“It is not from nature, but from education and habit that our wants are chiefly derived.” –Fielding.

DURING recent years many habits have been acquired by many people, which must now be broken or the people themselves will be broke.

Prominent among these recently acquired habits is the silk habit. Everything must be of silk whether silk is the best material for the purpose or not; in many cases, cotton or wool would have served better. In a recent year we sent one mil­lion dollars across the ocean every day to pay for silk. That was more money than the United States Government collected in import tariff duties for the same year.

And then there is the automobile habit. Some people, who need the exercise of walking in order to keep in good physical shape, will drive their cars if only going three blocks or will hire a taxi if going a half mile.

The travel habit is another habit which must be partly cured if we are to save money and become independent. Traveling for business is necessary and traveling for recreation and education is com­mendable, but traveling just for the sake of going from one place to another has come to be a habit and an expensive habit of the American people.

The worst habit, the most far-reaching habit and the hardest habit to overcome is the useless buying habit, which is still gripping the majority of the people. Many persons have had more money come into their hands during late years than ever before and a large number of them have gotten into the habit of buying things — uselessly buying. This habit has grown in some cases almost beyond belief. Among the most prominent examples of useless buying we might mention a man who has twenty-two hats; a woman who has fourteen pairs of low shoes and seven pairs of high boots; a woman who has twenty-two fur neck pieces; a family which owns four pianos in the same house; a workingman who owns a motorcycle and two automobiles and a salesman who says he has fifty-six silk shirts. These are extravagant examples but none of these persons is even well-to-do; no one of them owns his home except the piano fiend with four instruments in the house.

The craze, or whatever it is, of buying just for the pleasure of spending money has already stopped with the man whose income has shrunk. If the man whose income has not yet shrunk will limit his purchases now to the things which he needs or can really use he will be able to save some money.

“If you live according to what nature requires, you will never be poor; if according to the notions of men, you will never be rich.” –Seneca.

“If a rich man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.” –Socrates.

THERE is a deal of difference between keep­ing your money and saving your money. Saving your money through the practice of thrift is a benefit not only to yourself but to your family, your friends, your community and the whole Country.

Keeping your money may prove to be injurious to yourself and everybody else.

An old woman in Dublin died from lack of food and in the house was found more than a thousand pounds sterling in gold hidden away in various places. This woman kept her money and died of starvation.

An old woman who had been drawing a “poor pension” for many years died in a village in Kent, England, and a search of the shack in which she was living uncovered a large sum in gold contained in three bags which were carefully hidden away. This woman had suffered all of the discomforts of extreme poverty and had been a burden upon her neighbors and her government while she kept enough money in the house to have provided her with the comforts of life for many years.

An old woman begging on the streets of New York, when arrested for begging without a license, was found to have over $1,800 tied around her waist. This woman kept her money and lived the life of a beggar.

Three children found $2,500 in paper bills tied in a handkerchief and placed under the mattress in a home near Kenosha, Wisconsin; they threw the money in the stove to see it burn and the ashes were sent to Washington in the hope that they could be partly identified and replaced. The parents of these children kept their money for the children to build a fire with.

A great politician and a member of the United States Senate died recently and left nearly a quarter of a million dollars in cash in a safe deposit box; he kept his money so it could not possibly be of any benefit to himself or any one else.

Robbers entered a home in a small town in Mis­souri and stole $2,000 in cash from a retired mer­chant. He kept his money where it was of no use to any one until the robbers came for it and it is now probably again in circulation; even the original owner may get some indirect benefit from it now but it was of no use to him while it was hidden in the house.

The offices of one of the big chain store com­panies were robbed of $60,000, some of which was blown to atoms through the use of an explosive. This company kept its money where it was reasonably convenient for the burglars and now what the burglars did not get has been destroyed.

A widow of the owner of one of the best known automobile appliances died last year and in an old valise she had been carrying around was found more than a quarter of a million dollars in money, which has now become the property of the daughter. This woman kept this enormous sum of money where it was of no benefit to herself, her daughter or any one else. The daughter’s guardian has now placed the money where it will be returned to circulation and earn for its owner approximately $10,000 a year instead of reposing in a grip in a baggage check-room, where it had been spending most of its time for several years.

Keeping money is not necessarily saving money. Money which is saved should be put in a safe place and made to work for its owner. Temporarily, at least, that safe place is a bank and after a sufficient sum has been accumulated, it may be invested in real estate, in bonds, in mortgages or in other securities or property.

Money saved by one person should benefit that person and every one else. Money kept in the pocket or in a hiding place is of no more value to its owner than the same quantity of sheets of blank paper.

Hoarding and secreting money is evidence that its owner is foolish or weak-minded; saving money is good evidence that its owner is wise, strong-minded and far-seeing and that he is on the road to independence, comfort and contentment.

“A generous-minded man saves himself rich; a narrow-minded man hoards himself poor.”

“The philosophy which affects to teach us a contempt of money does not run very deep.” –Taylor.

ONE of the most common and most serious leaks in the purse of the average person is money spent on friends, distant relatives or acquaintances.

