The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-12-11
TO BECOME WEALTHY

TO BECOME WEALTHY
A Nation Must Keep Its Currency In Active
Circulation and Free From the Burden
of Interest-Pernicious Teachings of
False Economy BY the Bankers.
In their overweening desire to bor-
row OBTAIN deposits of as much as
possible of other peoples money, at a
low rate of interest to the end that
they may loan it out at high rate of
interest, and thus acquire wealth with
out labor, the savings banks of Kansas
City are at present flooding the city
with advertising. pamphlets and circu-
lars, more or less elaborate and unique,
urging the merits and claims of their
respective institutions and plans.
These pamphlets are specially adj
dressed to the wage-workers of the
city, and aim to impress upon them the
necessity and duty devolving upon
them to be Industrious, frugal and
economical, and above all to save every
dollar they can and deposit each dollar
in savings bank in order that it may
draw interest.
have before me a pamphlet issued
by one of the savings banks of Kansas
City. in which the alluring fact is set
forth that such bank pays for savings
and trust funds:
Three per cent. on daily balances,
subject to check, in excess of $500;
Four per cent. on savings deposits.
for thirty days or longer, from $1,000
to $1,000;
Five per cent on certificates of
deposit for fixed period of not less
than six months from $50 upward.
In the preparation of this pamphlet
the aforesaid savings bank seems to
have enlisted the services of a gentle
man who, under the nom de plume
'Uncle Ben," poses as a philosopher
and a teacher of the true principles of
happiness and success He evidently.
however. possesses a fine vein of
sarcastic humor and a keen apprecia-
ton of the ridiculous anomalies of the
present industrial-economics system.
He introduces his subject ("What is a
Spendthrift?') to the public in the fol-
lowing doggerel verse:
NATURES FIAT.
Iwant to succeed without labor
But no man ever will!
Iwant to be wise without study,
But the fiat remaineth still
By the sweat of thy face get bread,
And suffer- if you will not;
For the wise gain knowledge by study
And sloth maketh beggar and sot.
Uncle Ben then cheerfully proceeds
to classify all those who are not misers
or frugal men, i e., who do not deposit
money in savings bank. He divides
them into three classes, as follows:
First-Prodigals.
Second-Spenders.
Third-Non-savers.
And then sapiently adds.
''You see that the outspreading arms
of the spendthrift will embrace them
all, though in different degrees. Let
He then defines as follows:
"First-The prodigal or the man
who spends all he can beg, borrow or
steal
s'Second-The spender, or the man
who spends all he earns, though he
might, with frugality, save part of it.
This class is generally composed of
young men, not married, earning 81, 900
or more every year in cities, and $500
or 5000 in the country.
'"Third-The non-savers or men who
simply do not save because it really
seems as if they could not And here
is woeful picture of human existence,
if it is as it seems to the eyes of many.
But think it is not so. Amongst this
third class we may place nearly the
whole laboring population of the coun-
try who have nothing ahead. But do
sincerely believe that there is not one
family out of every thousand in the
land that could not, if it would, save
something every week. The trouble is,
everybody seems to have been trying
by dress and living, to lift themselves
to station in society above their own.
To lift themselves in the world, really,
is highly commendable. But to seem
to do it is not. Because, by seeming to
be richer than we are, we foolishly
spend all we earn. This is not raising
ourselves in the world at all It is do
ing just the opposite thing precisely. "
After which classification this prince
of humorists proceeds to moralize and
exhort after this fashion:
Ought we not to call every man a
spendthrift who spends all he gets?
Why not? Who can be spendthrift,
if not the man who spends all he gets?
Now, dear reader. do not deceive your
self any longer. Are you aspendthrift?
Have you anything saved from your
earnings to prove yourself not a spend
thrift? If not, why does not the oppro-
brious term fit your case? Excuses
avail nothing! The man who avoids a
wrong never needs to make an excuse.
Only those excuse themselves who fail
to do what they ought"
Was there ever a more delicious bit
of delicate sarcasm and yelled irony?
How rich does this humor appear,
viewed in the light of the fact that, in
1880, the average yearly earnings OF
the wage-workers of America were $346
year! How ludicrously funny must
be the interrogatory, ''who can be a
tho mon uh0 Snondc