A savings-bank account is practically always the best investment for a boy or girl. A successful man in Washington, D. C, heard about my plan to write this book and wrote as follows:

"Having a crowd of boys of my own coming along and pushing Dad for all he is worth, I have often wondered why boys should be allowed to reach manhood, educated in every other way, but absolutely lacking in the elementary principles of practical business. Did you ever realize the few accounts carried in savings-banks by very young men? That is to say, when a very young man starts, often having no board to pay and his father willing to help all he can, but the father is not constructive and fails to teach his son to begin life by banking money."

What a really "constructive" man can accomplish in starting boys in the right direction has been told by the Associated Sunday Magazine:

"Can you remember how much a dollar meant to you back in those days when your chief ambition was to drive a railway locomotive? It was wealth; it represented a bushel of marbles and a basketful of 'jacks.' 'Daddy' Silverwood of Los Angeles remembers that when he was thirteen years old he was penniless and homeless; to-day he is wealthy, and the most jovial man on the Pacific coast. He can afford to be for he has started five thousand bank-acocunts of one dollar each for boys. His remarkable thrift campaign was begun on January 1, 1909, when he opened savings-bank accounts for five hundred boys, depositing one dollar to the credit of each. He wrote each boy this letter:

"'Dear Young Friend: You are one of five hundred boys I have selected in southern California for whom I am opening a bank-account. One dollar has been deposited to your credit in the Los Angeles Trust & Savings Bank, corner Sixth and Spring Streets. I have stipulated that it remain there five years, except in the case of sickness or death, for the reason that I want to add to it from time to time if you endeavor to do the same.

"'I started out in life a very poor boy, and at fourteen years of age was earning my living and paying my board.

"'You are living in a land where nobody is held down by caste - in a country where poor boys from the farm go to the White House; where even boys from the slums become our legislators; where brakemen and even section hands become railway presidents; where the poorest boys become our merchant princes, our great bankers and financiers; where the great factories and institutions of every description are built up by boys with no opportunity except their own energy and integrity.

"'History has proved many thousand times the disadvantages of too many advantages. Trusting that you will decide to be one of the great men of the future, I remain.

"'Yours sincerely,

"'F. B. SlLVERWOOD.'

"Each boy also was invited to call on or telephone Mr. Silverwood.

"The spontaneous replies to this letter - the personal visits and telephone conversations - showed that the youngsters were deeply interested in the plan and eager to cooperate. A resume at the end of the first year convinced the merchant that his school for thrift was succeeding. A newsboy accumulated two hundred and seventy-five dollars; several other lads saved more than one hundred dollars; three-fourths of those for whom accounts were opened fulfilled the requirements.

"At the beginning of each new year following Mr. Silverwood established banking connections for five hundred or more boys. Every boy on the carefully kept roll receives from two to five letters a year and a present at Christmas. The communications from the boys and their mothers are answered and filed. A secretary attends to most of the correspondence and other details connected with the enterprise, but Mr. Silverwood has made it an unbroken rule from the first to talk with every boy who calls on him, and an average of five a day are received in his back office.

"The encouraging progress made by his wards during 1915 in acquiring habits of thrift induced Mr. Silverwood to open accounts for seven hundred more boys on January 1, 1916, making a total of five thousand. The balances of the youthful depositors at the close of the old year aggregated seventeen thousand dollars.

"Among the many interesting and enlightening records filed is that of an errand-boy with a widowed mother who, by his energy and economy, is now an instructor in Stanford University. After this boy had graduated at high school, his benefactor learned that he was contributing to the support of the mother and was unable to continue his education.

"'How much do you give your mother every week?' Mr. Silverwood inquired.

"'Seven dollars and a half.'

"'If I arrange for her to receive that amount regularly, can you work your way through the university?'

"'I certainly can,' the boy replied with determination.

"The seven dollars and a half went to the mother regularly for four years. The son graduated with honors at the university."