New Britain herald., 1919-10-14
THE WHY OF THINGS.

it's monthly digest of business af- sirs, leads the paper with sub-head- Hg "Extravagance and IneffiCiency,' Sr which it planes the troubles of Se world today. There is nothing new N this, writers upon economic sub Ncts have discoursed at much length Bon the trend of humanity toward Ne financial buryine ground. Never Meless there may not be too much #ritten on the subject in an effort N check the course of the mania Aat threatens us. People must Naken to their danger, all people, Ed by taking the proper steps remedy Be condition.
 8The desire to spend is confined to M particular class. it is seen in the Marters of the lowly as well as the aseh, but it is the large, moderately S ed, as present standards go, group persons who are the most to @ame. And it is in their hands that
  M tive cooperation, intelligent buying, 8d a modicum Of self-denial they Nay reduce the high cost of living and Fling the scale of wages and prices N ok to somewhere near a balance. M We digress from the bulletin upon z8nich this was founded. We merely T tN Nough we use none of it's expressions. K hst Saturday night, in New York, we zHe told that the amount of money M ent by theatergoers was we'll over @quarter of a million dollars for that IN e evening" We wonder how much hs spent in search of pleasure, noth-
 g else, in the city; how many din- parties there were, before and @ter the shows, how much cash it ok to carry the patrons of the thea
 l's to and from the places of amuse- @ent in taXicabs? It must have M Mta1led an enormous sum. The # m putation for the price of the seats N probably greater than the figures N ow, there were many of them Nbught through spectators and ticket & @enctes and the estimate is based #l the theater prices for seats.
 @ It was the middleclass man that & rnished this money, not the rich N ofiigate of other days. It matters @ tie where the one with an excess S money spends it, there is no effect, "a her than gain, on the financial Matus of those about him. But when 8 e people as whole get the spend M g bee in such magnitude it does
 at was spent in New York Satur-
 y night was wasted. Many of those
 Nho spent it will admit that there sNas no need of the distribution of @ @nds. Likewise, we are wasting # oney in our daily acts spending it bon articles for which there is no
 ai need because we happen to have # availabl It is time to stop and Mnsider wherein we place. our. funds, End consider well, despite the seem a g aff1uence of our pockets and the #pinion that more will be forthcom-
 lg some day even if we throw away M hat we have today. The trouble M that money has been too easy to
 btain, we have lost it's value.
 8 According to the bulletin, For Mbme generations before the war Economists had developed and taught
 1e doctrine that a mans income de- Blended in the long run upon what #e produced. But today one might Conclude, upon superficial observa- #on, that this doctrine no longer pre-
 Fails, but that society has been revo- M1tionized as a result of the war so Iaat men can consume more than #prmerly while producing less" Can & idly, now, isn't this the attitude of Mhost of us? Are we all not ready to Mllow the other fellow to do the pro- x @ucing while we do the spending? Are Mou satisfied that you may keep up # bur present spending and earn Enough To cover it? And if you, as
 unit in the vast whole, do not pro-
 zuce how is the other fellow to make Sp for your deficiency? Finally, ii <zl cease producing and take to spend N21g their surplus money, how long S#ill our institutions last?
 N The longer we hesitate to face the
 acts, the longer we insist upon ou, Moending orgy, the harder the straits
 aat we are approaching will be tc
 avigate. One cannot deny that there Ere rough waters ahead and we mus sve the surplus to meet them anG