The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-18
A BENEFICIAL LESSON.

One benefit of the several years of hard
times which the people of this country have
passed through is that they have taught
habits of economy where reckless extrava-
canoe and expenditure We're the rule be-
fore. That it was an enforced economy
made it none the less salutary. People
learned how much they could do without
and still have the actual necessities and
some of the comforts of life and the result
was the forming of habits of saving where
they had not been learned before. Even
on reduced wages men have found, once
economy had become the rule, that it was
possible to lay aside part of their earnings
for day of possibly greater need. 1t has
been the experience of building associa-
tons and other savings institutions that,
while many investors were compelled TO
withdraw their deposits, others, who had
never known what 1t was to save, made
their first investments during the period of
greatest financial depression. The advan-
tages of thrift and economy have often
enough been preached. but always as they
relate TO the individual they are not of less
benefit to the community however. The
man who accumulates a little property at
once takes a different attitude as q citizen.
He becomes conservative; he studies the
bearings of public measures with more
care; he Is more observant of the methods
of local and general government; If he
works at trade or belongs to a working
mans organization he is less ready to en-
gage in strikes, for he considers every side
of the question where he was wont to see
but one. He feels, in short, a greater re-
sponsibility, and it is responsibility that
makes character. The times are beginning
to improve now. Business is better, labor
will soon be more abundant and wages will
gradually increase. But prosperity is by
no means synonymous with the general
payment of high wages. The man who
ceives $25 a week and spends it all before
the next pay day is less prosperous than
the one who gets $15 and saves a third of it;
the formers money goes into the treasury
of those who have much; he helps to make
the capitalist, whom he is the first one to
cry out against. 1t is the men who have
nothing but their daily wages and have not
tried to have more who are the malcon-
dissemination of wealth is what makes
general prosperity-the accumulation of a
little by each man. If the good times re-
main when they arrive it must depend not
only upon the industry but upon the thrift
and economy of the army of laborers in
every field; the tariff may hasten the re-
sumption of manufacturing, a revision of
the currency may be an element in the i'm
proved conditions, but a continuance of the
habits of saving learned through necessity
in the time of depression will be the best
assurance that prosperity has come to stay.
1t is unfortunate that just at this critical
time the furry in the building and loan as
sociations has created a doubt in many
minds as to the security and stability of
these poor mans banks The greatest
service that any man or association of men
can do to the public is to establish conf
dence in savings institutions. Building as
sociations have done a great work; if they
can be made more secure let it be done; if
other and safer methods of handling small
sayings can be devised, let financiers turn
their attention that way. 1t is the
cumulations of workingmen that must
make the genuine prosperity of the coun-
try, and the encouragement and preserva-
ton of such accumulations are subjects
that should receive the attention of the
best minds.