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Show ENCOURAGING THE DOLLAR 1 TO DO THE WORK OF FIFTY- I rFN'T'Si 4. F. 4?gle on the Much Discussed High Cost I Vivll X O of Living Problem iTSGjET'S tackle this "high gwgcost of Hung" thing from S3 r 5 another angle, nn angle JS8 Lv fr$i ""A'ch most of us can un-(l-T7irici 9 "crstand without undcr-j) undcr-j) going a surgical operation and which should go a long way loward convincing us that, like idiurity. it begins ut home. You've W3ded through long winded explanations, blaming blam-ing the tariff, the trusts, economic coalitions, coa-litions, the law of supply and demand, iroduction and distribution nnd olhcr fancy things for soaring prices and you've iu review time and again before the rest of the household There -'-as plenty of good, substantial food on the table, but delicacies were few aud far between. On Sunday there were ice cream and cake and thu children were given a penny or two to indulge in a little wild dissipation. Mother's thrift compelled every dollar to work after the whistle blew and enabled her to make a trip lo the savings bank about twice a month. Few mothers of the 1012 model do their own washing or sewing and do very little biking. Except in ense of extremely poor families, the washing is sent out. This takes anywhere from fifty cents to a dol- "" - ' ai""" 'f' ivouud up with a lot of loose words Jn your system and uo belter knowledge of the'prohlem than when you started. After iJoundering arouud in one of these prudltc articles for an hour or two you have figured it out that you have may-anuaiso may-anuaiso dressing where there ousht to be ;iny matter. Yes. you have. No use de-i ujiug it. You've been up to your nccki in figures aud have been coin? down for the third time when you summoned nil rour waning strength and hurled the article ar-ticle from you. And nil the while it never Jawned upon ycu that you were partly responsible for seeding the cost of living if tor the altitude record. Few of the 'millions who have been swcllijig the mighty roar of protest against Hie wild fiight of food, clothing and oljier things hae stopped to think f the pari they have played in encouraging encourag-ing a dollar to do the work of fifty cents. Thai's what it amounts to. Housewives complain that a dollar only goes half as far as it did formerly, &o it's a good idea to find out where the other fifty cents has been .spending its rime. Be it ever so liumble, there is uo place like home to lart anything, even a "high cost of hv-!)' hv-!)' investigation. "The conveniences and luxuries of one ;euerulion arc regauled as necessities by In next. Even iu humble lionici a stand-lrd stand-lrd of living Is made possible which was jeyoiid the fondest hope entertained by generations that have scarcely passed iwny." , This is the way Senator Burton, of Dhio, put it up to the old homestead a few weeks ago. Pausing long enough to ct his indictment sink in, the invc&tign-ion invc&tign-ion will start with a comparison of the lvcrage home of to-day with that of .wenty years ago, the period when prices licked up their skirts and started to run.j Most of those who have lo worry about ho problem ar old enough to go back hat far without having time to think it jvcr. Women who are averse lo recnll-ug recnll-ug so many birthdays had better dep )iie tide, as Ihe investigation committoe s about to make its way between the mrallel lines, pointing out a few of the :hanges that have taken place Twenty years ago mother did the cook ng, baking, washing, 'roning. meuding md sewing for a family of five or six. she did up enough preserves and pickled hings to make every shelf in the house Toan under their weight. She saw to t that the cellar was stocked with vege-.ables vege-.ables enough to last nil winter. On top )f this she made everything the childicn vorc but their shoes and grieved bitterly lecause she couldn't make them. But the 'amily shoes kept going to the cobblers intil thcie was no place left to hang a ;ole on The ndvent of a new pair of ihocs in many comfortable homes was putc an occasion The owner had to pass M41AA4jLl.t&tJIAtAUAA.lltAj(A4itAiU4l lar out of the weekly envelope. Mother does the ironing and mending, but buys the children's clothes ready made. This necessitates a big expenditure in the year where there are four or five children in the home. It's hard to find a mother who does any baking these dny. Most of the bread and pastry come from the bakery, and there is pic or cake once or twice a I day where such luxuries were formerly confined to once or twice a week, Sundays and holidays. Mother doesn't bother with preserves. She buys them at the store. If she lives in one of the large citie she has ihe excuse that the apartments are so small there Is no place to keep preserves. pre-serves. When the family shoes or clothes wear out they are thrown away and new ones purchased. Boys and girls now average three aud four palis of shoes a year wiicro two pairs used to do them. As for to-daj's table, every meal is a banquet compared with the table of 1S92. Delicacies Deli-cacies that were mentioned in the same hallowed breath with Thanksgiving and Christmas and other festival days are a dnily occurrence. Mother buys the best of sirloin steak for tho family where her predecessor used to feed her flock on shoulder and round steaks and jolly them into thinking it was tho best in the market. mar-ket. Butchers will tell you that there is Tfry little difference in the cuts sold lo the middle aud wealthier classes.! Everybody wants the best of everything nowadays, and the idea of denial with a view to saving has lost Its popularity. Where the children took a penny from their parents on Sunday and then ran away to brag about their untold wealth, the children of to-day insist that their palms bo crossed with silver or at least a nickel. And they don't confine their demands to Sunday. One of the first thlnps they learn to do is to put the hand out, and about the last thing they learn is to pull it in again. These nickels and dimes find their aAMA LwA Ai 'way to the soda counter, ice cream parlor lor moving picture plant. Soda was a rare event in the lives of boys and girls. of au earlier generation and didn't happen more than a few times in the season. Children didn't get to the theatre until they were in their early teens and were preparing for the event for weeks. Now they arc wheeled to the moving picture shows in baby carriages. Everybody, from mother to grandpa, takes in the picture show once or twice a week, and this doesn't leave enough of a dollar to worry about If you lost it You can remomber how pretty the little girls of your boyhood days used to look in the'ir smart ginghams, pretty aprons and pink or blue hair ribbons. Mother used to mak their dresses and she'd turnl out three queens with an expenditure of not more than ?5 or .