The fact is that disuse is bad for anything. Unused, a piece of machinery will soon become incapable of use. The worst thing that can be done with a piece of cloth is to fold it away and leave it alone. Service is the mission and the means to health of anything from a table fork to the biceps muscle. This is the thing an article is built for. Nothing save its possibilities for usefulness justifies the spending of money for it. If it were not to be used, good judgment would never sanction the purchase of it. It must be made to pay interest on the investment. Use alone proves its right to exist. A thing should be used as long as there is any usefulness left in it. One of the points at which we are forever losing out in our attempts at economy is in our habit of not waiting until we have exhausted the usefulness of a thing before we put it aside and buy another. This is the theory of the continual change taking place in styles. From the tip of a lady’s shoe to the shape of an automobile, things are kept continually changing in order to induce the public to buy new articles every so often, whether it needs them or not. This keeps trade going, but it keeps many people poor. A thing for which one has spent good money should not only be used as long as possible, but it should also be kept capable of use as long as possible. Good care and proper attention in the way of repair will extend its life very considerably. This is a matter of conservation as well as one of economy. Of course, there is no plan by which the ends of economy and thrift can be accomplished automatically. The human factor will always be the determining one. These principles will not practice themselves. Only human mind and will can do that. They are not a machine for the conservation of money. They are only a plan by which money may be made to accomplish the most. The poor we always have with us, but many of them are with us unnecessarily. We shall always have a poverty problem, but it would be reduced to a small minimum by the right use of money. Money is made to spend, but the financially independent are those who have learned to spend it wisely. The Three Agencies in Child Training (1909)