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Show From Sharecropper to Packing Magnate, Americans Work Hard for Their Living I By HOPE CHARJBERLIN (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) CHICAGO. In most Amer-ican homes, the "Mrs." holds the purse strings . . less than 50 per cent of American houses have bath tubs . . . The least amount of money that can sustain life is the three cents a day per person that the colored sharecrop-pers in Mississippi live on by eating flour and molasses in winter . . . As much money is spent in ice cream and soft drinks as in building houses . . . These and other down-to-eart- h facts are the findings revealed In "How America Lives," Just off the presses of the Henry Holt publish-ing house. The full report on how Americans make their money and I'&V if' '' ' I jumped from 10 million boxes in 1900 to 55 million in 1935. The big Sunday dinner is passing. More and more families go on auto-mobile outings instead. Saturday night dinner has replaced Sunday noon as the big dinner of the week. Gingerbread and baked beans are still America's number one choice; beef, number one meat; apple pie and chocolate cake, number one des-serts. When the pinch comes, American families economize on clothes first. But American women love clothes and have a vast choice in Inexpen-sive styles (48 million felt hats in the $3.95 to $5 quality were sold last year.) There is no more Main Street of fashion. Fashion a Fault? American women's chief fashion fault doing a good thing to death. If veiling is the fashion, they lose themselves in the mists. If open toes are in style, they go for the most extreme and open styles and wear them every hour of the day and night. They pile on too much junk jewelry . . . lack powers when shopping for clothes. Two permanents a year, averag-ing from $3 to $5 are fixed charges In the budget, although weekly trips to the beauty shop are usually sup-planted by the home shampoo and bobby pin method. America is reappraising itself . . . taken as a whole some 30 million spend it; what they eat, drink, wear and talk about; what gives them a kick; where the shoe pinches the most, and the least; what they dream of and what they believe In; and even what they do on Sunday afternoons was compiled by special-ists who, after traveling to all parts of the nation during 1940, wrote the "How America - Lives" series for The Ladies' Home Journal. The 16 families range from that of Henry Bracey, Negro Mississippi sharecropper, whose cash income last year totaled $26, to the family of Thomas Wilson, millionaire head of the Wilson Packing company of Chi-cago. Summary of Study, And here's a summary of the study which was conducted in the homes of real, warm, typical Amer-icans: As against the 1940 U. S. census statement that $22 a week is the sal-ary of the average man in America, the survey disclosed that a man with a family of two children needs to earn at least $35 a week before he can own his own home, carry insur-ance, and give his children welcome advantages. And he can do this only How America Lives . . . They spend as much on ice cream and soft drinks as on building houses. As a nation, they like to "eat well," and, particu-larly in these times, do eat belter than any other nation in the world. The average city family spends one-thir- of its annual income, or $50H, e year for food. It thrives on good plain cooking three square meals a day. Few fam-ilies keep accurate food budgets. They don't need to the women are thrifty shoppers. than 80 per cent were built without help from architects. Functionally they are Inadequate. Aesthetically, they are unfortunate. They lack enough closet space; they are hard to heat; the roof leaks; and they are so poorly planned that the home-mak- er walks an extra hundred miles a year between the front door and the kitchen. Kitchens Best Equipped. High points in American living are American kitchens best equipped, most modern and most used room in the house. Living room is shabbi-est, dining room barest and least used. Ninety-fiv- e per cent of the women In America employ no household Hw &r I fern How America Lives . . . What does Mrs. America do on an average day? She has no help with her housework. (95 per cent of American women don't.) Then it's likely she's up at 7 a. m., and the light in her kitchen win-dow will be shining long after sun-down. She