The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1914-04-16
TALK On THRIFT
CONSIDER It WELL
THE HA6lTUAL SPENDTHRlFT is
A MENACE TO THE COMMUNITY
AND THE NATION.

when he threw himself so en-
ersetIcally into the movement
for the conservation of her nat
ural resources, Theodore Roose--
Welt with statesmanlike pertin-
acity compelled the nation to
heed his warning and by dint of
persistent reiteration awoke the
public conscience to a realization
OF conditions that We're fast lead
ing to bankruptcy and ruin"
Literary Digest
Thrift in the individual and thrift
in the government are more closely
related than is often realized
Here is great truth, truth which
it was high time several million peo-
pie We're beginning to realize. The
cry for economy, for the elimination
of waste in government, and they do
not practice economy, they do not
eliminate waste in their business or
in their private affairs. Only as we
as a people become individually more
thrifty-that is more saving, more
economical, more conserving we
expect our councils, our legislatures,
our congress to be likewise.
Consider thrift in its relation to the
industries of the country.
If everybody should spend his en-
tire income every year, there never
would be any capital for investment
beyond that which is already invest
ed; no new enterprises could be float
ed and improvements of all kinds,
public and private, would be at an
end. The worlds supply of new cap
ital is simply the margin between the
worlds income and its expenditures.
If We had more thrift, we would
have more temperance. How genu-
inely useful the money spent for the
70,O0o,0O0 gallons of whisky we drank
in the last half of 1913 would be if
turned into constructive industry
now
Nor are the benefits of thrift to be
measured wholly in terms of econom-
les The steadiness, the industry, the
sobriety, the respect for property that
are fostered among thrifty and frugal
people are political virtues that make
for stability and permanence Of gov
ernment.
The habitual spenthrift is a men
ace to the community and the nation;
the careful citizen, guided by sense
of the true value of property is safe
guard to our institutions. Habits of
extravaganza tend to make trouble in
the family, the community, the ma
ton.
An American Society for Thrift
has been organized in Chicago, with
the avowed purpose of promoting ma
the individual thrift which is
the basis of good citizenship and of
community prosperity
Men of prominent, including gov
ernors of several states, are back of
this movement, which aims to advo-
cate a broad and sensible view of
economy, pointing out to the people,
that, as a great English statesman
said, Thrift is not meanness, but
The continued rise in the cost OF
living, unaccompanied to any great
extent by a corresponding increase of
individual incomes, is making many
an American family right-about-face in
the matter of personal and domestic
economy.
Perhaps the new tariff will reduce
the cost of living eventually, but it
hasn't yet. Possibly governmental in
vestigating commissions may lead to
that consummation, but there are no
signs of it yet. And no other panacea
has been found for it. Apparently,
therefore, for the present, at least
there is no hope of abating the steady