The Ways of Thrift How Men and Women Have Made the Best of Things By Llewellyn Jones ‘TIS hard for an empty bag TO STAND UPRIGHT” BENJAMIN franklin Published by American Society for Thrift 1 002 Straus Building Chicago School Pupils on Thrift Winners of the First Straus Prizes. CASES OF TYPICAL THRIFT: By Winnifred Wilson, Sioux Falls, S. Dak. I have observed that a boy who lives near us is a thrifty person. There are six in the family. His father works in a store and his mother does all she can to keep the children dressed neatly. This boy takes care of other people’s chickens and raises and sells them himself. He sells newspapers after school and runs errands. He has a vegetable garden every summer and sells his vegetables from house to house. The neighbors all like him, I think, because he is thrifty and will work honestly for them. He does not spend his money carelessly, but buys his own clothes and other things that he needs. He saves his money and buys stamps at school and puts it in the bank every Saturday. He dresses neatly too, and often buys things for the home and for his father and mother. He is ten years old and in the fifth grade. He has over twenty-five dollars in the bank now. I think this boy is thrifty and will be rich when he is older. This girl won $25 prize for the best definition of Thrift. By Hazel Haag, High School, Warren, Pa.: Thrift is fnanagement of one’s affairs in such a manner that the value of one’s possessions is being constantly increased. This girl won $10 prize Definitions and stories given honorable mention follow the “Ways of Thrift.” yyiA.s. kill , Tcaj - I "u, r-j M«/ Vj* 'U/cT f It W, Um /be) 1*, ^ rt-AASUL : dLJ f ~iLc \ctbyc O^-J) Y /rxjLt J^-*^** ddLo-un^s . Stw.-L 5 Jlmerican Society for thrift The Ways of Thrift By Llewellyn Jones (Copyright 1913, by American Society for Thrift) We are all well acquainted with constant com- plaints of the high cost of living; we all hear oc- casional predictions of “hard times”; and we all meet people who seem to be having hard times. The purpose of this book, and of the society, which Os publishing it, is to show that suffering from the high cost of living, or suffering because we cannot become rich is quite unnecessary. *’ People have said that before, however, and they have thought out wonderful plans by which every- body could become rich and happy, just by passing Ma few laws, and changing conditions, so they claimed. "That is not the purpose, however, of the present book. Its purpose is to show each individual how he can make the best of his own opportunities, and help his neighbors and fellow citizens to make the best of their opportunities, without waiting to per- suade the world to some great change in conditions — which might not “work” when it was made. This hook advocates a method which depends on the co-operation of the reader himself, rather than upon any outside force, and depends especially upon his un- derstanding* of one simple word, and upon his doing* the things which that word indicates. When some of us use that word Thrift, we think of saving as its meaning. A thrifty person, we im- agine, is a person who never spends a nickel more than is absolutely necessary, and who always saves up old scraps which other people would throw \away. But this is a very erroneous idea. When we see a very fine child, healthy, plump, red-cheeked, active, we say it is a thriving one, and the word thriving never suggests skimping and sav- ing. Well, thrift and thriving mean the same thing, for they are two forms of the same word. The thrifty man is, really, the thriving man, but, more than that, he is the man who is thriving on account of his own efforts. Thrift, then, means literally the ability to thrive. It seems necessary to go into these details because many people have such a wrong idea of thrift that they refuse to advocate it. They imagine that it means niggardly cutting down of necessary ex- penses and they point to the short-sighted people — ^especially among the very poor — who refuse to spend enough money on food or on their children's education, in order that they may hoard that money away where it will bring in a much smaller return than would a good education for their children or the added strength from good food. In the same class are those foolish people who spend their money recklessly, and urge as an excuse that they would rather be spendthrifts than misers. Such people think that, at the best, thrift is a compromise between the possibilities of being a spendthrift on the one hand or a miser on the other. As a matter 3 ylmerican Society for thrift of fact, thrift is no such thing. If you classified every degree of liberality in spending, from the so- called “sport,” at one end, to the miser at the other, you would not find that thrift was one of those de- grees. No attitude toward one’s money, or strength, can be called thrift which does not take account of what we expend, of how efficiently we spend it, and of what we get in return. In a word, thrift is efficient expenditure. In Europe, for centuries people have had to learn to live on small incomes. They have succeeded to a wonderful extent, and although t he peasants of France — to take just one example — are much poorer than any class of native Americans, yet their com- bined thrift makes France a very rich nation with exceptional ability to take part in great international financial operations. America, in the past, has been prodigal with her national resources; to the pioneer who dug, ploughed, planted, hunted, or fished, she has given in abundance; and what has come so easily has naturally gone just as easily. But now the grass has been rather well cropped over once, and we shall have to be content in the future to take the shorter grass and make the best of it. The lessons of economy and of making the best of things, which have been learned over in Europe, must now be learned by us — and when we begin we shall be able to do it more thoroughly than tjhe Europeans themselves, because we shall bring to bear a greater inventive faculty. IMany readers, and especially the young, high-spirited reader may pro- test that this is too small and prosaic a thing for a great nation like America to embark upon — beneath her dignity in fact. Let us show how wrong any such idea is. In the first place, the whole advance of mankind from savagery to civilization has been due to mankind’s