gets the meals, washes the dishes, cleans the house, markets, irons and mends, to mention but a few of the deeds which require 60 or more of her weekly hours. families America lives pretty well. There's room for improvement, yes. That, like the new vacuum cleaner, another pair of shoes for sis or an addition to the house, will come. neip. Average American nomemaK-er'- s week (in home where there are growing children) runs 50 to 60 hours and 24 hours a day, seven days a week she is "on call" when the children are little. (Grandmoth-er's hours were nearly a hundred!) American boys and girls still help with the chores, even if they live in city apartments. The typical American family's credit is good. Majority of fami-lies "pay as they go," after saving with a particular goal in view. In-stallment buying records show 98'A per cent fulfill their payments. Fore-closures in FHA mortgages over five years have amounted to less than half of 1 per cent Largest single item of American families' yearly spending is food 14 billions, or 28 per cent of the national income. Conclusive proof that America as a whole sets a good table is the fact that the average city family spends one-thir- d of its annual income for food. Ten dollars a week feeds a family of four adequately, but without many frills. It can be done for less ... a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, woman's food budget was $7 a week for four people. Food Budget 'Touchy.' Touchiest subject among Ameri-can homemakers is the food budget, about which they become more de-fensive and passionate than about a national presidential election. American homemakers have been made acutely vitamin conscious. Per capita consumption of vegeta-bles, other than potatoes, has in-creased from 26.36 pounds in 1919-2- 0 to 1923-2- 4 to 31.36 pounds in 1934-3- Production and shipment of oranges How America Lives . . . "tf hat shall I wear?" It's the daily question of a whole nation of women who have made up their minds that they want to look pretty and stay young. And so Amer-ica is giving them what they want . . . at the price they want to pay. They can buy a unique value in a simple felt hat, for example, for about 15, or even $3.95, end know they are getting quality I if there is no sickness and if he has saved up an initial lump sum for the down payment on his house. Dream of all American families is to own a home. Chief hurdle is saving up down payment Low points in American living are American houses expensive and in-expensive. Although $3,000,000,000 annually goes into new homes, less than 40 per cent of the houses in America are in good condition. More M General HUGH s. JOHNSON Jour: UmM fmmrn JF WNU Urrim Washington, D. C. REVOLT UNDER HITLER Napoleon conquered a large part of Europe. Because he had some idea of a sort of United States of that continent, semi-sovereig- n states united in a loose league, he allowed the conquered countries a good deal of leeway. Perhaps bis further idea of putting his own people, family or fellow soldiers, on the thrones of several of these states had some-thin- g to do with his liberality. Whatever the reason, he didn't ex-ercise a close enough control to keep some of them conquered. In Prussia, Scharnhorst and Stein ef-fectually evaded his disarmament decrees by using the permitted small Prussian army In a new con-cept, not as a fixed regular estab-lishment but as a military training school through which they rushed yearly classes of recruits as rapid-ly as possible, In this way, they forged the forces which finally sent Napoleon first to Elba and later, after Waterloo, to St. Helena. Napoleon Just wasn't tough enough. We do a good deal of talking about our great liberal free union of semi-soverei-states, the United States of America. But we frequently for-get that, so far as the States of the old Southern Confederacy are con-cerned, there was nothing free or liberal about it. We forced them to remain in the Union at the points of bayonets. It is worth remembering because, after the Treaty of Versailles, the Allies, especially England and France, made exactly the same mistake that Napoleon had made and made it with exactly the same warlike people, the Germans. There was never a time, up to 1938 at least, when with the controls at their command, they couldn't have stopped Hitler, as Winston Churchill continuously urged that they should