Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-30
|P[AN T0ENCOURAGE
| THRIFT IN CHILDREN
Proposed That Schools Shall SUI
pervise Collection Of Waste
Materials.
Value, 1t Is Suggested, Should Be
Credited to Penny Savings
Accounts.

A plan for the saving Of waste materials
by children. thereby bringing them pocket
money and proving of valuable assistance
to the country, is outlined in an article
sent out by the Survey Press Service.
1t may be noted that similar sugges-
ton was made by Washington business
man and the public schools considered
putting it into effect for the benefit Of the
school Fairgrounds. but came to the con-
clusion that the plan was impracticable.
Here is the article sent out by the
survey:
Now that school children Throughout
the country are enjoying their long vaca-
ton, and parents are better able than
ever to see the many excellent uses to
which childish hands and childish enthu-
siasm can be put, the time seems ripe
to consider a suggestion that has been
made by a Minneapolis business man as
to ''how the public schools can prevent
public waste" The suggestion Is based
on the idea that the American people are
and that the only hope Of changing this il
to bring up children to realization OF
our economic weakness.
Penny savings Banks.
Now that the penny savings banks
are so well established in many public
schools" writes Walter Henry Hull. the
originator OF the idea. to the survey. ''it
seems that the American educators should
take another step that will teach greater
thrift and less waste to the American
school children. This step would be the
eS tai iSbn a schools deDOt2
where valuable materials now classed by
most Of US as waste materials could be
assembled and the value Of each parttcu-
lar item brought in by the child to be
credited to his or her savings bank &C.
count
TN every household in this country
there are lying around in attics. closets.
Easements and outbuildings waste ma
terials of great value in the aggregate
but of little value in small quantities. In
fact the housekeeper considers them OF
such little value that when the junk
man calls he is politely told there II
nothing around that would interest him.
rs there any class better lifted to
collect waste materials and preserve
valuable items such as iron, glass,
paper, rags, wood, rubber and tnnum-
cradle other commodities than the
school children? In every homo one
papers and magazines, old rubbers and
shoes. wooden, silk and cotton rags.
bottles and other discarded glassware,
pieces of old copper. iron. zinc and
tremely valuable at present on account
of the war.
Wartime Prices. =
Since the war some rags have gone
up 500 per cent in value. Wooden rags
are almost worth their weight in gold
and bring more than raw wool. With
crude rubber at 81 q pound and all
the warning nations gobbling every
ounce they can seize or buy. no won
der there is a steady demand for old
garden hose. rubbers. tires, arctics.
tubes. wringers. etc. Prices in these
discards of life fluctuate daily. just
as do stocks and bonds.
rags that brought cents pound
before the war now bring II. This
country imports 100000 worth of
rags every year just to make writing
paper. Old tinfoil brings 80 cents
and siphon tops are worth 20 cents
a pound. Old bones are worth SIS per
ton. Scrap copper is worth almost as
used over and over again. Scrap iron
was worth $10.75 a ton before the war
and is now worth $3.50. Old corn
cobs are now made into fuel and rail-
road ties"
Factories have largely eliminated this
waste. says Mr.. Hull. but the same
spirit of thrift has not entered the
average household. He continues:
Plan for Public Schools.
Let us assume that some typical
public school was taken, and on the
schoolhouse lot in some out-of-the-
way place a small frame building was
erected, with bins built therein for
storing various kinds of materials col
lected by the children. There would
also be accurate scales and other ac-
cessories needed in the business. The
teachers would then instruct the chill
dren regarding the proposal to collect
all valuable materials around the
home for which the parents had no
use Possibly little circular would
be printed giving a list of all ma
terials that were of value. as well
as the price per pound for each item.
"A certain time would be allowed
before school opened each morning and
noon when the children could take the
materials they had collected to the
depot and get credit for the items
turned in. Suppose a child brought in
5 cents worth of iron, cents worth OF
rags and cents worth of old paper,
the total would be credited to the
penny savings bank account OF the
child This in itself would be tre-
mendous inducement to encourage
thrift"