It is
also a matter of reaching, by study of money values, a mental
habit of economy. And it comes at a time when that habit is
needed.
We are just beginning to realize in the United States that we
cannot spend all our annual earnings on living expenses and still
have a surplus for fresh capital for new industrial enterprises.
We are on the point of perceiving that we are cramping and
stunting the future industrial expansion of the country by our
personal extravagance. We shall soon really believe Mr. James J.
Hill when he says that "every dollar unprofitably spent is a
crime against posterity."
When international industrial competition reaches its climax,
that nation will have an advantage whose people feel most keenly
that the wise expenditure of income is a patriotic as well as a
personal duty.
But is this a matter for women alone? Do not men also consume?
Are there no vats in Milwaukee, no stills in Kentucky, no
factories wrapping paper-rings around bunches of dead leaves at
Tampa? Are there no men's tailors, gents' furnishing shops,
luncheons, clubs, banquets, athletics, celebrations? And as for
home expenditures themselves, is the man simply to bring the
plunder to the door, get patted on the head, and trot off in
search of more plunder? We must doubt if economy will be reached
by such a route.
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