Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-01-12
Wasting Ten Billion a Year.

That interesting economist, Prof. Rudolph
Binder, calculates that the American people waste
at least ten billion dollars year. This means, as
he says in the New York Sun, that "out of every
dollar earned, forty cents counts for naught. 1t
means, our population being reckoned at one hun
dred million, that positive waste and lack OF thrift
together costs each of hundred dollars
year 1t means that vast opportunities for national
wealth and power being neglected or flung
away.
No wonder eggs are almost a luxury says Prof.
Binder, because careless handling of them results
in an annual loss which is figured conservatively
at forty million dollars, land is probably nearer
sixty millions at the present time" Irish potatoes
now cost at a rate which Hercules would have
considered high for the apples of the Hesperides.
This is not due wholly to crop shortage, for 1t
appears that some twenty-five million dollars
worth of potatoes are lost each year through rot
ting which could be prevented easily by the adop-
ton of drying processes. The high cost of living
is, in part at least the high cost of careessness.
The destruction of crops by insect pests
amounts to six hundred and fifty-nine million dol
lars year. and the loss of animal life in the same
way adds two hundred and sixty-seven millions.
Most of these pests be reduced to a minimum,
if not eradcated science has shown the way.
Failure to adopt available remedies and preventives
is willful waste.
Other sources of great waste as computed by
Prof. Binder are: fires, $25O,OOO,00O a year;
floods, $23S, 900 ,OOO industrial diseases, s772,-
600, 900; preventable diseases and accidents, ST.
500 000, OO0 the obvious kinds of ineficiency,
$7O2,OO0,0O0.
The effect of these drains and losses is felt by
individuals in burdensome cost of living; even
tually it will be felt by nation in impairment of
national strength. This larger aspect of the situa-
ton is stated well by the economist when he says
Don't let us forget that going to
face the bitterest kind of commercial rivalry
when peace is restored. The partly impover-
. ished belligerent nations will be able to re-
habilitate themselves financially only through
foreign trade They going to cultivate their
alien markets and to widen their fields of COM
In this great struggle, not inapty
called the after the war, efficiency of pro-
duction and national economy are going to
help potently in determining who shall be the
victors. Productivity the European nations
at war going to be more efficient than
ever before, and likewise accustomed to sac
rifce and to more modest standards of living.
In view of our extravaganza our ineficiency
and spirit of wastefuness, where are we
going to stand when the day of battle comes?"
While it is painfully evident that the American
people have lacked the of thrift which is es-
sental to nations endurance, there are hearten-
ing signs of change to wiser ways. Our larger
industrial and business concerns becoming con-
tinually more efficient. The attitude of the public
and of government toward the question of con-
serving countrys natural resources has changed
from Indifference to solictude. And there is rea-
son believe that little by little the average in
individual is learning what an important and
really admirable thing is thrift.
Spring is on the way. Already the belligerents
preparing to make subdivision of Europe