big black letters, this sign that could be read by the whole universe-Save for a Happy New Year.

This would be a wonderful slogan. It expresses an imperative demanda resolution of intense and individual interest.

We are now earning enough, every one of us, but we are not saving as we should. We know this, and in knowing it, the crime is none the less.

In the Old World they are destroying cities, water works, sewers, railroads, bridges, factories, and the best human energy.

It is costing them over there $130,000,000 a day, and now that the war has lasted over fourteen months, it is easy to find a loss of over $50,000,000,000, and of something like 6,000,000 men-men dead or crippled.

The wealth of Great Britain is based at about $80,000,000,000; of Germany, a little less; of France, $75,000,000,000. The total wealth of this nation is $150,000,000,000. The normal savings of the United States are less than $2,000,000,000. From these figures it is evident that there will be insufficient money to do the absolutely necessary work of reconstruction, unless the whole world practices economy, rigid economy.

Without capital, labor will be unemployed, even if labor is willing to work at foreign or starvation wages.

Labor in this country is now earning a very high wage, and wages are rising. It is time for labor to be reminded that it should lay up something against accident, old age, and especially against the severe competition it is likely to have as soon as the European war is ended.

For years and years this little magazine has expended its best energies in trying to influence men to work more, to play less and to save something for a damp, cold day. When a young man brings to me a pack of letters of recommendation, he usually leaves the impression with me that he needs them.

Let this same chap lay on my desk his savings-bank book, even if it shows deposits ever so small in total amount, and the boy has my confidence quicker than Jack Robinson. The whole point is, are the deposits rather regular?

James J. Hill sounded the depths of a man when he wrote this: "If you want to know whether you are destined to be a success or failure in life, you can easily find out. The test is simple and infallible. Are you able to save money? If not, drop out. You will lose. You may think not, but you will lose as surely as you live. seed of success is not in you."

The

It should be a national trait to try to encourage efficiency in others. Efficiency is not just earning money; it is more: it is saving money.

If there is a boy or a girl whom you are interested in, give him or her a savings-account book for a Christmas present or a New Year's start. Point out the power of systematic saving, even of small amounts; and let that boy or girl know that the banks are glad to receive deposits of such small amounts, or that the securities that are secure can be bought in small amounts.

And on this subject I shall have much more to say next month-this subject of young people, school children, saving.

Every older man is a better citizen if he is able to support himself and those dependent upon him.

It is not always possible to regulate one's income, but it usually is possible to regulate one's outgo.

When a man has a little money saved, he is on the high road to independence. It is hard to make a good citizen of a man whose wife and whose children are naked or hungry. There is a certain amount of economic well-being necessary before you can effectually interest him in the higher things of life. He cannot think of them while hungry.

One suggestion for saving that seems to be successful, automatically correct, is to leave an order with the bookkeeper saying that you and others in the organization want him to deduct each week from your pay envelopes twenty-five cents, fifty cents, or even a dollar, if you can afford it; and then let the bookkeeper collect all of these little assessments and send to the savings bank one check, to be distributed to the credit of the depositors. Or these small deductions from your weekly wage may be left with the treasurer of the company where you are em

ployed for investment in the securities of that company. Ownership in a company where men are employed, if ever so small, has a tendency to increase faithful service, and to set aside the agitation of the agitators, whether labor or political. It is an unseen hand that says “Hands off." It prevents any unjust attacks from trouble-makers, and this is a protection to the workingman as well as to the organization or corporation.

I am not attempting to designate any plan of investment, but I am suggesting the imperative importance of saving.

Bismarck said: "Saving goes before security, happiness and good citizenship. It makes men; while extravagance makes vicious members of society."

I repeat, for the sake of emphasis—make New Year's Day-Thrift Day.

ᄆ

ALL AMERICANS

IMPULSE drives most men. Forethought is an unknown factor with a dull mind. It is the effects of emotion that fill our jails, and it is our duty to bring about the effects of education before we let these men loose on society again.

Out of a total of eighty persons recently admitted to the Maryland penitentiary, not one could tell whether George Washington was a steamboat or an American. They were Greeks, Polacks, Spaniards, Germans, Negroes -all Americans.

ם

PLAIN DRUNK

A FATHER sat in a street car the other day, and by his side was a clinging little girl, his daughter. He was drunk-just plain drunk—and the little girl looked with semi-shame and half-understanding into her father's face. Across the aisle sat a man reading a paper, and on the back of the paper was this big, blazoned headline that I could read: "Father drunk, kills wife with knife, then the son shoots father." Following this scarehead was a second large headline, which explained more, and this read: "There are six small children left for the city to sup

D

DELIVER US

ELIVER us from the passive, inactive individual who whistles for want of thought-the languor

loving lemon. Give us the man who works, who acts, who executes; who is always in harness, ever on duty.

Relieve us of the incompetent imbecile with bungling brains, who fumbles and botches, who always gets the wrong pig by the ear-the slovenly gawk.

Loan us the skillful son of craft, the tradesman with the trick, with the knack; the man who can feather the oar, who is practical, proficient.

Separate us from the antagonistic animal, more mule than man, who kicks and clashes-the contrary fellowthe cross between trouble and treachery.

Spare us the coöperative man with the long, strong pull, the pull-all-together spirit; the fellow who stands shoulder to shoulder, and battles for business.

Divorce us from the hard-luck harper, the despondent dub who blights and blasts everything; the calamity croaker; the man who is planet-struck; the evil-star sucker who sings, "What's the use of anything? Nothing at all."

Send us the sunshiny man, the high-tide fellow, the buoyant, thriving man who always says, "Business is good," and then silently asks to be forgiven for lying like an optimist.

HAPPINESS A HABIT

WHAT men hope to get is what seems to make men happy. What men have and hold is the cause of most misery. We all see in the past the happiest hours in our lives, and most of us look upon the future with anxiety and enthusiasm. All of us look upon the present as full of trouble.

Not one man in twenty is happy over today. Happiness is a habit that can be acquired by a bit of right thinking, by a little practical philosophy.

When you realize that life is worth more than all else, and that today holds for you more of life than does tomorrow, you should appreciate more fully today.

A

AFTER-LIFE

MOMENT ago, my hand unconsciously touched an electric button, and the slight tension turned off the light; and in the darkness that followed, alone and at midnight, my mind was engrossed with thoughts of immortality.

Then, as if afraid, I again touched the button, and there was light.

This experience brought back the same old riddle in life-immortality.

There are no wise men, modern men, who can tell me more than I know of the gleam of light before me, for I have studied the textbooks written by man.

True, we have created this agency within the glass bulb, and yet we are unable to comprehend the mystery of its making.

་

How can we hope to penetrate the history of millions of years, that are millions of leagues from our little minds? How can we hope to prove His plans when we fail with so small a thing as the electric light?

Man has the choice of his eternal destiny, so far as his belief goes; and it is a source of much satisfaction to me to think that the most beautiful conception of after-life is not the least probable.

In common with men who live in the prison of their senses, I can find no present decisive proofs with reference to after-life. If we establish in our minds the belief that nothing can perish from the universe, then we are compelled to accept the theory that man must have had a previous existence, and that an after-life is a natural consequence.

The past and the future are but creations of man's mind, when we leave out the Bible. And without this book, we have but a conflicting set of stories, theories and predictions by authors whom we would not follow.

Your opinion and my ideas on the subject are about as reliable as the tiny embankments of the ant hill in the track of the old chariot of Time. It would seem that man, adrift on the ocean of life, is as the ant that floats on the straw in the middle of the lake.

To contemplate a durable, lofty, secure after-life that