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CAGE FOUR
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
•
THRIFT AND PATRIOTISM
AN EDITORIAL
BY RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN
W
HEN the President of the United States
issued his characteristically eloquent and
forceful appeal to the American people to
buy their full quota of Thrift and War Savings
Stamps, he spoke not merely as the Chief Executive
of the nation, nor yet only as a patriotic American,
but he spoke also as a wide economist. For Presi-
dent Wilson understands that it is only as a people
develops the habit of thrift that its national morality
can be conserved. The nation is only the individual
viewed in the large. As habits of wastefulness grow
upon a man his moral sense becomes less keen and
he slips almost inevitably from mere extravagance
into a willingness to commit those greater crimes
to which wastefulness of his resources inevitably
leads.
Penologists are agreed that few of the so-called
intellectual crimes, like forgery or embezzlement,
are ever committed in the first instance with the
avowed purpose on the part of the offender of com-
mitting a criminal act. Extravagance in one form
or another, and the temptation to live beyond his
means, has caused him to spend more than he had
momentarily at hand, and so he takes from the cash-
drawer what is not his or he writes a check with
the definite purpose in mind of making it good very
soon. But his well-laid plans only too often fail of
fulfillment with the inevitable result that the bor-
rower becomes the criminal.
Had he but learned to live within his means, or
much more, had he accustomed himself to put aside
week by week, or month by month, against the
"'rainy day" even a small portion of his income,
disaster would not have overtaken him, his good
name would have remained unsullied and he and his
children might still unashamed have held up their
heads in the presence of their fellows. Thriftless-
ness has been the fruitful cause of more men's un-
doing than perhaps any other single circumstance.
Now since the nation is only the sum total of its
citizens, it follows logically that if the national
morality is to be maintained all the men and women
and children of the land must be trained in the habit
of thrift. And to no nation in the world is it more
needful to bring home the lesson of thrift than to
the people of America. Children of good fortune as
we have been and accustomed to enjoy the greatest
of material blessings at small cost of effort on our
part, we have not as a people cultivated the habit of
thrift to the extent that we might have done.
Perhaps this was not so true in the pioneer days
when literally in the sweat of their brows men had
to labor for their daily bread as is the case today. In
these last years, indeed, one might almost say since
the perfection of machinery that has lifted from
men's back the burden of the heaviest tasks, life has
not meant the same degree of hardship as it did to
our fathers, who laid the foundations of this Repub-
lic. But more especially in these latter days since
industrialism has made such rapid strides have we
become accustomed to extravagances before which
the men and the women of other days would have
stood aghast and held up their hands in horror.
It is trite to say that the luxuries of yesterday
have become the necessities of today. We are count-
ing in terms of thousands, and even of millions of
dollars in these times as against the pigmy units
wherewith men and women of earlier generations
were accustomed to make their calculations. As a
result thrift has become to most of us an obsolete
virtue. When habitually we deal in vast amounts
we do not seem to sense the significance and the
value of small sums, the saving of which seems to
be futile and foolish.
With many another wholesome lesson that the
war is bringing home to us, the American people is
also learning the value and the need of the habit of
thrift. And not the least of the incentives to this
habit is the Thrift and War Savings Stamp in be-
half of which a nation-wide campaign is being
waged this week. We believe that we do not exag-
gerate when we say that already hundreds of thou-
sands of American men, women and children who
before had not thought it worth while to put aside
with any degree of regularity even the smallest
portion of their earnings, have acquired the habit of
buying a Thrift Stamp or a War Savings Stamp at
regular intervals with the result that they have
learned the happiness and the dignity of the person
who has something laid by, and that they are there-
fore moved, as they never were before, to watch
carefully and conscientiously their outlays in order
that they may add more and more to their little store
of savings.
But to the hundreds of thousands who have al-
ready started on the way to thrift, and the dignity
and the self-respect which follows in its wake, must
be added the name of every man, woman and child
in the land. Not to have pledged one's self to buy in
the course of a year as many stamps as his income
would possibly permit is to set upon one's self a very
low value.
