The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-03-09
SAVING CARRIED TO EXCESS

bankers are willing to sell at the cur
rent rate and the usual margin.
Naturally, in answer to such gen.
erous offer, Mr.. John T. Wayland, the
director of the Kansas Bankers Saw
ings Organization, received the fol-
lowing letter. W
Mr.. John T. Wayland,
Director of Kansas Bankers Savings
i Organization,
Kansas City, Mo.
Dear Sir: see by the papers that
you have offered $1OO prize for the
best editorial upon ''the teaching of
saving in the public schools and the
value of government securities and
investments"
/ am the president of the Amalga-
mated Association of Save or Bust of
Wayback, Oklahoma. I want to give
you the experience of our organiza-
tion to aid you in your patriotic un-
dertaking.
When the Amalgamated Association
of Save or Bust was organized, Way
back was a thriving little country
town with a population of eleven
hundred. We had sixteen stores, five
churches, seven garages, two banks,
two barber shops and one motion pic
ture show.
Our people were just plain folks,
such as you find in most every other
country town, but we were always
strong on saving on account of the
many retired farmers who had moved
to Wayback to educate their children
away from the farm.
The Amalgamated Association of
Save or Bust started with bang. In
less than week we had 100 per
cent organization.
The first thing we tackled was the
movie, which shut down at the expir-
/: alton of ten days.
|: Then came the barber shops. Ev-
!: erybody bought safety razor for
|: sixty-nine cents and shaved himself,
!: One of the BARRIERS who had always
/: been sort of pessimist, simply
drowned his sorrow in "moonshine''
which he had manufac tured himself
out of sawdust. The coroners verdic t
was poisoned by wood alcohol"
The other travelled across the bor-
der to Mexico, but he took with him
the wife of the Methodist elder who
had seconded the motion to start the
A. A. of S. or B.
Navt ;,,,,oI tLo rI1uu- ayIy. II
or Hike" This was aimed at the
wasteful use of automobiles and
Fords. The move was so successful
that within one month two garages
burned down, three went bankrupt;
one garage owner hung himself, and
the last one, being a single man, left
town without paying his board bill.
The bowling success of our savings
campaign encouraged us to tackle
bigger game. At an enthusiastic
meeting of the Ladies' Auxiliary of
the Amalgamated Association of Save
or Bust the ladies decided to make
their old hats and dresses do for an
other year
back Emporium, the largest store in
Lonesome County catering to female
luxures, wanted to advertise a
slaughter sale. He couldn't do this,
however, because The Wayback Ga
2ette and Enterprise had gone out of
business on account of the merchants
having agreed not to waste any more
money advertising. Therefore he
simply failed with $4,000 liabilities.
At another meeting long haired
stranger, calling himself vegetarian,
explained to us how people could live
better without meat and save money
besides. So right then and there we
cut out meat. Two days later our
only butcher cut his throat.
Then somebody put us next how we
could save about forty per cent by
buying the few things we had to have
from Smears & Doebuck of Chicago
We did. And, whether you believe it
or rot, within thirty days there wasn't
store left in Wayback This success
was mostly due to enthusiastic sup
port of the farmers around Wayback
who by this time, only came to town
to buy money orders to send to
Smears & Doebuck.
With business out of the way the
two banks closed their doors There
was no run because the depositors
bad eaten up their deposits; besides,
thew vvero tpp u,oaL IN rim
Yesterday we buried the under
taker He died a martyr to the cause
Of saving. 1t was he who introduced
the resolution adopted in our meeting
| Of Anil 1ct dccln ri nxs,l. L.;