ever-growing thriftiness. The savages who merely hunted their meat gave way after a time to the wiser savages who kept some of the animals they captured and did not kill them until they were needed. And very soon the savages who did that found that they could breed from their captive stock; their thrift meant greater plenty in the end. It was the same with vegetable foods; the people who merely ate what nature gave them and took no heed for the morrow gave way to people who first stored and then planted. Thrift is the mainspring that keeps the clock of progress going. THRIFT AND INVENTION. The ordinary steam engine burning coal under a boiler only utilizes from five to ten per cent of the energy of the coal. The remainder is wasted in smoke, waste heat and the overcoming of friction. In 1893 Rudolph Diesel, a German engineer, set to work on a steam engine which should be more thrifty in its operation. To do this, he did not try to arrange a firebox that would use less coal — that would be penuriousness and not thrift. He set the idea be- fore him of an engine which should utilize as much energy as possible and waste as little as possible. He then figured out where the waste occurred in the ordinary engine. It was in the burning of the. coal and in the escape of the steam from the cylinder 4 yJmerican Society for thrift after each stroke. The engine he produced is too complicated to describe here, but, by burning coal oil or any other oil instead of coal, and burning it in the cylinder instead of in the boiler, he produced an engine which gives more energy from, for example, the burning of liquid tar than the old style engine would develop from burning the whole coal, of which that tar is a by-product. Diesel raised the percentage of energy obtainable from a maximum of ten per cent to thirty-five per cent. That there is still room for improvement simply shows that the progress of thrift is endless. Thrift is the efficient use of energy and the effi- cient use of energy means absence of strain and con- sequently happiness and health. THRIFT IN THE CITY. An employe of a large corporation noticed that the writing fluid in his inkwell evaporated very rapidly. Out of curiosity, he figured out the amount of evaporation and found it to be one ounce a week. He inquired the number of inkwells in use in the offices of the corporation and found there were three thousand. This meant a loss of 3,000 ounces of ink in one week, and at the price paid for it, meant a loss of $1,200 a year. He brought this to the at- tention of the firm and $750 was spent in buying a new form of inkwell, in which the evaporation was cut off. That left a saving of $450 the first year and $1,200 a year thereafter. Leakage is the universal enemy of all forms of thrift and progress. A young business man, realizing he was smoking too much, but reluctant to quit entirely, decided he would at least cut his cigar bill ten cents a day. At the end of the year he had on hand $36.50. The amount of his thrift didn’t impress as worth while, and he first thought of “blowing it.” His good sense prevailed, however, and he finally used the $36.50 to pay the first premium on a 20-payment life insurance policy for $1,000. He recently received the paid-up policy from the insurance company which is worth $1,000 to his wife and family, and which cost him only $730.00. When his first policy was five years he decided to make another cut of ten cents on cigars, and started the second policy, in which he has made 15 annual payments. At the present time he has five of the one thousand dollar policies, maturing in from five to ten years, all being paid for from money he used to “burn up.” Thrift never despises small beginnings. A poor Chicago boy had a friend whose father kept a junk shop. He became interested in the busi- ness and suggested the plan of specializing in certain lines of junk and learning just where those kinds could be had. This policy was so successful that the father set up his son and the friend in business for themselves, and in three years they made enough money for both of the young men to marry. To specialize even in the humblest occupation raises its dignity and its rewards. A young boy employed in Chicago to deliver groceries made a practice of asking his customers / Imericar Society for thrift or their servants from whom the neighbors obtained their goods. He then made a point of calling on these neighbors and leaving samples of his firm's goods. As a result of this policy he brought in many orders and was soon given a position as so- licitor with a good field for advancement. Thrift and initiative are closely related and most successful when traveling together. An Evanston woman, who has to cater for a hus- band and five children, found that her table expenses were increasing out of all proportion to the family income. She had read in a magazine of the advan- tages of buying all food stuffs by weight instead of by the package or measure. She figured the total weight of food for one month and found it to be 634 pounds, inclusive of everything bought, making an average weight of foods consumed of a little over 21 pounds a day. The total cost that month was $122.04, or 19J4 cents a pound. She determined that she would do better the next month. She set herself a maximum average price of 15 cents a pound, and by substituting more rice, beans, preparations of cereals for part of her former expenditures for meat, she succeeded in making her average price for all food 14 cents a pound, while the total amount she bought was 572 pounds. Part of this saving was due to more careful overseeing of her kitchen with the idea of preventing waste. The total expenses of that month were $80.08, and her ideal at the present is to cut her expenses to $60.00 a month. She now studies food advertisements in the magazines, watches bargain sales at the stores and has the interest and co-opera- tion of her family in the interesting endeavor to keep their food expenditures on a reasonable basis. Setting a standard is one of the secrets of thrift. THRIFT IN THE COUNTRY. William Babikow and his five sons and four daughters have a tract of land nine miles from Baltimore, of about twenty-four acres, twenty of which are under cultivation. The Babikow family bought this land in 1893 — when other people were complaining of hard times. They applied thrifty methods to its cultivation and are now realizing