New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-07-08
Big War Wages
Make Workers
Demand Luxury
Cheap Pianos and Finery
Now Sell Better
than Ever
Even Germans Buy
High Prices Cause Complaints,
but Do Not Check
Consumption
Even Germans Buy
By ELIZABETH BREUER

in the trenches, the man of the hour.
His unprecedented prosperity is caus-
ing everincreasing demand for lux
uries in all the warning countries
even in Germany. They cannot manu-
facture enough cheap pianos, enough
self-playing music devices, enough Jew
elry and finery TO meet the voracious
appetite of a workingman for the hrst
time with his full weeks wages in his
Jeans because OF war prohibition-and
4 wage. incidentally, that is much, much
higher than ever he received in the
piping times of peace and prosperity.
No spectre of unemployment accom-
panies modern war. More work than
there are hands TO do it, more money
for the labor, and fewer ways to waste
that money.
And what is true of the working
mans prosperity is true to the nun
power of his brother of the middle
classes. The latter, through the in
dustrial expansion incident to the war,
has bloated himself into growing
class of newly wealthy. He has so
much money that it has lost its value
to him, for he it is that is furnishing
the industrial brain and power neces-
sary to carry on the war. And so you
see tradesmen glorifed into knighthood
in England, the "goulash" barons of
Scandinavia, the nouveau richie OF
France, and here, too, our own crop OF
war Wallingfords.
Big Demand for Luxuries
With these classes anxious TO live on
the magnificent scale commensurate
with the bulk of their suddenly ac-
ouired money, the war has caused an
Unprecedented appetite for luXurles'
That man was badly advised who, at
business conference in Detroit recent
~. urged the manufacturers of auto
mobiles and like luxuries to dlscon-
tinue their manufacture and turn their
factories to the production o. staples
and necessaries. 1t is just here that
the pinch will be felt, and not by an
tiaue dealers and automobile agents,
according to reports from Europe.
But let US hear those who how:
NV fathers chauffeur stands in line
every day for our bag of coal. More
you can't get in Paris even II you are
the President of France. But fur coats
cost twice as much as | paid before
the war and more people are buying
them" So related my friend, who had
lust returned from visiting her father,
who is high in French government
circles.
81 thought | would do all my shop
ping in Paris" she went on, but l
found the prices frightful, and bought
my things here when | came back. My
furrier in Paris showed me coats which
he himself frankly declared inferior,
vet he gets enormous prices for them.
And from such people! They are really
grotesquel A curious class of nouveau
richie, which has sprung up from no
where since the war and is spending
money right and left, and making Paris
seem more prosperous than ever.
81 found only a minor part OF those
who live on their incomes selling
their tapestries to make ends meet.
And. of course, the professional classes,
teachers, journalists, artists and the
like. For them, indeed, the war seems
20 say there is no place in the world
when the individuals value is meas
ured by pressing material need. Yet
every one likes 70 say times are hard.
NV father complains. Yet | noticed
that his new limousine is larger and
more expensive one than he had before
the war
Prices Go Soaring
Add to that the testimony of Axel G.
Lober, American manager of the Royal
Copenhagen Porcelain and Danish Arts
Company. who recently returned from
a Journey to his home Office in Holland,
and there inspected reports from
agents of their company in the warning
countries. AS Mr.. Lober explains at
once:
1--WE pride ourselves on the fact that
our goods are the highest-prjced of
their kinda luxury, if ever one ex-
listed. Look at these plates, for in
stance, They are $500, this fgurine
$500, that vase $1,000. Now. people
don't need these things. They can buy
plates at one dollar a dozen that will
serve them as well. Yet we are doing
more business in Europe than we ever
mans are our best customers.
Eve have 10 send food to our
travelling statesmen in Germany, for
that no money can buy. But money
can buy such Injuries as our ware,
and other refnements of the kind. and
there seems plenty of it TO spend.
"Most of the wartime demand for
these goods comes from a class which
III la ocL
barons.' The term is applied gener-
ally to all who have made enormous
profits through the war. Originally il
classified those men who bought up
old cows and unfit condiments. timed
and sold them at enormous prices TO
both the Allies and to Germany.
These people speak of spending
millions quite calmly. They have
made so much money through The war
that they must spend some of il, and
hence the hungry demand for Injuries
-luxuries of all sorts; the higher the
price. the more satisfied they seem TO
be- II is through them that meals are
Sc plate in ordinary restaurants, for
instance, in Scandinavia"
"And yet a speaker at a business
conference in Detroit, a few weeks
ago, lOlu MS dutAcatNt Nhab ANOSt VI
them who manufactured high priced
luxuries had better hurry and turn to
the manufacture of staples" a bust
ness man told me when. | repeated
these remarks.
Business as Usual in United States
"As q matter of fact, the war will
increase the appetite and demand for
Injuries in the United States, as il has
in other countries" he added. There
will he n greater market for them than