The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-06
TOpekans Are Taking Better
Care of Their Shoes.
High Cost of New Ones Neces-
states Conservation.
REPAIR SHOPS ARE BUSY
CObbIers Working Overtime to
Keep Up the Supply.
Leather in Old Shoes Better
Than Material Now.

when people have to dig down
deem into their pockets and fish up
81 or So or S12 for a pair OF SHOES
when they used only to have to dig up
SIS or IS, it makes difference, said
George Reuter-, shoe repair man on
Kansas avenue, whose workmen are
putting in overtime every week Keep
ing up with the repair work winch
high priced shoe leather has brought
to the door. .
People who never before dreamed
of having a pair of worn SHOES re
soIed, new heels put on, or holes IN
them patched, are bringing their FOOT
gear to the repair men to be f1Xed up
again, and lodging the expense OF =
new pair of Shoes
'.Three nights last week, and three
nights the week before, we worked
overtime here, keeping up with the
extra work" said Mr.. Reuter-. There
have been very few weeks this fall
that we have not had to work overtime
to keep up. The same thing is true
all over the country
Dealers in secondhand shoes ana
clothing corroborate the story OF the
shoe repair man. They say that OLD
shoes can't be purchased, because the
owners are still wearing them, AFTER
the expenditure of a dollar or SO Tor
having them put into better cohdllioh-
Quality Has Declined.
There Is still anOLneE ldClOA III
habit of wearing them another season.
Shoes purchased year or eighteen
months ago are better shoes after they
have been repaired, than shoes which
can be purchased today for the same
amount of money, or more. me
leather industry in the United states
has suffered, and the quality of the
goods has deteriorated.
Bills for half-soling material IN the
possession of Mr.. Reuter- show that in
less than a year the price of the leath-
err he uses for repairing, has gone to
double what it has been in the past.
Selling leather of the "nine-pound'
grade, which formerly cost $4.95 a
dozen blocks in February of 1916, cost
$9.05 for the same amount in Decem-
Der. In February of 1916, the very
best grade of such leather could be
purchased for 1857 a dozen blocks.
Now the lowest grade quoted sells for
more than Sc.
And that isn't the worst of it. There
are some grades of leather that can
only be purchased under certain re-
strictions. Mother can't have her
shoes half-soled unless father has the
same privilege. For the simple reason
that the lighter grades of sole leather,
suitable for work on women's shoes,
cannot be purchased from the big
companies unless there is a certain
amount of heavier leather suitable
for the repairing of mems shoes, pur-
chased at the same time. The leather
manufacturers are short, very short,
of the lighter grades, and even at the
high prices that they can receive for
it, they are not anxious to sell it. So
they practically make premiums of it,
to be awarded to the purchasers of the
heavier feathers, of which they have a
better stock. Statesmen are sent out
under strict orders mob to sell the
lighter grades except under the re-
strictions imposed.
Thread Is Higher.
Other materials than leather have
seen corresponding increases in prices.
The thread which is used in sewing on
the soles has increased more than 100
per cent in price in the last year
And even the humble shoestring-
no more is the man who goes to Wall
street to play the market with little
pin money, properly designated as a
"shoestring piker."
For years and years 1 sold shoe
1aces here at 5 cents for half a dozen
pairs said Mr.. Reuter-. Now I sell
them at two pairs for a nickel. and
make less money than I did when I
sold them at six for a Nickel he as
serted, and dug up old invoices to
prove it.
Some three months ago the shoe re-