, 1888-10-30
GOVERNMENT ocuoTHMe STORES


United States Soldiers Supplied at CosI
Prices with Good Goods.
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 supplies are dealt out. 1t is
different from ordinary stores, in that the
United States treasury furnishes the
money that buys the boots, hats, blankets
and clothes, and the money that buys
from tho United States also comes from
the treasury Besides his pay each sol
dier IN the TggutHT urmy has an allowance
for clothing which varies from $17S.S5 to
$22S.49 for his five years term. This is
only from S35.77 to $45. 60 a year. If the
soldiers had to go around and buy their
own clothing at ordinary rates they would
not have a new coat more than once every
other year, and they would have to sleep
IN their underclothes to keep warm.
So the United States has gone into the
business of supplying their ordinary
things to soldiers at the bottom price at
which the contracts for them can be
made. There is no rent, nor salesmen's
salaries, nor insurance, nor profit to be
paid by the government. AS a result the
prices at which clothing is sold to the
soldiers are SO low that many working
men who are paid four times as much
a as the soldiers are not clad as well
The blue coats cost S3.3S. They are made
of good material, well cut, and are better
fitting than the uniform of the average
policeman, for which he pays several
times what the soldier pays. His caps
cost forty-nine cents. His stockings cost
nine cents q pair, and they are better than
the Bowerystores sell for a quarter. while
the ~forty-nine cent caps are as good as
any man could want. For his blue
trousers the soldier pays So. 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 thirty.eight cents more than the
trousers, but they are as good shirts as
can be bought at any price, and they do
not shrink into,a woolly ball when they
are washed. The blankets are sold for
S4.2S. 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 though they economic on
the caps and trousers, they supply the
best wooden shirts and blankets.
There are various kinds of shoes that
sell from $1.76 to $3.04 Then there are
heavy stockings that sell for more than
the nine cents hat summer stockings
bring. There are underclothes for sale
hat are of such q good quality that the
officers often wear them in preference to
the Undertaking that they can buy in
the usual way.
The United States go further, and sup
ply all the necessities of the soldiers at
cost prices. and their cost rates are FIRE
quently lower than those at which a pri
waite storekeeper could buy. as the United
States buy in large quantities and are
sure pay. 1t also tends to increase q man
ufacturer's outside trade if he gets large
garment contracts. and big manufact
urer with a large stock OF land can
afford to sell to the United States at cost
If he sold at the same rate to private
sellers they might cut retail rates, while
the United States sell to nobody but
soldiers.
When a recruit is swornin the sergeant
takes him into the clothing room and fits
him up with a 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 govern
ment except soldiers, and it, is a crime for
any clothing to be given or sold to any
one else. If the government were to sell
to everybody at the same rate tho bust
ness of the furnishing goods stores in the
neighborhood of recruiting stations would
de ruined.-New York Sun.