Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1915-02-23
Dollars and Sense.

"In Time of Peace Prepare for War
il az good rule for families as for M.
tions. When prosperity is on deck and
We are sailing under full sail, then ID the
time to take In canvas and prepare fol
storms. Do your eoonomizing before
Won are driven to It. But maybe 1t II
too late TO talk about saving, and you
are in the storm center Of the hard dmei
already.
Women being the family buyers, OF
necessity, they need all the financial
training they can get since they are OF
ten called upon to make dollar do the
work Of two. Az rule they are good al
making purchases, but the most fire..
quent difficulty Is that they. seldom
know how many dollars they have to
spend! Hero and there family 10 run
on good business principles but the COM
mon practice is that the wife has to ex.
tract from her husbands grudging purse
whatever she can get ut the time, or
they have the pernicious custom OF allow
ing her to run bills that he finds much
too large Which he comes to pay them.
No woman can economize intelligently
when she doesn't know "where she is
at" financially. II her husband cannot
rise quite to the heights of the young
man who took bis wife into partnership,
he can at least give her an allowance,
and have full and just agreement as to
exactly what that allowance must cover.
Every child in the family should be
reared with the same system of an al
lowance, il It be only q penny week.
After while children learn the joys OF
earning and should be encouraged by
receiving small sums for work they do.
One of the best character builders is the
discipline of doing without the things
that cannot be earned, and earning what.
ever one spends. II children are taught
from an early period that there Is more
to be gained by the possession OF
books and home comforts than by the
fleeing joys of dress and passing shows,
they have a valuable foundation for
their education.
To stay away from the money: drain
ing "movies," and to give up candy for
the sake of getting good book or add
ing to the family fund to buy a phono.
graph-these are worthwhile sacrifices.
Az for the women of the family, once
they know the value of labor saving con-
trvances they will wear their old
clothes another year 10 order to acquire
fireless cookers, patent washers, bread
mixers and host of other helps. The
main reason why more women do not
have these things is that they do not COM
mand the money they spend and have
little or no choice as to what it shall be
laid out on.
As one man put It'll give my family
what they need-I can do no more!
But who made the decision of what each
one needs? In his case it was not the
wife, who should have known! Very
likely they got more than they needed
and fell far short of what they wanted.
We all know the answer of the little girl
in the Sunday School who sobbed out
her answer to the question of what she
needed as her Christmas tree gift. "Oh,
I pose need a flannel petticoat, but /
want bosom pin" Needs and wants
are tricky things and too often get
mixed up, but the best thing is to
let each one decide for himself as early
in life as possible and suffer for the mis-
takes he makes in separating them.
The mother of the family should
handle the family purse and If she does
she will be much better fitted to train
her children in wise economy and saving
habits.