Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-08-23
RUN BY GOVERNMENT.
The Largest Clothing and Boot and Shoe
Store in the Country.

The largest clothing, boot and shoe
store in this country is run by the
United States, though they sell things
down at cost prices and there is no
profit in it. Every army recruiting
station is a branch store where sup
plies are dealt out, says the New York
San. It is different from ordinary
stores, in that the United States treas
ury furnishes the money that buys the
boots, hats, blankets, and clothes, and
the money that buys from the United
States also comes from the treasury.
regular army has an allowance for
clothing which varies from S17S.S5 to
1928. 40 for his five years term. This
is only from S35.77 to $500 q year.
So the United States has gone into
the business of supplying their ordi
nary things to soldiers at the bottom
price at which the contract for them
can be made. There is no rent, nor
salesmen's salaries, nor insurance, nor
profit to be paid by the government.
As @ result the prices atwhich clothing
is sold to the soldiers are so low that
many workingmen who are paid four
times as much wages as the soldiers
are not clad as well. The blue coats
cost S3.3S. They are made of good
material, we'll cut, and are better fit
ting than the uniform of the average
policeman, for which he pays several
times what the soldier pays. His caps
cost 40 cents. His stockings cost 8
cents pair, and they are better than
the Bowery stores sell for % cents,
while the 40 cent caps are as good as
any man could want. For his blue trous-
sers the soldier pays 50. They are so
cheap that he can buy half a dozen
pairs with his months pay, which is
more than many young men who look
down on soldiers can do.
The two bits of extravaganza are the
flannel shirts and the blankets. The
shirts cost 80 cents more than the
trousers, but they are as good shirts
as can be bought at any price, and
they do not shrink into woolly ball
when they are washed. The blankets
are sold for ST. %. 1t is easy enough to
go to almost any dry-goods shop and
buy cheaper blankets than the soldiers
have, but these blankets are wool and
weigh six pounds. One pair of them
is enough in cold weather, and they
are warmer than several pairs of
cheap blankets. The United States
consider the health of their soldiers,
and, through they economic on the
caps and trousers, they supply the
best wooden shirts and blankets.
There are various kinds of shoes that
sell from 81. rs to$3.04. Then there are
heavy stockings that sell for more than
the 9 cts. that summer stockings bring
There are underclothes for sale that
are of such good quality that the Of
fcers often wear them in preference to
the underclothing that they can buy in
the usual way.
The United States go further, and
supply all the necessities of the soldiers
at cost prices, and their cost rates are
frequently lower than those at which
private store-keeper could buy, as the
United States buy in large quantities
and are sure paw. 1t also tends to in
crease a manufacturers outside trade
if he gets large garment contracts,
and big manufacturer with large
stock on hand can afford to sell to the
United States at cost. If he sold at
the same rate to private sellers they
might cut retailrates, while the United
States sell to nobody but soldiers.
When a recruit is sworn in the SER
geant takes him into the clothing room
and fits him up with full outfit. The
cost of it is taken from his pay, though
at the rates at which the government
sells it does not take him long to pay
up, No one may buy clothing in this
way from the government except sol
diers, and it is a crime for any cloth
ing to be given or sold to any one else.
If the government were to sell to every
body at the same rate the business of
the furnishing goods stores in the
neighborhood of recruiting stations
would be ruined.