The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-22
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Il l happened to be in the Birmingham Trust and Savings company the other day and saw a handsome little 6-year-oid boy holding a savings bank in his hand.
 went up and patted him on the head
 and found out that he was J. H. Mccoy, Jr., son of the beloved Methodist bishop,
 who makes Birmingham his home. I got into conversation with the father and
 learned that his little namesale was
 about to corner the scrap iron business
 in the city. He had worked and saved
 up $l2.2S. This surely indicates that he has the right idea of business. He is
 hustling and saving
 |
 This incident set me to thinking. There
 are hundreds of boys and girls in Bir-
 mingham who have started savings ac- counts, but there are thousands who are
 wasting their pennies, nickels and dimes
 and never being taught the principles of
 thrift or self denial.
 Now I know the late Bob Burdette, the ldndest of American humorists, said: 1 Down with the little toy savings banki 1 I believe it teaches children to be selfish.
 I hate to see child, a sweet, innocent child, with dimpled hands and laugh. ling face. clutch the penny of the nickel you give it close in it's little fingers and
 run first to drop it into the greedy, miserly
 savings bank and then come back and | thank you"
 | Very touching, but how about the spoiled, dimpled darling who grows up into manhood wastrel and a spend- thrift because parents indulged his every whim and let him believe that money grew on trees and that all he had to do
 was to pick the leaves? The question has
 two sides No one wants to rear miser
 and no one ought to wish to raise prod ] igal son.
 1 A child ought to be taught self denial The discipline of saving makes for char acter It's pure tommy rot to let boy Tor girl grow up without knowing the value of a dollar, and parents who side
 step their duty in rearing their offspring { to cultivate the habit of saving will live 1 to mourn their neglect
 1 There is a slim chance of child low ing money. Let boy want bicycle and encourage him to save to buy it. and he will get joy out of dropping his nickels and dimes in his little savings bank. He learns that, by saving instead of spending,
 he can buy something he wants very
 much.
 | I know an ina ginative boy who was saving up to buy a wheel. He was mak- l ing his money himself. One night he said l to his father who had just paid him quarter for doing a job around the house: Daddy, the sweetest music in the world to me is to hear the clink of 1 the coin as it drops in my bank" Ac- | cording to Bob Burdette this was encour- aging selishness. rather think it was l teaching the, boy not to be selfish, but l that in saving he was lifting load off of his father His was not the misers joy 1 in lingering money, but the joy of thinking of the good time he was going to have on his wheel when he had saved up enough to buy it.
 | coming miserly. I've known boys to get 1 the saving habit in an acute form. For days you couldn't get them to spend penny even for an all-day sucker or a nickel for a top in top season, or dime for kite when their playmates were crazy over flying them.
 ' I've seen such boys. I know one in par ticuar who got an awful stingy streak on him. He even walked three miles 1 from Sunday school home to save a nickel Football season came on and he wanted 5 bill. His father remon- strated with him. for wanting to spend all his money. He was no longer mser, but spendthrift. The saving habit was 1 a back number He had become spender.
 1 Said he: 'I don't see any sense in sav- ing money if you can't spend it yourself" | He had gotten in the same frame of ''Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much money there is in the state treasury"
 He was told there was about $l00,000. 1 (This was not a scene in the Alabama ilegislature). Then said the member: T move to spend it. What good does the
 money do locked up? If you don't spend lit, somebody else will.'
 | I know another boy who for several months saved his pennies and his nick els When he got his bank full he asked l his father to make a deposit for him. That night the kid met the old man at
 the door and said: Daddy, how much
 did I have?'' The father replied: Son, | you had $S.SS." T don't want it.
 Just give it to tho first poor boy you meet; $3SS ain't no money." Poor little chap He had worked and saved so long that he thought he had at least $100 |
 l Laugh at him if you will, but many | have worked and saved and expenses have come and nibbled away the pile until tdrear days of despair and doubt have Icome, and we have wondered if. after all, lit was worth while. Let's give praise Tiff in spite of failure we still cling to the belief that it's worth while to struggle and put up stiff fight against the old
 gray wolf that's skulking around our homes.
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