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Show RAZOR BLADES: $1.50 EACH If you think things are tough when you have to pay 75 cents for a pair of shorts that cost only 39 cents before Pearl Harbor, and are put out because there are no more cut-rate sales on your favorite shaving cream, pause to shed a tear for a fellow-American in Calcutta who had to pay $12 for the one and $2 for the other. And for one safety razor blade one, mind you, not a pack $1.50! The victim was Eric Sevareid, CBS commentator. When he got to Chungking, the radio reporter found there were no street cars or taxis, no variety of foods, an actual shortage of dishes and commonest necessities, and no luxuries at all. An ordinary watch cost $500. Why? The answer is: China is fighting for its very life, and India is literally "next door to it," and no time, labor or material can be wasted in the manufacture of anything but war essentials. India has the largest steel mill in the British Brit-ish empire, but steel is too valuable to go into razors. Precious Prec-ious cotton must be woven only into uniforms. Shipping space is too much in demand to carry overseas such extravagances extrava-gances as soap. America is the only nation fighting on the side of the democratic allies which is able to maintain so great a percentage per-centage of normal peacetime production. Until Americans have gone through such experiences as Eric Sevareid's they don't begin to realize how fortunate they are, how little some of them at home are sacrificing. Christian Science Sci-ence Monitor. |
