“Industry hath annexed thereto the fairest fruits and the richest rewards.” —Barrow.

IT IS unfortunately true that, when we are making the most money, we save the smallest percentage of our incomes. It takes a little adversity to make us realize the im­portance of saving.

The American people have never given very serious study to the matter of thrifty living. Most people assume that saving a dollar or five dollars out of each week’s pay envelope or ten per cent or twenty per cent out of each year’s income proves them to be thrifty, while it does nothing of the sort.

Thrift does not consist of putting aside a dollar a week. Recently, S. W. Straus, President of the American Society for Thrift, gave a good definition of thrift which is clear and understandable. It was:–

“Laying aside a few dollars each week does not necessarily make one a thrifty person. Thrift means so much more than merely money–it means personal efficiency–it means foresight–it means prudence–it means sane and legitimate self-con­trol–it means all that makes for character. It is as much removed from miserliness on the one hand as it is from extravagance on the other. As we build the ideals of thrift, we build character.”

The really thrifty person is one who lives well, pays all of his obligations, contributes liberally to worthy chanties and provides his family with everything necessary to make them truly comfort­able and happy. His thrift is proven every time he spends a dollar. He gets his money’s worth; he buys for permanency; he buys real things, not foolish baubles. This man buys nourishing foods and buys them in season; he buys rich and durable clothing, avoiding the extremes of fashion; he buys goods which he can see and examine from merchants whom he knows and on whose representations he can depend. He may have an automobile, but it is not painted red; he may have a piano, but it is not finished in ivory and gold; he may tip the waiter or the porter but not with greenbacks; he may attend the theater but he is not a first-nighter at every musical comedy; he may keep servants in his home, but not merely for ornaments. The really thrifty man is the man who, having earned money, know s how to spend it.

A really successful man, whose name we would all recognize, made the statement a few months ago that, in his opinion, every person in this Country could live better than they are now living on less money than they are now spending, if they would use their heads as earnestly in the spending of their money as they do in the earning of their money. He said that his real success began one day when he suddenly decided that he was going to live better and spend less, if that were possible. He found it possible and he is now classed among the very rich. He has a right to his riches as has every one who will do the same thing.

One of the very rich men of the Country who started in his present business at a daily wage just half as large as the daily wage of the lowest paid laborer in this Country today, recently said: — “The great need of the world today is to work hard and save. This applies not alone to the laboring man, but the man of great means. There is no place in America today for the loafer.” This was said by Charles M. Schwab.

Quoting Mr. Schwab in a newspaper article the Reverend Frank Crane said, “And, Mr. Schwab might have added, neither is there place for the spendthrift, be he rich or poor.”

The practice of thrift during the last few years has been confined largely to the well-to-do and the rich. Those people who have all their lives been denied many things which they greatly desired have, in this era of easy money, attempted to satisfy all these lifelong desires. They have plunged and recklessly spent their incomes and have acquired the things which they have so long wanted and have frequently been disappointed with the result. Many small apartments and small homes are so filled with ornate furniture, musical instruments and bric-a-brac that there is little room left for the family. Every member of the family has satisfied a desire for something and now half of the things are useless or in the way.

“No man needs money as much as he who de­spises it.” —Richter

“Wealth is of all things the most esteemed by men, and has the greatest power of all things in the world.” —Euripides.

I trust that 2007 will be a time when you find your life and business growing rich!

DURING these last few years quite a lot of people have been growing rich and quite a multitude have become well-to-do.

Men who never owned a second good suit of clothes previous to 1914 are living in their own homes and driving their own automobiles and many of these men made their competence with the labor of their hands.

A handful of new millionaires was created during the war period, but a whole army of people was lifted from comparative poverty to comparative independence at the same time.

Some people who have had good incomes during the last five years still find it difficult to make the pay received on the last day of the month cover the bills received on the first day of the month. These are the over-consumers.

Over-consumption is the thing which is keeping us in an upset condition and we are trying to rename it “under-production”.

But the essence of over-consumption is in the over-consumption of labor. We have no right to require the labor of more than one man to supply our needs. Each person produces a certain amount of labor, head or hand, and each person has a right to consume that amount of labor and no more.

The world will grow richer, this Country will grow richer and each of us individually will grow richer if, and only if, we produce more than we consume.

When more than one-half of the adult popula­tion of this Country produces more than it consumes, then the Country will grow richer and then the complaint of under-production or over-consumption, whichever you may choose to call it, will disappear.

“It is not the greatness of a man’s means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.” —Cobbett.