Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-07-01


Cities Service Company, the parent
organization Of oil, traction, light
and power companies in one hundred
cites of the United States and
Canada Beginning life in Columbus,
Ohio, az newsboy and office boy,
his school days ended when abe was
wtclve years old; but in spite Of that
fact he has made place for himself
in science as we'll as in finance. Tho
companies Of which he is he head
have 1900 employees, and Mr..
Doherty has made systematic efforts
to encourage among them the thrift
| he advocates for the nation at large.
Our national vice is extravafance. We
! have many people who resent the fact
that other people have accumulated
wealth and they have not, and yet there
are dozens Of men ! have known from
| boyhood who have consistently spent
| everything which has come into their
| hands, and were temperamenfally so
| constituted that they would have spent
every cent they received, no matter how
much 1t might have been. II may seem
| like a fool question, but the man who
| has no capital and resents the fact that
others have should seriously ask himself.
How long will it take me To get rich if
| continue % spend everything get3''
A determination TO save, If carried
| to fruition, teaches man how 70 spend
! intelligently and how to get the greatest
value for what he must spend. Intelligent
and discriminating buying would, TO a
| great extent, make profteering impossi-
/ BILE.
| If thrift could be made pretty much
| general thing throughout this country
| it's effects would be more farreaohing than
| most people imagine. It would mean bet
ter morals. less misery and greatly les
sened demands for charity. Trace back
! every individual case of the need for
| charity and see how far you have to go
! to find that the need is due 10 lack Of
/ thrift
Trace back the history Of every crime
/ and every criminal and see how often
crime and criminals are the result Of lack
| of thrift | asked a celebrated police
| officer several years ago what would be
/ the reduction in crime and prostitution
| il thrift were generally practiced. He
| did not then think II would bring very
great reduction, but he never forgot
/ our conversation and generally referred
1 10 IL whenever we afterward met, and
| each time he would estimate o greater
| reduction in crime and prostitution, and
| he said the last time we talked that il
! thrift were generally practiced crime
would be reduced by so per cent and
prostitution by 50 per cent.
To start and maintain consistent plan
Of saving requires more self-will and deter
minatlon than many persons possess. When
they reach certain point however, II
ceases to be q hardship To them and be-
comes pleasure. 1t has taught them
how 10 save, how 70 invest, and often
leads 20 fortune 30 vast as 10 be un-
necessary and troublesome and Of no use
except the fun Of playing the game
This is the day and age of opportunity,
and we live IN the country Of the greatest
opportunities. Opportunity must pass
each man : door not once but often.
But opportunity IS not apt 70 stop and
knock at the door Of the man who is but
an Indifferent workman. Most fortunes
have been built from surprisingly small
initial savings, but when opportunity
knocks the man who has neither savings
nor credit must let opportunity go else
where, and opportunity will seek out the
man who Is known to be thrifty.
The fact that saving and investment
arc first hardship and later pleasure
and often become q mania, Is one reason
why, on one hand, We have many people
who are quite rich and. on the other hand,
a great many people who never have any
thing ahead, and this in country where
opportunities are very nearly equal. But
still more remarkable Is the fact that for
every rich man VINO makes a fortune We
can all point TO 3 dozen men who had
greater natural advantages 10 make for
tunes, but did not
We are told that the rich are getting
richer and the poor are getting poorer.
That is plain bunk The great ma iority
OF the rich people Of today were the
children OF the poor people OF generstlon
ago.
Many people are discouraged from
saving in the belief that sll OF the wealth
that can be accumulated has been aecumu-
lated This Is ridiculous. Nobody knows
accurately at this time what the aecumu-
ated wealth Of the entire country Is, but
relatively it Is quite small when measured
by rational standards. For centuries We
have been converting the national re-
sources of this country, which cost US
nothing, into wealth and vet the entire
savings which represent our accumulated
wealth, both private and public, would
not be sufficient TO support us on our
present scale Of living for period Of ten
years, even assuming we could convert
this wealth without loss from the form in
which it now exists INTO the things We
would need TO live on. In less than ten
years everything, including the house over
our heads. would have to be sold to fur
nish us with what we consume.
Here is another example: II the workers
of the country should save 10 per cent Of
their salaries and wages, and these savings
were invested at per cent interest, they
would in single generation accumulate
more wealth than has been accumulated in
all of these centuries and all of these gen
erations.
Here is still another example: IF
one family had come to this country at
the time Jamestown was settled with q
capital of 81 900, and this fund, together
with its proceeds, had been continually
invested at per cent ever since, this one
family alone would now have great
wealth than our entire accumulation of
wealth.
Every one working for better morals,
better citizenship, better conditions of
charity subjects, can perhaps attain
the desired end more quickly by working
to make thrift universal than by working
along his present lines.
People ask; What is the qeatest paob-
lem which conffonts this country?
Answering the question broadly would
say it Is the difficulty of getting our people
to think seriously and think correctly
If we could do that we would soon get all
of our problems behind us
Many people are physically lazy, but
most people are mentally lazy. The