The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-12-27
HELPING THEM HELP
THEMSELVES.

Increasing wages is the most obvious
remedy for an increasing cost of living;
nearly six million workers Of the United
States have thus received wage increases
or bonuses within the past few weeks; but
at best this is only temporary measure.
Increased cost of production means still
higher prices for everything, and the eco
nonic balance will soon be destroyed again.
with further wage increases necessary
and SO on, round and round and round in
circle, like wanderers in snowstorm.
Not so, however, with the help that pro-
ceeds from within. No matter how cheap
commodities have been there have always
been some people who had less money than
they needed for necessaries. Some were
unfortunate; the great majority, however,
either dissipated their earnings, or they
spent them untimely But while the thrift
less went to the wall, the foresighted laid
up little in the banks, invested it, and
got along in the world
That our spendings should be greater
than our fathers, is right; sanitary and
other requirements demand it, and we can
afford it, because our earning capacity is
".
are a great deal more efficient generally.
But without reducing our social scale, in
the least, we can apply better business
methods to the family budget; and take a
lesson from the past generation in living
closer at home. So many things can be done
without. So many things can be made at
home! 1t is not necessary, for instance,
to have canned peas when fresh cabbage is
available, or to buy fancy-produced vege-
tables when you can have garden of your
wn
A bulletin issued b ythe Welfare Com
mittee of the American Iron & Steel Insti-
tute discusses the Observation-Disclosures
and-beauty movement that has of lateyears
been gathering such force in the mining
districts, steel making centers, manufacture
ing districts of the north and south, where
gardens of flowers and vegetables are TAX
ing the place of unkept, unsanitary yards.
Laying out model grounds, supplying
instruction, and offering premiums, the
initiative has generally been taken by the
companies themselves. Far reaching have
been the results. By drainage and weed
cutting, two deadly sources of disease are
DESTROYED; the moral influence of the gar
den is notwithstanding as it does,
a love of the beautiful, comforting irritated
nerves, and absorbing an energy that might
otherwise seek expression in gaming and
drinking, finally there is the improvement
to the health, not only because of the virile,
lung-opening exercises, but also because an
abundance of vegetables is necessary to the
system The vegetables grown in the home
garden are finer in quality than those that
are purchased, and they are considerably
cheaper-leaving more money for social
Improvement that otherwise must needs be
spent on the very routine need of staying
alive
Big corporations have accomplished much
along these lines in the south already
notably around the steel plants of Birming-
ham, and the coal mining towns of West
Virginia and Kentucky.
If we could only say Pensacola as well
Bleaching people how to raise corn is
better than establishing bread lines. In
creasing their self-reliance is more i'm
portant than increasing their wages.