an income of $10,000 a year from truck raising. They raised thirty-two kinds of truck and derived from two to four crops a year, as well as flowers from practically every foot of their ground. On one three-quarter acre patch they raise horseradish and plant lettuce between the rows. The horse-radish brings in $700 a season and the lettuce brings in $300. By planting the horse-radish sets deeper than usually done, they save the same sets from season to season. On a quarter-acre patch of land given over to peonies, the flowers of which sell at 60 cents a dozen, they plant their beans a few weeks before cutting the flowers, so that no time is wasted be- tween crops. Their land cost originally $2,900; they paid $1,000 cash and, after spending all the necessary money on improvements, they paid off the indebtedness in four years. They have cropped their land more heavily every year and it never yet has shown signs 6 American Society for thrift of giving out. Their income is stated above. Thrift is a common platform on which the whole family may co-operate with marvelous results. Thomas Fuller, of Monterey County, California, wondered what the real value was of his stubble land, which is usually reckoned to be worth $1.50 an acre. He ascertained the value of bunches of sheep and cattle by weighing them before turning them loose in the stubble, and again after they had had their fill of the living which the field afforded, and he found that when the live stock was turned loose before the birds and field animals had spoiled the stubble, it was worth $15.00 an acre. Thrift learns the value of every by-product and utilizes it to the best advantage. E. Dowden, of Hall County, Texas, owned a 15- acre apple orchard. He started to make cider from his culls and found that with a small cider press, costing $30.00, he could make enough cider and cider vinegar, selling at 50 cents a gallon and a dollar a gallon, respectively, to bring him in $425 a year. “Culls” not only of apples, but of many other things, yield value to the man who will make their possibilities realities. Elgin K. Bruce, a Pennsylvania farmer, moved to Ohio and bought some land, most of which was under water. The neighbors all assumed that he was being swindled and satirically asked if he in- tended to raise bull frogs in this slough. Bruce did not say anything, but within a few weeks he had seventeen small ponds laid out on his land, stocked with gold fish. He sold the common varie- ties of these fish at prices ranging at $10.00 to $40.00 a hundred, unusual specimens brought as high as $25.00 each, and he now has a stock of over a million gold fish, including breeding stock, which is alto- gether priceless. The neighbors are now talking about “some people's luck.” The thrifty man does not compete with his neigh- bors, but with himself. FROM CAR CONDUCTOR TO CAPITALIST. Eleven years ago Adam Foster was an immigrant from the north of Ireland with a wife and two chil- dren and an earning capacity of $12 a week. He was a car conductor in a small town twelve miles outside of Boston and saw no chance of ever rising- above $14 a week. He determined to do something else. When he saw a small cottage backed by an unoccupied field near the end of his carline, he de- termined to take this cottage and raise truck in a small greenhouse. He had already saved $600 out of his meager wages and with that and $400 which he borrowed, he rented the cottage and field and set up a small glass house in which he raised cucumbers. From his first year's profits he kept himself and family and paid off his loan. From his second year's profits he extended his glass and put more of the field under cultivation. He has now three acres under glass, thirty acres under cultivation, and the value of his plant is estimated conservatively at $50,- 000. He has practically made all of this from cu- Jlmerican Society for thrift cumbers alone. He has an auto truck and a touring car, and his two sons have preferred to stay with his fascinating business in preference to taking courses at Harvard. To bend all one’s energies to one specific task means preeminence. The man who specializes will never suffer from lack of opportunity. THRIFT AND LEADERSHIP. Tontitown is a little community in northwestern Arkansas inhabited by 800 Italians. All of them are now making prosperous livings producing wines and cheese — things which are particularly adapted to their previous training — and they find an outlet for their goods among high class clubs and hotels. These prosperous Italians are the people who, under less happy circumstances, would be glutting the labor market in overcrowded cities. Their pros- perity in the country is largely due to Father Bandini, a Roman Catholic priest, who is the manager, as well as the spiritual director of this colony. He founded it in 1898, among a few Italians who had already tried such living under the auspices of a New York philanthropist, August Coburn, but had not made a success, nor was success cheaply bought under Father Bandini’s administration. For some years the Italians had to work in the gold mines of In- dian Territory and had hard times supporting their families, but by economy, efficiency in their work and by co-operative buying of all their necessaries, their efforts were successful. Thrift can only win its greatest victories through co-operation, and co-operation its greatest victories through leadership. THRIFT AND CO-OPERATION. In England there are now over 2,600,000 members of co-operative societies and in 1910 they sold goods valued at $600,000,000 and distributed profits, divi- dends of $60,000,000 among themselves. This is all the growth of a little over a hundred years, and is an example of a movement that has been wonderfully successful throughout Europe as well as in Great Britain. Last August 600 delegates, representing 20,000,000,000 members of co-operative societies all over the world met in convention at Glasgow, and Earl Grey, in his inaugural address, told them that co-operation in industry would one day cover the whole civilized world. The fact that co-operation has not so far been successful on a large scale in America, is due simply to the fact that the Americans have not yet learned thrift and foresight in the or- dering of their lives. When it dawns upon them that through co-operative manufacturing and buying they can be paying dividends to themselves, every time