The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-08-28
SAYS UNCLE CAV

| ing about that happy day when the
| brotherhood of man is more of work
| ing hypothesis than a badly-battereo
dream, when poverty is a faintly-re-
membered nightmare and wars shall
| be no more, nobody is going to be able
to prevent you from doing your part
Most of US pay too much attention to
general reforms and not enough to
| individual improvement. The general
cure is of no earthly use save as it
| saves the individual, and the sorry
| truth about the matter is that While
| most individuals can help themselves
| a good many of them don't.
You're one little part of the world
problem. It's a whaling big problem,
| taken as lump, but it isn't altogether
| hopeless when taken in fractions. Don't
worry about common good until you've
removed yourself from the red side
| of the ledger. As long as you're more
| or less of a public responsibility or are
| likely to let yourself or family become
| one at any moment, you've got all you
can do to take care of that part of
the world problem which belongs pc
| culiarly to you.
| OF course you're not a pauper. You
make your own way. You're not even
! in debt. Your credit is good at the
! grocer's. You've even a little life in
| surance. Altogether you're a good cit
| izen, say you, proudly initiating your
| chest. Don't be too darned sure, as
| saith the crusty sage. There's another
side of the situation-two other sides
| in fact.
First and foremost especially that
! family of yours is a good deal nearer
| want than you imagine. If you're to-
| tally disabled tomorrow, your young
son is likely to have to go to work at
an underpaid task. This is because he
| is not fitted for heavy responsibilities
and because SO many other young sons
| who should be fitting themselves for
| struggle 81 a in
! depressing wages. Also, your wife or
! your daughter is likely to have to be
| come a wage Garner. A little thought
will convince you that their entry into
| the field of labor is only to add one
| or two more to the ranks of women
wage earners, thereby in the long run
| depressing mems wages.
| So here you are possible part of
| the world burden yourself. You haven't
! guarded against what might happen as
| you have protected yourself against
| What has already happened.
| As long as your dependents are like
! ly to be forced into the low wage
stream of human toilers, you are act
ually menace to society. Think about
| it for a little while. Let it hit you be-
| tween the eyes.
| Moreover, you are one of the SO per
| cent of the workers who are more or
| less inefficient. Waste is the big
/ problem now, as it always has been
|
| beginning of organized society. OF
! course, you aren't extravagant You
| don't waste money. You have your
/ little luXuries that are really necessi-
| ties nowadays. Well and good: you
| should have them. But the greatest
| item of world waste, the greatest con-
| tributor to poverty, is the waste of
! human energy.
| Do you keep late hours? Do you go
| to work tired? Have you failed to
RI
i you dropped into that rut the following
! of which has killed inspiration and
| thereby decreased your energies to an
| appalling degree? Do you let well
| enough alone? Do you fail to make
| we'll enough a little bit better? Do you
| neglect to find something new and
| better in your work each day2 Have
! you lost that power to hump yourseI
| that puts something besides empty
| hopes and the same old check into the
pay envelope? If you have, you are
wasting your capital, your goods, your
| very subsistence. You're going bank
rupt and you're contributing largely to
the red side of society's ledger.
Poverty will never be eliminated
until waste is done away with Waste
will never be abolished by any general
movement It's principally an indi-
vidual problem-yours and mine.
Stare the CHASTITY facts in the face,
forget about the world problem and
get busy. Dream your dreams and
heaven grant that you haven't forgot
ten how. But work them out in your
business and in your home. The aboli-
ton of waste and the Punishment of
poverty are up to you. John Henry
and the other millions of obscure John
Henrys that make up the world. And
nobody can prevent you from doing
your part to bring on the millennial
dawn a little ahead of schedule
Copyright, 1913, by the Mcclure News
paper Syndicate)