The Press., 1920-01-15
THE POWER ()F THRIFT
By WILLIAM MATTER LEWIS Director Savings Division Treasury Departmer
National Thrift Campaign is Helping Amer
 jeans to Financial Independence.

A pessimistic citizen was re- lieving himself of few gloomy thoughts relative to this fast dy- ing year, 1919. "The trouble with America" said he, 'is that the people won't get together on anything. Talk about the rapid itv with which we organized our national resources to lick the Hun. Why say,-our speed 1n demobilization makes that look like funeral procession. Every man for himself and the Devil take the ultimate consumer is the national slogan. At forgetting the lessons of the war our batting average in the League of Nations is 100O.'
 All Behind Thrift Movement
 On the face of the returns it seems as if the depressed one was right. But fortunately here and there are indi- cations that after all the disintegra- ton of national solidarity is more ap- parent than real. It is rather signifi- cant, for instance, that the American Federation of Labor, the American Bankers Association, the National Educational Association, the Elks, the Rotary Clubs, the Modern Wood men of America, the Ladies of the Macabees the National Catholic War Council, the Council of Jewish Wo- men, and hundreds of other organiza- tions representing every shade of thought and policy have all pledged themselves during the year to stand behind one great national movement.
 Need of Thrift Today
 The man whom the Chicago police forcibly disuaded from feeding ten dollar bills to a horse is president of the lodge attended by the youth with the fifteen dollar silk shirt; the stenOg- rapher with the four hundred dol lar fur coat. the munition makers wife with the $35O,OOO pendant, and all the joyous train who are making the judicious grieve.
 And in this period of reaction, of wild and nervous extravaganza. The Treasury Department of the United States arose and said: At this mo- ment when the captains and the kings depart we will call the people back to the thrift of war days. We will justify what the war cost in money and material. We will bring out of this chaos of reconstruction a strong CT America" And there was created the Treasury Departments Thrift and Savings Movement, built upon the splendid foundation of the Savings Campaign conducted during the war. Among the instruments of war finance Thrift Stamps and War Savings Stamps offered a means of saving by (which lessons of the accumulation of capital through small steady invest ment could be taught. These Stamps had been the means of raising almost a billion dollars of revenue for the Government during the war and had become popular. It was therefore decided that they should be cOntin ued and their name, w. s. S., which was assuming the importance of a trademark, should be permanently adopted.
 America Faces Financial Freedom
 Occasionally Government Depart ments are charged with duplication of effort, but in the thrift movement the Treasury Department has been blessed with intelligent and cordial cooperation by other official agencies. The farmers of America have re- ceived the thrift message because the Department of Agriculture has ac- quainted it's County Agents with the