they buy groceries or other necessaries, there is no doubt that co-operation will begin to grow in America in the same wonderful manner that it has grown in Great Britain and Europe. Only the thrifty man is in a position to make the necessary beginnings of co-operative success. ylmerican Society for thrift THRIFT IN SCHOOLS. Mr. J. E. Wolfe, late superintendent of schools in Memphis, Tennessee, and one of the most en- thusiastic supporters of the school garden idea, or- ganized 2,000 school children of his town into gar- dening squads and had them cultivate quarter-acre gardens, while another 2,000 cultivated their home gardens. Every child in the United States should learn to support his or her life directly from the soil. This W,ould be real social insurance. The boys of Morgan Park High School, near Chi- cago, have gone into the apple producing business, as the result of a plan of J. W. Colley, Assistant County Superintendent of Schools, who wanted to find some outlet for their superfluous energy. A friend offered him the use of an old apple orchard if he thought the boys could do anything with it. The trees were forty years old and had not been sprayed or pruned for ten years. Thirty high school boys formed a club, obtained the advice of an expert who picked out 350 trees that he thought could be saved and went to work to save them. By systematic work in gangs they saved these trees and at the time this was written, had such good crops in view that they were debating whether to sell them retail in the neighborhood or whether to arrange with commis- sion houses and dispose of their crop at wholesale. The energies of youth, guided by the thrift spirit, represent a national resource of unsuspected rich- ness. A THRIFTY UNIVERSITY. At Valparaiso, Indiana, is a unique educational institution from the standpoint of thrift. It was founded forty years ago by Henry Baker Brown. It started with a debt of $16,000 and in the course of its career not only has wiped out that debt, but has put over $1,000,000 in its plant. The university now has over 5,000 students, who are given their tuition and board at a minimum rate of $159 and a maximum rate of $224, for a school year of forty-eight weeks. The university also has arranged a scheme by which its students can rent their books, if they cannot afford to buy them, and so there are no incidental expenses. The important point in this connection is not onlv that they are boarded and taught at such a small cost, but throughout their course they imbibe without knowing it a spirit of thrift that is of value to them all their lives. If university students had at graduation an ac- quired spirit and knowledge of thrift from inspiration and observation their diplomas would have their greatest meaning. THRIFT IN EDUCATION. H. E. Miles, president of the Wisconsin State Board of Industrial Education, calculates that fifty per cent of our national educational expense is wasted, and he has inaugurated a system of in- dustrial education in Wisconsin that prevents this waste. The ordinary school, dealing practically ex- 9 Will We H s. ) The American pec and yet it is true that th< money-making powers— to make money — no dout and that is the equivale money gets its chief vah saying that the want of the poverty of the world already existing povert} The happy-go-lucky spi reason why so much mo: amount of pleasure is n where there is no play, every year by the people c not be described as sane p Now, if this Society by education can bring people, it will have made a holier people. Thrift d and clothing — no, the thriftier he is the more mo Thrift aims at cutting out the useless and sensei the things that are sensible and useful, and ther cannot have national thrift until we have commu until you have individual thrift. We have seasons of unusual prosperity, and our prosperity, but when we examine to see how i have lived up to our last cent just as we did in les blame the whole system of things. We are swa hard times result. We yell for a condition which will enable us to become spendthrifts — to satisfy e never get it, the world and life are not built on ti virtue ; it is a principle. Thrift is not an affair o not niggardliness, but wisdom. Thrift is not so i people — the community — our government, all v| was this country built — little by little was the w the structure of science grow. Little by little di an attitude of mind. A spendthrift does not need: is the result of loose habit of mind. He may be as ] Thrift does not require a great deal of money, bt Our American government gives all classes dation of American democracy. Why not have tl primary grades? We teach the children all the o ernment. Then why not the A. B. C/s of thrif city waste we now complain of will be material Another matter I want to dwell on for a me get-rich-quick schemers who have taken such a advertisements in our public press, invest the $30,! of perhaps several years. Naturally it is lost, and 1j| before they get well started. My friends, Thrift is creative economy, and jj of magnificence/’ And now that we have the i psychological time for the promulgation of Thrift ) for many ills. The American Society for Thrift is an u sympathy. When 10 e National Thrift? Straus as a nation dislike to be told they are unthrifty, re unthrifty in the extreme. They boast of their the facts justify them. Americans know how >out that — but they don’t know how to spend it — to saying they don’t know how to save it — for fom its use. I do not want to be understood as ;ft explains the greater, or even a great part of t I do say that the want of thrift aggravates the d makes a heavy burden still harder to carry. 