Campaign of Thrift 



In Great Britain a campaign has been inaugurated by direction of the Board of 

 Education, to promote thrift among the schoolchildren. A circular has been issued 

 by the Board explaining that facilities are to be provided and the pupils are to be told 

 of the desirability of subscribing to the war loan. "Teachers, should make clear," 

 says the circular, "that everyone who can save even so small a sum as five shillings 

 has an opportunity to contribute to the loans. Reginald McKenna, Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer, speaking at a meeting to urge economy and to promote the loan, said "The 

 people of this country have got to learn that in our present circumstances parsimony 

 becomes the highest virtue. A lump of sugar not consumed, bread not wasted, and a 

 cigar or cigarette not smoked means so much less imported foreign goods which we can 

 pay for only by sending gold out of the country or borrowing it. We must economize 

 if we are to endure." 



Saving in the United States. Campaign Inaugurated 



The American Bankers' Association has now inaugurated a country-wide campaign 

 for the promotion of savings, and invites the co-operation of bankers, business men, 

 school authorities and the public generally, in making it as influential as possible. 



Movements of this kind have an unusual dignity and effectiveness when carried 

 on by a nation-wide organization for a large public purpose, and afford a special oppor- 

 tunity for every well-disposed person to give help. 



A campaign for savings is deserving of support at any time, but now more than 

 ever it should appeal to public favour. An especial effort will be made to enlist the co- 

 operation of the public schools, and teach the children the principles and habits of 

 thrift. The campaign will be ably and enthusiastically led and if proper co-operation 

 is given there will be results worth while. — The National City Bank of New York, 

 January, 1916. 



PLAIN LIVING AND HIGH THINKING 



"We have found to our surprise that the plainer living imposed by the losses of the 

 war is not by any means so great a hardship as we feared. We now realize that many 

 of our supposed luxuries, some even of our presumed necessities, were so merely because 

 we thought them so, or rather because our neighbours thought them so. We have 

 discovered practically, what our sages have long tried to teach us, that a very large 

 proportion of our expenditure has served no end of real comfort, but simply the lust of 

 the eye and the pride of life. The simplest, easiest, and most comfortable mode of living 

 is, on the whole, that of conformity with our environment; and now that we have all 

 gone down a peg or two together, we really are scarcely aware that the general level 

 has been lowered. It is astonishing how many things we can do without and not miss 

 them — provided they are not rudely recalled to our consciousness by gloating possessors 

 next door. On the more positive side we are equally astonished to find how quickly 

 we become used to little actual discomforts that at first seem intolerable. Just as many 

 of our gilded youth have had, in the trenches, to accommodate themselves to an intimate 

 association with vermin, so we find it easy to ignore, in a high cause, numbers of little 

 irritants that would once have raised intolerable blisters. Grumbling has almost wholly 

 ceased. We are all so busy that we have no time to think of inconvenience. 'Slackers' 

 and 'grousers' have become almost synonymous terms; and the group they embrace is 

 a very small one." — James F. Muirhead, of London, England. 



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