Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-12-12
BLAME YOURSELF
FOR THE HIGH COST
Groh Says Trouble is that Most
of Our Well Laid Plans
End in Talk.
SELF. DENIAL IS NEEDED
BY A. r. GROH.

can tell you how to reduce the
high cost of living. Reduce it. That
is the secret. 1t lies in yourself.
The trouble is that most OF our
plans end in talk. Most people
haven't got the will power to act,
where their pampered appetites are
concerned. They talk about boycott
ing eggs and boycotting other high
priced things. Having breathed ter
rible threats against the wicked food
boosters, they go home and, over
sumptuous meal of high-priced foods,
they discuss what they are going
to do.
Oh, but we arc weak-neeked peo-
pie when it comes to our personal
comforts and Injuries. In our
bright lexicon the word "self-deniar
is not found. Many of us rather
pride ourselves on having what we
want. Money no object, you know.
We want what we want when we
want it
Thrift is rather a disgrace nova
days. We want to be sports" Would
we pinch a nickel? | guess not. We
wouldn't even pinch dollar, even
those of us who only make twelve
or fifteen of them in week. No.
sir. We're sports, good spendcrs.
Did you ever notice that the good
spenders" generally keep the milkman
and the grocer and the butcher wait
ing the longest for their just dues
and are the despair of bill collectors?
The French can teach us some
thing on this subject. The most pol
ished people and at the same time the
most thrifty people in the world are
the French. Before the war they had
almost twice as much money per
capita saved as we. The Frenchman
will pinch" a centime and he isn't
ashamed of it. When he thinks a
thing is too high he isn't afraid to
say so. But he is real sport
| When it comes to helping the less
fortunate he is right there. Today, in
the hour of his country's need, he is
cheerfully paying the expense of the
war out of his enormous savings.
A French housewife would no more
think of throwing away loaf of
bread because it is stale than she
would think of buying something that
she thinks is couple of sous too
high.
We need more individuality, more
real pride and less "tinhorn sport"
pride which compels some men to
give a waiter an exorbitant tip fol-
fear the waiter will consider him a
cheap skate. The Frenchman eats
Accent meal and gives Accent tip
for which he gets a bow and hearty
thanks.
We need to cultivate the virtue
of self-denial. IF we think eggs are
too high we ought to have the gump-
ton to say to our appetite, Nothing
doing, old boy, till eggs get cheaper
Then the egg king" in Chicago
would soon be lying awake nights
worrying about his l,000,000,000 egg.
in cold storage. And soon he woule
be broke" as he deserves to be, BY
the wrath of strong people, capable
of the old-fashioned virtues of self.
denial and thrift.
We would be better off, physically
and financially, if we cut out the high
priced foods, and cut down on tn,
amount of our food, too.
We eat too much. We admit it ant
we hope the other fellow will cut
down. We ought to eat more of the
old fashioned foods that are mex.
pensive even today. We know thai
and we heartily advise the other fel
low to eat them.
But let's do it ourselves.
| What's that? You really couldn'
get along without your two friet
eggs every morning for breakfast
Oh, very we'll Go ahead. But il
you haven't got the will-power tc
deny yourself that much, please dom
kick about the price.