Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-08-22
COMMUNITY P[AN
Of FOOD BUYING
MAY BE PUT IN FORCE ey RESI-
DENTS OF WASHINGTON,
q. y.
SUGGESTED AS ONE WAY
OF COMBATING HIGH PRICES
Buying Clubs With Purchasing Agents
Who Know How to Shop Suggested
as Best eMsns Of Beating Game Of
Price Boosters Who Take Advantage
Of European War.
/ Special Correspondence.l

Washington. Aug. 22.-F'or a favored
few of Washington. the high prices OF
foodstuffs brought on by the war are
having no terrors. These favored few
and the group who buy their food from
the government ommissariat-to say
nothing of the army people who are
fed by the government at an expendi-
ture of something like 80 cents day,
attempts of the attorney general to
brighten the fool manipulators into
cutting down the boosted prices which
they thought they could wiring from, the
public with the war as an excuse.
Fright, it should be said incidentally, Is
the only weapon which Mr.. McRcynolds
has at his command in the present
crisis and If it fails to work, the -coun-
try Will be visibly. even audibly, at the
mercy of the gentlemen who make their
living out of feeding it.
Community Buying.
The superintendent of weights and
mea sures and markets of the District
OF Columbia has developed plan which
is being seriously considered as a
tonians to check the mounting cost OF
foodstuffs. Sherman proposes whole
sale buying by groups. washington
people. he said Yesterday, need to
learn just four solid basic principles
TO improve their living at lower cost.
These are: buying only those products
that are in their natural season: when
buying in the market, shop around
.lyaf to rt,a at nd fro CT nd
TO stand: wherever possible, buy di-
rectly from the man who actually
raised the goods. buy in as large guam
titles as rossible-if possible in the
farmers wholesale stands"
alr Sherman thinks that a consum-
ers' league might do some good, but
he recommends buying clubs-three or
four in each block, each club containing
from three TO ten families From time
to time in the past various organized
efforts at co operation have been at
tempted in Washington. but up to date
none of them has been particularly
successful. 1t may be that the reason
for their failure has been that the cost
of living was not high enough actually
to force enough people into co-opera-
ton or to keep them there once they
had inaugurated a cooperative. If the
European war hastens the Operative
movement, it will be impossible for his
tory justly To set 1t down as wholly
a bad war.
One Senator Missing.
One United States senator is mis-
sing. and no one in Washington. APP
parentlN. knows where he is. There
re runors that he is out on the chau-
tauqua platform in Oregon, but these
are only rumors His absence is caus-
ing serious financial embarrassment to
at least one man.
The senator in question is Joe 7.
Robinson, of Arka nsas, who happens
to be chairman of the commission to
Investigate Indian affairs. He has not
been seen about Washington for ap-
proximately month and half, and
as under the law he must approve
vouchers and pay checks for the en-
ployes of the commission, his where
abouts are a matter of grave concern
to the employee who has seen no sal
airy for about six weeks. 1t is said that
a stray newspaper clipping brought the
first news to Washington Of this sen
ator's geographical location more than
half continent away from the Dis
trict of Columbia. Even inquiry at the
desk of the gentleman who makes out
the sena torial pay checks had failed to
disclose where he was-perhaps addi-
tional evidence that he was earning a
little extra on the lecture platform.