AT OUR HOMES 211 



relatively inexpensive as a rule, but it contributes largely to 

 the very best things in life. To learn this by experience 

 only may be to repeat the mistakes of others rather than profit 

 by them. Thriftlessness leads to poverty with all its limi- 

 tations upon comfort and well-being. To become capable of 

 earning a sufficient income, and to be intelligent in its ex- 

 penditure, usually involves long-continued and well-directed 

 effort and much self-denial. 



Without the advantages of attendance upon school the 

 wage earner is always at a great disadvantage, and the most 

 desirable positions of service, power, and profit are often 

 unattainable to those lacking in education. The personal 

 characteristics of thrift, industry, business integrity, and 

 right conduct in all things are, however, not dependent upon 

 schooling. The cost of right living demands both a knowl- 

 edge of what is best for one, and a willingness to do what is 

 best. Self-restraint is necessary in one's life to assure its 

 efficiency, and to avoid wasting life's opportunities and 

 possibilities. 



There is always a sharp line of distinction to be drawn 

 between outlays in life that are necessary because of the 

 better conditions of living that result from them, and those 

 other outlays which though desirable are not in any sense 

 indispensable. No community can afford to be content with 

 a contaminated water supply whatever the cost involved 

 in safe-guarding it. No individual or family can afford to 

 inhabit a dwelling in the basement of which water always 

 stands, whatever may be the expense of drains and water- 

 proof foundations. On the other hand outlays for what 

 merely gratifies expensive tastes and habits are always ques- 

 tionable. The use of tobacco may very properly be chal- 

 lenged on the ground of its being a useless expenditure, as 

 well as on the more serious charge of its being a menace to 

 the physical and mental development of boys and young men. 