There are many people who will permit you to pay the carfare or the admission or the luncheon check or the soda check without a qualm.

It has become a fine art with some people to let others, who are more liberally disposed, pay many of their incidental expenses.

“There is a man in our town who almost always takes a taxi, even when going but a few blocks, if some one else is with him to pay the fare. He is never seen to take a taxi when alone nor was he ever known to pay the fare when with others.”

Too many of us have permitted a “contempt of money” to grow up within us and a particular con­tempt for small amounts–say, less than a dollar.

A carfare more or less each day, a taxi fare every week or so, a luncheon check for some one else twice a month or three or four movie tickets a week–what do they amount to? They amount to over $50,000 in the average lifetime of a man. Just a carfare a day, a taxi a week, a luncheon twice a month and a few movie tickets–there’s $50,000 handed out without hope of return in the normal lifetime of a man.

The figures seem pretty strong because they are added together and the interest on the total is com­pounded. Perhaps you do not do all of these things. It may be that you do only one of them but even one of them means hundreds or thousands of dollars in a few years.

There is nothing more despicable than a penurious or stingy person but there is nothing more foolish than sowing nickels, dimes and dollars among new acquaintances who only laugh at your folly.

The man who really has money, who has learned to save money and who knows by hard knocks what money is worth does not spend it that way.

It is the man with only a few dollars in his pocket, who is most given to tossing them around, because the man with a few thousands has learned to keep them.

It is the really rich, who husband their resources. Many of them have grown rich through the wisdom of knowing when it is proper that they should pay.

A young person being placed in the position of host or entertainer or even companion to an older person of wealth or position is likely to overdo the matter in his effort at entertainment.

Many people, who can ill-afford the expense, repeatedly and persistently insist upon paying the way for the little party of which they happen to be a member. And the others let them pay.

The frequent display of money and of offers to pay everything is not an indication of either wealth or liberality but rather is merely a vulgar display and indicates, to people of seasoned wealth, that the free-handed one has not yet become accustomed to handling money.

To the average American boy or young man no better counsel can be given than–”Keep your hands out of your pockets and your money in the bank.”

It was Emerson who said “A man passes for what he is worth.” He might have added–and not for what he appears to be worth by the money he throws away.

Suppose we let the other fellow pay his own way for a while and watch our own money accumulate. Let us particularly quit buying for chance acquaintances, distant relatives or even friends, things which they do not need and, perhaps, which they do not even want.

It is not necessary to overdo the thing and be called stingy or a “sponger,” but we can decide that from today on, no one shall “sponge” on us.

In this particular we may well emulate the rich who are always thrifty for if they were not thrifty they would not long be rich.

Emerson said another thing which contains much food for serious reflection:

“The English are prosperous and peaceful, with their habits of considering that every man must take care of himself, and has himself to thank, if he does not maintain and improve his position in society.” –Emerson.

“The taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride and four times as much by our folly; and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement.” –Franklin.

WHO is there among us who has not complained of high taxes and yet how many of us can truthfully say that idleness, pride and folly are not costing us more than all of the other taxes that we pay–federal, state and local.

Taxes are a great burden but “Taxes are the sinews of the state.”

What we tax ourselves through lost time and opportunity, what we tax ourselves through false pride and in an attempt to outdo all of our neighbors and what we tax ourselves for our follies– these are not “the sinews of the state” and are not things which serve to build character and position.

It is altogether likely that most of us waste some time every day and decrease our earnings just that much. Even that person who is paid by the month cannot increase his earnings until he increases his earning power. Earning power comes only through more intensive work and the worker’s application to the business in hand. “Life is a short day; but it is a working day. Activity may lead to evil but inactivity cannot lead to good.”

The taxes which our pride assesses against us are the most burdensome of all. Our piano or phonograph, our dining-room table, our best dresser cover, our shoes and everything we pos­sess must be better than similar things owned by our friends. They must not only be useful and good and beautiful but they must cost more, just as a matter of pride. Pride in the useless spend­ing of money is a poor pride to indulge and such pride taxes the American people untold millions every year.

Those other taxes that our follies assess against us are also as burdensome as they are unnecessary. The buying of entertainment, which we are too sated to enjoy, is the purest folly. The pur­chase of things for the mere joy of spending money is the commonest and the worst folly.

What house does not contain stored away in the closet or attic things which were bought in a delirious hour of spending and for which real use will probably never be found.

It is not possible for us to prevent the state from assessing taxes against us because the state must have money to maintain itself and protect and serve its people. There is nothing, however, to prevent our wiping out a lot of the taxes we have been paying and prominent among them are the taxes of idleness, the taxes of pride and the taxes of folly.

This should not be laid aside with the thought that it does not concern you personally. There is probably no one in this community who did not pay unnecessary taxes last year through idleness, pride or folly.

The unnecessary taxes which the people of this Country assessed against themselves last year probably amounted to several billions of dollars. It is difficult to foresee what could be accomplished through the expenditure of this sum for better things and more worthy purposes.

“It is not how much we have (or how much we spend) but how much we enjoy that makes happiness.”

“Happiness consists in the attainment of our desires and in our having only right desires.” –Augustine.