50 common among the American people is the is spent in senseless pleasure and vice — a certain :d by all classes — there cannot be efficient work there is no doubt that a billion dollars is spent e United States on indulgences which not only can- ire, but which do positive physical and moral harm, the discussion of the thrift habit before the not simply mean that one shall deny himself food he and his family will have for these purposes, expenditures that there may be more money for make for a better people and government. You thrift, and you cannot have community thrift find so many people no better off. We boast of hT better off we are, and are pained to find we rosperous times, and then we turn around and by the agitators and demagogues — strikes and 5 not demand Thrift. We want a system which r whim and follow every fashion — but we will * lines. Thrift is not a mere forced rule ; it is a le pocket, but an affair of character. Thrift is h a matter of money as an attitude of mind. Our ie better by the practice of thrift. Little by little m of the world conserved. Little by little did le wealth accumulate — that is thrift. Thrift is ich money to be a spendthrift, because that fault h a spendthrift with a dollar as with a fortune, nly wisdom in using it. ' ^qual chance — equality of opportunity is the foun- taught in the public schools, beginning in the « and sciences to fit them for the reins of gov- ! f that be done the national, state and county and ssened in our future generations. • is an example of shiftlessness caused by the ’amounts from the people. They read the alluring or $50 they have in the savings bank — savings become disheartened, discouraged in saving Emerson says, “Creative economy is the essence cost of living to contend with, I believe this the this Society and that it will be almost panacea •prise with which all good people ought to be in u ylmerican Society for thrift clusively in book work, appeals only to the child who learns well from the printed page, the type of child called “abstract” minded. The type of “con- crete minded” children, who learn best by doing, get scant help in the prevailing system. As a re- sult, 2,000,000 children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years, throughout the United States, leave school before they have finished their grades. Only half of them obtain work, and only half of them leave school because they have to go to work. The others simply lose interest and become idle and often vicious. In Wisconsin, all children between those ages who have not been through the grades, must go to the newly established industrial schools, and both older children and adults may go to them. The minimum time spent in these schools is five hours a week, and the employers pay the students for the time put in. They are taught English, the elements of citizenship and hygiene, as well as the most efficient methods in the pursuit of their trade, whatever it may be. The latter classes range from machine shop work to salesmanship, and result not only in a largely increased earning capacity, but in turning out a much higher grade of citizen than is turned out by the ordinary schools. Last year, seventeen thousand students of all ages took ad- vantage of these courses; this year 25,000 are being educated, and next year the number will be 40,000. There are at present thirty such schools in Wis- consin, with a maximum annual appropriation of $3,000 each, half of that being paid from the local and half from the general school fund. The appro- priation for this coming year is $150,000. The average yearly cost for each pupil is nearly ten dol- lars. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are instituting similar systems and progressive cities in other states are following Wisconsin’s example. This new method of conserving our human capital marks a new era in the relations of workers, em- ployer, and state, and shows the spirit of thrift and the spirit of humanity to be one. THRIFT IN ENERGY. Frederick W. Taylor, the father of scientific man-1 agement, had his attention called to the necessity! for thrift in industry by watching the ways of pig 1 iron workers in the Bethlehem Steel Works. These | men had the simple job of lifting pigs of iron from piles on to other piles, or on to cars. They usually moved ten tons of iron a day and received $1.15 in wages. Mr. Taylor figured that they should be able to move at least forty-seven tons a day. He did not urge them to increase their output, but he picked out a strong looking worker and led him to a pile containing forty-seven tons. Without telling him the weight of the pile, he offered him $1.80 a day if he would move that quantity. The man did so with- out any trouble. He selected the men who could do this, raised their wages and put the men who could not do it on less exacting kinds of labor. Thrift insists that the square pegs shall not be put in the round holes. vi yJmerican Society for thrift THE FACTORY AND THRIFT. Another student of scientific management, Mr. Sanford E. Thompson, was asked by Mr. Taylor to put the work of testing balls for bicycle bearings on a thrifty basis. In the largest factory of its kind in the country this work was done by 120 girl inspec- tors. They would lay a number of the small steel balls between the fingers of their outstretched hands, turn them over by passing a magnet near them, looking at them through a magnifying glass at the same time. Their duty was to reject all the balls which showed flaws. These girls received from $4.50 to $5.50 a week, and worked 10 y 2 hours a day. By a device called “over inspection,” Mr. Thomp- son found out the conditions under which the work was done accurately and also which girls were naturally adapted for the work. He found that after 454 hours of work the girls became inaccurate, evi- dently being tired out by the nervous strain. The girls who were naturally inaccurate were elimin- ated altogether. The work hours of the other girls were reduced from 10^ hours to 8 y 2 hours a day, with an interval of ten minutes rest in the middle of the morning, and one in the middle of the after- noon. As a result .of these and other changes, the number of girls doing this work was reduced from 120. to 35; their hours were reduced as stated above; their work was done with two-thirds greater ac- curacy, and as a result, it was possible to increase their wages from 80 to 100 per cent. Thrift means ease and happiness in work and regards, strain as a form of extravagance. THRIFT IN METHODS. F. B. Gilbreth applied the principles of thrift to bricklaying and increased the work done from 120 bricks per man per hour to 350. Most of this in- crease was due to the cutting out of superfluous motions. Instead of bending down and then raising the body every time a brick was picked up — a tre- mendous waste of energy when we consider that a bricklayer might weigh 150 pounds or more— he had the bricks placed on a movable scaffold, kept level with the height of the wall, so that no stooping was necessary. Instead of first picking up a brick with one hand and then laying on the mortar with the other hand, he had both of these