The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-27
TALKS ON THRIFT
Thrift Builds Up What War Destroys

One of the beneficial results of the pres
 ent war has been the sobering of the
 people in the matter of money eXpendi-
 lures. The world cannot witness such a
 frightful waste of life and property with
 out doing some solid thinking Nations
 cannot pay the enormous cost of keeping
 armies in the field without giving heed
 to the cost of war, where the money
 comes from and what will be the result
 to themselves.
 The thrift of European nations has
 made possible the accumulation of vast
 hordes of gold, upon which they have
 drawn the war progressed, and only because Europe has been saving for decades can she now spend at such a terrific rate. But even with all the vast resources. the time has come when goy- ernments have deemed it wise to caution the people against waste. and to encour- age saving, as a matter of patriotism. In England the thrift movement has be- come so apparent that it has affected everything from the burning of gas in the bathroom to the pruning of salaries in Parliament. It has been suggested that there be appointed a commissioner of thrift to make the work thorough, sys- tematc and widespread.
 The men in the trenches receive but 24 cents day. and Britain argues that if they can sacrifice their all, why should not those at home and those higherd up sacrifice something? All sorts of schemes have been suggested, from the taking over of the railways by the government, thus cutting down expenses, to the dis mssal of servants in the household. But whatever the plan, the idea is to econo- mize
 The British parliamentary war sav- ings committee is flooding the United Kingdom with leaflets calling upon every
 one to help ''buy victory and peace by investing in the war loan Some of the points made as to why the nation should save and how to do it are as follows: Save for your country's sake, because it is now spending s3,oOO,000 day, and must find most of the money out of the savings of it's citizens.
 Save for your own sake, because while work and wages are good now, hard times may come after the war. Save so that we need buy as little as possible from abroad. We are buying from foreign countries E1.00o.GO0 a day more than they are buying from us. Save, because whenever we import things that are not absolutely necessary it becomes more difficult to import and pay for all the things that are absolutely necessary.
 Save, because the more we import from abroad the more difficult it is to prevent gold leaving the country Tn payment l Save, then. because our store of gold is vital to our credit and to our financial | power
 Save, because by so doing you will helr your country to give financial help to oul allies who are less rich than we are ] No saving is too small to count. Ii l 450O0,000 people save an average of ever | half crown week. the total is huge-it means nearly 300,000,O00 year l Eat less meat.
 | Be careful with your bread.
 Waste nothing. To waste food Is as | bad as to waste ammunition. Save especially in all things which
 have to be imported; food and drink oi | all kinds. tobacco, petrol rubber, etc. | Use home products wherever possible
 and be careful even with these 1 Before you spend anything, think 1 whether 1t is necessary.
 If you possibly can. grow your owr vegetables
 | Where there is no thrift there can be