Evening journal., 1914-06-30
NOW They'd MAKE
NISERS OF MANY
Panama Exposition Dele
gates Discuss Plan for
National Thrift
FRENCH COULD LIVE
OFF AMERICAS WASTE
BY WILLIAM PHILIP sIMMs
(Parls Correspondent OF the United
Press.1

Press)
PARIS, June S0.-"What Ameri-
cans throw away the French live on,
declared Simon w. Straus, Of Chi
cago, president Of the American So
ciety for Thrift, in an interview with
the United Press. Mr.. Straus Is In
vestigating conditions in Europe with
the approval OF the United States
Government.
THE French" the Investigator con
tinued, are the most economical
people on the face Of the earth and
wish every American could come
over and take a lesson from them.
The Swiss are next and after them
come the Germans. But / want to
say this: After seeing these people
! am more than impressed with the
wastefulness OF the American indi-
vidual and that unless he calls
halt the nation is In for serious
times. Dark days will be the result.
More than any other factor this
wastefulness with us is responsible
for the high cost of living. The
French, Swiss and Germans throw
away nothing; everything is OF some
use We throw away all save the
best. We are spendthrifts In money.
In energy, health and everything
Il see but one remedy: We must
commence at the bottom and work
our way up. Reform must start
among the people and work higher.
We cannot have an economical ma
tion, or States, counties. cities. towns
or communities until we have eco
nomical individuals and my doctrine
is that there lies the key to the situa-
ton: Educate the individual IL we
can manage to have economical,
thrifty units, the community. town,
city, county, State and nation will
be economical and thrifty.
Next year at the Panama Exposi-
tion, we plan to hold an international
thrift congress. hope TO see France,
Germany, England and Switzerland
and other countries represented. for
since ! have been over here / have
discovered that the cost Of living is
increasing in Europe, a fact coincid-
ing with growing inclination, es-
pecially in the capitals, to spend
spendthrift habit conspicuous in Ber-
lin. We will urge the education of
the individual in thrift. This educa-
tion, of course, must start early. with
the child in school. We will en-
courage school gardens. Expert
ments have shown that young chill
dren can earn in this play-work some
$50 a year. If every school child
earned even $40 a year or $5 a year
there would be a national economy Of
millions.
I'VE will encourage savings banks
in schools. Deposits of nickels and
dimes given to the children by par
ents, we would encourage but rather
would we have the children earn
the money doing some sort of work
or performing some honorable act
Pittsburgh has tried this plan to some
extent and a Michigan school has ex-
perimented a little along this line
with the most excellent results.
School buildings are idle for a great
part of the year, this property repre-
senting millions of dollars invested.
Here is a big loss. We will try and
find a way in which the schools may
be utilized for the good of the COM
munities of which they are centers.
Here will be a big economy We will
encourage employers to give more
thought to their employees. | know of
one concern which demands that each
employe save a dollar of each SO
earned The money is placed in
savings bank and draws interest.
The only excuse accepted for not saw
ftrfr Sc pnFs he ns
during illness of employe or family.
"The manner of floating bonds over
here should be copied by us. | con-
slider it one of the greatest possible
means of encouraging thrift When
the government wishes to borrow
money, 100 franc (S2Ol bonds are
scattered all over the country and
offered for sale by the banks. A
bond may be had on payment of a
first 20 francs (S4), for instance, and
the balance on installments as the
government needs the money. What
is the result? Why there is scarcely
a rag-picker in France who hasn't a
few government bonds laid away
drawing interest Everybody has
bonds here. whereas with us when
we issue bonds they are Of such de-
nominations that only the rich man
can touch them. They are not even
offered to the public.
Eyes, we are living too fast. we
waste too much The man with $40
or S12 a week and a family TO sup
port doesn't need much in the way
Of thrift lessons. but beginning with
the 81 500 a year man. the rest of the
country does. This man tries to live
like the s2.50O, who in turn tries to
keep up with the $4,000 neighbor,
who apes the $4,000 friend who
apes the $4,000 one and so on ad
ininitum.
We've got to start right If we
remedy this thing. and that means a
starting IN the schools
DELAWARE CITY VISITORS.