The Harrison times., 1915-08-14
TALKS ON THRIFT
(American Bankers association
THIRD ANNUAL SERIES.
No. 3O-Nlore Stories Of Thrift.

W uNI ASSNhibi man NtNA oN~h-
son came TO Iowa thirty-six wears
ago he had Sl.25 in his pocket.
Now he owns LOO acres of the
best land in O'Brien and rae coun-
ties. Pete" couldn't speak a word
OF English when he came to Della
ware County, a green, iriendless
boy from the old country. He had
been educated in an agricultural
college, where he studied scientific
dairying. He worked three months
as hired hand on farm and was
swindled out of his meager pay, but
he kept right on smiling and fight
ing.
Soon he began to get into the COM
mission business, buying eggs and
butter for a New York company.
He saved, but didn't scrimp. The
banks began TO know him well and
iavorably.
Land values grew as Mr.. Sven
son became yearly a greater author
ity in scientific butter-making and
in the commission business.
He doesn't claim to be smarter
than other people because he has
made hundred thousand dollars or
so more than the average person
makes in a lifetime, but he says he
has simply used horse sense in work
ing and saving and looking out, for
Mrs. William Murphy is what is
commonly known as grass
widow" Her husband left her and
their little child-a daughter-many
years ago and has never been heard
from since.
But Mrs. Murphy did not let any
grass grow under her feet If she was
a grass widow. She soon made up
her mind that she was a real widow,
and as there was no Philip" to
help her as there was to help "Enoch
Arden's" wife in Tennyson's poem,
she went to work as laundress and
searnstress to support herself and
her little girl.
Luckily she was strong woman
and her health remained good. She
was thrifty, too, saving a part of
every dollar she earned. Before
winter came she was always able to
fill up her coal bin and lay in good
stock of vegetables, saving a con-
siderable amount by buying early
and in quantities. Her savings in
the bank grew steadily by her reg
ular deposits and the gradually in,
creasing compound interest credits.
Whenever she had enough saved
for permanent investment she con-
suited an officer of the bank and
took his advice as to a safe use of
the money. She was able to give
her daughter good education and
the young woman now has a good
teaching position and is able to
help her mother in keeping up their
comfortable home. There is regret
for the husband and father who
never appears, but real thrift has
kept want away and restored what
might have been a ruined home.
A banker long an officer of the
Oldest bank in Minnesota, in telling
how four young men developed a
successful business, said: Their
first visit to the bank really estab-
lished their credit. In that first visit
they left their bank books for collect
ion of the amounts due to each of
them at their savings bank in the
city from which they came.
These savings-bank books repre-
sented their cash capital, but to me
they represented much more than
that. Their deposits and almost
entire absence OF Withdrawals indi-
Gated an established habit of saving
on their part and also on the part of
their families for they were all mar
ried for the purpose of carrying out
this project which they had planned
a long time ahead
with such determination for
work and willingness to deny them
selves in order to save something
each month out Of their earnings, it
was hardly possible for these young
men not to succeed
They had been highly successful
because they acquired saving habits
early in life and thereby accumulated
their capital before entering business
cor themselves, while so many are
not willing now 70 practise any
sell. denial, but somehow always ex-
pect to begin saving at some future
time, with the result that they never
acquire the habit or the capital.
a banker necessarily takes these
various thinuS into consideration