Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1910 — EDITORIALS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EDITORIALS

Opinions of Great Papers on Important Subjects.

VALUE OP SMALL ECONOMIES.

O THE high cost of living nowadays is add- [ 64 tU e i expense of shaves at barber shop, | shines at the bootblack stand and cigars at the tobacco store. Formerly these were “listed In the cost of high living, to which § few men aspired. Perhaps the housewife is entitled to her part of the blame for to- ■ J 1_ * ■ ..Li . • 1, I i 1 X ■ . m a a as

day’s high cost of living (not now regarded as high livlag), on account of her poor , management of household (IJcpenses or tad cookery, but the husband who buys Shaves, shines and cigars is hardly qualified to complain or pose as a model. A man in New York, who for thirty years shaved his own face, shined his own shoes and eschewed cigars, tells the Sun, of that city, that in that time he saved 82,500 through these economics. With this money he, three years ago, purchased for his adult boy the business of the hoy’s deceased employer and the son hss wholly repaid his father out of the business and is on the road to fortune!. This is the way the father figures his thirty years’ savings; Shaving, three times weekly, at 15c, 45c; a year, $22.50; thirty years $ 675 Shoes, three times weekly at 6c, 15c; a year, $7.50; thirty years ... * 225 Cigars, three a day (box price), 15c; a year, ssss|so; thirty years . 1,575 Therefore, when figuring the high cost of living, or the cost of high living, do not forget the shaves, the shines and the cigars. A great deal of money goes into these unnecessary luxuries, and they are not less wasteful than automobiles, which many thoughtless persons who buy shaves, shines and cigars foolishly imagine are the acme of extravagance. Also should be Included the cost of shampoo, massage and tip at the barber shop. Many men are throwing away fortunes evdry day, without stopping to figure their waste. And yet they think they are skimping along without enough to live ota constantly. A good many of them talk about extravagance of their wives, when they, poor things, are buying fewer luxuries than their lords and masters. —Portland Oregonian.

THE AMERICAN FARMER.

ppMMH F THE American farmer went out of busi--1:1 ness this year he oould clean up $30,000,000,000; he wquld have to sell his farm on credit, for there is not enough money In 5J55T1 the world to pay him half his price. He earns enough In seventeen days to buy out Standard Oil and In fifty days to wipe Car-

negle and the Steel Trust off the industrial map. One American harvest wofild buy Belgium, king and all; two would buy Italy,, three Austria-Hungary, and five would take Russia, fromthe Czar. .With the setting of every sun the money box of the American farmer bulges with new millions. Merely the crumbs that drop from the farmer’s table (otherwise, agricultural exports) have brought In enough of foreign

money since 1892 to enable him, if ho wished, to settle the railroad problem once for all by buying every foot of railroad In the United States. Our new farmer, Instead of being an Ignorant hoemaa in a barnyard world, gets the news by daily mall oaf telephone; and Incidentally publishes 700 trade journals. Instead of being a moneyless peasant, he pays the Interest cm the mortgage with , the earnings of a weak. > The railroads, trolley, automobile and top buggy have transformed him -into a suburbanite. The business now swinging the whole nation ahead la not the traffic of the stock exchanges; hut the steafiy output of $20,000,000 a day from the Adds and barnyards. The American farmer has always been Just as intelligent and important as anyone elße in the republic. He put fourteen of his sons in the White Houser and did his full share of the working, fighting and thinking all the way down from George Washington to James Wilson.. He got no rebates, franchise, subsidies. The free land that was given him was worthless until he took it; ha has all along been more hindered than helped by medling of public officials. To-day forming is a race—an exciting rivalry between the different states. For years Illinois and lowa have run neck and neck In raising corn and oats. Minnesota carries the blue ribbon for wheat, with in ond place; California has shot to the front In barley; Texas and Louisiana are tied in rice, and New York holds the record for hay and potatoes.—American Review of Reyjews.

THE CURSE OF NOVELTY.

F ALL the fads that humanity gdopts, perI haps none Is more detrimental to modern I life than the unreasoning passion for the new, simply because it is new, and not beHfrUUJtjfll cause it is one whit better in any respect wJJ than that which is discarded to make way for the novelty. This restlessness, without

any basis of reason, without any sense of ponvlction, with no real feeling in. the matter except a eraving for something new and uncommon, is dangerous to the health of the individual and harmful to the community- - ' —, — —V The fearsome freaks which fashion annually invents to cater to this spirit among women illustrate in a homely way the tendency of the times. But fashion is not alone in its craving for the unknown. Art, literature, music, the play, law, business, every phase, of life is affected. Religion, morals and even the home do not escape. Everything seems to be in a constant state of transition. Everywhere and at all times turmoil and unrest exist Comfort, quiet, friends, the joy that comes of familiar friends, old books, surroundings that give one the comfortable sensation of arqti»lnt»n»nghip ,n these are lacking. The American nation is losing its sense of.location, its feeling of the permanence’ of conditions, the sense of home, which exists in of the carrier pigeon and the family eat. Those who hope to enjoy life to the full should have a care lest they mistake unrest for progress, and the temporary and superficial things of life for those that are abiding and real.—Chicago Journal