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Show Lesson From the War Taught the Saving Habit and It Resulting Profitable Investment One of the things which this country will bring out of the war is an increased interest in securities by people who never before considered such investment, says Popular Mechanics magazine. The small investor formerly thought of bonds and stocks only in terms of thousands, wholly beyond his reach, and as entirely belonging to banks and men of wealth-The wealth-The War Savings stamps and the government bonds of $50 denomination up have not only encouraged thrift but have opened the eyes of the multitude mul-titude to the fact that to he a bond owner does not require a king's ransom. Now we have some twenty million bond holders, and where formerly one person in seven was thrifty now five out of every seven are savers. AVe do not measure up to the stern thriftincss of the French, who, by extreme economy, paid off the war indemnity which the Franco-Prussian war occasioned in an incredibly short time. But proportionately we have made a good start, for-we have from the beginning been a nation of wholesale wasters because our resources of every kind were so enormous. Some were even ashamed to save, and thought it smart to spend lavishly as fast a3 they earned. This condition permeated the entire land. We may well take genuine pride in a good start on the road to sound common sense and thrift. The very act of saving increases self-respect. The flowery speeches of a thousand orators in more than a century are forgotten, while these words of wisdom by Benjamin Franklin live on : "Save a little of thy income, and thy hidebound pocket will soon begin to thrive and thou wilt never cry again with an empty stomach neither will creditors insult thee, nor want oppress, nor hunger bite, nor will nakedness freeze thee. The whole hemisphere will shine brighter, and pleasure spring up in every corner of thy heart. "Eemember that money is of a prolific, generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and so on. Five shillings shil-lings turned is six, turned again it is seven and threepence, and so on till it becomes, one hundred pounds." Time was when good bonds were issued chiefly in denominations of $1,000, with an occasional small proportion of $500 units. To the beginner begin-ner the time required to save enough to buy one bond was so long he was discouraged in even making the attempt. Now excellent securities of all kinds can be had in $100 units, which increases the number of possible buyers by thousands. Once more the frequent caution: Before buying or exchanging be sure to' consult a good banker and so avoid losses. |