THE HABIT OF SAVING 305went to a printing supply-house manager and made his wants known,
saying he needed credit for a printing press and some type and other
small equipment.
The first question asked by the manager was: "Have you saved any
money of your own?"
And he had! Out of his salary of $30 a week, he had saved $ I 5 a
week regularly for nearly four years. He got the credit he wanted. Later
on he got more credit, until today he has built up one of the most
successful printing plants in the city of Chicago. His name is George
B. Williams.
Many years after this incident, I became acquainted with George
Williams, and at the end of the war, in 1918, I went to Mr. Williams
and asked for credit amounting to many thousands of dollars, for the
purpose of publishing the Golden Rule Magazine. The first question
he asked was:
"Have you formed the habit of saving money?" Despite that all
the money I had saved was lost in the war, the fact that I had actually
formed the savings habit was the real basis on which I got credit for
upward of $30,000.
There are opportunities on every corner, but they exist only for
those who have ready money, or who can command money because they
have formed the Habit of Saving. Those who have developed the savings
habit generally also have the other character attributes that go with its
formation.
The late J. P. Morgan once said he would rather loan $1,000,000
to a person of sound character, who had formed the habit of saving
money, than he would $ I ,000 to a person without character, who was
a spendthrift.
Generally speaking, this is the attitude that the world takes toward
all those who save money.
It often happens that a small savings account of no more than two
or three hundred dollars is sufficient to start one on the highway to