New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-06

perhaps lilac water could not be classed
with potatoes as national necessity at
this time. Of course, there wouldn't be
any pressure brought to bear, and no
independent publisher would consider
himself coerced in the matter, but after
he had gone to bed at night he might
say to himself; did do just the square
thing by those Eureka Lilac Water peo-
pie in running that story advocating
economy in lilac water?" And the more
he thought on it the more uneasy he
would get in his conscience until he
would probably get up and 90 to the
telephone and call up the press room
and tell them to kill the story. No one
will probably ever know how many
stories have been snatched off the
presses at the last minute owing to con-
scientious DIRECTORS.
4 certain we'll known writer, whose
name alone would sell his work to most
story of couple who owned little su-
tomobile which had done them good SER
vice, but which seemed to grow more
and more modest and unsightly as time
went on SO they decided to buy new
er and larger car Then they stopped
and considered what they could buy
with the money if they kept the old one,
and they decided that it would be better
to fix up the front porch and have the
rugs mended, and get some new curtains
and still let the little automobile work
for them another year. 1t wasn't story
so much Of economy as it was of affec.
ton for the little, inexpensive car. And
yet it came back from magazine after
magazine, with the frank explanation
that it would never do to run story ad-
vising people not to buy new car, for
automobile advertising is the golden egg
reservoir for the modern magazine. One
Of them, which is above any sordid con-
siderations Of expediency, did finally &C
cept the story, but sent it back later
saying that the advertising depart
ment didn't think it would be doing just
the right thing by the automobile ad-
vertisers.
So it will be seen that this economy,
while on the surface it may seem the
height of aitruism, is really terrifcal-
~ selfish, Prussian thing. There is moth
ing that one can do, unless it were to
90 personally into thousands of homes
and sprinkle poison in the food, that will
bring about such misery to others as
little well intentioned abstinence from
things that one likes. A sewing club OF
women, refusing to open up a second
box Of chocolate peppermints, can throw
whole village of chocolate peppermint
workers into CONSERVATION, if not worse.
There seems to be no way out of it.
Having built this Frankenstein of re-
tail trade in notions, we are now faced
with the necessity of having it to sup
port even at the expense of going with
out things that we need. But we can't
even go without things that we need
unless we want to take the responsible
ity for the orphans of the workers IN
that line. The only thing to do at this
time, in order to relieve the pinch Of
wartime conditions, is not to spend less,
but to spend more. In that way we VIII
find ourselves, as a nation, in the very
traternal position of each man support
ing the other mans family.
And some time, when the question
arises of how to save in the face Of war
some Machiavelian economist is going
to suggest, with an analytical cunning
that is almost devilish in its acuteness'
that one measure of war economy when
might do a lot toward conserving the
country's products would be to use them
AS they were originally intended to DC
used and to economic on wars them
selves.