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Show SPENDING. The American public spent about 30,000 million dollars during August. That is enough to give even a mathematician a headache. No human brain can really grasp such a gigantic figure. It is difficult diffi-cult to understand how times can be dull instead of booming, considering con-sidering the money spent. August was a dull month, with thousands out of work and the average person "watching the pennies." pen-nies." Yet the 30,000 million dollars dol-lars spent by the American people during August was 6,000 millions The board is not apt to exaggerate in this estimate, for it Is the voice of 15,000 employers. Where do we get this estimate that Americans spent 30,000 million dollars in August? In bank clearings clear-ings the country over the total of all checks written and sent through clearing houses for collectiontotaled collec-tiontotaled 35,079 millions. Add 5 per cent, for 95 per cent of business busi-ness transactions are paid by check, and 5 per cent by cash. Divide total August spendings by the population and it looks as if $310 was spent for every man, woman and child. During one month? It couldn't be. The joker is that there are duplications in the totals. For instance, suppose a factory sells a suit of clothes to a jobber for $50 and he sells it to a retailer for $75 and the retailer passes it on to the customer for J100. Now, if all pay by check, this $100 suit of clothes will represent repre-sent $225 in bank check clearings in these three processes of moving it to market. Other duplications creep in, back yonder where the raw materials are collected, transported, trans-ported, etc. Finance, after all, is simple as simple as a Chinese puzzle. more than they paid out in August, I 1923, when times were booming. Spending makes prosperity creates cre-ates demand, gives jobs. But why were times better when people spent less? Americans now are spending at an average rate three times as much as before the war. This looks as if the cost of living is ; j three times higher than in those, good old days when you could buy : a Sunday chicken dinner for 35 1 cents. The National Industrial Conference Board insists the high cost of living is G2 per cent (in-! stead of 200) higher than pre-war. I |