Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1919 — We Should Show Intelligent Thrift, the Symbol of Peacetime Patriotism [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

We Should Show Intelligent Thrift, the Symbol of Peacetime Patriotism

By THE WIFE OF THE COMMANDANT, U. S. M. C.

When the United States entered the war it was considered an expression of patriotism to wear a tiny American flag. The finest expression of patriotism one could display now would be the wearing of a tiny Thrift flag, if such an emblem were obtainable, to indicate an understanding of, loyalty to and service for our country in peace time. Instead of a war with other countries the United States now has before it the tremendous struggle with the tendency to drift back to its prewar habits of careless spending and general waste. Perhaps no country

in the world had indulged before the war in such reckless expenditure as the United States. Perhaps no country ia the world had been endowed with such lavish resources. The steady demand from our associates in the war and the heavy demands on transportation made saving necessary to husband those resources to meet the needs of the world. If we are to continue a leading nation in the future as in the past we have no choice as to whether we shall save or not. Lord Rosebery, the great English statesman, has assured us that “Thrift is the surest and strongest foundation of an empire—so sure, so strong, so necessary that no nation can long exist that disregards it.” More recently President Wilson has said: “Economy and everything which ministers to economy supplies the foundations of national life. We have not studied cost or economy as we should, either as organizers of industry, ag statesmen «r as individuals.” The unazing recovery of France from the Franco-Prussian* war is attributed to the personal habits of economy of the French people. They never allow the least commodity to be misused which can be converted into money, and the money in turn into the much-coveted industrial or public service securities floated by the great banking corporations of France. It is estimated that with a population of a little- over forty million people, there are twenty-three million savings accounts in France. In reality they save first and spend afterward. The enormous individual saving which can be effected simply by paying careful attention not to allow any waste to creep in was demonstrated amply during the war. But our success then must not be allo wed? through negligence to change into failure now. For it is through individual thrift that individual stability and prosperity are assured; through individual prosperity that the prosperity of the community is assured; and through community prosperity that the prosperity of the country is assured. The peacetime service our country calls for does not mean hoarding. It seeks to awaken in each individual a realization of the tremendous benefits resulting from intelligent, steady saving; using his best judgment in the outlay of his money; and from some investment, with its production of money by money. Thrift and War Savings stamps are the ideal channel through which streams of money—often the many tiny bits of heedless expenditure—may flow into bodies having real power of achievement. In other words War Savings stamps create in an easy and fascinating way funds for opportunities which otherwise could not be seized. Their purchase gradually establishes habits of profitable economy which spell personal and national prosperity. Though we do not wear a thrift banner every man, woman and child can display in each everyday act of their everyday lives intelligent thrift — the symbol of peacetime patriotism. BuyW. S. S.l