operations per- formed at once. Instead of “tamping” a brick with the trowel, to set it right after it was placed on the mortar, he mixed the mortar to such a consis- tency that the brick could be aligned by a simple pressure of the hand. As a result of these changes, the bricklayer did not have to work any harder, but, as every move counted, he was enabled to in- crease his output as stated and naturally his wages were increased too. Thrift honors the fathers by improving upon their methods. THE OPPOSITE OF WASTE. The Philadelphia Vacant Lot Cultivation Society attempts to bring idle or partially idle people on to 13 jlmcrican Society for thrift idle land, which not only enables such people to make an income, or supplement their earnings, but improves the lots, which are loaned by owners (who are holding them for the “unearned increment.”) For the last few years at least four thousand indivi- duals a year have received the benefits of this scheme, and they have produced $60,000 worth of garden truck. Most of the gardens are from half an acre to an acre in extent. One middle aged man with a family to support could only earn $7.50 a week. He was given a garden plot and worked it so successfully that the next season he was recommended for a position as gardener in a Philadelphia school. The second year he was reappointed to this position. The next year he took a position as manager of a farm. Here he saved his earnings and soon rented a farm for himself. He made a success of it, sold out his in- terest for a good sum, and accepted a position as director of an agricultural experiment station with j the Pennsylvania railroad. A substitute mail carrier applied for a garden plot in the season and could only obtain one-eighth of j an acre. In spite of the lateness and the small size j of his lot, he raised $47.90 worth of garden truck that season. A boy of fourteen obtained a plot and earned enough to buy clothing and shoes to enable him to go to school in the winter. To have idle men and idle land in the same city is a crime against the spirit of thrift and of humanity. POSTAL SAVINGS BANK. Founded for the purpose of encouraging thrift among the people, whose savings were too small to \ make it seem worth while to the ordinary • banking institutions to go after their business, the postal savings system of the United States is proving a greater success.than even its friends predicted. There are today more than 12,000 postoffices where the peo- ple may make their deposits and every month they j are adding about $1,000,000 to their permanent sav- 1 ings. Today they have upward of $34,000,000 on de- posit with Uncle Sam. With postal savings banks there is now no excuse for hoarding money — a practice which has often re- sulted in its total loss. THRIFT IN INVESTMENTS. In the year 1911, a total of $120,000,000 was stolen from the American people by get-rich-quick promo- ters, according to the financial statement of Postmas- ter General Hitchcock, and this amount was an in- crease of $50,000,000 over the previous year, and it affected 525,600 victims. It has been estimated that if we include the cases which have not been reported to the postmaster general — for many people are ashamed to acknowledge the fact that they have been swindled — $300,000,000 a year is dropped by the American people into worthless schemes. In Illinois alone the annual loss of get-rich-quick victims is $15,000,000 to $20,000,000. The only safe rule for an investor is to steer absolutely clear of any invest- I ment of a doubtful nature. The fact that the com- i 14 jhnerican Society for thrift pany may have the names of prominent men on its board of directors should not induce the small in- vestor to make an exception to this rule. A Califor- nia oil company induced the late Real-Admiral Rob- ley D. Evans to become its president, and largely on the strength of his name, $500,000 was raised by the sale of shares to the public. Of course, Admiral Evans was deceived in the character of his associates, who failed absolutely to make good. The company collapsed and the people appointed to wind up its affairs found a total sum in its treasury of $29.00. The investor should remember that if any scientific discovery is commercially valuable, the capitalists will utilize that invention and put their money into it. When the public is asked to contribute, it simply means that there is at the best a large, element of risk and it generally means that the whole matter is more or less of a fake. Christopher Columbus Wil- son collected over $3,000,000 from the people of the United States to capitalize the United Wireless Com- panies. He recently died in the penitentiary after leading a riotous life in which a good proportion of that $3,000,000 was spent for “wine, woman and song.” The thrifty investor should remember that money is never given away in the business world, and should always distrust the man who pretends to give it. THRIFT IN THE USE OF TIME. The principles of scientific management can be applied by everyone to his or her own personal life. A record of how one spends any one day will show a total waste of some hours in little leaks of a few minutes each. One man who decided to utilize these odd moments, learned several of the longest English poems in the minutes spent dressing every morning. A Massachusetts judge, who commuted, gained a perfect reading knowledge of French by taking a French book and a dictionary with him on his daily train trips. Such instances as these could be multi- plied indefinitely. Everyone has the necessary time for an education. Everyone ought to have the necessary application. THRIFT IN AMUSEMENTS. The idea of thrift in amusements may be novel to many people and may easily be misunderstood. It does not, however, mean the denial of amusements, but simply the idea of efficiency applied to them. From the point of view of thrift, amusements are of two kinds, those that increase one’s energy and those that rob one of energy. If a young man figured out the yearly cost in money of moving picture shows, and the number of hours spent in the air of the moving picture theater, he probably would find that the money would more than pay for a Y. IM. C. A. or athletic club subscription, and that the vital- izing nature of the Y. M. C. A. work and the sociabil- ity of the institution would make the latter a far more thrifty investment, both of his money and of his time. Let your amusements serve you rather than over- work you for the benefit of the amusement vendor. 