Alfred J. Westendorf

              ?

Figure

Alfred J. Westendorf The Thrift Man Popular Lectures


ALFRED J. WESTENDORF
WESTENDORF'S home town (Springville, New York) sends more boys to college than any town in western New York many times its size.  This town was the incubus of the Westendorf Plan of Thrift that is now spreading over the country like a blanket.  Here the plan was conceived and proved and, in its larger application, is demonstrating its far-reaching practicability.

The importance of a foundation upon which will be built the great moral structure of world-wide manhood, efficient, prepared, fortified, with a proper environment assured, caused Mr. Westendorf to believe that a requisite of morality was thrift and that the practice of thrift made for safeguards against many forms of immorality.  Tell a boy how he can make money and then convince him of the wisdom of saving it and you have made for him a start that will not stop until old age dulls his eye and slackens his ambition.

No religion, in this day of world-havoc, is more practical than the religion of THRIFT.  Every thrifty person believes in the old adage, Fear God and keep your powder dry. It is wrong to make an Idol of money, but it is equally wrong to cultivate habits of shiftlessness.

Mr. Westendorf has, for a number of years, had a varied experience with boys and young men.  His success with them is his best endorsement.  He knows how to say things that boys and their parents remember.  He has a splendid platform personality that captivates youth, real oratorical ability and a contagious enthusiasm for service to boys.  Two important subjects are briefly explained herewith:


You and I

There is a Wide Difference Between Propositions that Sound Good, and Good, Sound Propositions
MOST men who have amounted to anything in this world started with nothing but ability, determination and a little coin—a combination that recognizes no man-made limitations.  If I had an enemy and wanted to get even with him, I could wish him nothing worse than to land a soft job and—the loafing habit.  It would only be a question of time before he or the job petered out.  The longer he held on the worse off he'd be in the end.  Because there is a law of compensation which somehow or other makes us work in old age for the things we wasted in youth.






THE THRIFT MAN
Eternal, intelligent effort is the price of growth, and where there is no progression there is bound to be retrogression.  Life is something like aeroplaning; to stop is to drop, and to drop is generally to bust. Sitting by the roadside and wishing you had a motor car won't take you home. At this critical time, no effort in the lecturer's opinion, can be more important than to guide the feet of the boys of this country into paths of increased productiveness and usefulness.

It's the cheerful lad with the ready smile whose society is mostly in demand, and the only time that kind of a smile is really on the level is when it lights up the countenance of a fellow who knows that tomorrow needn't worry him.  Life is full of hard knocks, and many of them leave us pretty sore spots; but a little ready money is a mighty fine ointment in most cases.

In every community where You and I or Plus-Elements is given, the lecturer puts his ideas into practice by opening (25) One Dollar Bank Accounts for that number of twelve-year-old-local-boys.  At the close of the season this should total four or five thousand boys directly and, in several succeeding seasons, many thousands more.  And it will not stop there.  For each boy so favored will inoculate other boys with the thrift germ and a great wave of boyhood responsibility is expected to spread everywhere thruout the country.  The boy who is determined to save some part of every dollar he earns, is the fellow who gets to be boss some day.

Strickland Gillilan, the Famous Platform Moralist, himself a profound student of citizenship in the mould, says of the Westendorf Plan of Thrift: You have worked out in your own original and unimprovable way, the details of the most helpful plan I have ever heard of.


Plus-Elements

A Brotherly Companion of the Same Theme
HENRY WARD BEECHER said: In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. Helping others to help ourselves is the central thought in this address.

Mr. Westendorf in these lectures soon comes to terms with his audience, the spell of which is not broken after he has left the platform.  It is the after-the-lecture-has-gone-away-influence that makes these addresses of such importance to any community seeking to better the moral, spiritual, intellectual and material condition of its boys and girls of all ages.





COMMENTS FROM PEOPLE OF PROMINENCE
Governor Norbeck of South Dakota, says:

I find myself very much interested.

Governor Neville of Nebraska, says:

I have received a report from the State Council of Defense, in which they endorse your most excellent plan for the promotion of thrift.

Governor Stanley of Kentucky, says:

I concur in the wisdom and patriotism of your plan and assure you that the same has my hearty approval.  The boys fortunate enough to be the recipients of your generosity and magnanimity are to be congratulated, and I am sure it will engender in them that spirit of thrift and independence which is so essential to good citizenship.

Judge Ben B. Lindsey of Denver, says:

I think your plan just splendid.

Prof. B. D. McCormick, Vice-Pres., Associated Academic Principals, State of New York, says:

This is the finest proposition for helping boys that has ever been presented to me.  It is a splendid idea and absolutely unique as far as I know.  It should arouse unbounded enthusiasm.

Mr. William E. Bensley, one of New York State's best known Committeemen, says:

It is a splendid way of starting the boys in the right direction and originated by a man thoroughly interested.  It should be a great booster for Lyceum Courses.

Dr. Russell H. Conwell, of Philadelphia, says:

You have a great idea.  It seems sure to go from the first.  Anyone will endorse such an idea now.

Col. George W. Bain, says:

Many good things are coming out and will come out of the world-wide war.  Your plan strikes me as one of great possibilities.



DESIGNED AND PRINTED BY THE W. M. KING SERVICE, CHICAGO





Figure