Robinson
Crusoe
and
Thrift
Stamps
By ELLIS PARKER BUTLER
(Of the Vigilante*)
JV1
w
C oc
Robinson Crusoe and
Thrift Stamps
HEN J was a small boy I learned a rhyme that
went like this:
Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
He made him a coat
Of an old nanny goat;
I wonder how he could do so?
I don't believe I lay awake at night trying to figure
out how he was able to make a perfectly good coat out
of an old nanny goat, but I am sure of one thing—first
he had to catch the
goat. Probably he
went out and shot
it. Then he had to
skin the goat and
tan the skin and cut
it properly and sew
the pieces into a
coat, and thus he
had a perfectly
good coat, and, I
judge by the pic-
tures I have seen,
lie had enough goat
skin left over to
make a hat. All this
"First he had-to catch the goat." ^^ a great deal 0f
time—weeks, I suppose. That did not matter much to
Jtobinson Crusoe because he was on a desert island and
could not get off and he had all the time there was. He
just took what time he needed and kept at the job until
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ROBINSON CRUSOE AND THRIFT STAMPS
the coat was made. It was the very best thing for him
to do, because he was in rags and tatters and there was
no shop on the island that sold coats or anything else.
He was all alone there, so he shot the goat and made
the coat and put the coat on and was comfortable in it.
There is one thing I am sure of, however. If Robin-
son Crusoe had spent all his time making chocolate
creams or chewing gum or other unimportant things,
he would never have had time to go hunting that old

"If he had spent his time making chocolate creams."
nanny goat or time to make the coat after he shot the
goat. He would have had chocolate creams and chew-
ing gum that he did not need, and he would not have
had a coat he needed very badly.
CRUSOE GOT HIS GOAT
There is one good thing about a goat skin coat, home-
made, with the hairy side out. It is tough. An arrow
will hardly pierce it. So when Robinson Crusoe had
his coat made and got into it he was less afraid of the
arrows of any savages who might happen to land on
his island. "With his rifle in his hand he was ready to
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ROBINSON CBUSOE AND THRIFT STAMPS
go out and fight the savages when he had his coat on.
but without the coat he would have had to hide his
naked self in some caver/ and if an arrow hit him it
would have killed him. So if he had spent his time
making chocolate creams or chewing gum or other
unnecessary things instead of a coat, he might have
paid his life for his foolishness.
Now, it is an odd thing that Daniel Defoe, who wrote
this story about Robinson Crusoe and who knew all
about shipwrecked men, was the first man in the world
to suggest savings banks. That was in 169-7, 220 years
ago. It may be that one reason he thought banks,
where children and others could put their money to
save it, would be a good thing was because he knew
how little use money was to a man shipwrecked on an
island. If any one had landed on Robinson Crusoe's
island and had offered him $1,000 for his goat skin coat
Robinson Crusoe would have laughed at him. Money
meant nothing at all to him. He could not buy anything
with it because there was no one on the island to buy
anything from. When Crusoe found the gold and'' pieces
of eight'' in the wreck, he was disappointed. "As to
the money, "he wrote, 'c I had no manner of occasion
for it. It was to me ^ts the dust under my feet, and I
would have given it all for three or four pair of Eng-
lish shoes and stockings.'' There were just""two things
that were of any use to him—goods and services. By
goods are meant things he could use, such as his coat
and his rifle; by services are meant help of one sort or
another, such as the work of some one to sew a coat or
plant potatoes, or shoot goats for their skins. Services
such as these were of value to Robinson Crusoe, and so
were goods such as the coat he made and the potatoes
he raised, but silver dollars and^ quarters and dimes
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ROBINSON CRUSOE AND THRIFT STAMPS

