Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1876 — Waste. [ARTICLE]

Waste.

' How fkr has waste borne, and how far does it still bear, a part In •our Nationalsufferings ? How far, for example, did it contribute to produce the present financial trouble, which is per tg itself an enormous and deplorable waste ? There is not very much thought bestowed upon such questions as these, unless by “ theorists,” but there is ans unsuspected significance hidden In them. When the crib is low the animals quarrel, says a proverb- Adversity, sharpens wit and stimulates inquiry into the reason of things. While we are industriously and commercially in the slough, we shall be foolish, indeed, if we omit to improve the oppor tunlty of leisure by earnest study alter the causes which overthrow us. A little of the attention formerly bestowed upon the pursuit of the dollar now turned to political economy may be useful; without it we have gotten on stumblingly, and on the whole not quite well; with it we may build more stably. Wbat is it ? What does it teach ? What will its teaching do ? will it increase production? will it facilitate exchanges? will it diminish waste and loss ? will it help us in any of these particulars, so as to prove worth knowing? The sufficient answer is that it, teaches, on a broad scale, the rules which everybody tries to practice for his own benefit, on a small one.

Consider one of these questions. We are in the habit of saying that Americans are a wasteful people; that a French cook would teed a family on what the average American couple reject as useless food material; that the American dwelling burns or is pulled down, but never decays; that American thrift never saves the pieces. Of course this is partly hyperbole, but as applied to types and habits, it is very closely true. The domestic habits in this country are destructive; we do not by precautionary care get the most service out of things; we are too changeful ourselves to expect much durability; the son pulls down his father’s house anq builds anew, and often rebuilds nis own once or twice to satisfy whim or the imaginary demands of increasing fortune. We put the discounted profits of the store on thi store cornice and show windows before beginning. We are so sure of the future that it is necessary to be “ palatial” because others are, and prudence comes in late. We give credit easily, fail for large amounts while we are about it, and let off tlie debtor easily, thinking it not worth while to bother about by-g«nes. We burn up cities occasionally because we prefer to take the risks of building shells, ironically called fire-proof, and filling them with combustible goods; and once in a while fire gets the start of our elaborate means of extinguishing it, provided in the ratio of 100 for extinguishment to one for prevention. The only thing of which we are not lavish is time. Of that we try to be careful, and our inventions all aim to economize it by multiplying the effectiveness of each laborer; to do this is the quality of machinery generally, but it is peculiarly that of some of our distinctive inventions, notably the reaper and the sewing-machine. Of course waste of fragments is not intended; it is a consequence of our habits of work. Haste makes waste; the more haste the worse speed; these twin proverbs, equivalent each to the other, are expressive of the American way. We make pieces because we go at high pressure and speed, and leave them because We cannot stop to pick them up, and we go on too large a scale to be concerned about teifies. The large-handed West is indifferent about small change. Saw dust, coal-dust, the chips and bits thrown out by the multiform processes of manufacturing, and all little things are overlooked in our national habit. But, of course, tlie proverbs compel even us to prove them true. That is not the fastest train whose speed runs it off tlie track. And if we go so fast that we do not go firmly,”but become topheavy and tumble over in a financial crisis every fifteen years or so, we might go faster by*going slower; more than that, our pressure to avoid wasting time, by forcing it to an unnatural productiveness, really wastes and loses time by the delays of reaction it produces, as when a wagoner undertakes to carry too much and breaks down his wagon. We need not ponder long to see the false economy in such a habit. But wiil seeing be convincing, and will conviction make improvement? The. hardest lesson for Americans to practically learn seems to be that waste is really impoverishment. Nobody will fail* to see readily that if the entire wealth of the country were suddenly destroyed in an hour, all mankind would be the poorer thereby ; but when the destruction is trivial, as when a pitcher is broken, it is not so easy to see that the rule still applies, and that the loss is heaviest on the individual, but is really on all mankind. The artisan has a demand for another pitcher, and is benefited; but he would be as much benefited by making a second pitcher without the breaking, in which case mankind would have two pitchers instead of one. The trivial illustration is as close to the truth as the imaginary larger case would be. But that larger case is imaginary only in the one particular of suddenness, for all the wealth does perish; but it does so gradually and as new wealth is developed to take its place. Set an apple on a gate-post and oxygen will soon destroy it; it is thus of -the least possible use in production, but if it is eaten if is of the greatest use. As nothing lasts very long, the best use to. which things of utility can be put is one which contributes not only to enjoyment but to replacement, and we have always to choose between profitable and unprofitable consumption. The general rule is, of course, that all consumption which is not in some waj? contributory to production is unprofitable. The cases or questions which may arise for settlement under this rule are Various; but it is unnecessary to try to answer them here. The general rule stands, that destructive consumption—as by breakage, decay, shipwreck and fire—is actually to the loss and impoverishment of. mankind.;.

of course mankind continues to increase in wealth, but the is only the excess remaining after these pull-backs are deducted. Waste is also a burden which makes a nation poor to carry it, whether it consists in careless handling of trivial property, in preventable fires, shipwrecks and kindred disasters, in building useless railroads, in financial m.ismenagement, or in the overhaste which trips up in financial crises. We destroyed property in Chicago and Boston, for example, but the debts all remained; buildings and goods are there now, but there might have been, instead, more buildings and goods. How large that general impoverishment was a factor in the present troubles is hard to say, but that it was a factor is unquestionable. A principal cause of our wasteful haste .has been the very richness of our National resources. When soil is so very fertile it is only natural to increase crops by increasing the area rather then by using thorough methods. Wo have had so much of everything that in our possession of abundauce the habit of despising fragments has grown cn us unconsciously; the land ha 3 been nearly smothered ih its own richness, and we learned to think that it was useless to go dbwn deep when it was so much easier to skim the surface. Looking back soberly, it is not wonderful that the financial absurdities of demi-lunatics, who deny that any laws but those of Congress are powerful, get a hearing, as the country has been so bewilderingly in its richness and its material development. But we have an opportunity now for sober thinking in our present reverses, and it ought to be wisely improved. It is

a blessing in disguise to the extent that we penetrate ana remove the disguise and get at and profit by the lesson. Whether we do or not, and whether we build more slowly and solidly and thoroughly hereafter or not, we pay the heavy cost of the schooling all ue same. Financial. Chronicle.