The New York herald., 1922-10-04
DIR. BUTLER PLEADS
FOR THRIFT IN LIFE
Asserts 1t Means More Than
Simple Piling Up OF
Competence.
U. S. WASTE TREMENDOUS
Value of Ideas and Money Set
Forth by President OF
Columbia.
U. S. WASTE TREMENDOUS

DIR. Nicholas Murray Butler. president
of Columbia University, was the prin-
cipal speaker at the meeting OF the saw
ings Bank division of the American
Bankers Association yesterday AFTERNOON
in the main ballroom Of the Hotei Com,
modore. His subject was Thrift anp
Thrftlessness."
There was another great attendance
and the audience rose in greeting wheh
DIR. Butler was presented. AT the con-
clusion of his address his hearers came
to their feet by common Impulse ana
tribute of applause followed, the IKE OF
which had greeted no other speaker put
Mr.. Lamont and Ambassador lefrieh'
DR. Butler said in part
"In preparing myself to speak 10 you
this afternoon, i had occasion TO look
into some of the recent statistics or our
nation and l confess to have been very
much surprised TO find how thrifty are
our people in the way OF money, WHeH
contrasted with their thriftlessness IN SO
many other ways, and what wish par
ticularly to point out is the necessity at
your hands and with your cooperation OF
carving on the lesson of thrift In re-
spect to ideas, as to institutions and the
instruments of civilization.
"It astounded me to discover that
there are 40 000, 900 holders OF life m
surance policies In the United states !
knew the number was very large, but
was not prepared, perhaps you were
not for so huge a figure as 4O,ooo,ooo'
ION the other hand, do you realize
how careless We are of many human
values, particularly how shockingly
careless we are of human life? In san
Francisco the other day / listened, at
the meeting of the American Bar Asso-
cation, to the reading of the report or
the committee on the enforcement OF the
law, and they stated in that report that
there were some 5000 Illegal killings a
year lin the United States-murders-
three. four and five time as many In
proportion to the population as is the
case, for instance of Canada. separated
from us by only an imaginary line.
do you realize that In the United
States there is one death from accident
every six minutes night and day? The
population of city of considerable
size-somewhere between 1900 and $1,000
wiped out in the United States every
year by accidents. Very many of these
accidents are preventable by the same
kind Of forethought and the same kind
of foresight that has led to this stu
pendous development of life insurance
and of savings banks accounts.
but what possible use will It be for |
us to pile up life insurance, to pile UP |
savings banks deposits, and to go the |
way of Russia? What possible use, |
what protection can be had from thrift |
In one narrow and restricted field, how
ever important. If We have no care for
those great achievements which repre- |
sent the thrift of those who went before !
us?
We need a great stirring OF the |
spirit on the part of the men Of affairs |
or the United States. There is no sadder |
sight than to see antagonism growing
In democratic society. taking on the |
form of class consciousness and class |
hatred. antagonism growing between
those who have a little more and those |
who have little less
only a few weeks ago when some of |
our industrial disputes were at their |
height l listened on the Pacific coast to
an impaSsioned attack upon the million |
aires who own the railways That set |
me to thinking and / wondered who |
they We're, and then / realized that in
stead of the millionaires owning the |
railways, the ownership OF the railroads
as represented by their bonded indebted |
ness and far the larger portion of their |
stock issues is in the hands of the holders |
of these life insurance policies the de- |
positors In the banks and trust com |
panies. these millions of Americans who |
terial wealth and have ntrusted II to
men OF capacity and character to care
for and invest
I'VE must regard industry as a CO.
operative undertaking between those |
who work with their heads. those who |
work with their hands and those who |
work with their savings and the sooner
We can by thrift make the man who |
works with his hands also a man who |
works with his savings. the sooner we |
Will get hack to Joy In the job.
There should be no more inviting and |
no more useful place for the man who |
works with his hands to put the results |
of his thrift than into the enterprise in |
which he is cooperative agent That |
Is beginning II is beginning In some |
large corporations 1t ought to spread.
and / hope 1t will spread to many /
smaller ones of different type. but
believe me, gentlemen. until thrift is
made the bridge to enable what is now
labor to become capital, to destroy the
essential difference between the two
we shall be guilty of thriftlessness in
one OF the largest and most far reaching
undorta kings of modern eoriefxS