Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-05-22
HOW WOMEN MAY UNITE
IN WARTIME SERVICE
Possible to Reduce Living Cost by
Carrying Home Small Bundles
They Purchase.

Women of Washington can mobilize
to perform a valuable wartime service,
should they so desire.
1t will cost them nothing. either in
time or in money. only an occasional
minor inconvenience.
If the majority of housewives In
Washington would combine to carry
home from department stores. from
grocery stores and from all other
shops, small bundles, they would ac-
complish three things:
Help materially in keeping down the
cost of living.
Release men and equipment for other
productive work.
Effect substantial economies, ulti-
mately, in their own households.
Not in Merchants Interest.
This is not plea on behalf of mer-
chants. They do not make money by
their expensive delivery systems. They
are compelled to maintain them be-
cause of the customers demands. They
also are thus compelled to add their
upkeep to overhead expenses, and pass
along the cost to the buyer.
Even in ordinary times the admoni-
ton to carry home small bundles mas
been a starting point of housewives
organizations in city-wide efforts to
keep down prices. In war time such
slight effort on the part of buyers has
patriotic as well as an economic sig
nificanc"
tpt!. ago such efforts were
made, the dark, with the
vague rorrect belief that
consi. .ag could be effected
ny rel pressure upon the de-
livery = of business establish
ments. Fortunately the bureau of tie
census, Department of Commerce. made
1t possible to estimate exactly what
saving might be effected by the united
action of buyers in this direction.
Study of Carriage Costs.
In an introduction to a study of
ton-the first city to be surveyed
Secretary of Commerce Redfield dwells
upon the Importance of the hitherto
neglected topic of delivery costs.
Il have felt increasingly for some
years past that in giving so large an
amount of attention to the matter of
freight rates we were dealing with
the obvious and too much neglecting
the important" says Secretary Red
held. This does not mean, of course,
that the matter of freight rates is even
relatively unimportant: far from it.
But it does mean that the factors in
the cost of distribution. which we may
group in the word Carriage are more
costly and more important than rail-
way freight rates, and that this sub
ject has almost been ignored in our
to have grasped the tremendous item
of carriage cost as whole. to have
estimated it at its true Importance. or
to have attempted so much as to study
it thoroughly on a large scale to find
how serious a problem it is
For these reasons Eugene f. Hartley,
expert in the census bureau. was put to
work studying Washington's delivery
systems and their costs to consumers.
Seven Stores an Example.
In the field of department stores. a
field affording general opportunity
for saving, seven esta blishments were
studied. 1t was found the gross sales
of these seven stores aggregated $11,-
10. S41, and that the cost of delivery of
these establishments was STA .311.
Some part of this charge of about
s1I5oo0. which the people of Wash
ington pay. is expended for necessary
service. But a large part could be
saved, it is estimated. if buyers would
| carry home smaller parcels.
This $4,000 odd dollars represents
he delivery cost of only seven stores
n one field. The total carriage expense
Of Washington in 1915, 1t is estimated,
was SS.300,000. Some of this is neces-
iary and the delivery portion of it,
by a comparatively small per package
expenditure. But large proportion of
it. no one knows just how much, could
be saved
How much of it could be saved de-
ponds upon you, it is stated.
Saving, the experts say, depends
upon united action. 1t depends upon
universal effort, the sort of universal
| service demanded of everybody in war
| times.
If ten dozen, or twenty persons
| ouying at one store carry home smaller
! packages, and other persons have them
delivered, little saving can be hoped
, for. The wagons will have to cover the
routes just the same. But If a large
ma jority of persons carry home their
/ smaller packages, and also are willing
| to curtail frequency of delivery. con-
siderable saving can be accomplished.
If the $8,300,000 figures does not i'm
press you, that portion of it that you
pay should do so.
In 1916 the total population of the
District, it is estimated, was $4,000,
and the total number of families,
10000.
Possible Savings Estimated.
1.-THE estimated total transportation
and carriage costs applying to COM
modities for public consumption in
Washington" the survey report states,
s15250,oOO, deducting the sum of two
items, shipping carriage (outbound)
and government carriage from the
total. This represents approximately
$40 for each individual. or $3.50 for
each family"
How much of this $40 do you wish
to save this year?
How much of this $3.50 do you wish
to subtract from your family budgetf
If you wish to cut the figure. start
today to carry homo all your small
packages. The Star will seek to ascer-
tain from department stores the pre-
1T,