Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-07-30
A GENERATION OF sPENDERs.

Gle by Dean Davenport of the Illinois
College of Agriculture. Sane and
thoughtful people are becoming more
and more aware that the time is at
hand for straightforward language,
for living words, for plain talk:
THE great mass of young people,
with no inherited wealth, cannot
earn enough to keep up the scale of
expenses created in our high schools,
where society life is developing to
an absurdity.
The young man goes off into
bachelorhood, thus avoiding the eX-
pense of marriage, and the girl is left
to shift for herself We are stimu-
lating this very thing every time we
urge upon these young innocents eX-
pensive confections, parties, ETC.; and
every time a marriage is prevented
we have lost the earning power and
the trade of family, which is worth
infinitely more than that of two.
bachelors.
What do our present young people
know about money, and what will
they do with it? Will they carry on
the great work of development or
will they be a generation of spend
ers?
The entire family expense Of our
fathers would hardly provide pin
money for the modern boy or girl in
high school, | know of poor man
whose son is struggling along on four
dollars pocket money a week, but the
! boy has never earned a cent himself.
| wonder how he will support fam
| ily
"The first echo of the new condi-
! tions is the public clamor about the
high cost of living. and just now the
farmer is being blamed for the fact
that it is increasingly difficult with
all our wealth to make both ends
meet. Relief from the high cost of
living is not to be sought in the direc-
tion of food. The great era of cheap
food is behind us, not before. Out
of virgin fertility, upon lands that
J cost nothing, and by labor-saving ma
: chinery, our fathers and we have pro-
. hduced the cheapest food the world
has ever eaten, but the conditions
: will never be duplicated as long as
: the world stands.
Much is said about the American
= farmers not initiating the intensive
= methods of the European farmers
r Now we are not so ignorant at that
= point as our critics believe, for we
Y understand that the ineXorable law
: of diminishing returns applies to
3 yields, and that the cheapest yields
r are those from unaided native fertil.
ity. When we initiate European
: methods and double our yields, the
/. world will pay dearly for its dinner
i Relief from the excessive ant
D growing cost of living is to be sought
not in the country and on the side o.
d food, but in the town and the things
t of the town. 1t is to be sought il
y clothing and shelter, in luXuries anC
o entertainments, the things of trad'
: supplied by the town.
: Clothing, like food and shelter, il
d a fundamental and costly necessity
/ There is no manifest attempt t.
S standardize trade in clothing. There
n is clearly a conspiracy between de
e signers and manufacturers to preven
the development of standard styles
especially in women's dresses anC
hats. With every year comes radi
cal change-a change in cut, colo
: and texture so different from that o
e the season before as to compel you
r wife and mine to buy new or to b'
= conspicuous, if not grotsque.
e This rapid change in extreme
: fashions has but one object, namely
( to force everybody who can to bu!
= anew as often as possible. 1t ha'
= another effect, namely, to induce
a persuade or otherwise incline thu
e great middle mass to spend all it car
S earn. The retailer is powerless. i
= is the business of trade to serve thu
: public, not to exploit it.
e "My father at twelve years of age
! went out to work at Sc month, ant
= the wages were collected by his faith
4 er. What does the modern bo!
4 know of the real value of dollar
t | do not desire a return to the ole
e days, but | do want these youngsters
3 to work and save, for industry ant
r thrift are fundamental virtues at any
e stage of civilization, and a generation
: OF spenders will produce only licen
tiousness, poverty, crime and degen
eracy."