The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1940-01-03
ON THE MARGIN

Tomorrow is New Years Day. May
be If | had some of the turkey and
drinks that hope to get then, inside
of me now, I'd be able to turn out
a good column of bright, interesting
chatter. But somehow, even thinking
of those things don't seem to make
me snap out of the thought of the
thousands of people who will be freez-
ing and hungry tomorrow; not only
tomorrow but facing succession of
tomorrows just like it.
l know it's just my foolish SYM
pathy that makes me feel sorry for
those people. OF course they don't
deserve anything else. If they hadn't
been shiftless and reckless with their
money and had saved some of it when
they were earning, they wouldn't have
to go hungry on all the tomorrows.
OF course, I'll have to admit that
| haven't practiced what I'm preach
ing, myself. Quite lot of years ago.
| heard one of our great Industrial
leaders make talk in a church one
Sunday. This great man was retired;
he had made and saved during his
and the preacher thought
that this great character could tell
the people more for their good than
he could
Well, this big shot told how poor
he had been when he started out In
this world, and how he had saved his
pennies first, then his nickels, then
his dimes and quarters and finally
MS dollars, and then had gone into
business and made his pile.
That talk made real impression
IN me, and that day, when / had
written my story on the speech Chats
low | happened to be in church) and
LII the other stuff that the particular
| was working for at the
ime insisted was my job, | started
o do some serious figuring
At the time | was lucky enough to
De making about fifty week (that
vas in my hey hey days. and living
vas pretty cheap so | reasoned that
was lucky enough not to have to
start saving pennies; | could start
With lots of dollars-say $25 each
week. Just for curiosity | figured
md found that 1t would take me at
hat rate, a little over 769 years to
ave my first million, so that idea
If saving didn't look so hot. By the
ime l had it, | wouldn't be able to
ret much kick out of it.
But in two years, if / saved that
mount each week, I'd have $4,000, and
hats dough in any language. Then
could go into business and make"
money; not earn it all myself; hire
ther guys to earn it for me, and I'd
ave it for myself And some day,
maybe, some preacher would ask me
0 make a speech in a church and tell
low all you had to do was to lead
Christian twas Christ millionaire,
ar. Editor?) life, save your money
nd then when you had some, get
ONE simps to earn more for you to
ct more saps to earn more for you.
nd so on ad infinitum, ad nauseam.
That last means "for the good of
Mr.. EDITOR you're liar,
,ditor.)
Well, to make short story long q
ave to fill a column, don't I?) i did
t start out on the saving program
, get rich. In the first place the
ay things seemed to be, when l got
, thinking about it, the fellow | was
orking for was chiseling part of
hat my work was worth (Sez youl
ditorl opd II xuo,ld toLo FOO Iono
, save even a start so l could start
hiseling on the other guys. And
ecided that | wasn't hardboiled
nough to sweat lot of saps just
} | could make a speech in some
nurch some day and tell how smart
had been to work them for the glory
Continued on Page Four)