The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFOR M A TION
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director.
Washington. D. C
NATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF
Washington. D. c.

Washington, D. C., Jan. 2S.-Before
you spend that dollar, stop and think
Are you going to get for it a dollars
worth of anything you really want?
Likewise, before you put that dollar
away in a savings bank, pause and
consider Are you really saving 1t Tor
a good purpose, or merely following a
blind instinct to horde, as a crow col
Iects bright pebbles and bits of glass?
How long is that dollar going to stay
in prison, and what is it going TO,
and how much is it going to be worth
when it gets out?
Yet again, if you adopt the third
alternative, and invest your beloved
buck, go first to quiet place ana
think for a. long time Also seek the
advice of wise men. Is this proposed
investment really an investment in the
literal sense of the term, or is it Just
a gamble, similar to poker but less
fun? Are you planting your little
Simoleon in happy environment, where
he will grow and beget other ilttle
Simoleons, or are you apprenticing
him to some hard task-master, who
will work him to death and return
him to you a mere shadow of his for
mer self-if indeed he ever returns at
all?
These are some of the questions
(freely interpreted), which the newly
created savings division of the United
States treasury department is ASKING
the citizens of the United States. 1t is
II
ated mainly to encourage thrift in this
country, to the end that the people
may have more money to invest In
government securities. For>billlons of
dollars worth of government securl-
ties have got to be f1oated if the gov
eminent is going to provide soldiers
with farms, and pay them their 1nsur-
ance, and patch up the transportation
system, and feed a few starving Euro
pean nations, and meet all the other
IEh
peace, and are not bit lighter than
the obligations which war brought.
But the savings division is going at
| this task in a broad minded way Rar-
| old Braddock, chief of the division,
and his associates realize that thrift
| is much more than the blind accumu-
lation of money. Thrift, in its best
and truest sense, is q philosophy of
money. The truly thrifty are not
afraid of money, nor yet do they de-
spise it. They understand it. They
| know both its value and how to use 1t.
Therefore, they always have some.
To inculcate such a philosophy of
money is the purpose of the new saw
| ings division. These prophets of a
thrifty America are out to oppose the
! eXtrava gance for which America is
| famous, but they are equally opposed
| to the senselesS and purposelesS saw
| ing which goes on in America, as it
| u
| you are saving money that you might
| otherwise use for food, clothes or
recreation that you or your family
really need, then take that money out
of the bank and spend it-yea, even
| tho you might otherwise buy a saving
| stamp with it.
| Intelligent saving is the kind that
| the savings division wants to encour-
age. And intelligent saving, they say,
| depends largely upon two things
wise spending and safe investment.
| These are the three chief articles in
| the new national philosophy of thrift.
| The new thrift promoters are going to
| teach them by every possible means
| of publicity, and always they will
! keep the thrifty citizen reminded that
| his government needs some of that
money which he saves, and that it Of
| fers the safest of all safe inv >stments.
] Benjamin Franklin has been appro-
new movement. His shrewd and
| homely visage will appear on all the
| thrift stamps and ar the thrift liter
allure. Other "Great American Savers
will also be brought to the attention
of a respectful public. Lincoln among
| them, and it is probable that We will
| learn much about the financial habits
! of the great from this new bureau; but
/ Franklin will always be held up as
| the original and greatest economical
American. Franklin knew the value of