do. They didn't. As Napoleon had done earlier, and as the North did not do after the Civil war, they per-mitted the conquered country to build up an overwhelming military superiority, under their very noses. Now the situation is reversed. Hitler sits astride most of Europe. He has disarmed it and made its vast military booty part of his own forces. He, like Napoleon, also con-templates some kind of compul-sory United States of Europe. Some observers, reverting to the Napole-onic failure, say that it can't be done that his conquest will collapse through counter-revolutio- n caused by a combination of interior strains and stresses with outside pressure. Will it? Napoleon, himself, fre-quently said that all empires of con-quest die of Indigestion from over-eating and referred to the crackups of the empires of Alexander, the Romans, Ghengis Khan, Charle-magne and the Caliphates of Bagh-dad and Cordova. On all the evidence to date, Hitler Is not likely to repeat the blunders of Napoleon and the Allies through any lack of toughness, efficiency or cold-bloode- d cruelty. Let's not kid ourselves too far from realism. COLUMN AND NOSTALGIA This column has been accused by some of its best customers of nos-talgia or too much yearning toward World war precedents and experi-ences In mobilizing American in-dustry and man-pow- for defense. Sometimes from the hostiles this criticism takes the angle that the "nostalgia" Is for a government job on the defense front More fre-quently it Is from sincere and un-derstanding personal friends, and hs that too much emphasis is put on mobilization principles and experi-ences 23 years old and that, like "a o,ail a day for 30 days," it gets too monotonous for the readers' relish. No, this column is not in rebuttal of any of these criticisms about nos-talgia. It is Just to talk some of them over. As to nostalgia for a job. That isn't good sense. Any man would like again to have some active part in a great national effort in a crisis, but that natural wish was aban-doned long ago. Quite understand-ably, this administration would not seek out a critic for any more im-portant job than janitor in its dog-house. It Is not to be blamed for that. Any other course would be bad. It wouldn't make for harmony. On the other hand, the adminis-tration has shown great considera-tion and restraint. This column could have been silenced any day, without justifiable criticism from any source, by simply calling its conductor to active service as a re-serve officer a course which would also have put him in a considerable financial crimp and could have re-sulted in no more interesting em-ployment than counting coconuts at San Juan de Bac Bac. As to nostalgia for World war methods of mobilization, they were adopted for manpower. For indus-trial mobilization, the President is reported to have said of the war department's plan (wnich followed our World war model) that we need a 1940 mobilization and not a 1918 blue print. That isn't what the Ger-mans said. They are on record as having modeled their whole indus-trial effort on the war industries board plan so far as it wat applica-ble. E5FI rtTj Notes of an Innocent Bystander: The Front Pages: Some of the generals of Lindy's war college took hope that Moscow's note to Bulgaria promised Bolo opposition to the Rat-zi- s in the Balkans. But Arthur Krock chilled the hope in his Wash-ington column. Every time Stalin pouts at his best girl in Berlin, warned Krock, they make up the tiff with a deal at the expense of a weak neighbor . . . Rob't Minor, who replaced Browder as Comrade Big, used to city edit the Daily Worker. Once, when a Rolls and flivver came together, Minor flipped the item to a rewrite man. "Here," he said,' "write that from the Class Angle" . . . There is a class angle to the hoss tracks, too. Take George F. T. Ryall's account of the opening day at Tropical Park, following the closing of blue-bloode- d Hialeah. Biggies from Hialeah, reported Ry-al- l, visited Tropical "to see how the other half bets' . . . Irving Hof-fman's report to the Hollywood Re-porter: "Honeychile Wilder went out with Rags Ragland Saturday night, and on Sunday was seen at the Stork with Bob Ritchie. In other words, Honeychile's gone from Rags to Ritchie." The Story Tellers: William L. Shirer's adventures in Nazlating Germany are running in the Atlantic Monthly, and make very enlighten-ing