Show The High Cost I Of Amusements I IThe The payment of amusement taxes to the t amount of ot 1479 by the theatres theatres theatres thea thea- tres of ot Manhattan for the months months' of January and February shows that the public in lii that period spent nearly 15 for dramatic ent entertainment Local theatregoers of ot course pai paid only a n. part of it and indictments of New NewYork's Nework New Yorks York's ork extravagant expenditure on the I drama must be m modified to agree agree with wIth the facts Boston and San Francisco and Chicago and Atlanta helped to swell the total And certainly a remarkable total itis It ItIs ItIs Is of money spent solely for a taxable form of amusement and in only one I city The figures will inevitably Suggest suggest sug gest comparisons at a time of overalls parades and economy propaganda as bearing on the relation of 91 theoretical thrift to actual conditions of expenditure expendi expendi- ture The money noney paid for two months of ot theatregoing In New York would bu buy a million pairs of high grade shoes an and a quarter of a million well made i suits of clothes But what have questions questions questions ques ques- of utility to ao o with the case caso People leople go to the theatre to be entertained enter enter- tamed not to be bored with economy statistics The humber number of bushels of wheat or loaves of bread purchasable for tor 15 w worth rth of f theatre tickets Is beside the mark At least the high cost of the drama Is not bothering Americans seriously They may complain about the pi prices ices of ot b bacon con and eggs and d clothing but the great contemporaneous ran ous prosperity of the theatre under an Inflated scale of admission charges only illustrates an inherent Inconsistency of national character It is only the cost of ot the necessaries that causes discontent the discOntent the the high price of luxuries does not matter matter mat mat- ter so much New New York World I Dem Iem lam |