15 jlmerican Society for thrift THRIFT IN READING. Another little exploited field for thrift, but a fruit- ful one, is the time and money spent for reading. Probably no one factor has a greater effect on our character or, at least, may be made to have a greater effect on our character — than reading, and yet most people do their reading in a shiftless and thriftless manner. The first thing to remember is that the best books are the cheapest, because they have become classics and may be bought in a variety of cheap editions. For a very little over the price of two popular magazines, one may buy in such a series as “Everyman’s Library” practically any of the greatest books of the world’s greatest thinkers, poets, or the older novelists. Then, if the reader wished to have the present day novelists among his permanent book possessions, he need not pay the $1.25 or more usually asked, for practically all of these novels are reissued soon after their first pub- lication in what is known as the popular copyright series at 50 cents. The careful reader may also keep up to date in science and contemporary thought through such a series as the “Home University Library,” or “The People’s Books,” which sell at 50 and 20 cents respectively, and which are written by the most prominent scientists and critics of the day. The man who is not familiar with the best thoughts of the race is still a child. THRIFT AND THE RAILROADS Mr. Louis D. Brandeis testified before the Inter- state Commerce Commission that the railroads of the country could save a million dollars a day by applying the principles of thrift to running their roads, and he gave specific instances of how the application of scientific management would bring this reform about. The shippers of the country who complain about high rates would find their own difficulties largely solved and the railroads would benefit as well, if waterways were built paralleling the main roads of the country where possible. These waterways could carry the heavy freight, such as grain and lumber, and the roads would be able to specialize on perishable and high-class freight on which they know they make a profit. Bulky freight is handled at a loss, although the railroads themselves do not know exactly where they stand in the matter. Corporations must learn that thrift is not the cut- ting of working forces or wages, but the better co- ordination of their various activities. A THRIFTY CITY. When Galveston, Texas, incorporated the com- mission plan of government, a great advance was made in American municipal administration and a number of other cities began to abolish the extravagant and unwieldy councils and boards of aldermen and to follow Galveston’s example. Now, Dayton, Ohio, has made a further application of the principles of 16 ylmerican Society for thrift irift and instead of a board of commissioners, she as determined to place her municipal government i the hands of one man, a city manager who will ave entire jurisdiction and entire responsibility to le citizens for every phase of municipal govern- I lent, with the exception of the courts and the :hools. He will have commissioners of the vari- us departments, but, unlike the Galveston com- lissioners, these men will not be responsible to le people at large, but will be responsible to their hief. All danger of one man tyranny and the abuse f power is eliminated in this case by the people’s ower of initiative, referendum and recall. Some day cities will reach the point of thrift rhere they can pay dividends where now they re- eive taxes. THRIFT FOR THE NATION. There are 75,000,000 acres of swamp lands in the Jnited States and 150,000,000 acres whose productiv- :y would be increased 20 per cent by drainage, 'hese 225,000,000 acres have an area as large as Germany, British Isles, Belgium and Holland, which upport a population of 125,000,000. The National )rainage Congress has figured cost of the drainage f the whole area at an average price of only $10 n acre, or $750,000,000 altogether, against a total f $2,250,000,000 the reclaimed land would produce — ;30 an acre — in crops. Furthermore, medical men laim that the reduction of the mosquito population >y this means would save 250,000 lives every year. The wealth we search for along the horizon is generally at our feet. IRRIGATION AND THRIFT. One of the most interesting examples of national hrift is furnished by the reclamation of the arid vest through irrigation. Land that for many years vas thought to be quite useless and, indeed, simply . barrier to the rest of the nation and its western oast, has, within the last few years, been supplied vith water through the efforts of the government :ommercial corporations, cooperative societies and ndividuals until at the present time practically 4,000,000 acres have been reclaimed, at a cost of >ver $304,000,000. So well has some of this work >een done that the annual cost of upkeep for the rrigated area is now a little over a dollar an acre. The forests, which are the ultimate source of the vater for this land, are now practically sure of >eing preserved, although, for a time, it seemed as f commercial greed would result in their denuda- ion. Where farming under irrigation has not ;eemed to pay, it usually has been due to the inex- >erience of the farmer or, in some cases, of the intrained city man, who was endeavoring to do :he work. At the present time, a number of text >ooks which point out the best methods of working rrigated land, the choice of live stock on irrigated arms and other points, leave no excuse for failure n this branch of agriculture. Success or failure in irrigation is not a question )f water, but of brains and application. 