French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1917-01-18
WASTING 4 BILLION a YEAR.

4
That interesting economist, Prof.
Rudolph Binder, calculates that the
American people waste at least ten
billion dollars a year. This means, as
he says in. the New York Sun, that
tout of every dollar earned, forty
cents counts for naught" 1t means,
our population being reckoned at one
hundred million, that positive waste
and lack of thrift together costs each
of us one hundred dollars year. 1t
means that vast opportunities for ma
tional wealth and power are being
neglected or flung away.
No Wolder eggs are almost a lux
ury, says Porf. Binder, because care
less handling of them results in an
annual loss which is figured conserVa-
lively at forty million dollars, "and is
probably nearer sixty million, 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 it ap
pears that some twenty-five million
dollars worth of potatoes are lost
each year through rotting. 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 carelessness
The destruction of crops by insect
pests amounts to six hundred and fifty
nine million dollars a year, and the
loss of animal life in the same way
adds two hundred and sixty-seven
millions. Most of these pests can be
reduced to minimum, if not eradicat-
ed; science has shown the way. Fail
.ure to adopt available remedies and
preVentiVes is, willful' waste.
Other sources of great waste as
computed by Prof. Binder are: Fires.
$z5, 100000 year; floods, $238 OOO, 900:
industrial diseases, $772,00O.OOO; pre-
ventable diseases and accidents, ST.
100000 900; the more obvious kinds of
inefficiency, SOP 900 900.
The effect of these drains and losses
is felt by individuals in burdensome
cost of living; eventually it will he
felt by nation in an impairment of
national strength. This larger ASPECT
of the situation is stated well by the
economist when he says;
Don't let us forget. that Wa ara
gong 10 face the bitterest kind OF
commercial rivalry when peace is re.
stored. The partly impoverished belIt-
gerent nations will be able to re-
naDltate themselves financially only
through foreign trade They are goino |
10 cultivate their alien markets and |
TO widen their fields of commerce In
ms great struggle, not inaptly called |
The war after the war, efficiency of |
production and national economy ora |
going TO help potently in determining |
VINO snail be the victors. Productive. |
" the European nations now at war
are going to be more efficient than
EVER DeIore' and hFHwise accustomed
y sacrlnce and to more modest stand
arQs OF living. l. view of our ex-
raVagance, our ineIc cheney and orr
spirit Of wastefulness. where are we
gong to stand when the day of bat
lie comes?"
Wn'le 1t is painfully evident that
ne American people have lacked tha
ense of thrift which is essential To .
lallons endurance. there are hearten-
ng signs Of a change to wiser WAYS,
)ur larger industrial and business
are becoming continually
1ore efficient. The attitude of the nub-
lc and of government toward the
question of conserving the country's
latural resources has changed from {,
ndlHerence to solicitude. And there
reason to believe that little by lit :
le the average inindivdual is learnirp
7hat on important and really admir- :
Die thlng is thrift.-Atlanta Journal. :