The appeal in behalf of the Thrift and War Sav-
ings Stamp cannot be made after the same fashion
as the plea for the purchase of Liberty Bonds or
for contributions to the Patriotic Fund. In the lat-
ter case one might address himself to the pity of the
people for human suffering which a gift, large or
small, might serve to relieve. He might paint grue-
some and pathetic pictures of the pang and the pain,
the want and the woe that are crying out for suc-
cor. And such a plea addressed to men's noblest
emotions would surely not go unanswered.
Again, when one asks for subscriptions to the
Liberty Bond, he may logically couple the patriotic
duty which is involved with the argument of the in-
vestment feature. But after all the Liberty Bond
could not be bought by all the men, women and chil-
dren of this land, though be it said to the lasting
credit of the American people that the working men
and the working woman of this land have responded
nobly to this great and impressive call upon their
liberality and their patriotism.
Our present plea is made on other grounds. Na-
turally we do not forget its patriotic implication.
The millions of dollars that will be turned into our
National Treasury as a loan to their government at
the hands of the people will help beyond measure to
equip our men, to buy the ammunition, to build the
ships, by means of which to speed the day of honor-
able victory and to save civilization from the maw of
the greedy and cruel Teutonic beast that would de-
vour it. Any American who is truly loyal, who is
truly patriotic, who truly believes in his country and
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in his country's cause will not fail to do his full share
at this time out of the purest patriotic motives.
Nor again do we forget that as in the case of the
Liberty Bonds, so also in the matter of Thrift and
War Savings Stamps, is there an investment feature
of no small import. Our Government asks nothing
of its people without adequate return. A rate of in-
terest higher by far than is paid by any of the sav-
ings banks of the country is assured by Uncle Sam
upon every dollar that is put into this form of in-
vestment. And back of the security is pledged the
credit and the honor of the United States. If these
stamps are not a safe and lucrative investment then
there is none such in the world.
But aside from these considerations our appeal
for the purchase of Thrift and War Savings Stamps
is addressed to our nation on the ground that as peo-
ple build up for themselves through thrifty habits
a little competency, they become more moral men
and women, and more loyal arid self-respecting citi-
zens. The spendthrift and the idler can scarcely be
counted upon as the men to establish homes and to
build families. They are riot the ones to whom in
the happy days after the war shall have ceased, the
Government authorities of this land shall look with
confidence as the ones to restore the normal life of
the people that has been so sadly disrupted. But
they shall be the back-bone of the commonwealth
who having looked forward to the day of changed
conditions shall have created for themselves a state
of economic independence and who as a result shall
riot only be able to help themselves, but also to ex-
tend the hand of helpfulness to those who through
the misfortunes of war have been compelled to sacri-
fice their all.
On all of these grounds, therefore, we are
urging the people to join the increasing band of
loyal, far-sighted, self-respecting Americans who.
under the guidance of our Government, are putting
aside week by week, or month by month, sonic little
portion of their earnings. Many there will be in
comfortable circumstances who, in a single sum.
will purchase the limit amount of one thousand dol-
lars. But the great majority of the people will he
content to save in small and apparently insignificant
amounts. Some there will be who will be able to
purchase only a single Thrift Stamp at regular or
irregular intervals. Many more will regularly be
able to purchase a War Savings Stamp or two each
week or every two weeks. But everybody is offered
the opportunity of doing something first for himself
and incidently for America, for civilization and for
humanity.
Let it then be the proud boast of every one who
reads this column that he and every member of his
household is a partner in that Government that
stands for justice, for equality and for the rights of
men, and that though the latest to join the ranks of
the Allies in this great war, is yet the one that shall,
pray God, be written down by the historian as the
leader in the struggle for a better world.
The appeal which President Wilson has addressed
to the people of this land should be answered by us
as men and as Americans. Not to do our duty in
these crucial times in this as in other forms of
patriotic service is to place ourselves among the
slackers and the shirkers. Would you, or you, or
you, who read these lines be content so to degrade
yourselves in your own eyes?
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