Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1915-01-19

sonal qualification, such as CONNECTIONS
and cheap theatres, psrading themselve.
alike before our working people and oul
school children, but in the excessive
change of fashions, particularly in auto
mobiles and in wOman's dress.
As II it were not enough that ouI
people possess a natural tendency to
overbuy in so fascinating direction q:
the automobile, and dealers persist In
bringing out new styles under seasonal
names to force the trade, for what mar
dare drive "l9l2 model in the year Of
grace 1914? Just now, fortunately, the
tide in auto designing seems to have
turned in tho more profitable direction
of turning out standard types not expect
cd to pass with the season.
But We are less fortunate in the mat.
ter of dress. Not only do we have fall
winter, spring and summer "styles'
each more or less exclusive, even dar
ing, but We also have the certainty thai
the corresponding styles for the nex'
year will be as unlike the present as Ii
possible to invent. Like an anti.toxir
serum, each style is intended as an anti
dote for all that have gone before
Some are beautiful, some are fantastic
some ludicrous not to say indecent, but
whether good or bad, all alike must go
with the season giving place to some
thing new.
1t ia no longer possible to "wear OUT
clothing as did our fathers who earned
our start, aud The closets of the well-to
do, even of working people, are filled
with perfectly good, but out-of.date
clothing that nobody dares to wear, no,
only because 1t is out of style but fire.
quently because 1t is Inherently hideous.
It is not too much to say that virtual
conspiracy exists between the manufact'
urer and the Wholesale dealer to exploit
the public, especially through the dress
of it's women. The result is struggle
to keep up appearances, call for shod'
dy goods because the material is certain
to outlast the style, a general demorali'
cation in standards of clothing, an un-
due draft upon the time and strength of
our people in the one everlasting issue
dress-and a perfectly wicked waste OF
money for gaudy show, while thousands
90 hungry and next to naked. 1t is
thus that are implanted the roots OF ra-
cisl decay.
1t was not thus that our fathers spent
the vast revenues of their country, and
it is not thus that 1t will be developed
into it's highest state. Let us have fash.
ions and beautiful things in dress az we'll
In as everything else, but If thing Is beau.
tiful to.day It is beautiful to-morrow and
to sacrifice it in the interest simply oil
change, is frivolity of the most frivol-
Gus order, for it consumes not only
money but time and thought to the e1-
clusiOn of better things.
The very centers of European culture
are the centers Of this thing and the
plague has spread to America. In the
interest of progress and Of racial preser-
walton it is time to establish the prin-
ciple that the public Is to be served, not
exploited. 1t is no answer to say that 1t
all makes work for those who need It,
because work that Is not effective is
wasted and that is why thousands arc
crucified on the wheel of ever changing
fortune who might otherwise become
substantial citizens, owning their own
homes and with something ahead.
Where has the money come from for
the excessive buying OF the last ten
yearsP Mainly from the unearned in'
crement of the land. The forests were
wasted long before, and it is notable
that the period Of extrsvagant living be.
gan at once upon the sudden rise OF
land values about the opening of the
twentieth century.
Every man that now owns land can
get a loan whether he is good farmer
or not. The security 10 the current
value of lands and all classes are living
in what will prove FOOLS paradise un-
less we cease mortgaging the future for
snowy and extravagant personal ex'
penses now. Every business mau
knows what happens when town has
been over-sold, but no man knows what
will happen when a generation or two
has been over sold on an unearned In
crement.
For il must be borne In mind that the
current land values have not yet been
earned. They exist because of the pros,
pect that they can return an income on
the investment. which assumes that fu'
ture buyers will be able TO pay the price
and that the real burden of the increas-
ed cost of living is to be chiefly pushed
ahead upon our children and upon
babies yet unborn.
1t is also true that in proportion as
people begins to spend extravagantly II
ceases to earn at the old rate; partly be,
cause it is more pleasant to spend than
to earn, partly because loans are a faster
way Of ger ting money than by earning
it, and partly because OF a general loss OF
tone perspective and of visiOn-wben
people is once caught in the spending
habit it's decadence is rapid.
Among the many distractions to prog
ress, war and extravagant living above
all other evils have consumed the over
plus of civilization about as fast az 1t has
appeared, and that Is why such long
periods have passed with so little accom-
plished.
Ii has been two thousand years since
obtained its first foothOld iu
Europe and fifteen hundred since the
present races became dominant, vet all
that has been accomplished, except in
architecture, is substantially the result
of three hundred years, and now, "sl
hands" are engaged in the awful task Of
battering 1t all down. Like children
who build most wonderful structures
with blocks only to kick them down In
infantile glee, so we have the spectacle
over the world when one generation dc.
stroys what it can of all that has gone
before, crucifies its brightest and best,
and mortgages the future in an insane
gamble with death in which oblivion is
the stake,-and death has always won.
America was discovered almost exact
ly five buudred years ago. 1t was one
hundred and twenty-eight years before
the first successful English colony wat
established, and one hundred and sixty
more before We won our independence
All that has been really accomplished IL
this country is the work of one hundred
wears, aud most of 1t the work of abOu
two generations,-our fathers and our
selves.
We are literally reaping harvest
Are we also seeing that others may reaI
after US? How long the Lord has wait
on for men to develop the earth! New
men came and went with little result
How the centuries rolled along with
little done, until our own time when th'
fruitage has fallen, ripened, into ou
very laps! What will We do with ii
Will We use II for future progress, in I
halter people. in q more beautiful work