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

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.

A WOMAN who has been saving money boasted of the fact that she had seven one-hundred-dollar bills hidden in the house. She was being a miser. Her husband and son are in business which requires credit and they are both borrowers at the bank. It has probably never occurred to this woman that her seven one-hundred-dollar bills deposited in the bank would provide about $5,000 in credits and thus ease the credit situation for her husband and son.

A working man secreted thirty-one hundred dollars in bills and lost his job because his employers could not borrow enough money to carry their payroll through the fall season. This man is now spending part of his thirty-one hundred dollars, while he might have kept his job and his money might have been in the bank earning for him nearly eight dollars per month compound interest.

The woman’s seven hundred dollars and the worker’s thirty-one hundred dollars would not have, in themselves, eased the credit situation, but this woman and this worker are only two of thousands of people who have thoughtlessly done the same thing.

All of the money in circulation amounts to only $40 per person, so if every person secreted or car­ried about with him $40 there would be no money in the Country with which to transact the business. There would not be a dollar in any of the thirty thousand banks; there would not be a dollar in the cash register or till of any merchant. Every business would have to close up and quit and the government, the states, the cities and all corpora­tions and firms would go into bankruptcy. This is what would happen if each person had $40 in money in his pocket or hidden in the house. And yet many misguided people are holding hundreds and thousands of dollars out of circulation, causing a loss to the whole Country but the greatest loss to themselves.

A crook was recently arrested who had in his possession $140,000, all gathered from the pockets of other people. If they had emptied their pockets into the bank, the crook might have had to work for a living.

When we have all done this, most of the robbers will either starve to death or go to work, the business of the Country will prosper and the money we have accumulated will be earning interest for us in a safe place ready for our use when needed.

In one of the large department stores a woman recently spilled twelve hundred dollars out of her handbag. Many hands helped her pick it up but she found she had only eight hundred and forty dollars. Had the money been in the bank where it belonged and had she dropped her bankbook it would have been restored to her and she would have lost nothing.

Take that money out of the pantry jar, slip those bills out of the mattress, take the money from under the carpet and with what you have in your pocket go down today and open a bank account or add it to your present account and let all your money earn interest for you.

“When I caution you against becoming a miser, I do not therefore advise you to become a prodigal or a spendthrift.” —Horace.

MOST evil deeds are the result of temptation and, until these temptations are removed or minimized, the evil can not be eliminated.

In recent years we have witnessed the greatest material prosperity the Country has ever known. Everybody had money. Nearly everybody had diamonds or fine furs or an automobile or all three.

The few that did not have these things wanted them because nearly everybody else had them. Those who did not have the ability or the opportunity to earn big money either had to content themselves with the commonest comforts of life or try to get the things they wanted in a dishonest way.

The very spirit of the times has created dis­honesty and some of the rest of us are almost equally guilty with those who have done the criminal acts, because we have made these criminal acts possible.

Flaunting rich clothing, diamonds and gorgeous personal adornment in the face of unwise or unfortunate people who are unable to have these things creates a spirit of desire and unrest which too often ends in a criminal act.

Many robberies and even murders have been caused by the exhibition in public places of large sums of money or other evidences of wealth.

Unprotected millions have been carried about the Country. The death of a millionaire and the settlement of his estate recently brought out the fact that his wife was carrying about the Country from place to place more than $250,000 in money and still more than that amount in bonds. The grip which contained these valuables had been carried on trains, left in baggage rooms and check rooms and otherwise exposed to possible loss or theft.

It is only human nature that men steal more when stealing is easy and many men branded as thieves would never have become thieves except for the excessive temptations.

There is no easier way to reduce the thieving and robbery which have been going on than to make stealing unprofitable. The hold-up man who realizes only a few cents or a few dollars will soon learn that earning money is more profitable than stealing money.

When it is no longer possible to “stick-up” almost any man on the street and take a few hundred dollars away from him, then robbery will grow less attractive and the man’s moral sense will overcome his evil tendencies.

Eleven men and women fell to discussing this subject while returning home from a party re­cently; by comparing notes they discovered that, aside from their two automobiles, they were carrying with them loot for thieves totaling $68,000 in money, clothing, jewels and other personal effects. In this little group returning from a modest party which did not call for the expendi­ture of any money they discovered a total of $9,657 in actual cash.

It must be almost true that in recent years some people have gone money-mad. They have it and their greatest pleasure is derived from showing it and their next greatest pleasure from spending it. Such vulgar display of money would have meant social ostracism a few years ago. If any man had been seen with such large amounts of cash on his person as many people carry today, he would have been considered a crook, as an honest man would not find it necessary to carry thousands or even hundreds of dollars about with him while attending to ordinary matters of business or pleasure.

Banks have been provided in this Country so that money may be deposited in one city and checked out in any other city in the purchase of goods or the payment of obligations.