$6. That much wouldn't buy more than a drew for one little girl to-day. None of that gingham stuff in hers, thank you. She wants. It as near to the mode her mother Is wearing as can be, and her mother encourages her in that desire. It Is hard to distinguish her from her big sister when they go out together. The little girls yon have in mind arc fast disappearing. They make the jump from swaddling clothes to the shenth gown in a single bound. Their little brothers are not far behind when it comes to extravagance in clothes and other things. Do yon think a 1012 boy would be seen wearing those stout little boots with red topa nnd brass tips that wore once your pride and joy? He would not He wants aboes like his daddy, and his daddy wants him to have them, and that's all there is to it. Mother v.vou t uidne his ciotnes or cnop his hair in order to save a penny or two. "She takes him to the tlorc and lays out $10 or $lo on hiin. He goes to the barber shop and gets a regular man's size haircut. Even in learning to smoke little Willie is three times as expensive as the boy of years ago. He makes his first attempt with a Jiflecn cent box of cigarettes, where lie could get the same result with a box of the nickel brand. But no one smokes nickel cigarettes any more. .Most cigarettes cost ns much as a light lunch nowadays. Mary, the eldest-girl in the family, has to have live times as much as her mother had at her nge. Mother had two or three dresses for each of tlic seasons and always al-ways managed to pull more than one season out of her clothes. Mary has half a dozen dresses, not eiaDorate affairs, but each costing more than any her mother wore. Mother had two pairs of shoes a plain pair for every day and n kid pair with patent leather tips for Sunday. I Mary has three or four pair, including j white buckskin ties, which her mother j used lo think were the exclusive properly jof Cinderella. Watch the footwear of the ' poorest working girl and you'll see where 'some of the money goes. No, not the .stockings. We said shoes, j But to return to Mary. The young 'man who expects to tuck her under his ll -iV s il k i I name buds courting about ten times as expensive as hi3 father did. He brings a box of fifty cent chocolates, while his daddy used to lay five cents' worth of ste3m candy in his sweetheart's lap. He takes Mary In the dollar peats at the theatre, while dad used to take hia mother in the gallery. He gives Mary a Christmas present that sets him back right close to the bread line, while dad used to give his mother a pair of kid gloves, a box of candy and a bottle of perfume, per-fume, at a total cost of $3, including a frosted Christmas card. He takes Mary to aome amusement place every Sunday. Hia dad used to take his mother on one excursion a year. In the matter oi dress and desire for entertainment mother has contributed her share toward koeping th cost of living on tho jump. She has twice as much as the mother of twenty years ago, but then nothing noth-ing is too good for her. For that reason the investigation, so far as she Is con- ., a a AA..j-JAAfA4 cerncd, shall stop right here. While faihu has roared louder than all the other about M tho increased expenditures, he has not H been entirely guiltless in the matter of M extravagance. Twenty years ago father bought & bain M of new mown hay and a clay pipe for six M cents and smoked hinmlf and all the other H members of the family black in the face. H To-day he emokes three or four cigars a H day, and even at the nickel rate it counts H up in a week. And there are not many H fathers who, are satisfied with a five cent H torch. Toward the end of tho wck they H can be induced to smoke them, but pay H day and several days thereafter find them H sinking their teeth into the ten cent brand. M j Father used to link arms with the can and H take it to the corner, where he got enough H gasolene for five cents to keep him honking ' J H for five hours. Now he buys his beer by VH the glass and mixed drinks arc no longer i vjl holiday treat. k Father used to carry his lunch In a H basket. Mother would get enough corned H beef or ham on Sunday to insure his M lunches for two or three days. Now he H buys his lunch, and it costs him twenty cents at the least. Twenty years ago the seven o'clock -whistle In the morning filled the .streets with men carrying din- ner pails and lunch baskets. Try and recall how many of these common car- riers you have seen in the last few years. Father used to shine his own shoes. Now he gets a shine at least once a week. It M may be only a nickel shine, but it means H an expenditure of two dollars and sixty H cents in a year. Everybody shincd his own shoes twenty years ago. No one M does it any more. One sees small boya IH waiting in line to spend a nickel or dime H for a polish. JA Father used to be content with on M daily or weekly paper. Now he buys tw or three a day and a couple on Sunday. H When he wns watching the baseball garni lfl in the back lot he was thoroughly, satis- H fled. Now he wants to sit in the bleach- era and watch the professional games. H His trip to the barber shop once a month used to cost him about twenty-five cents. H Now it costs him fifty or sixty cents. Bat M there's no use rubbing it in on father. M He's paying the bills for the entire fam- M lly and he's entitled to spend x little of H St on himself. H One of the things which 'have contributed H to tho high cost of living Is tho disposition H to call in a physician for the most trivial H hurt or ache. In the old days you were H half way to heaven before they thought H of having him look you over. Families H are buying three times as mauy propared IH medicines and toilet articles as they did H twenty years ago. The fire cent trollsy H ride has made millions of persons forget H they have legs. Now you know what H that other fifty cents has been doing. H |