
pied extravagance-sUc is the strange
picture of the United States painted
by the broad facts of its international
exchange situation.
Six hundred million dollars was
needed last year to pay our balance
due foreign nations, remarks the New
York World. Money spent by tourists
abroad, the dowries of American wives
Of noblemen, remittances home by i'm
migrants, the interest and dividends on
our foreign-owned securities, must all
be paid in an excess of exports over
imports When the purchase of for
eign silks and wines and automobiles
and furs and jewels grows rapidly, ex-
ports must also grow or we fall be-
hind A princely husband in Paris
costs many million pounds of mess
pork. 4 dog collar of pearls imported
calls for a cargo of cotton in return.
Exports in 1909 fell nearly $500, 000,-
900 short of meeting our requirements.
The bounty of our gold and silver
mines reduced the deficit 70 $500, 000,-
600. So in a year we have $500, 000,-
900 worth of fresh borrowings; and
If no more than 4 per cent interest is
paid on the newly-exiled securities,
then by $12,OO0,OO0 more in interest
are this years difficulties enhanced.
With such a balance sheet at Now
Years one might have looked for some
effort at economy. Nothing of the sort
happened. With January total i'm
ports for twelve months shot above ST.
0,000 900 for the first time in history.
| With February came an excess OF I'M
ports for the first time in fifteen years
at that season We have grave warn
| ings from economists that the food
with which heretofore our lavish bills
were met will soon be needed at home;
| that cotton, our great exchange crop,
| is menaced by corners which provoke
foreign spinners to sell colonial cot
ton fields. But neither people nor gov
ernments take heed
Extravaganza is the national sin. In
| the city mayor with vast powers ex-
| poses the waste of millions. In the
State we confront an increase of S12,-
$1,000 in yearly expenditure. and no
Official has the power of retrenchment.
In the nation Senator Aldrich tells US
of S3OO,000,0 900 annual waste, yet Rep
resentative Gillette complains that no
one takes any interest in economy. In
private life lavish spirit demands ev-
erything in multiples. from opera
houses to splendid restaurants.
, Great country and city houses which
| a lola or a Ferrero would liken to the
building mania of Rome in a deca-
dence; Italian gardens, game pre-
serves, a hundred foolish forms of ap-
| ing upon new soil the feudal excres.
| cences that Europe was centuries in
developing, exhaust resources. The
well-to-do fling their coins about until
| the very sleeping car porters buy au.
tomobiles and break the speed laws
| driving home from work.
Lowell before the war thought that
! America was to be a land of small
estates" In Emerson's Concord it
was a land of plain living and high
| thinking. It has been land of thrift
! and mainly of steady habits. We need
| to get back to the ways of our wisestr
simplest men. Extravaganza robs the
| future. Waste is unpatriotic. Debt
| assumed for no good cause is disgrace.
For public and private economy lne
time to begin is right now.