Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 101, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1917 — THRIFT IN LITTLE THINGS [ARTICLE]

THRIFT IN LITTLE THINGS

“Don’t take the top sheet,” is the order issued by a large insurance company to its employes when taking stationery from the stock room. The reason is, the top sheet is soiled and dusty and must be thrown away, only to leave another “top sheet to become, soiled and wasted. Over the " electric button in a large hotel is the request: “We would appreciate the favor if you will turn out the light.when leaving the room.” Some hotels furnish a large cake ♦of soap for each room daily, whether the guest changes or not, the bulk of which is wasted, while other hotels furnish a small cake just large enough for a day’s use. Some hotels have the heavy and costly counterpanes laundered every day, while others have the maids turn the covers back each night to avoid soiling. The reason for these small economies is not niggardliness, but good management. Of wfigt use is a large cake of soap wtyen a small one answers the same purpose? Why burn the light when you are out of the room? Why soil expensive linen when a little care would prevent?

If every employe in a large office wastes but one sheet of paper a day, and every guest burns hours of needless light, the yearly cost is enormous. If a hotel can save but a cent a room on soap, it means a yearly saving of $1,500 in a hotel with 500 rooms. If; every bundle that goes out .of a department store has half a cent’s worth of needless paper and twine, the loss is a large item in the firm’s annual profit and loss account. A certain restaurant found that it cost ’530,000 a year to supply bread and butter gratis, and by charging but ten cents for this service turned a loss of $30,000 into a profit of $50,000. That is good management, however, much as we mav grumble at the ten-cent tax. Success in business, success in life, ds a matter of applying thrift principles to little things. We too often forget that dimes make dollars. And as waste counts up fast, so savings grow apace. If you were allowed to go over the books of any savings bank you would find hundreds of accounts that show steady, systematic saving. It may be but a dollar or two a. week, but in the long run it up. A certain young lawyer in New York who was once a pack peddler made it a steady habit when a boy to save fifty cents weekly, and he was as regular as the clock. It was the beginning of .a successful career. Another young man, about to be married, saved five dollars a week for two years out of a salary of fifteen dollars and never missed a week. The results of such systematic work will surprise even yourself. You know that fifty times two maW a hundred, but if you apply the priciple to a bank account, you bound to believe it. Little leaks can sink a ship as well as a great hole in the bow, atfd do it with less confusion. Little savings can make ‘you rich, as well as a great strike. The reason so many people arepoor is simply because they cannot stop the little leaks. They spend little sums‘all the time, and in the multitude of little spendings reach a total that proves disastrous. Thrift in little things will make you thrifty in big ones; but you never can have the big things unless you give heed to the little ones. Watch yourself for a few days and see how your, money gets away from you. You will surprise even yourself.— Exchange.

The Sunday movie show enthusiasts seem to have overdone the business and killed the thing altogether. After considerable importuning Governor Goodrich agreed to sign a bill, were it passed providing for movie shows after 2 p. m. Sunday and providing for a board of picture censors. Such a bill passed both houses and was signed by the governor, but before ,t went to the secretary of state it was found that somewhere along the route the bill bad been “doctored,’’ and the provision*that they could only show on afternoons was stricken out. The governor had not noticed this “joker,” in first signing the bill, but ‘after learning about it he crossed out his name and vetoed the measure, which. leaves the law precisely as it was, and we w.iil have no Sunday movies.

Wealth frequently brings unhappiness where happiness had reigned supreme before the fickle goddess appeared on the scene. T. W. Englehart, a Gary teal estate man, has become wealthy during the pasr few years through deals in Lake county real estate, but during the years he has been reaping the harvest of gold

he and hia wife, after twenty years of happy wedded life, have become estranged and last week the wife sued for divorce, charging incompatibility, and asking for SIOO,OOO alimony. An amicable settlemeht has teen reached, it is said, on the alimony proposition and Englehart will not oppose his wife securing a iiivorce. ' ,■ J . ■ ■ a ' " . ■ l ' —: —— If the heads of the various railway put their threat ifito execution of tying up all the railroads in the country unless their demands are immediately granted, they should, because of the critical international situation, be treated as traitors and dealt with accordingly. It is time to handle this gentry without gloves 1 and give them to understand that I the public and the government have some rights w’hich even they must respect.