It should have startled the whole Country when it was announced in 1921 that there was a billion dollars in currency in this Country which was not in the banks. Since this was disclosed bank deposits have increased and some of this money is now practically safe from thieves or loss.

“Money amassed either serves or rules us.” —Horace.

SOME merchants, manufacturers and other business men have argued that full prosperity is only possible when people stop saving and spend their money freely. Merchants sometime feel that the banks and the thrift organi­zations are likely to hurt business through urging people to save their money.

The only saver who hurts business through accumulating too much money is the miser who hides away his money.

Saving money and putting it in the bank where it resumes its place as part of the circulating medium never hurts or hinders business.

To whom would the real estate man sell a home or a vacant lot if no one saved money and no one accumulated funds?

For whom would the building contractor build a house if no one saved money?

And to whom would the lumber man, the cement man, the sash and door man, the dealer in plumbing fixtures and the steam-fitter–to whom would these sell their merchandise if no one accumulated a quantity of money at any one time?

Were it not for the saver, the piano dealer would never make a sale. Even the graphophone dealer and the furniture dealer would seldom if ever have a cash sale if people would not save for a long time looking toward the day when they could have that new graphophone, that dining-room set or that modern kitchen range.

The impression seems to be current that it is the spendthrift who buys the fine merchandise. Nothing could be further from the truth. The spendthrift wastes his money and seldom has value to show for it after it has gone.

Fine merchandise, costly merchandise and the substantial and beautiful things of life are the rewards of the saver, the man who can deny himself the foolish little things of today for the big and joyous things of tomorrow.

Prosperity is never hindered by the man who sets aside a goodly portion of his earnings while getting ready to satisfy the big and wholesome desires of life, whether such desire be a new home, an automobile, a fine watch or an education for one of his children.

Men and women, boys and girls who spend each dollar or each dime as fast as it is acquired do not make prosperity for the Country, for the merchants and least of all for themselves.

Prosperity for all is contingent upon the pros­perity of the individual. The piano manufacturer or the dealer can never be prosperous until the masses are prosperous. If the people never saved there never would be a piano sold and the pros­perity of the merchants in our own town depends upon the thrift of all of the people. Until more than half of the people in a community are savers, the merchants of that community can never enjoy full prosperity or even a very profitable business.

When the saver puts his money in the bank, the bulk of it is borrowed by the manufacturer or the dealer for use in the production of more goods, which means more wealth, because in the produc­tion of these goods, whether they are washing machines, automobiles or hogs, more labor is employed and a goodly part of the money is paid back into the community in wages and salaries. This enables these producing workers to buy more merchandise and to save more money to add to their bank accounts. This money then again resumes the rounds as before and travels from the bank to the farmer, from the farmer to the manufacturer, from the manufacturer to his employees and again back to the retail merchant and the bank.

Saving in greater volume is the only road to real prosperity and if it were possible for every person to save half of what he earns, then we would have a greater prosperity than this Country has ever enjoyed. Let each individual learn that thrift on the part of all of the people is the only road to real prosperity for all of the people. Individual prosperity is dependent upon the prosperity of others and, until our neighbors are prosperous, we can never hope for real prosperity.

A few years ago the deposits of all of the banks of the United States were ten billion dollars and now they are more than fifty billion dollars. Somebody saved all of this money. Individuals saved it and corporations saved it and all of them deposited it in the banks. The banks re-loaned the most of it for the development of the Country. They loaned some of it on farm mortgages and then the farmer saved money to pay off the mortgage. When he had saved enough more he built a new house or a new barn or bought a tractor or perhaps an automobile. Through the farmer’s saving the building material men and the farm implement dealers and manufacturers and the automobile manufacturers all were enabled to do business and to make money.

Saving money instead of spending each day’s income is the thing which creates business and prosperity for everybody. It was the savings of the people that built the railroads and the big buildings and the schools and the hospitals.

Somebody must save or we would never have anything better than a tent to house ourselves and a sheepskin to cover our bodies.

Beware of the man who tells you that you must spend all you earn or you are hindering the business of the Country and destroying prosperity.

When everybody- learns how to live well and at the same time save a reasonable portion of every dollar he gets, then we are assured of complete and permanent prosperity.

After money is spent, it is invested and, when it is invested, it is spent–by the other fellow. That means prosperity.

If we would bring complete prosperity to our Country we must save and then save more. As we save more, our prosperity will increase and, if each of us can save enough, everybody in our com­munity will have everything he wants of the material things of life, which means happiness and ease and contentment for you and for us.

We will never learn to live well until we learn to save–we will never be able to live better until we learn to save more. When saving becomes a habit, the habit becomes a pleasure.

If the water of the brooks were not saved, there would never be a river or a sea.

“All habits gather, by unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. —Dryden.