The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-08-13
LUxURIEs AND NECESSITIES.

Society has devoted its energies almost exclu-
sively to the development of those things which
make for creature comforts. In all lines of indus
try the supplying of demands for things which
make life easier has ever held a most prominent
place That is what we call developing civiliza-
ton. Once anything comes into general use, 1t
ceases to be luxury, but becomes a necessity, to
deprive men of which would be hardship. Every
thing man uses, from the clothes on his back to
his house, is simply development of that princ1-
pie Only few have palaces in which to live;
the palaces are luxurieS. The rest of humanity
is pleased to live in smaller houses these houses
are the necessities. Only few have their auto
mobiles; the rest of the city jewellers ride on the
street cars These illustrations suffice to show
that what is common, what everybody al
though it would have been luxury in days gone
by, becomes by virtue of our advancing civiliza-
ton the necessity of this day The dividing point
between necessities and luxuries it is impossible to
place. They merge into each other 50 gradually
that to draw line of cleavage between them is
impossible.
Ben Franklin said there are two ways of pro-
noting happiness: One is to increase your means,
the other to diminish your wants. He recon-
mended however the best method of attaining
happiness that you both augment your means and
diminish your wants. Franklin was a mercess
philosopher. He decried waste and extravaganza,
and if his mind were working in the people of this
day and generation, there would be no need of dis
cussons and Investigations of the high cost of liv
ing. The high cost of living is result of making
necessities of too many things which might more
properly be classed as luxuries No matter in
what stratum of society we may look, we find that
the philosophy of Franklin is not followed The
effort in the struggle against the high cost of
living is never directed toward diminishing
wants. but always and Invariably toward augment
ing our incomes. The supplying of luxuries may
be the thing desired, but in the struggle, things
are used that by the widest stretch of the imag-
nation cannot be termed necessities
Most men ought to reduce their expenditures
to point where they remain we'll within their in
comes They ought to figure the cost of their in
dulgences, not in dollars and cents, but by the
amount of labor they perform to secure them. For
instance, a man whose income is so cents an hour,
when he feels the desire to smoke a good cigar,
should figure that he had to perform a half hours
work to buy it. He should figure that his income
is reduced by the expenditure from which no ap-
preciable good results He could as well dispense
with the little feetng pleasure derived from watch
ing the smoke curl up above his head. Most men
spend their money very much as children do.
Children get their nickes by simply asking for
them; and they spend them in the knowledge that
another can be got in the way
1t is not necessary nor even desirable that we
should deprive ourselves of all the things which
add to our general happiness, nor of any of the
things which really bring contentment. We ought
to live in desirable and comfortable houses; we
should eat the best food obtainable; we should
clothe ourselves in decent apparel Those things
are necessities Luxuries begin when the ordinary
needs are supplied. To those not pentifully en-
dowed with this worlds goods, extravaganza begins
at the same point Most of us like to indulge in
some form of extravaganza, and we all know just
what form it takes in our individual case. Fifty
cents day saved in year amounts to $1S2.5O,
and with interest added pretty close to 5000. An
extravagant expenditure of the same so cents
amounts to the same $3.50, only you have had
the pleasure, and the other fellow the profit