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Show THRIFT A VIRTUE NOW In circulars issued by the United States government, reasons are stated why people should buy United States defense and savings bonds. Investment in these bonds will be an example of the principle of thrift which built up our country. The United States would never be what it is today, had not a multitude of people been willing to save money and invest it in enterprises that would carry on production and employ labor. During the recent depression many thinkers doubted the value of thrift, at least at that time. They considered con-sidered that too large amounts of money were being saved and locked up in idle funds, where they did not employ labor. They thought that to promote steady prosperity money needs to be kept in circulation, and that if people spent it as fast as they got it, then it would be kept employing labor and unemployment would be reduced to a small figure. When times were good, it did not follow that money was locked up idle when it was saved by thrifty people. If they put it into a bank, the money was soon borrowed bor-rowed by enterprising persons to build homes or carry on business, so it kept employing labor all the time. During those periods capital was often scarce, and the people were not saving money enough to keep the bisihess machine going at full speed. At present it is not necessary to urge people to spend all they earn to keep labor employed. The government go-vernment is pouring out money by the billions for national defense and its various enterprises, which should employ millions of idle people as soon as they can be trained to do the work that needs to be done. Thrift is still a virtue. People will need all the money they can save as taxes grow higher, and the drain on the family income to defend the country becomes very heavy. |