The Benson signal., 1918-08-24

| OF 1t is fraud stun. wooden articles
are reputed to be made from trees that
grow on historic spots, but are really
bogus. Strings of beads are manufac-
tured by the mile and sold to the pub
lie as the work of Indians. The same
| Is true Of moccasins, toy canoes and
| the like.
At best the bulk of these goods Is
| rubbish, and our Outgo for this pur-
pose might well be cut off entirely dur
ing the war. To do this requires alb
solutely no sacrifice. The people en-
gagged In this business will simply have
| to do what so many Of us have already
done, adjust themselves to war.
| Aside from souvenirs, we are wan
| ton spenders for actual merchandise
that Is inferior or worthless. There is
a great class of people to whom cheap
ness or flashiness appeals, rather than
| utility and economy A dealer in cheap
| goods told me that he netted $4,000
year from merchandise that was prac
tically worthless. He found it easy to
appeal to the spending instincts of his
customers.
Unnecessary Phone Calls.
Not many Of us ever stop to think
OF the immense amount Of money that
is spent for unnecessary telephone
calls. Wherever you go the telephone
booths are occupied, and when you
catch fragments of the conversations
you usually find them unimpOrtant.
Reginald calls up his best girl to tell
her he still loves her, Maude calls AL
gernon to thank him for the chocolates.
No matter how trivial the occasion,
our first impulse is to step into tele-
phone booth.
If five million people would save one
five-cent call a day it would mean
total of oyer ninety million dollars
year. Doubtless several times this sum
could hn saved very easily by the gen
eral public on local and lOng-distance
calls. We are lavishly extravagant in
the use of the telephone. l know of
business houses that talk several times
day between New York and Chicago,
incurring tolls on each occasion that
run from five to forty dollars or more.
If there is one thing that the Ameri-
cans haven't learned it is economy of
talk-which in these days of war need
might we'll mean millions Of dollars In
+ Liberty Bonds. The telephone wires
are heavily Overtaxed, anyhow.
Then there is the telegraph. We
have this habit, too. With a little
planning we could commonly use a
three-cent stamp instead of ten-wOrd
message. One large wholesale house
requires all its travelling men to re-
port daily by telegram, an expendi-
telegraph tolls of some Of the large in
dustrial and commercial establish
ments are so big that they seem IN
credible.
The night letter is, in a measure, a
luxury, at least we could do away
with the social phase Of 1t and
| much of the domestic. l hap
pen to know one business man, WHO
| on his frequent and long absences
| from home, gets night letter from his
wife every morning and sends one each
| night. Nor are these messages con-
fined to fifty words, but often run sew
eral times that length. Baby had the
collie; Freddy fell downstairs and
skinned his knee Jeanette had her
| hair washed.
I happen to be acquainted also with
with a young man who revels in night
letters to his fiancee. They are real let
| ters, too, beginning like this: 'Darl-
ing Sue-I love you more than ever.
I couldn't sleep last night thinking Of
You. Do you love me still? -" s.
A certain business man, the head of
| a large concern, goes away at intervals
to rest for week or two, but insists
on having a night letter every morn
| ing, narrating the substance of the
previous days business. These mes
sages run into hundreds Of words every
| day.
l would not belittle the night letter:
| but in the present stress we need to
curtail whatever part Of this expense
may be unnecessary, and loan the
money to the government.
The Taxicab Mania.
We Americans also have the taxi
cab mania. There is q very large class
of men and women who ride in cabs
habitually and let go immense sums in
the aggregate. They take taxicabS to
go a few blocks. In group Of twenty
| leading cities there are about four hun
| dred thousand Of these vehicles, and if
each of them absorbed ten dollars ev-
cry day in unnecessary fares the ag-
| gregate would be over fourteen million
| dollars a year. What would be the
| total for the whole United States? It
| is luxury to jump into a cab when
ever ones wants to move about, but
these are stern times and we need to
be more irOn-minded. The boys in
France do not ride in cabs, and the
money we waste on this form of luxury
might better go into gas masks for
| them.
We American men saturate ourselves
with many kinds Of soft indulgences-
as in the barber shops. These places