Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1919-01-31

Inc S1nple TedSoH Lnat we couldn't
buy new ones.
Oh yes, without doubt we all have
had rather thrifty time of it. The
informative part of the experience, to
an observer, lies in the manifest fact y
that we didn't like it, and do not like
it. That is, the majority of us don't.
l was 'hived up" last week with
various physical arrangements and
had to pretermit temporarily, my win
ter amusement of getting up cordwood.
In the interval between pills, l got to
to thinking over this situation. Theo-
retically, most of us admit that econ
omy is an admirable thing. We not
only admit it, we advocate it. We
preach ito others. We argue or
we plead for it; we persuade and ca
jole for it.
And we get madder'n wet hens when |
some outside emergency enforces it |
upon US, ourselves. We kick about it |
as If it were a mustard plaster with |
torty-tlYe horse drawing power. If |
We're farmers we cuss the grocers and |
the feed dealers and the tailors If |
were city folks we cuss the farmers. |
I isn't that this does any good. |
| But it shows the state of
our feelings. We do not expect
to effect anything by it, but it sort O.
relieves our alleged minds to snort and
| sheer and kick and denounce and
rampage and use swear words if we're
of one sex, or slam doors if we're of
! the other
| 1 suspect that good deal of this
| general cross grainedness has been di-
rected, not at the theory of economy.
but at athe occasionally somewhat ty-
rannical manner in which it has been
enforced.
No one was ever yet reformed by
| law, or made virtuous by act of the
legislature.
And no one was yet induced to love
economy by being sold one shovel full
of coal on a zero morning and told it
was all he could have for week. Or
one pound of sugar at a. time when all
the babies of the block are bowling
themselves black in the face for sugar
cookies Or one loaf of bread a day,
when the growing youngsters of the
family used up full loaf each meal
and wanted about six meals per diem
: No, that isn't the way TO nurture
any real love of or aspiration for thrift
Virtues don't terminate or grow with
such cultivation.
When ] want tomatoes, I start the
seeds early in trays of specially pre-
pared dirt, the kind experience has
taught me tomato seeds take to.
I drop them in gently: I pat them down
p lightly; l cover them softly: I sprinkle
them Warily; / cover them judiciously
l keep them in the sun when ever
= possible and away from the cold al
r ways when they come up they are
, !potted and re ported and transpIanted
+ and e-transplanted; in the garden
: their plot is prepared with as much
Z care as the baby's bed; they are stalk
? ed and tied and pinched and coddled
! and cosseted and kept free from
i weeds and kept supplied with ADEQUATE
a food and drink.
Whereby and because of which thew
:, usually grow big and dank and happy
:, and redden up handsome globes of jlic-
y mess for me about the time some Of
5 my neighbors are looking for the first
4 buds on theirs
= II l planted my tomato seed with
a pile-driver and cultivated with q
club and fortified with profanity in.
S stead of phosphates, I-don't-think
:, should get many tomatoes to respond
: It's much the same with some OF
q the virtues which we admire in the.
DRY and which we agree should b.
II more generally cultivated. If we car
n walk ourselves up to them easily ant
e at our own gait, or if we can be leG
= up to them gently so as not to max,
q US shy at anything, we'll and good
= But-"1 You can lead a horse to waite,
h but you can't make him drink if h,
e, doesn't want to.
o We farmers ought to know that eve1
if automobile chauffeurs do not.
. Very few of the economies we hav
# undergone in the last year or two
have been wholly voluntary exercise
Il OF freely acting will. It's often been ;
h case of needs must when the devi
10 drives" Even some of the supposed,
d Tree contributions for admittedly fin,
70 relief work have been occasionally
" asked for in tones suggesting de
d Inand rather than an opportunity
n which has gone across the grain i,
J. some cases, to my knowledge.
n But most of our economies in foo,
and fuel and like things have bee,
:, levied upon us as truly as taxes. 7
~ has been a case of take what Won ar
= given and don't ask for more
e The family that had been using te,
a pounds of sugar a, week didn't get
e chance to offer to cut it's quota, to tv,
4 pounds. 1t was fatty told if coul,
, have two pounds-and not A snoonfr
more.
i Now, I'm not criticizing that as
40 governmental policy or as a metho
~ OF controlling human selfshness. Fa
+ from it 1t wasn't a theory but a con
= dltlon which faced the food admins
n tration, and I presume its methods an,
p devices for meeting that conditio,
were as wise as could be expected from
=, confessedly fallible and sometime
IL opinionated officials
~ 1t certainly worked out pretty vel
VI as a sugar saver.
= But it didn't work so we'll ae q +bri++
- inducer and economy begetter.
l. Proof of which failure was show
= all over the land, the day after su
l. gar-buying restrictions went off. vhe1
so thousands and tens of thousands q
Ks consumers dashed wildly to the neares
rs groceries with bags and baskets an,
Id pals and wheelbarrows to buy I'D al
lg the sugar they could pay for, "jus
to have enough, once more"
le OF course some of US were driver
Sc to hunt up and use substitutes-But
l. don't think many of US fell deeply il
t love with any of those substitutes.
V, don't think we shall continue Their
le much longer than we have to, regard
is less of their questionable economy.
pc Same with wheat flour. We at
he war bread and pretended that it wa
of pretty good. We mixed barley flou
or corn -four or rice -four or, oat mea
~ or bran or something else with Uhea
at flour and tried to convinced ourselye
that the biscuits did very well. Bu
We we knew they didn't, all the time. an
I'll a whole lot of US farmers went t
1T raising patches of wheat, SO we coul
~ have some more real bread and som
We appetiZing mullins
When the wheat shortage is flnall
et over and the price falls to pre-wa
ed levels, there will be mighty few folk
he in this country who will stick to wa
he bread as an economy.