Ad for Thrift Mortgages
The Thrift, ca. 1915
This pamphlet was published by The Thrift, the cooperative savings and loan association organized in the late 19th century by the Brooklyn, New York, businessman, philanthropist, and thrift leader Charles Pratt, who in 1887 had also founded the Pratt Institute, an organization devoted to education for working-class people and the promotion of thrift. In 1915, The Thrift had nearly 9,000 members. An ad for The Thrift in 1921 says: "The difference between the Thrift Mortgage and the ordinary mortgage is that one obliges you to get out of debt -- and the other doesn't. Which kind is best for your home?" Charles Pratt loved thrift and took his personal motto from Franklin: "Waste Neither Time Nor Money."
Cooperatives, Building and Loan/Savings and Loans, Teaching thrift, Thrift Collection,