reading . . . Jan Valtin's "Out of the Night" has set an all-tim- e record at The Club, beating Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by 3,000 copies . . . Phyllis Brooks of Holly-wood and "Panama Hattie" is in Screen Guide . . . She avers: "A man is a chump to marry an ac-tress, and who wants a chump?" . . . When Scribner's Commenta-tor reprinted an interview given by Benny Goodman on the radio, it failed to include the maestro's state-ment? that Democracy is necessary If America's type of free impro- - made quite a point connecting Democracy and Swing. But Scrib-ner's took pains to blot it out , , . Fortune has a timely article en-titled: "Eddie Rickenbacker Looks Ahead" . . . Margaret Case Harri-ma- n has been commissioned to write a book on New York wits . . . The only objection to that Is Mar-garet can't include herself. Hers is the kind you can mow lawns with. Typewriter Ribbons: Fiorello We are not offering England help because of our mili-tary strength, but because of our military weakness . . . Cal Tln-- ney's: Ambassador John Winant doesn't have nine children like Joe Kennedy, but he has Ideas for matt-ing this a better world for what chil-dren he does have . . , Illinois State Journal's: All the world's a stage, and it is Just too bad that its very worst actors are forever crowding to the front of it . . . Robert Quil-len'- s: There won't be any "big push" in the Balkans. The python doesn't push a rabbit while swal-lowing it . . . Anon's: When two women suddenly become friendly, it's a sign that some third woman has lost two friends. Man About Town: One of the few lady "newspaper men" among the interviewers at a recent Mrs. Roosevelt press confer-ence was Mrs. Maybelle Manning of Miami . . . While asking Mrs. Pres-ident something or other Maybelle began powdering her nose and the compact fell to the floor ... It was a red, white and blue compact, on which was prominently inscribed: We Want Willkie!" A fact high Naval authorities re-late to intimates: About the five Americans piloting as many "Eagles" over Norway, who re-turned safely to London after knock-ing off forty-fiv- e Messerschmitts . . . The Commander is last-name- d Tay-lor. New Yorkers Are Talking About: The sleuths studying the numer-ous soldiers and sailors who patro-nize Yorkville grills . . . That Ass't Navy Secretaryship rumored for Thomas G. Corcoran which can go to Mr. Warner, vice president of Pure Oil, who spurns it . . . When Secretary Frank Knox saw Jack Alexander's swell writeups in Life he intoned: Oh, boy! Wait'll my wife sees those pictures with my mouth open!" The Federal Communications Commish, which just ordered the fingerprinting of all workers in shortwave foreign newsrooms. All will have to show their U. S. citizen-ship records . . . Yamanaka & Co., a Fifth Avenue store, which shipped considerable stock back to the Ori-ent recently. How come if Japan "expects no immediate trouble with the U. S."7 . . . Joan Crawford not embracing Christian Science as reported recently. She is a con- - vert, they say, to Unity, in which a 1 secretary is a High Priestess, End Tables Easi Made From By RUTH WYETH Si F)EARMRS. SPEAf. like those you give Z in your Sewing Book No are painted watermelon match the flowers in J curtains, and they are v hung at each side of the I would like to make , tables of spools for m -- .iM n room, but I can't think o! make them rigid. Have suggestions as to how thl done? B. P." I Curtain rods are use! the spools to make the 1( ter take along a spool to you shop for the rods; the type that has one p inside the other. If the s a little leose on the red make any difference for be glued between each s also between the spools table shelves. I have shi sketch everything else yo know to make this tab! luck to you! NOTE: If you have an lrm rocking chair you would like t( be sure to tend for my Boos! contains 32 fascinating ldeai j make for your home. Send yJ MRS. RUTH WVETR SI'I Drawer It 1 Bedford H ill i fj Enclose 10 cents for Book 1I Name j Address jj DON'T BE BOj BY YOUR LAXATIVE. R8 CONSTIPATION THIS MODE When you feel gassy, head due to clogged-u- p bowels, do do take Feen-A-Mi- nt at bed! morning thorough, comibrtaj helping you start the day f normal energy and pep, feet million! Feen-A-Mi- nt does your night's rest or interfere wit next day. Try Feen-A-Min- t, t$ gum laxative, yourself. It taster handy and economical . . . a faj FEEN-A-MIN- T limitf ION --j Salt Lake's NEWEST j " i.in'rfr,. jgiiytw Hotel J TEMPLE SQU4 Oppoalt Mormon T HIGHLY BECOMME1"! Rates $1.50 to $3.00J It's a mark of distinction J it this beautiful JosteW ERNEST C K08SITE&3 Give a Though MMN STHI d' .For,in our town... like ours clear across the w Q there', a Q oing on. Changes in O and food Pces..; 'I 9 hat crown... the fll;- X turepricei-thesef- fle 0 affect onr living... And"' O is ably covered in dvcrai S Smart people who I'k'" Q in 1"'"' 0 current events, follow.. 