The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-16
Further Discussion Concerning the
 $15-a-Week Proposition of LiOing
Letters Asking Just What Depends Upon the Feminine Portion of the Family Everything Going Up Up, Up, Shoes Laun dry Hosiery and Wearing Apparel As Well As Edbles.
 According to Housekeepers- Who's to Blame?
BY DOLLY DALnYMPLn

1 turn and twist, why of course that is greatly to her advantage. There was a time when s15 week was not an insignificant sum for two people | to start life on. but that was in those | halcyon days when butter wasn't 40 cents | a pound, and when the finest egg ever laid by an ordinary hen did not bring | over l cent.
 Think of it! Nowadays one dozen eggs | cost more than two (small szed) chickens, | according to recent statistics. Time was when the average housekeep- | CT didn't probe very deeply into affairs | and had no more idea what caused the | fluctuations in prices of foodstuffs than a member of the Royal family but If you | please in these parlous days the HIGH COST OF LIVING occupies a goodly share of her time, and she is sitting up and taking notice and asking questions | to beat the band.
 Why has butter gone up several cents | per pound?" she demands of the imper- | turbale Butter Man, who mutters some | thing unintelligible about Minnesota and | Freight" and looks blank as a break | fast plate.
 Why has milk advanced in price?" she asks curiously, "and why do eggs cost so much?"
 WHY, WHY, wHY-alI this HIGH ] COST OF LIVING?"
 l And her query Is echoed by women all | over this broad land, not old wonien | either who can tell about the time when l eggs were 10 cents a dozen," and fry CTS" were 15 cents q piece and "broilers'' | high at 12la cents. but by young house. keepers, who few years ago had none of this sort of thing to contend with and can see no possible reason why with the market full of everything anybody wants to eat prices should take such an upward flight.
 "Why. my husband used to allow me s10 a week for our family of six said an experienced housekeeper yesterday in discussing this subject, land we lived well. Now I couldn't feed three people on such an amount"
 "Its not worse than the price of wear ing apparel" said another. My chil7' drens stockings cost more now than nearly anything else they wear The stockings are not as good as those I used | to buy for less money. and it's no uncom- | mon sight to see my youngsters out at | the heels and looking as if their mother | paid no possible attention to them. Same way with shoes; they are one of the most expensive articles that I buy for myself and my children. A silk pettlcoat that | I used to treat myself to at Christmas time would wear to the next Christmas, and now one costs much more and doesn't wear worth a cent. Gloves, linens, Yeis, everything has advanced in price until it's almost impossible for a person in ordinary circumstances to make any sort of an appearance. Why, I was saying only the other day that when I went down to buy the thin goods for my childrens spring clothes that l never saw anything so high.'
 As I listened to the discussion, these two experienced housewives felt that l was getting very little encouragement on my "sl5 week. story, and l was more disheartened when one of them said: Why, my laundress who has been do- ing my work for years, appeared the other day with one of my best night gowns torn into ribbons and laying it in my lap, she said:
 T resigns my job right heah.' "'Why. what's the trouble, Mandy " Desc heah goods you buys ain't no count. Dey aint laak de laces and linens | and embroders folks used ter wear Be sides. I has to pay much fer soap an starch dat 1 ain't gwine ter wash no mo, but Ise gwne ter git me CT job in CT hotel, whare don't have ter glib up all de money at de en uv de week fer things dat I done tore tryin ter wash 'em. White folks don't buy de kline of white goods dey used ter
 So-
 T supjpose women will go wonder ing and fretting over the High Cost of Living and trying to make ends meet with limited income, while the law makers and those in authority sit sereney back saying they can't solve the problem either.
 Most women have a hay, inconsequen- tial idea that the Tariff has something to do with their household worries, but when she stops to realize that the much abused tariff has nothing whatever to do with the amable and unsuspecting hen. and that the simple minded big hearted Jersey cotton goods are not imported. neither has ducted tour" across the Big Pond, she naturally keeps on wondering at the in- creased Cost of Living, and what it's all coming to.
 Being dutiful wife, she goess to her husband for information on the subject and after nuttering something vague about supply and demand" and be- sides, whatever happens he cannot pos sibly give her over sl5 q week. because that's all he makes. and he expects her to be smart enough and resourceful enough to live within that amount and make him comfortable-he calmly opens the morning paper and lights a cigar and gleans the latest Presidential news concerning Mir oscar Underwood. Dr. Woodrow Wilson and MT. Champ Clark and leaves her to solve the riddlei