Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1917-07-05
WAR AND BUYING POW.
Err IN GREAT BRITAIN
Report ON Trade Conditions show
Working Glass Never More Prosperous

Report ON Trade Conditions show
Working Class Never More Prosperous.
by Thomas Russell. London. Eng. cor
respondent of Printers Ink. Licensed by
chief postal censor. war office, London.)
With the United States a belligerent
Americans in business will want to know
how domestic markets are going to be
affected. The experiences Of Great Britain
may be helpful.
Domestic trade Is a question of general
prosperity. measured by purchasing
power: and purchasing power, of course,
Is not a simple question Of how much
money comes in the pay-envelope. II
commodities rise 100 per cent. In price,
the man whose wages are doubled is no
better Off
Practically. this is just about what has
happened here. Wages have greatly
risen; SO have prices. But although the
purchasing power of Observation-Disclosures
real wealth-is perhaps about the same
as usual. the number of individuals who
are earning is enormously increased
Consequently business has been very
brisk ever since the battle Of the Marine
raised our spirits. 1t is noticeable that
| good war news has always caused buy
ing. The chief difficulty we experience
as nation is in stopping people spend
Ing too much, and thus employing labor
which might otherwise go to munitions.
The abundance Of money Is due to a
cause which has operated in the same way
In America, namely, the great demand for
labor, due in part to the enlistment of
millions Of workers in the army. The de-
mand for labor on munitions has steadily
grown and Is still growing. OF course.
general trade In country always means
the expenditure Of the wage fund. The
| small earnings of the industrial popula-
ton far outweigh the large receipts Of
the comparatively small class OF the rich.
Nearly all the money there Is In any in
dustrial country is wages. paid out on
Friday or Saturday. spent on Saturday or
Monday, and Immediately put back again
in the bank by the storekeepers. where 1t
Is ready to go out again next payday.
Munitions have employed all the men and
all the women that the factories could
get. Other Industries, having lost men to
| the army, will hire almost anyone but a
cOngenital imbecile. Domestic servants are
all but understandable. Women and untrain-
| ed youths and men have been permitted
by the labor unions to work at all sorts
Of trades. In every organized industry.
the labor unions have insisted on a war
bonus being paid to the workers.
Frequently. in family where only the
father worked before. or where the boys
and girls earned small pay, you have
father doing long overtime. at an increas-
ed rate per hour or with a war bonus, and
the rest of the family wife included very
often) also earning good money.
Prices here are always much lower than
in America, except for food The stand
ard of comfort among skilled workers
IL also lower; your wages are higher In
proportion than your prices. Therefore
our figures may not impress you very
much. But 1t means a lot here that man
and wife with couple Of sons or daugh-
ters of eighteen to twenty years old often
earn fifty dollars a week just now. II
the father is in the army. the rest, with
the separation allowance may make
twenty-five or thirty dollars. Much Is
said about working -class extravaganza.
But the people are only now about up
to your standard Of comfort. The news
papers are full of instalmont furniture
advertising. Instalment pianos are sell
ing. Shoes. clothing. blankets. underwear
(all of them up" In price,; also domestic
utensils, bedsteads. mattresses and other
articles which used to he kept going long
after they really needed renewal, are be-
ing bought All sorts CT books In popular
editions are selling freely.
| But the workers are also investing five
million dollars n wsek In war-saving GER
tificates and putting money away In the
postoffice savings bank. which Is Just "a
patriotic, because the government has the
use OF the money and at a lower interest.
The only people who have greatly lost in
purchasing power are the professional
classes. people who live on investments,