8 ments as closely ht,s 0 . They know wbat'l 8 America... and theyW Washington, D. C. WALLACE FINDS NAZI PROPAGANDA IN MEXICO Behind the scenes, Henry Wallace played quite a part in the Mexican-U- . S. agreement to work out Joint plans for national defense. It was Henry's job, during his trip to Mexico, as vice president-elect- , to put across some quiet diplomacy with new President Avila Camacho aimed to smooth out all U. S.- Mexican problems. This he did. and became completely "simpatlco" with high Mexican officials. However, Henry also brought back a very worrisome picture of Nazi activity in Mexico. Being a farm boy from Iowa, and skeptical about the Zimmerman af-fair during World War I when the German foreign office Invited Mex-ico Into an alliance against the United States, Henry went down to Mexico as an unbeliever as far as Nazi propaganda was concerned. But he came back, his skepticism gone. The great mass of the Mexican people and the Mexican government are sincere believers In friendship with the United States, Henry found. But a small minority, plentifully supplied with Nazi-Fasci- st cash, has been doing its best to poison friend-ly relations. In fact, there were some indica-tions that the Nazis might even go to such lengths as outright sabotage or damage to the United States in such a way that Mexico would get the blame, thereby stirring up ani-mosity between the countries. Note Last year $2,000,000 in U. S. greenbacks was taken to Mexico from New Orleans by Count Roberti of the Italian legation, presumably for propaganda purposes. Count Roberti is the of Ogden Hammond, to Spain and a leader of the move to co-operate with Spanish Dictator Franco. GUARDING THE CAPITOL If you visit the United States Capi- - tol in the near iuture aon i carry an isolationist banner or anything more explosive than a cigarette lighter, or you may wind up in the brig. Tightest police restrictions since World war days are being put Into effect at the Capitol building. Under a plan devised by Speaker Sam Rayburn, Sen. Harry F. Byrd, chairman of the senate rules com-mittee, and Arthur E. Cook of the Capitol police board, all visitors will be required to check packages before entering the building. BRITISH DACHSHUND Most unusual household pet In Washington is owned by the British ambassador, Lord Halifax. Believe it or not, he has a German dachs-hund. The envoy bought the dog from a kennel in Virginia shortly after his arrival in the United States. Note The dachshund was widely used by American cartoonists dur-ing the last war as a sinister sym-bol of Germany, and some animals were mistreated by misguided zealots. BOTTLE BOSSIES The department of agriculture is completing plans to breed 2,500 cattle this spring by artificial in-semination. The cattle are the property of In-dians, on reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. Able Indian Com-missioner John Collier asked agricul-ture to help build up the quality of the stock, and the problem was bow to service the cows with a limited number of bulls. Through arti-ficial insemination, one bull can be bred with any number of cows. Most spectacular experiment of this kind was conducted recently by experts in the experimental farm at Beltsville, Md. They sent artificial insemination by air express one morning for a mare in Miles City, Mont In vacuum bottles, it was de-livered the same day, and the proc-ess was completed that evening. Result was a healthy colt, from a mare in Montana, sired by a Bel-gian stallion in Maryland. MERRY-GO-ROUN- D Swankiest newsman at the White House press conference is Robert Horton, press officer for the defense commission, who, while most of the others are hoofing to their offices aft-er the conference, drives away in a limousine with a chauffeur. Some of the electric light bulbs used in the White House are marked "Save," and can be redeemed for two cents after they burn out. But the White House, which buys at re-duced government price, destroys the old bulbs regardless, without re-demption. The immigration bureau of the justice department soon will set up its own intelligence unit to watch fifth columnists in the U. S. A. Allied Chemical is buying one of the swanky apartment houses along Sixteenth street, not far from the Soviet embassy. It should be all set to lobby in a big way. Harmodio Arias, former president of Panama, has four sons in school and college in the United States: Harmodio Jr. and Roberto at Co-lumbia, Gilberto at Harvard, and Antonio at Peddie institute in New Jersey. i Time Goes 0n Come what may, time hour runs through the 1 day. Shakespeare. 1 Defeat Our Ills Joy, temperance, and! slam the door on the docti Longfellow. I Real 'Boom Town9 Rises in Wasteland HOLLY RIDGE, N. C. Four months ago you could have bought all the land you wanted around here for three or four dollars an acre unless you happened to be dealing with a native whose conscience would not allow him to accept such an exhorbitant price. Today this same land is being sold in 20 foot lots and for serious money, too. No, nobody has discovered oil in these parts. This just happens to be the place the federal government picked for the army's new anti-aircra- ft training camp, now under con-struction. There is good farm land both to the north and south of Holly Ridge but the real estate In this immediate vicinity is little more than a scrub-timbere- d waste. But the U. S. army had other ideas. The section is not only easily accessible by high-way and railroad, but offers an ideal spot over which to shoot anti-aircra- ft guns without danger of hitting anyone on land or sea. The shape of the coast and the lay of the land is well suited to the army's pur-pose. Guns will fire out into Onslow bay, wide coastal indenture many miles from the lanes of coastwise shipping. Naturally the government didn't suffer from Holly Ridge's new land boom. In the first place, the price didn't rise until the army had acted and, in the second, the government has the right of condemnation. So its two-mil- e frontage on U. S. high-way No. 17 and all the territory be-tween here and the ocean came cheap enough. It's the land adjacent to the reservation that's suddenly become so valuable. In November the entire population of the cross roads of Holly Ridge and for a mile in every direction totaled 28. This summer, according to government plans, there will be 20.000 troops stationed here. Already there are several thousand men building the camp and the trailer camps in which many of them live stretch up and down the highway for miles. Pine plank stores and bunk houses spring up over and night business is booming on every hand. How long it all will last nebody knows. March Guide to Agriculture f, itwuWHtnifiii f) duo ton roe o i jit Mftftl (til.t )l Sh.'.Mlt iiiitil CCuM MUMt'OMtaft u.lt itMiPH Ctarutl ft I ; aliitl ' 'ti,tttit ro FiiHiM H'ud. UMtffQci ' f A i - $t,ttotii to am. i imci 'tus, ntopucTto V ( Hl "I W toco CO', 4ms k ti Yr vJ . 1- - murf fvR ouTioo reM TP I I "f '; jif ..il.flfl OO0 COUIHMi V LA II lt - M 7 dff 'JyS titM, tout kmN HtiicOMt X'fW4jfVNfc Tktv ( umTit.we mtHfaw tt Mtt f :Af?m . KAMa ( m MO co Jssr V l vJ u"1' ' f ton foiBCiMM 3 Out tma aoT ut Uir tt m MMHU tCCWCMCf This map illustrates the agricultural situation during March as de-scribed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Government Defines Proper Use of Flag in Commerce WASHINGTON. The American Mag can't be displayed promiscu-ously without violating the law even though it represents the "land of the free." To explain and clarify le-gal restrictions in connection with the use of the flag for advertising or other commercial purposes, the de-partment of commerce has published a new handbook entitled, "The Flag of the United States Its Use in Commerce." Numerous instances have been re ported to the department of com-merce of the questionable em-ployment of the national emblem for commercial purposes. In most cases the violation of the law was done unwittingly. While there is no federal legisla-tion covering the use of the flag, every state in the Union has passed laws prohibiting its use for adver-tising purposes. Similar laws ap-pear on the statute books of Alaska, Puerto Rico and Samoa. j |