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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. 'CARRYING ON' IN WARTIME IN SEPTEMBER OF 1918 I was in a small Belgium city which the Germans, after four years of occupancy, occu-pancy, had evacuated less than 48 hours before my arrival. In that small city I entered, as indicated by a sign, a dress shop with the hope of finding something for the wife and daughter at home in Chicago. Chi-cago. The size and fixtures denoted a shop of some consequence but in it were not so much as half a dozen articles of merchandise, none of them of any real value. With a smile of courage in her eyes a white-haired woman greeted me in English from behind an empty showcase. To her I explained my reason for entering. "You see all I have to offer," she said. "Four years ago I had a full stock. It was not confiscated or looted by the Germans but has been sold a bit at a time, with no opportunity oppor-tunity of replacement. For two N years there has been practically nothing left, but I will not close the store. It must be here when the war ends, though I starve in the effort ef-fort to keep it open." That was what war had meant to a woman merchant of Belgium. It is what war means today in Belgium and practically all other European nations. That woman was carrying carry-ing on. A store window in a dress shop in my home town caused me to recall re-call that heroic Belgium woman. In that home-town store window was displayed an attractive line of print dresses in the brilliant colorings of the summer it was in August season. There were slacks and shorts of many colors and shades, bathing suits for the not-far-away beaches, knit gloves and scarfs and other accessories. It was the display dis-play window of a well-stocked store in which feminine fancy could be satisfied. We are at war, as was Belgium. We are supposed to be suffering the deprivations of war. We complain of the sacrifices we are called upon to make. The fact is we on the home front know nothing of sacrifice as we might, and would, know if the Huns and the Japs were landed on our shores. Oceans lie between us and our enemies. It is the men oi our armed forces that meet them far away from us and protect us from , the real ravages of the most terrible war the world has ever known. If that white-haired Belgium woman could carry on under the conditions condi-tions she, and those she represented, represent-ed, had to face through four long years, we can have no just cause for complaint. We, too, must carry on to maintain that America and the institutions that are ours. WHY BEATING INFLATION IS SO DIFFICULT WE ARE FEARFUL of inflation. We know what can cause it and how it can be prevented. We know runaway run-away commodity prices can, and wiD, wreck each one of us and produce pro-duce conditions from which we can not, and will not, recover for at least a generation. Each one of us wants the other fellow to do the things that will prevent pre-vent the inflation disaster. The farmer wants higher prices for what he produces. He does not want to be the inflation prevention goat. He would have the worker, the manufacturer manu-facturer and the merchant do the inflation prevention job. The workers work-ers want more wages. The manufacturers manu-facturers and merchants object to sacrificing any of their profits and demand prices for their commodities commodi-ties that will offset, or more than offset, any increased wage costs. We know sacrifices must be made if we are to escape the inflation evil, but we want "George" to do the sacrificing. sacri-ficing. Each of us wants "George" to pay the price, to buy the bonds. Had congress, the day war was declared, passed the much discussed "M" bill it would have stopped all danger of inflation. It would have frozen all wages and prices, drafted all plants, manpower and wealth. The only thing it would not have controlled was the votes of Amer-' lean citizens and the politicians were fearful of those votes. The result of that fear may be inflation. WHEN THE FIRST TAX DEDUCTIONS DEDUC-TIONS were made from pay envelopes, enve-lopes, millions of Americans had their first lesson as to the meaning of direct taxes. It will cause them to examine government expenditures expendi-tures more carefully than they did in the past. They will be asking about that ever-growing civilian employee em-ployee federal payroll, now nearing the four million point. FEED THE HUNGRY? Yes, by all means. To continue to feed those who are physically able to provide for themselves but who will not, is not practical philanthropy. To provide opportunity for those able to work is real humanitarianism. RESPONSIBILITY begets care. It is easy to offer "hair-brained" advice ad-vice if others must accept the responsibility re-sponsibility for its failure. The theoretical bureaucrats at Washington Washing-ton are not burdened by responsibility. |