Perth Amboy evening news., 1917-05-22
FALSE ECONOMY
DANGER TO COUNTRY
William C. Freeman's Letter
Read at Hoboken Meeting
Before Local Delegates.

members OF the local Board OF
Trade. at recent meeting held at
the Hoboken Board Of Trade rooms,
heard a most instructive article read
dealing with economy during the war.
The letter written by William G.
Freeman was read. 1t follows in
part,
my business is advertising.
Therefore l am engaged in work
that means spreading prosperity in
stead of retarding it. 1t means that
am engaged In the work of keeping
money active and not inactive.
Here l have a roll of bills, as you
see. 1t is a small roll. but 1t will be
smaller tomorrow night, for I am go
ing to spend some of 1t between now
and then, because 1t Is needed to keep
things moving and business active.
Money tied up Is no good at all. 1t
is not money. I might as well have
pieces of paper in my pocket as this
roll of money If am going to keep it
there all the time.
Those people now going around
the country saying that we must econ
omize; that We must not buy a new
suit of clothes because the old suit
will do Just as well. are a menace to
the prosperity OF the country and are
not good patriotic citizens.
Much of that which Is now being
preached to us as economy is real
waste. No man Is economical unless
he assists to the utmost of his power
to maintain the industries of the
country.
II saw today a big man connected
with the New York Telephone Com
pany and asked him his definition of
economy. He said: Real economy is
to spend all the money you get In Or
der to have 1t come back to you with
profit
IF refrain from buying what I
need. / am not promoting national
economy, but the worst form of ma
tional waste. ! am clogging the course
of trade. If there is not unrestricted
trade. there Is not national prosperity.
If there is not prosperity. there is not
economy.
THE greatest benefit that we are to
hope for from this war Is the benefit
that will follow the free movement
OF money. All of the money that we
are loaning to the other nations that
are fighting for the freedom of the
world is going directly into a great,
quickened stream of trade, and 1t is
going to be used over and over again
for the direct benefit of all of us.
I'VE think Of money as something
valuable in itself. We think IL we can
get money and oan hold on to some of
it-store 1t away in the old black wal
let or keep a wad of 1t in our vest
pocket-that we are being very eco
nomioal. That 1t not so. In doing
that we are shookinSly wasteful.
"A dollar bill is a token that is val
liable to us only when we have an
opportunity to exchange 1t for some-
thing that we need. 1t is valuable to
the man to whom we pass 1t only as
he can pass It on to another man who
has something that he needs. 1t goes
on and on from one man to another,
and in the course of short time 1t
may have moved 800 worth OF mer-
chandise.
'If I keep the dollar bill in my
pocket 1t ie not a medium of ex-
change. It is keeping somebody idle.
It is doing me no good, and 1t is not
doing anybody else any good. 1t Is
hindrance to real economy.
Thrift II all right, am not talk
ing that simply Withholding money
from circulation is not economy.
There are many ways of spending
money. If put dollar bill into q
bank, 1t is. SO far as am concerned,
spent. 1t Is put into circulation. It
becomes a medium Of exchange. To
1t Is added the dollar bills that each
of you deposits in the bank, and the
sum of these dollar bills is large
enough to help some manufacturer
to mako and market useful things, or
some farmer to raise larger crops of
food. 30, II buy liberty bond
am putting my hundred or thou
sand dollars into q swollen river OF
trade, and the tokens Of trade will be
swirled about very rapidly. and every
eddy that moves them will benefit
somebody.
'True economy is to spend ef1-
ciently and efficient economy is keep
ing money working at its trade Of
being the medium of exchange.
IT we refrain from buying super
fuous suits of clothes for the sake of
putting our money into more direct
and more active currents of trade, we
may be doing well. But II we merely
refrain from spending our money or
from combining 1t with other mems
money, through banks, we are not
practicing economy, but gross and in
excusable waste.
What we in this country need to
learn and practice Is efficiency in
earning and in spending.
eff this country could miraculously
become industrially efficient over
night, we would have money enough
to float the war in Europe without
laying a single new tax, and in addi-
ton we could. in ten years, rebuild all
the towns and cities that have been
shot to pieces.
rs. w. Strauss, president of the
American Society for Thrift, put out