Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-07-04
TRAINING IN THRIFT
By H. Addington Bruce

VOW does it come about that, as trust
worthy statistical researches show, the
great ma ority of men and women dying
in old age die absolutely pennileSS, or next to
pennileSS?
How does it happeH that fully 80 per cent
Of those who reach the age of Sixty-five are so
poor as to be dependent on relatives, friends
or charity?
Partly, no doubt, the answer is to be found
in defects in the social organization, causing a
sadly uneven distribution of wealth But in
larger measure the explanation must be sought
in the thrifteSSneSS rampant among all classes
of society.
Many who die IN poverty were once peo-
pie of large earning capacity Many in their
prime earned at least enough to be able to set
aside reserve for their declining years.
They did not look to the future. They
thought only of the present. For that matter,
they did not have any real appreciation of the
value of money.
In foolish expenditures they tossed away
small sums that in the aggregate would have
assured them of a competence. What they
wanted they bought SO long as they had the
money wherewith to buy.
For the poverty of their later life, you would
say, they accordingly have chiefly themselves
to blame. Yet this is not exactly the case.
The blame rests rather with their parents who
neglected to train them in thrift during the
formative years of childhood.
Examples of th:iftleSSneSS, not thrift, were
were even melted to thriftleSSneSS by being given
an overheard allowance of spending money,
concerning the spending of which no queS-
tons were asked.
If they were properly required to earn their
spending money by doing little jobs around
as they pleased. They were not taught the
important principle of foregoing some present
pleasure for the sake of avoiding future pain.
Thus they grew up with a spending habit,
not saving habit. And as everybody knows,
the habits acquired in childhood are of all
habits the hardest to change
Training is thrift-that is aSSuredly one of
the greatest needs of our age. The parents of
today cannot too soon begin to apply it to the
rising generation.
And they have both an unusual motive and
an unusual means for applying it at the present
The motive is to help their government
through the crucial after-the-war period. The
means is found in the thrift stamp, sold so
cheaply that all can utilize it as a savings
agency.
Get the children interested in thrift stamps.
Encourage them in friendly rivalry to make
thrift stamp collections. By example as we'll
as precept cause them to feel that saving is one
of the most important of all human activities
as indeed it is.
Thus you will be working alike for your
country'S gain and for your children'S good.
The day will come when they will bless you
for having taken the needed pains to form in
them the thrift habit.
Copyright, 1910, by The Associated Newspapers)
The sportman went out for days rough
shooting. Not being a particularly good shot,
the bag was nil, and, as he did not like to re-
turn empty handed, he bought hare in the
town on the way home
He presented it to his wife, who, after ex-
pressing her thanks, thoughtfully remarked:
st was good thing you shot that hare
when you did, John; it wouldn't have kept
another day.