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Show Kathleen Norris Says: Our Households Face Rough Weather BeU Syndicate WNU Features. vwz (IF i CAa w' W Vs 7 J HOME .? f JA -- DT,5T Impress the children so forcefully with the throttling power of debt that the lesson will last Uiem the rest of their lives, in peace as well as in war. By KATHLEEN NORRIS IN THE old clipper days it was part of a captain's job to know when a storm was coming. He watched the sky, and when there was trouble ahead he sent every man he could spare up into the yards to shorten the sails. Perhaps the ship had been sailing along swiftly in fair weather. Perhaps there hadn't been a cloud in the sky as she had spread her white wings to the kiss of the winds. But squalls come up swiftly, and smart seamen deal with them instantly. in-stantly. Long before rough gales reach them they have every bit of canvas roped and tied, and the ship is ready to dive head on into the waves and slip unobstructed through the seas. Your household and mine are facing rough weather. Of America's more than 40 million homes all except ex-cept a few are going to feel the strain of the coming months months so vital in the history of the world and of civilization that, whatever our personal losses or fears, we must feel ourselves privileged priv-ileged to live in them. We are going to win the war, whether it takes us five months or five years, or fifteen. Something to Hope For. It may be that this coming autumn will see the tide turned, will assure us the worst is over, and the only dragging months of settlement settle-ment and readjustment are ahead. Some of the best-informed men in America and England think that this might be so. Something to hope for, anyway. But whether the road to peace is long or short it is for you and me now to shorten sail. And just as those old sea captains used to send their very smallest boys up into the rigging, so begin with the smallest members of the family, and take them into your confidence. Work out a plan that means paying up every debt you owe to the very last cent. Make a graph of these debts, If you like, and post It in the living room. Slowly obliterate the red lines, as dentist. Installment collector, collec-tor, insurance and grocer get their due. Impress the children so forcefully force-fully with the throttling power of debt that the lesson will last them the rest of their lives, in peace as well as war times. If your argument is: "We barely v get along now; it is utterly impossible impos-sible for us to do any better," something some-thing is wrong in your mind. It is always possible to do better. In every department of your housekeeping house-keeping there is leakage, small in itself, but adding up into formidable formid-able waste. Wasted bread and butter but-ter on small plates; wasted lights burning unneeded; wasted oven heat, wasted hot water, wasted telephoning, tele-phoning, wasteful habits of helping oneself to just a little too much gravy, potato, biscuits, bacon, sliced peaches. Wasteful Thinking. Worst and most extravagant of all is the wasteful thinking. Thinking that you and yours must have certain cer-tain tilings and must live in a certain cer-tain way. Dad likes pure olive oil in salads, so none of the cheaper vegetable oils will do. There is no usable substitute for pure butter in cake. The front hall and the drawing-room must be lighted at five o'clock every evening. Telegrams Tele-grams must be sent on all occa- IN THE RED To those who never quite manage to make the proverbial prover-bial ends meet; who always feel that little extravagances are necessary "just this once" ; who are more than willing to pay the doctor, the grocer, the tax collector next time; to these and all others like them, who are never completely on the credit side of the ledger, Kathleen Norris offers a solemn sol-emn warning that the peace that comes after this war will bring greater freedom, greater happiness, greater opportunity opportuni-ty only to those whose lives are not clouded by the knowledge knowl-edge that, although they know where the next meal is coming com-ing from, they will probably not be able to pay for it. sions. Olives and celery must be upon the table whenever there is company. Friends in the hospital must have flowers. These are the niceties and luxuries lux-uries of living; we have accustomed ourselves to them, and it is hard to do without them. It is much more pleasant to have a nice girl in a cap and apron serving dinner, and to be able to ignore the question of dishwashing and clearing afterward, after-ward, than to serve things up in a scramble, with Molly running in and out of the pantry setting the table, ta-ble, and Mother cooking. But none of these things is as valuable as a spirit of peace. There is no quicker way to banish fear and doubt than to get the home situation situ-ation well in hand and to face the future solvent and unafraid. Solvency Is Freedom. This is a war for freedom and independence. Solvency is freedom; being out of debt is independence. It won't help you much, when the world is free, and when we are all rejoicing in the dawn of a new day, to remember that during the war you refused to adapt yourself, you stumbled right on into deeper and deeper debt and that, though America Amer-ica has won, you have lost A Nashville woman writes me this: "Last year we had three sons at home, two working and contributing to expenses, one in school. Now two of them are drafted, the third past 18 and therefore eligible to the draft, and my husband recently stricken with a heart illness that will mend slowly, perhaps taking months to cure. This means that from an income of $67 a week, plus $10 each from the boys more than $350 a month in all I am reduced to whatever Bud can earn, and even that may presently disappear. "But my people have always been soldiers and pioneers, and I am proud to follow in their footsteps. I rented my home and moved into a three-room apartment that I get for nothing, because I am caretaker. Not a janitress, for there is a good janitor, but I am expected to hire elevator boys, answer complaints, send for plumbers when necessary, advertise empty apartments, sign leases and so on. "I advertised that a woman of 46, whose sons were called to the service, would like to be given a trial in any capacity that assured her of a home, and had five answers, an-swers, of which this job was my choice. Bud gets $40 a week and gives half to me for board: I save every cent of this, as the $75 I get for my home more than pays our expenses. |