were nothing but circular pieces of metal that would
get lost in the sand and be of no use to anybody.
DEFOE KNEW MONEY'S FUNCTION
So doubtless Daniel Defoe saw the truth, which is
that money is of no iige for itself, but only because it
can make other peo-
ple supply goods and
services for it. He
thought: "What is
the use of children
and others hoarding
up money in old
socks and bags? It
does them no good
there. If they put it
in a savings bank the
bank can lend it to
"Money meant nothing at all to him." some one who will
buy goods and services with it and their money will be
working. Then when whoever put it in the bank wants
it back, the bank will return it and a little more, and
every one will be better off." So savings banks were
started.
Now, Robinson Crusoe, when he made himself a goat
skin coat instead of making chocolate creams and chew-
ing gum, was a wise man. But suppose he was rescued
from the island, as he was at last, and came here to
the United States to live, and the United States was at
war with Germany. Robinson Crusoe would, of course,
get a job somewhere, because he might be too old to
fight. There" would be two kinds of jobs he could get;
he could go tojyork making rifles, or clothing, or foods,
or other things that would help win the war, or he
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ROBINSON CRUSOE AND THRIFT STAMPS
could get a job making chocolate creams or chewing
gum, or things that will not help win the war. There
are so many children buying chocolate creams and
chewing gum and other things that are not absolutely
necessary that he would probably get a job making one
of those things. He would not care as long as he was
paid for doing the work—for supplying his services—
what kind of goods he was making. Chocolate creams
or rifle bullets would be all the same to poor old Robin-
son Crusoe, just as it is all the same to other men who
sell their services to make goods.
Robinson Crusoe.would not care, but, as the war went
on, the United States government that is trying to win
the war would ear. It would wish with all its heart
that Robinson Crusoe would stop making chocolate
creams that children can live without (if they try) and
go to making cartridges or clothing for our soldiers
and sailors, to help win the war. But Robinson Crusoe
would go right ahead making chocolate creams or other
unnecessary things because the children were buying
them. So there we would be: children spending their
pennies and nickels and dimes for things they might
easily do without, and Robinson Crusoe so busy making
them that he would have no time to make cartridges
and clothing, and—as like as not—Germany would
win the war.because Robinson Crusoe and thousands
of other workers were doing the wrong kind of work.
THRIFT STAMPS HELP THREE WAYS
Right here is where the Thrift Stamps come in and
help win the war. Our government prints a lot of
Thrift Stamps because "thrift" means *'savings" and
the government wants people to "save" the money they
spend for Thrift Stamps. It suggests that children and
grown folks do without chocolate creams and things
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ROBINSON CRUSOE AND THRIFT STAMPS
that are unnecessary and save the pennies and dimes
until they have enough to buy Thrift Stamps.
Then what happens? It is very interesting.
When whoever is buying Thrift Stamps has sixteen
of them—four dollars' worth—he takes them with a
few pennies more (say twelve cents) to a post office
and gets a War Savings Stamp for them. The govern-
ment pays compound interest on the War Savings
Stamps, just as savings banks pay on money deposited
So for the $4.12 the child or grown person has saved
the government will pay back, on January 1, 1923, not
1.12, but $5.00. That is worth while, but that is not

"He would, of course, get a job somewhere."
the biggest thing of all. The biggest thing is this:
When you ttart saving your pennies and nickels and
dimes and no longer spend them for chocolate creams
or other unnecessary things, Robinson Crusoe does not
have to make those unnecessary things. His services
are not needed to make unnecessary goods, and he can*
go to work for our government, or in other factories,
making things that will help win the war. And do you
see where the government will get the money to pay
him? It will be the very same money you would have
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ROBINSON CRUSOE AND THRIFT STAMPS
spent for chocolate creams or other things! The reason
is that when you buy a Thrift Stamp you are lending
your money to the
government. When
you don't buy choco-
late creams (or so
forth) and do buy a
Thrift Stamp with
your 25 c, you let
Robinson Crusoe stop
m a ki n g . chocolate
creams and you give
the government 25c
to hire him (or buy
his services) to make
goods that will help
win the war. So you
Goods and Services. are helping in three
ways! First, you let* Robinson Crusoe get away from
making goods that are unnecessa y; second, you lend
money to the government to buy the goods and services
it needs, and third, your money goes to pay Robinson
Crusoe in his new job of helping your government win
the war! That is a great deal for a little money to do.
but it does it!
And besides these three things there is a fourth; you
are saving your money and putting it where it will earn
money for you while you are awake and while you
sleep! So I suggest a new rhyme to add to the old one
about Robinson Crusoe:
Good old Robinson Crusoe:
Good old Robinson Crusoe!
The Thrift' Stamps he bought
Won the war that we fought,
And we all saved and helped him to do so.

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