4. THRIFT

ANONYMOUS

Without me no man has ever achieved success,

nation ever become great.

nor has any

I have been the bed-rock of every successful career, and the corner-stone of every fortune.

All the world knows me and most of the world heeds my warn

ing.

The

poor may have me as well as the rich.

My power is limitless, my application boundless.

He who possesses me has contentment in the present and surety for the future.

I am of greater value than pearls, rubies, and diamonds.
Once you have me, no man can take me away.

I lift my possessor to higher planes of living, increase his earning power, and bring to realization the hopes of his life.

I make a man well dressed, well housed, and well fed.

I insure against the rainy day.

I drive want and doubt and care away.

I guarantee prosperity and success to those who possess me. I have exalted those of low degree, and those of high degree have found me a helpful friend.

To obtain me you need put out no capital but personal effort, and on all you invest in me I guarantee dividends that last through life and after.

I am free as air.

I am yours if you will take me.

I AM THRIFT.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. Discuss the difference between a thrifty person and a miser.

2. Thriftiness was defined on p. 492 as "being industrious in whatever you undertake, wasting neither time, money, nor materials." With this meaning in mind, read again the statements supposed to be made by Thrift, and see how every one of them is true.

3. Find and report evidences of thrift as defined in this selection in the lives of Big Ivan, Book One, p. 466, and others related earlier in Book Two.

4. Explain how you try to be thrifty in studying your mathematics lessons. Have you a regular time for study? How would you apply the idea of thrift to your play?

5. Volunteer work:

a. Read George Eliot's Silas Marner. Explain to the class the real meaning of "riches" as told in that story.

b. Estimate the cost of your clothing for one year. Estimate the amount you could save by a little better care of your clothes.

c. If you were given $5.00 to spend as you like, what would you buy? Make a list of cheap articles it would be foolish to purchase for $5.00.

6. Topics for oral work:

SCHOOL THRIFT

a. Proper care of books. b. Saving crayon.

c. Preserving school furniture. d. Saving the school building.

e. Keeping the schoolyard clean.

HOME THRIFT

a. One way I save food.

b. Canning fruit.

c. Banking the furnace.

d. Keeping down the electric bill.
e. Saving gas in our car.

5. LOSE THE DAY LOITERING

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

"Work while it is called to-day," advises Franklin on p. 497. See how the poet expresses the same thought.

Lose the day loitering, 'twill be the same story
Tomorrow, and the next more dilatory,

For indecision brings its own delays,

And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days.

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute!
What you can do, or think you can, begin it!
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
Begin it, and the work will be completed.

6. YOUR SAVINGS ACCOUNT

JAMES ARTHUR HOUSE

The author of this selection is James Arthur House, president of a savings bank in Cleveland, Ohio, where, it is said, the citizens save more than in any American city. After you have finished reading, be able to put in your own words the four general principles of thrift which Mr. House bases upon the practices of Cleveland people.

For years our staff has been studying the methods of saving money successfully. Naturally, a wide variety of methods is followed; but our analysis of the accounts of more than one hundred and fifty thousand customers has revealed four general principles. I firmly believe that the average person who follows these principles faithfully will learn how to save. I am going to describe them to you.

One of our customers makes a substantial deposit every pay day; his balance now totals several thousand dollars. His deposits have been so regular that we asked him one day if he was saving for some definite object.

His

"Yes," he replied; "I'm saving for a home of my own.' face lighted up. "I can see it now. It's going to be Colonial, plain but with good lines. It's painted white, and the roof shingles are stained moss green. The living-room, running across the whole width of the house, will have a fireplace that will take fourfoot logs."

"That sounds like luxury," we told him. "Won't it cost you a good deal?"

"Ten thousand. But I'm going to build as soon as I've saved half. I know the rest will come all right, because I've got so into the habit of saving that I couldn't stop now if I were to try."

This instance is typical of thousands. Of course the objects may vary, but the principle recurs so often in growing savings accounts that we have used it as the basis for our first rule:

'Save for some specific attainable object or purpose, and keep a picture of it, in every detail, always in mind.”

Habit, which very largely controls our actions through life, may be created, consciously or unconsciously. Scientists have attempted to reduce this fact to figures; one of them states that

forty-five repetitions of an act will fix a habit. Saving, like anything else, may become habit.

We have seen this happen so often that we believe anyone who deposits a stated sum on the same day every week for a year can be a successful saver for life, providing the weekly deposit is large enough to require real effort, yet not so large as to be impossible. This principle gives us our second rule:

"Deposit a definite sum at regular and frequent intervals."

One of our successful savers is a school teacher whose wish for years had been to spend a summer in Europe. She knew that the only way she could get the necessary money was to save it. She determined to save a certain sum each month; but by the time she paid her bills little was left. She was almost ready to acknowledge herself beaten. Then a friend suggested that she make her savings deposit as soon as she received her pay check, and hold her expenses down to what was left. She tried the plan and found that it worked; after a time she found that she could increase her monthly deposit. Last June she sailed to Europe, with her trip fully financed.

Many of us have the same trouble that this woman had. There are so many ways for money to slip away. so many ways that seemed good, and even necessary, at the time—that we must safeguard our money by following the plan which this teacher and many other successful savers have adopted. The teacher's plan gives us our third rule:

"Make your savings deposit immediately after you get your pay." One of our regular savers is a man who has deposited a certain sum every Saturday morning for fourteen years. The sum is not large; neither is his pay. He must have had iron determination to keep up his schedule.

"Has it been hard?" one of our employees asked him.

"Yes, it has been hard! At first it was hard work all the time. I had to keep telling myself how much it would mean to me to have money ahead, and how much I would risk by not saving. Then saving became easier - I had formed the habit. But once in a while I had to force myself not to miss a week. Then I had to remind myself that I've never been a quitter; I may be knocked out some day, but I'll never quit."

Here is another instance: A professional man who travels a great deal, often in foreign countries, makes weekly additions to his savings account. No matter where he is, he brings or sends in his deposit.

How easy it would have been for both of these men to find plausible excuses for breaking their schedules; but they put all temptations aside. They had made their plans. They knew that the only way to do what they had set out to do was to do it and they did. Persistence carried them through to success.

Steady saving is easy only after one has developed the habit of saving, and that habit can be created by frequent and regular repetition. But anything that breaks the regularity of the schedule will delay the creation of habit, and the more breaks there are, the greater the risk of complete failure. Persistence is the one quality that holds people to any hard task; so it gives us the fourth rule:

"Let nothing prevent the fulfillment of your plan. Stick to it persistently, in spite of obstacles."

Long experience and observation have given me the firm conviction that any person who follows these four rules faithfully will become a successful saver. Try them.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. What are the four principles of saving? Tell one of the stories illustrating each of the principles.

2. Tell of your own savings account. How did you start? What are your purposes?

ADDITIONAL READINGS. - 1. "The Value of Time," Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 8:3503-3505. 2. "Waste Not, Want Not," M. Edgeworth, in Curry C. and Clippinger E. E., Children's Literature, 359-377.

CLASS-LIBRARY READINGS

LIVING WITHIN ONE'S MEANS.

1. "Why I Believe in Poverty," E. W. Bok, in Stories of the Day's Work, 98-104.

2. "The Piece of String," G. de Maupassant, in The Promise of Country Life, 221-228.

3. "Three Arshins of Land," L. N. Tolstoi, ibid., 220-240.

4. "Fame's Little Day," S. O. Jewett, ibid., 260–269.

5. "Savings Banks," World Book, 7:5225-5226.