Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-12-22 | Page 25 | American Soldiers Saving their Money

rAMERICAN SOLDIERS SAVING THEIR W&l Many Interesting Statistics Are Given in Financial Reports of Y. M. C. A. Yankee Fighters Generous, but Thrifty, as Well as Brave and Capable. PARIS, Dec. 5. (By the Associated Press.) Not many fortunes in American Ameri-can small chane;o arc being spent by General Pershing's fighting men, for they arc not at all like the old-stylo private in the days when army pay was $13 a month. This person, it will bo recalled lost his entire mouth's emoluments in iif tceu minutes experimenting experi-menting with craps, whereupon bo shrugged, his should ers, commenting philosophically, "Ob, well, easy come easy go." Trie new type of Yankee enlisted man isn't like that. Ho is a saving young man, and he sends a good sharo of his earnings home to help out his wife or any other partial dependents that be tuny leave. In fact, ho sends back as much money as be spends on himself, if figures from the Y. Ai. C. A. financial reports may bo taken as a criterion. And tbey ought to be considered a fail indication of the way the pay goes. Part Always Saved. In the first place, the private makes; an allotment of half his base pay by government order if he has anyone at home that needs it. And if he hasn't, the government takes it and saves it for him. With very few exceptions, be also is the holder of a government insurance policy, which lakes another bite out of his caruiDgs. By tho time his allotment and his insurance payments have been deducted, there isn't a great-'dcal left. Vet from this little he manages to save what, in the aggregate, amounts to a vast sum. In four of the five huts from which figures are available in one Y. M. C. A. division, tho soldiers sent more money home than they spent on themselves in buying canteen supplies during the month. Remittances Heavy. In the other hut, the amount of merchandise mer-chandise sales was only a small percentage per-centage greater than the home remittances remit-tances handled by the Red Triangle. Taking the five huts as a whole, the difference iu favor of the remittances was more than 15,000 franca for the month. One of the huts, tho one whose business iu all departments was the biggest big-gest of tbe five, sent to America almost three times as much money as it received re-ceived for sales. All of which shows that the Yankee soldier is as generous aud thrifty as he is brave and capable. Here are the figures in total: Merchandise Mer-chandise sales, 254.202 f ranee; remittances, remit-tances, 3771463 francs. In the entire division, the business office handled 1,068,249 francs, of which 562,670 francs represented can-: teen sales and 505,570 franco remit- j tances to the United States, or approxi- j mately half and half.