In the common struggle to get on, many of us devote our attention too exclusively to the matter of earning money. We assume that the question of wealth is wholly one of income and that having is altogether a matter of getting. Such is not the case. Efficient spending is quite as important a consideration as is efficient earning. The question as to whether one can succeed depends not only on whether he can get and keep money. It also depends on whether he can accomplish the most with it after he gets it. The usefulness of money is a matter of getting a hundred cents of value from each dollar. Between the hoarding of money, on the one hand, and the reckless habits of the spendthrift, on the other, lies this golden mean. Three general principles relate to efficient spending. The first is the importance of buying only what one really needs. A great many people are kept poor because they buy what they do not need enough to warrant its purchase. Non-essential industries are permitted to sap the labor and support which rightfully belong to more important things because of this popular willingness to spend good money for that which can bring no real equivalent in value. Many needs are imagined, or assumed. They have their origin, not in any fact of necessity, but in the fever of a mind wrought up by envy or desire, until its possessor has joined in the general chase after that which is not bread. The chronic invalid of yesterday got a new disease each time she read over the list of symptoms in a patent medicine pamphlet. The spendthrift of today thinks of some new luxury to covet with each glance at a tastefully-decorated window, or an artfully drawn picture. We must learn to let reason and not desire rule in these matters. Reason is sometimes a little forbidding, it is true, but we frequently need the touch of a restraining hand in the matter of spending. Unchecked desire would soon make paupers of us all. The standard of living rises or falls according as desire is, or is not, stimulated. If it were gauged to necessity, there would be little variation. Necessity is a well-established thing and, therefore, practically constant. The scale of expenditure varies with the human desire for luxury and the human ability to obtain it. The measure of real necessity is surprisingly small. When one finds the medium ground between profligacy and stinginess, he will realize that he can live there, even though his income may be moderate. Greater moderation in many things would leave us a healthier and happier race, to say nothing of what it would do for our bank accounts. Certainly, before buying a thing, one should honestly ask himself whether he needs it. He should, likewise, give himself an honest answer.