The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-09-11
Christmas Shopping
For Men In Service
To Be Restricted
(Tampa Times)

(Tampa Times)
Secretary G. G. Stalnaker Of til,
Tampa Merchants association. ha,
received letter from Arthur Fl
Fleming, chief of the state council.
section of the Council of Nationa
Defense, with regard to the subjec
OF Christmas shopping, as affecting
gifts for men in government service
The Tampa association was amons
the first to take up the matter with
the government. Chief Fleming, in
his letter, encloses a statement re
Gently issued by the council, to which
he refers when he says:
This Office believes this statement
will leave the way open for the pur.
chase Of gifts for men in the service
or course, the spirit of economy
should be present as in other mat.
tiers. Furthermore, care should be
taken to see that the gifts are sent
as early as possible in order to avoid
congestion in transportation during
December.
I'VE invite your special attention
to the obligations which the retail
merchants of the country, through
their representatives appearing be-
fore the Council of National Defense,
have assumed Not particularly
that they have agreed not to hire
any excess labor at Christmas time.
thus meeting one Of the principal
arguments on behalf Of the campaign
to discourage Christmas buying
You will note also that they will use
certain part of advertising space
beginning September to urge the
public to buy useful gifts early and
to send them early Note finally
that merchants will comply to the
letter in seeing that the recommen.
dation regarding the curtailment of
deliveries are carried out even dur.
ing the Christmas season."
The statement of the Council Of
National Defense follows:
The Council of National Defense
has heretofore emphasized the neces.
sity Of restricting Christmas buying
during the coming fall for certain
specific reasons which it has stated
These reasons are in brief the neces.
sity for saving labor and material in
the manufacture and sale of Christ
mas gifts and of saving the trans
portation and delivery facilities nee
essarily involved in the large volume
of Christmas purchases.
After conference with representa-
tives of leading industries and retail
interests concerned, it is found that
the manufacture of goods for the COM
ing holiday season has been substan-
TALLY completed, that the transporta-
ton of the goods to the point Of
sale is also largely done and that
much of the material used for Christ
mas purchases, especially in the
of toys, is the waste
derived from prior process
es of manufacture.
The retail interests represented at
the conference have agreed not to
Increase their working forces by rea-
son of the holiday business over the
average force employed by them
throughout the year and not to in
crease the normal working hours
# their force during the Christmas
)eason, They also agreed to use
heir utmost efforts to confine Christ
mas giving, except for young chill
lren, to useful articles and to spread
he period for holiday purchase over
he months of October, November
md December In order to relieve
he transportation facilities of the
country from a congestion In the
after half of December which would
De so hurtful to the interests of the
lation that 1t cannot be permitted
he retail interests represented at
his hearing have agreed to cooperate
urther in the campaign heretofore
md now being carried on under the
auspices of the War Industries board
% restrict deliveries and to induce
heir customers to carry their own
packages wherever possible.
The retail interests to which ref
erence has been made have further
agreed to make an announcement to
he above substantial effect in their