The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1919-09-02
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1919,
THRIFT WOULD SOLVE OUR
DIFFICULTIES.

The question as to the reason for
the high cost of living in the country
is causing a lot of acrimonious de-
bate and the answers given are con-
flicting. The truth is that most OF
rs are out for all the dollars we can
get in all the ways we can get 'em.
The Anglo-Saxon race is naturally
piratical. Everybody and everything
are intuitively conspiring to rob ev-
erybody and everything.
We don't mind charging outrage
Gus profits, but we put up an awful
souawk if the crime is perpetrated
on US.
And after all who is suffering from
dire want Few there are who can't
manage to live on what they are able
to earn. There is plenty Of money
to be earned and plenty of ways to
spend it.
And it is a great day for the man
who has a strain of the canny Scotch.
The thrifty man can fare we'll if he
has the moral courage to face the
storm of snobbery that counting the
cost" will inevitably raise.
1t is the general opinion in this
country that so we'll are railroad men
paid that they are almost capitalists.
A clerk, or a minister of the gospel,
or a college professor and other sal
aried men, struggling to cope with
the high cost Of living on a wage of
less than $100 per month, wonder
where the railway men ''get that
stuff" when they declare that they
can't make both ends meet on wage
5000 per monitor more.
Jus: the other day he=e in Able
vile a negro employed on the railway
walked into a store and said he
wanted to buy a suit Of clothes. The
clerk showed him a number Of suits
ranging in price from $40 to $40,
but the negro was not satisfied. He
wanted something better and it hap
pened that representative Of well
known tailoring concern was in the
store taking orders" and the negro
was shown samples of goods and the
latest thing in styles" He finally
.bught tailor-made suit for $65.
The same negro was not satisfied
with cotton socks at rs cents per
pair, but bought silk hose at $3.50
per pair
This is not an exceptional case.
Most anyIstore in Abbeyille or in the
Statei dan cite similar examples of
the tendency Of the people to indulge
in wild extravaganza. Is it any won
der that the germ Of profteering
finds a fertile medium in which to
grow and spread?
The Manufacturers Record prints
the following:
"Study the market baskets in the
great markets of the big cities of the
country, and one will be astonished
to find how heavily those that are
carried by the working classes are
loaded with the costliest cuts of
meats and with every other delicacy
which the markets afford. ..
"These things are facts, and the
working people are trying to con-
tinue this extravaganza.
"On the other hand, there are mil
lions of teachers and preachers and
clerks and others Of moderate fixed
income whose salaries or whose in
come from investments have not in
creased in proportion to the cost of
living. They are the ones who are
suffering most, but they are the ones
whe are doing the least kicking and
complaining. They are not going on
strikes, they are not threatening to
overturn the Government; they are
doing the best they can, often pinch
ing to the extreme in order to make