17 Jlmerican Society for thrift THRIFT IN THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. Men are released from our prisons at the rate of over a hundred a day — generally without means of support and in a discouraged condition in which the temptation is only too great for them to relapse into crime again. An association has found, however, that humanity in treating prisoners is equivalent to the most far-sighted and yet im- mediately profitable thrift. A recent annual report of the Central Howard Association tells how 121 men were paroled to the society before their sentences had" expired. Eighty-one per cent of these men fulfilled all the conditions of their parole, and, in various positions, earned an aggregate of $48,000. During that year the total expenses of the society, which included many other activities besides placing these men, were only $8,012.36. If we imagine the investment enlarged to apply to all prisoners who are released upon society, we get a glimpse of the enormous saving to society which such a policy would involve. True thrift recognizes that the basis of real prosperity is the human being headed in the right direction, and that men headed in the wrong direc- tion are the greatest menace to national progress. Honorable Mention Definitions and Stories of Thrift By Kathryn Morse, 8th grade, Bryant School, 3244 Clinton Ave., Minneapolis, Minn.: Thrift means a vigorous growth as of a plant. So in a person, thrift would he a vigorous growth of all one’s powers.- As a result success and prosperity would follow. One would be in a thriving state or condition. By Myrtle Cantwell, Lewis Junior High, Ogden, Utah: Thrift implies willingness to work, capability of earning, being industrious, planning for the future, conserving and increasing what you have by good management. By Melvin Alander, Lowell School, Sioux Falls, S. D.: Once I knew a boy who was saving his money when he went to school. Often children made fun of him all they could, but he never cared, but kept on saving money. Finally he saved enough money and bought a pony and wagon and then planted vegetables, potatoes and sweet corn and sold them during summer vacation and earned money in that way. He did this for several summers and now he has bought seven acres of land about one mile southeast of Hartford, S. D. His name is Earnest Reneldo and his home is at Hartford, S. D. By Elizabeth Mary Shoemaker, Grade 8-A1, Age 13 years Windermere Ave., Interlaken, N. J. ; care Asbury Park P. O In 1852, in a sleepy little Pennsylvania town, a boy was born whose tenacity of purpose led him to great things. A mother’s hard work and economy gave him an educatior. that admitted him to Dickinson College. Furnishing rooms and selling them to new students and writing up lectures foi indolent boys brought in enough money to pay for thres meager meals a day. _ T Graduating with ordinary honors, he entered Jeffersor Medical College. Here the struggle was greater. A wall- half across the city to lectures, some dry bread and cole meat at noon, made medicine almost an endless study. Ye in order to get his degree this boy gladly cleaned the oper ating rooms, did all kinds of demonstrating, and brought joj to his mother by graduating with high honors. It was y long way he had gone, from watching the rebels burn hi: home which threw him on his own resources as a boy, t< being made in 1896, the president of the Medico-Chirugica : College of Philadelphia. 18 American Society for thrift y Vera Martindale, 8th Grade, Sub High School, Warren, Ba. f land had advanced. ig from work and is orae, Ipha Sonne, Sub Sigh School, Warren, Pa.: In 1870 my grandparents came to America from Denmark, leither could speak English and they had no home to go to. 'here were some Dane people here and Grandpa soon got cquainted with them, and these people said that they might tay with them for awhile. Then grandpa found work as a arpenter and soon had bought some land. He started to uild a house on it, building it himself. He worked nights fter his own work was done and he worked mornings. Anally, one room was done and they moved into it. The oor was just boards and they had practically no furniture, ut they saved and scraped until the house was built, and it /as quite a large house. Then grandpa built another house n the property and sent for grandma’s sister in Denmark ^ o come over, and she lived in it for awhile. By that time grandpa was working steadily in a furniture hop They had four children, all boys. They educated hem and had money in the bank. Grandpa died last March tnd left grandma the property valued at $10,000, and all he money she will need. If grandpa hadn’t worked hard md saved they might have been little better off than when hey came to America. Ellen Boyle, Lewis High School, Southington, Conn.: A cutler’s family of my acquaintance furnishes a good example of what thrift can accomplish. One day the father stepped aboard a moving train and 'ell so that his arm lay across the track. The wheels of the rain severed it from his body. For many weeks money was going out and none coming n. so his wife had to do something to support the family. She placed some counters and shelves in a large front *oom and bought a small stock of notions to sell. School children bought candy and pencils at her store. Working nen stopped there for tobacco. Finding herself successful, she ordered a larger stock. All this time she did her house- work and sent her children to school. When her husband was able to help, her trade had so in- creased that she hired a larger house, enlarging her business ay adding newspapers, toys and fruits. Again she moved to a larger building and bought a home. Meantime, she had given her four children a college educa- tion. Now they are in business, but her work is done. The business she left is conducted by her husband and son and they own the largest department store in the town. 10 WEST NICH .UNION ■TTER THEO. N. VAIL. PRESIDENT Received at Cefc Jackson Boulevard antf L* Salle St., Chicane 329DSFF 76 NL. COLLECT N.l/f DBSMOINES IA NOV 1-13 ^ S.W. STRAUS, C H A IRMAN - COMMITTEE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR TERIJ CHGO ILLS . TOO MUCH CANNOT BE DONE FOR THE PROMOTION OP THRIFT IT OUGHT TO BE URGED UPON THE YOUNG IN THE HOME .IN THE SCHOOL EVERYWHERE. THRIFT AS A NECESSITY As| A DUTY OUGHT TO BE INSISTED UPON FOR EVERYBODY IN EVERY PLACE OF PUBLIC DISCUSSION. THE WANT OF FRUGALITY] UNLIMITED EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE TIME IS A PUBLIC MENACE AN ANY MOVEMENT THAT WILL TEND TO CHECK IT DESERVES THE HIGHEST COMMENDATION. G.W. CLARKE GOVERNOR OF IOWA 8126? A6 41 COLLECT N.L; 4 EXQ S.W STRAUS CHAIRMAN NO 1002 STRAUS BLDG X 6 CHG 0 ILL I ACCEPT ADVISORY COUNSEL EXTRAVAGANCE BECOME CONTAGIOUS AND EF THE COMMUNITY STATE AND NATION AND TENDS TO PRODUCE DI3SATISFAC AND DISCONTENT WHILE ON THE OTHER HAND ECONOMY AND THRIFT PROM SUBSTANT LABILITY AND PRODUCE HAPPINESS AND CONTENTMENT CHARLES R MILLER GOVERNOR STATE OF 1158PM Rogers & Hale Co., Printers