American Thrift (1962)

[Music] more beloved now almost a century after his passing than when he lived among our people of his earlier time it is proper that his Nation pays him honor by putting his likeness grave and kindly on the most abundant of our coins [Music] [Applause] [Applause] ours is a rich and variant land we are a prospering people wherever we live or earn our livelihood we have bounties Beyond those known to the people of any other day and as responsible as anyone else for the care of these bounties is the woman in the American home home more often than not it is the woman who holds the family purse strings to stretch out the family paycheck hers is the struggle Eternal always the difficult goal making our money reach out to cover more of our needings or wantings and luxuries meeting the unexpected happenings that any family has always to expect [Music] la [Music] [Applause] [Music] there there are times when she feels lonely in this responsibility to her family yet she carries it in ways that are varied in ways that are many in ways that call for careful planning and for further use of what we already have for making do so nothing will be wasted or doing without [Music] she unfolds and refolds the paycheck and molds it in the ways of thrift making a fine art of doing so [Music] as she lives her life as the woman American we often seem to charge her with the responsibility of getting more out of the family purse than is there her art of working with the family helps provide us with the daily necessities and perhaps some of our delightful American privileges of [Music] life always the art is based on saving by reducing the family needs as well as by spending for she spends to save and saves to spend [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] a [Music] [Music] she spends carefully for the needs of the day in order to provide for all the years to [Music] come in any American home the woman American uses the resourcefulness of her personal efforts to make the family money go round in the search for quality and price [Music] if the purchases have been good ones they can serve new owners as time goes on and will last and last and last and last and last [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] those who sell and all who manufacture what is sold know that American women often have the deciding voice in whatever we come to buy they offer her the romance the adventure of choosing from Foods gathered from the four corners of America and indeed from all the world all well lighted for selection placed where she can reach them arranged for timesaving as well as moneysaving selection even though she may shop only once a week behind all she sees and buys are suppliers and suppliers of suppliers men and women who know how much the many pennies they save in handling what she buys before she buys May mean to her in individual purchases these are pennies saved that enable her to give the family more for the penny looking for low price she may be wiser than those who think the most is always the cheapest or wiser than those whose idea of saving is to spend gasoline driving around the block looking for a parking meter with free time left on it [Music] her Thrift is concerned with weighing the cost of present needs against the rewards of saving for future Necessities while always she considers price she looks also for those values those qualities that provide for better appearances or promise to give us lasting satisfactions we see to it that whatever we buy is functional that it is individually suited to the purpose for which we are to use it the Fine Art of practicing economy with a larger [Music] view low first cost yes and suitability the most value for the money spent as time goes on and one thing more we want the article that best serves our hearts desire these three qualities she considers complete Thrift American Producers of goods have a constant goal to offer what her good taste and good judgment will want to buy the success of each free enterpriser depends largely on how well he courts her how winningly he bids for her fancy and her Fortune the courtship means Keen competition each producer trying to charm her with Choice offerings calculated to please her and please her family Al little better than with the attractions of anyone else competition presses the retail dealer too into practicing Thrifty ways it leads him into dealing in pennies for pennies make all the difference in what is bought or not bought [Music] pennies americ americ industry to save production costs carries on a continual search for ways of keeping costs down to hold prices down so our products can be priced to stand out in our competitive American Market lumbering turns what once was waste into new materials that help provide for family wants better more serviceable articles for us to use and [Music] treasure cellophane from sawdust rayon from chips lacquers and enamels from edgings Plastics from slabs all from the cellulose of wood that once was wasted costs are lowered often and prices held down by pack only the concentrated goodness the essence of the goodness and so reduce the costs of shipping needless bulk volume is important in low cost any machine tool that turns out things we need May cost the same whether the machine is used to turn out a dozen or a million with the big divisor of one or 2 million and more the cost of each unit is less and this is vital even fractions of a penny saved on each of the innumerable materials and individual operations that go to complete the final product May determine how much we get for our money and whether we buy or buy [Music] not the supplier of metal makes better use of time and labor by building his plant near The Foundry where engines are cast the costs and the pricings are held down by devising an improved way of doing things more economically the molten material is carried over the private road running between supplier and manufacturer with the metal ready for casting when it arrives the expense of remelting is gone the savings are passed on to us not only in prices held down but more notably in products that are more and more [Music] reliable inventors engineers and manufacturers continually offer us improvements so we can have things with new Beauty longer life and low maintenance costs improvements we can afford because they are economically produced and that can be bought by more and more people for less money than they ever cost there is something else we want too an opportunity to choose the attraction that serves the purpose for which we want it our wants and tastes differ we are not all alike in what we like some of us have one like someone else has another like that's different depending upon who we are where we live and where we go from day to day we differ in our desires as to [Applause] [Music] style some families roll away on long trips once a year others take their travel in weekend lot [Music] some Delight in Social Recreation some give their Leisure largely to Community Affairs and there are those who prefer a Thrifty privacy [Music] in many homes the wife is a career [Music] woman in other homes the daughter goes to college and then there are families is where Father and Son form a working team whatever our way of life our savings include giving the best of farseeing care to the possessions we rely on WE insist on quality and give it the treatment quality deserves in the come and go of buying in Saving and conserving for family needs each of us is an individual each of us wants what will suit us and our own folks best and so the producers of our free enterprise Goods have to work to give us a wide variety of good old American Choice the things that are right for us as we see it all brought To Us by American competition in economy providing us with the good life of plenties we [Music] enjoy among the things of our good life is the vast array of food choices we have the homes tailored and equipped to meet our individual needs according to each family's interests and each one's style of living competition puts labor saving time-saving devices in our homes that free a woman so she can add to the family income by carrying on with a working career while she and her family are out these conveniences breathe life into a house the evening meal started the house warm and the lights on when they begin to return at [Music] night competition to win family favor makes it possible for us to be well-dressed at the price we can afford to pay low medium or high but our Thrift does more than spur competition in material offerings of convenience and [Music] service to provide for the well-being of others as well as for our own we have our Charities our churches our synagogues our cathedrals [Music] our traditional American Thrift and particularly the thrift of our women folk finds the way to provide for the [Music] future our own security is important but we save even more for our dependence of every age the growing needs of our growing boys and girls we save save for years often times to spend on education and our youngsters are able to attend schools that become more modern schools that offer all of us a chance to improve what we know as we choose we have almost unlimited varieties of fun ranging from the enjoyment of watching the antics of others having the fun of doing ourselves or seeing others do we may indulge in all the excitement of water sports or take our rolling waves powder dry there is the choice of the quietness of games for just too and the celebrations in which whole communities participate American Thrift with our savings has afforded us places to go we can see the Wonders nature carved out long before America came into being we can see the scenic Grandeur of our nation and the cities built by all the races and nationalities which have come to people our great [Music] country our abundance is big and comes from bigness the bigness of our busy business the bigness of our Fields the bigness of our fastmm moving modern America our bigness our greatness the abundance that stems from Liberty is based on free and Thrifty use of the Great American penny we make more pennies than we used to they are made more easily and we do more buying with them the penny the foundation of our wealth in enough new pennies coming from our mints each month to supply copper for three new statues of Liberty originating in the spiritual values of Liberty and spurred on by a Thrifty sense of progress we live in an age of growing abundance as we grow and see all that is so wonderful in our [Music] land we may well remember it is all developed from the Practical dreams of those who came before us our founding forefathers those who thriftily paved the way for our producers to turn out Whatever May best meet the economy demands of our individual American needs and askings and for our Liberty to buy whatever we each may choose [Music] w [Applause] [Music]