The savings may amount to little, but they may be sufficient to make him independent.
There is no reason why the highly-paid workman of today may not save a store of capital. It is merely a matter of self-denial and private economy. Indeed, the principal industrial leaders of today consist, for the most part, of men who have sprung directly from the ranks. If he save it, he will always find that he has sufficient opportunities for employing it profitably and usefully.
Thrift of Time is equal to thrift of money. Franklin said, “Time is gold.” If one wishes to earn money, it may be done by the proper use of time. But time may also be spent in doing many good and noble actions. It may be spent in learning, in study, in art, in science, in literature. Time can be economized by system. System is an arrangement to secure certain ends, so that no time may be lost in aplishing them.
Every business man must be systematic and orderly.
It is not necessary to show that economy is useful. Nobody denies that thrift may be practiced. We see numerous examples of it. What many men have already done, all other men may do.
Nor is thrift a painful virtue. On the contrary, it enables us to avoid much contempt and many indignities. It requires us to deny ourselves, but not to abstain from any proper enjoyment. It provides many honest pleasures, of which thriftlessness and extravagance deprive us.
Thrift does not require superior courage, nor superior intellect, nor any superhuman virtue. It merely requiresmon sense, and the power of resisting selfish enjoyments. In fact, thrift is merelymon sense in everyday working action. It needs no fervent resolution, but only a little patient self-denial. Begin is its device! The more the habit of thrift is practiced, the easier it bes; and the sooner itpensates the self-denier for the sacrifices which it has imposed.
The question may be asked—Is it possible for a man working for small wages to save anything, and lay it by in a savings bank, when he requires every penny for the maintenance of his f***ly? But the fact remains, that it is done by many industrious and sober men; that they do deny themselves, and put their spare earnings into savings banks, and the other receptacles provided for poor men’s savings. And if some can do this, all may do it under similar circumstances—without depriving themselves of any genuine pleasure, or any real enjoyment.
How intensely selfish is it for a person in the receipt of good pay to spend everything upon himself—or, if he has a f***ly, to spend his whole earnings from week to week, and lay nothing by.
When we hear that a man, who has been in the receipt of a goo