The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-10


 the 100000 900 or more homes in the United States.
 Most of this money is expended by women or girls
 Does this not show the great impor- tance of training young women In the value and use of money? Some time ago a prominent household magazine asked 800 bachelors why they did not marry and settle down. Most of these men replied that the average mar riageahle young woman nowadays is too expensive a luxury. Many asserted that young women of today are money squan- derers rather than the material out of which thrifty helpmeets are made.
 why can't we have bills Then we could put all the people off, argued a bride of a few months with her young husband, a professional man, striving to make his way on an income of s15OO a year. She was the product of first rate boarding school, and the child of family high in social position But she was utterly uneducated in the morals of hand ling money.
 The word morals is used advsedly be- cause a true view of economic life re- quires that every expenditure be regarded as an act that involves a moral ques- tion, for an unnecessary and unwise ex- penditure Is misuse of the power of money.
 The girl of today participates very little in household work and she does practi- cally nothing to reduce expenditures.
 Whose fault is it?
 Very little of the blame can be put upon the girl herself. Her parents mustNshoul- der it., and they in turn will say that the times are responsible.
 But there are signs that people are be- coming more sensible. Perhaps the un- doubted halting of business activity at present has something to do with 1t. At any rate. the organization of the Parents league among rich people in New York is significant.
 We hope to make it fashionable to be sensible and unfashionable to be foolish, Mrs. John Hays Hammond said in out ing the plans of the organization which has been formed for the purpose of unit ing parents and teachers in establishing wholesome, common sense standards for the education, amusement, and home life of children
 Parents of working girls also cannot escape responsibility. Suppose your daughter is employed in an office or fac- tory at fair wages. She will be proud to be able to pay her share of the cost of lv- ing at home. If you will supervise her spending you will find that she can dress as well as the neighbor girls of the right type out of what is left after paying her share at home. If she starts to work at Is years you will find that In two years time she cannot only be entirely self supporting, but can put aside in the bank small sum every week. If fathers would all do their duty every bright working girl whose parents have met with no pecuniary misfortune may have $500 in the bank by the time she reaches her twenty-first birthday.
 That will be splendid thing for her. whether she marries then or continues her employment.
 Girls and boys who learn lessons of thrift do not forget them when they be- come men and women. Healthy employ ment for young people is moral protec- ton, to say nothing of the capacity 1t creates for successful battling with the problems of adult life.
 Would 1t not be wholesome for the na- ton if there were more admiration for the savers and less for the spenders
 T. D. MacGREGOR.