The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-05-11
AMERICAN WOMEN
TOO EXTRAVAGANT
HAVE HEARD TT BEFORE? WE'LL,
LISTEN TO MRS. LEARNED
GIVE HER VIEWS.
THE NATURAL LACK OF THRIFT


Curse. Check Accounts Lead to
Unwise Spending. American Man
Most Patient and Long Suffering.
1t takes wise person to frame
epigrams that are both true and clev-
er. The Trainer in this instance is
Mrs Arthur Garfield Learned, writer,
lecturer, teacher of conservation and
biography.
In her full-to-running-over life she
has yet found time for shrewd, i'm
personal observation of the life about
her. It's not easy to extract her con-
illusions, for she is frankly fearful of
assuming the holier-thanthou pose,
so dear to the professional reformer.
But recently, says Margaret Mooers
Marshall, writing to the New York
World, she did suggest as one of
''life's common sense lessons" the fol-
lowing:
Americans and particularly New
York women are suffering from the
modern disease 'extravagantitis," the
symptoms of which show themselves
in every phase of their lives-in fad
dish clothes, in the mad rush of So
ciety, in superf1uous household fur
nishings, in over-elaborate, gout-pro-
ducing dinners, in that language of
excess which indicates the lack of
mental vigor."
'EXtravagantitis is the name of it,
| them" l queried. That's the disease
prevalent in New York;"
1T is the weakness of American
life in general" Mrs. Learned pointed
out.
But unquestionably women of
New York are to be found today in
all stages of extravagantitis, from
plain stupidity to violent madness.
Many women are eXtravagant because
of sheer ignorance. They have no
standard of value. They do not
know the real worth of any article
of food or clothing. With other wo-
men spending is mania; they must
buy, even though half of what they
buy is wasted.
There is doubtless enough food
wasted in the kitchens of rich New
York women to feed all the poor on
the East Side. There are enough
superfuous clothes in the wardrobes
of these women to supply all the in
sufficiently clad. No persons riches
are enough to excuse waste, for waste
is a sin.
"Why should any woman buy a
dozen or more hats during the sea-
son? Why should she be willing to
pay $50 for a hat that is scarcely
worth SIS? Why should she pur-
chase gowns which she wilt wear once
or twice and then leave hanging in
her wardrobe?
81 suppose a rich woman would
say that she could afford to do these
things" I suggested. "She might add
that her apparently foolish expendi-
lures helps others by keeping money
in circulation.
but the help doesn't go to the
persons who need it," continued Mrs.
Learned, land the wastes and reck-
! less expenditure, by initiating values,
make shopping more difficult for all
of US If a rich woman pays 500
for a hat worth $40 her action makes
it harder for the woman with only
| $40 to find a pretty hat for the mon
ey Then, too, there is the pernicious
effect on society of the wasteful
spenders. They are the raison d'etre
of the anarchists.
"Here is the sentence which I am
always quoting: The greatest bust
lness of life is to be, to do and to do
without 1t is the lesson of doing
without that think Americans have
not learned, and our lack of thrift
seems to me one of the dangers most
likely to lead to our destruction
"And, after all, the question Of
saving or not saving is decided in
most households by the women l
observed.
1.-The American man is the most
patient, generous, long-suffering, in
dolent being on EARTH" she declar-
| ed. MANY an American who at so
should have been able to retire and
| live in comfort on a competence is
still machine for making money
his wife frequently throws away with
both hands"
There would be much less unwise
spending if women had no charge &C
counts" Mrs. Learned continued
cit would be better if
every woman who went out to shop
were obliged to pay for each purchase
from the weeks money in her pocket
book.