Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-09-17
WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM

CLoTHE lie in clever language and
it can masquerade as truth almost
without fear of detection. Somebody
said that the trouble in America was not
the high cost of living. but the cost OF
high living, and that philosophy gained
thousands Of adherents straghtway. Some
body else announced the discovery that
Americans were the most thriftless people
in the world Everybody presumed that
1t must be fact, because it was reiterated
30 often. and it became accepted as an
axiom. Ask the first man you meet who
are the most thriftess people on earth
and in a more or less boastful way he
will say the Americans. I'VE do not save
We spend" is the boast.
But consider the facts More money
u saved in the United States every year
and more people save it than in any other
country under the sun. There are ap-
proximately 40. 900 900 bank depostors,
some duplicates, and about one.fourth of
these are depositors in savings banks.
Savings deposits and time certificates of
deposit amounted year ago to about
ten billions of dollars. In addition, millions
upon millions of dollars are being saved
III the form of insurance payments, men,
berships in building and loan associations.
purchases Of goods on the installment
plan, etc. 1t is not difficult to find an
American family that is saving some
thing. but it is very difficult to find an
American family that is not saving some-
thing.
II is true that waste is a national habit
That it is necessarily destructive of good
citizenship and national progress is not
SO certain. Waste, IL it does nothing else,
keeps money in circulation Money in
circulation keeps business going. The
finance the war was for every citizen to
sit tight and spend no money came into
and threatened for time TO wreck Ameri-
can business and tie the Governments
hands. How were we going to finance
an enterprise costing billions OF dollars
II everybody was to quit buying and do
his share TO throw thousands of other
citizens out of work? The business in
terests of the country were quick to see
the fallacy Of the old argument and they
began to call for business as usual and
more OF it. Business is not as usual,
and cannot be under the abnormal condi-
tions existing, but the volume of business
is greater than ever before and is grow
ing day by day. The man who decided
not to plant seed in the spring because
signs pointed to long and hard winter
when he would need corn, would be no
more foolish than nation which decided
TO contract business because it was about
to engage nationally in the biggest busi.
ness ever undertaken by people or an
association of peoples.
The average American has an eye for
q dollar. He does not keep his nose in the
garbage can. Perhaps this apparent fault
iS blessing in disguise. We have
heards of men who achieved great sue.
cess because they did not bathe their
hands in molasses before handling coin.
II may be that in saving a dime in the
garbage can one loses dollar at the
Gffice. F'rugality and stinginess are often
mistaken for one and the same thing In
the matter of mere money, it is not
time for citizens TO tighten up, but TO
loosen up. Where we need absolute
saving is in the actual consumption of
food. not because the waste of food is
always an economic crime, but because
waste Of it just now Is crime against
civilization. TO throw away bread when
other mouths need il is to be barbarian
and Hun,
While our savings banks prosper as
they do we need not despair of the Re-
public. Our thrift may not be the thrift
of other peoples. but 1t is the thrift that is
able to finance the greatest war in history
and do 1t without extraordinary hardship.
-->-
TALK ATIVE HTNDy