“Hundreds would never have known want if they had not at first known waste.”–Spurgeon.

IN QUOTING great men on the subject of thrift and economy it is not our idea that these men were necessarily wiser than others, but men like Emerson, Johnson and Spur?geon knew how to express a thought so that it would fit every mind and every condition. Perhaps some of these men did not live economically themselves but they knew and could point out the road to wealth and happiness.

It is just as hard to set aside a certain part of our earnings when we are making much money as when we are making little. When all of the people are making much money the cost of all things is high and the effort required to lay by a fourth or even a tenth of one’s earnings is just as great as when one is making less.

The only way to amass enough money to have real independence, peace and comfort in later life or in time of trouble is to live economically.

Spurgeon, whom we quoted above, lived until 1892. Had he lived another year he would have known how true his words were at that particular time because in 1893 hundreds (of thousands) knew want because in 1892 they had known waste.

The year 1892 ended the greatest era of real prosperity we had ever enjoyed and the year 1893 witnessed the hardest times we have ever experienced.

Too often we spend years in training ourselves for a position in the world where we can earn money and then after the money is earned spend it without rhyme or reason. The earning of money usually requires careful preparation and hard work but the spending of money calls for more deliberate thinking and planning.

The cost of living is high in these days of high wages, high prices and much money, but our own cost of living is very largely what we make it. It was Seneca who said: “We live, not according to the light of reason, but after the fashion set by others.”

Most of the people who are rich have become rich through wise spending and careful living; only a small percentage of our wealthy men have inherited their wealth or made it through spec?ulation. The rich are rich because–”The Eich Are Thrifty.”

Some newspapers have recently made sport of the fact that one of our wealthiest packers had refrained from buying new clothes during the War. While this particular packer inherited much of his money he has, through careful management and right living, greatly increased the fortune his father left. In 1851 his father, one of six sons, left the farm in New York State and footed it most of the way to California, taking six months for the trip. While in California he worked in the placer mines, saved some money and five years later went to Milwaukee and engaged in the produce business The year of the Chicago fire he started the packing company which he made one of the greatest packing plants in the world. This man left home because the farm could not sustain six sons; the money he started out in the world with would not buy one good dinner in a first-class restaurant. At the age of sixty-nine he left many millions, after founding a great educational institution and bestowing gifts and charities almost without number. A boy I knew asked him how to win and he said to him:

“Be honest, be industrious, be saving and you’ll win.”

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Tags: The Secret of Wealth