Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1917-07-05

and the landowners. salaried men. II un-
able to get raise, and men in profess
sions like that of an architect or a doctor,
are suffering real privation. They cannot
increase their fees; but food and rainent
cost them more. The investor or landlord
has an ampler margin; he spends more
money and invests or re-invests less. His
purchasing power is only technically d.
minished A fixed income is worth nearly
40 per cent. less than 1t was In 1914; 1t will
pay for 40 per cent. less of everything ex-
cept rent. A sovereign-about five dollars
only buys twelve shilling's worth Of
goods. Paper money has entirely replaced
gold. 1 haven't seen a sovereign for eight
cen months. There is a story of thrifty
Scot who received an unaccustomed gold
sovereign. which he promptly asked the
local bank to change for silver. Receiving
twenty shillings, he FASTENED out before
the teller should learn from the morning
paper that sovereign was only worth
twelve shillings in these hard times! The
margin enjoyed by the richer classes has
prevented any considerable slump in the
highest grade commodities. Gowns at $3.50
or $500, women's luxurious underwear,
high priced cigars. jewelry and such
things are selling freely. One London con-
Germ made quite a little fortune in ladies'
underwear richly embroidered with the
official emblem of any desired regiment.
Cigarettes with army crests on the paper
are largely advertised. The market for
goods used by the professional and mid
die class is reduced, because purchasing
power is really lower there, and although
the class below is buying better stuff it is
very often Initiative in character. A wom-
an remarked to me on the elaborate or
namentation of lingerie In popular stores.
but said that It was tawdry in style and
the material SNOWY but not good.
Taxation raises prices and also reduces
purchasing power. but not fast enough
to overtake the abundance of wages. The
income tax Is Is per cent. with rebates on
incomes under $4,000. and it has been ex-
tended downwards so as to tax the week.
ly wage-earner. The weekly wage-earner
still has money to spend and to save. all
the time.
Substitutes for things made scarce or
dear by war sell readily. Margarine. for
instance, Is eaten in thousands of middle
class families which would formerly have
despised it, and superior grades up to %
cents pound are very largely advertised.
year before the war I was consulted
about high-grade margarine, which my
own family. guilefully experimental up
on, had failed to distinguish from butter.
l advised advertising to the butter-eating
classes rather than to consumers of
! twelve-cent margarine, and said they
would be difficult to convert. War has
| converted plenty of them.
OF course all the prosperity have men,
toned is internal. The nation is not rich
err: 1t has only been redistributing its con-
tained wealth. We are like the Scilly Is
landers. who are reported to live by doing
each others laundry work. In SO far as
the things purchased are imports. we are
actually poorer. The money goes out of
the country; and where our purchases are
unproductive, there is dead loss, exactly
as every gun and every ounce OF explosive
matter Is dead loss. But the general
state Of domestic trade is good. The idle
classes are poorer and the working classes
are richer. Very much the same sort of
thing will occur. no doubt. in America.