The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-03-07
THE NEED OF THRIFT.

ture of money and destructive OF
property is due, declared L. e. Wolfe
Of San Antonio. Texas, in addressing
the National Brick Manufacturers
association. to the present failure to
drive home habits Of thrift and in
dustry. Mr. Wolfe, as the represen-
tative Of the American Society for
Thrift, urged the return to ways OF
thrift and adoption of gardening as
part of public school instruction as a
most important step in correcting the
prodigal ways, in bringing pupils In
school into contact with men as well
as women, and in ending the fetch Of
book learning that crowds thrift into
the background.
The speaker, formerly superintend-
ent of schools in Memphis. Tenn.
when 1000 boys were set to school
gardening, brought his own success
full experience to back up his state
ments. 1t was largely due to the
Memphis experience that President
Simon w. Straus of the American So
ciety for Thrift became interested
sufficiently to urge school gardening
upon United States Commissioner OF
Education C1axton recently.
In the course Of his address Mr..
Wolfe said:
1.-The reason that the rising genera
ture of money and SO destructive of
property, and that crime, divorces
and suicides are on the increase, is
evidently largely due to our failure to
drive home habits Of thrift and in
dustry and to ingram them into the
lives Of our boys and girls. The rea-
son that the doctrine of this address
is not put in practice from ocean to
ocean is because we have passed, in
this country, SO rapidly from rural
conditions to city conditions that the
people have not learned to adjust
their educational systems to the
changed conditions. An exclusive
book education on the farm is not
without much justification.
But a great improvement could be
made there by installing an industrial
plant in every country school. pur-
chasing at least a twenty-acre tract
near the school, building the teacher
a home upon this tract and employ
ing the teacher the year around,
that he might train the farm boys to
make repairs to machinery and dem
onstrate the best methods in agricul-
ture and horticulture. However, to
confine school work in cities, towns
and villages to books is quite as stu
pid as to carry a rock in one end of q
sack and the grain in the other be-
cause it was done by a parent.
ITO correct this unfortunate and
wasteful condition in our city. town
and village education, Industrial
plants for both boys and girls should
be installed in all the schools, and
these industrial plants should be run
during vacation. on Saturdays, after
regular school hours, and evenings;
likewise, the cooking, sewing, sani-
tary and general household plants in
the home should be systematically
used to train the girls in home
making, and the boys should be
taught to make all minor repairs in
and about the homes. All available
vacant lots in the city and town, to-
gether with a large tract near the end
of a car line, should be used in school
and home gardening by all the boys
large enough to take part. Both boys
and girls should be taught and re-
quired to beautify the homes with
trees, shrubbery and flowers. Boys
should be taught to grow fruit and to
trim, transplant and care for trees.
"At the close of school the pupils
should be told to earn all they can
honestly during vacation (and, in
fact, at odd times during the school
term), and to file a report with the
teacher at the beginning Of the next
term, giving the amount earned, the
amount saved, and the amount in
vested for self and for others. A half
day might profitably be given to the
reading of essays and discussions set
ting forth how this earning and in
vesting were accomplished. Every
possible encouragement should be
given by teacher and parent to pupils
to earn during vacation on the farm.
in gardens and truck farms; and
about the homes, in repairs, dress
making, cooking and millinery.
School saving banks should be estab-
lished to stimulate the rising genera
ton to habits of industry and thrift.
Thrift is earning, saving and in
diligently investing for self and 9TH
ers: or, thrift is such use Of ones nat
ural or acquired powers, capital and
the natural agents OF soil, mine. for
est and stream as will result in the
greatest measure Of human well-be-
ing. Through the centuries, under
the banner of thrift, man has lifted
himself from primitive ignorance,
penury and weakness to culture,
wealth and power. In this triumph
ant march the mind and the muscle,
the intellectual and industrial. have
gone hand in hand in the conquest of
mans physical environment to an
ever-increasing measure of human
well-being.
"As, down the centuries. wealth has
been created in greater and greater
ueasure and nrf3zata