, 1918-08-22

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 inc sold to the pub
lie as the work Of Indians. The same
is true of m~occasins, 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
selutely 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 flashlness appeals, rather than
utility and economy. A dealer in cheap
goods told me that he netted $4,000 a
year from merchandise that was prac-
tically worthless. He found 1t easy to
appeal to the spending instincts of his
customers.
Unnecessary Phone Calls.
WI many VI US w sup W 'iihAn
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 lie still loves her, Maude calls AL
gernOn to thank him for h chocolates.
No matter how trivial the occasion,
our first impulse is to step into n tele-
phone booth.
If five million people would save n
five-cent call a day it would mean a
total of over ninety million dollars n
year. Doubtless several times this sum
could be saved very easily by the gen
eral public on local and long-dlstance
calls. We are lavishly extravagant in
the use of the telephone. l know of
business houses that talk several times
II day between New York and Chicago,
mourning 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 1t is economy of
talk-which In these days of war need
might well mean millions of dollars In
Liberty Bonds. The telephone wires
are heavily overtaxed, anyhow.
Then there is the telegraph. We
nave this habit, too. With n little
planning we could commonly use a
three-Cent stamp instead of a ten-word
message. One large wholesale house
requires all its travelling men to re
port daily by telegram, an %eXpendi-
tur that might be eliminated. The
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 it ant
much of the domestic. I hap
pen to know one business man, who
on his frequent and long absence
from home, gets a night letter from hi
wife every morning and sends one eacl
night. Nor are these messages con
fined to fifty words, but often III sew
eral times that length. Baby had tn
collie; Freddy fell downstairs ant
skinned his knee, Jeanette had he
hair washed.
1 happen to be acquainted also witt
with a young man who revels in nigh
letters to his fiancee. They are real let
tiers, too, beginning like this: "Darl
ing Sue-I low you more than ever
1 couldn't sleep last night thinking OF
you. Do you love me still? E"
A certain business MAI. the head of
a large concern, goes away at intervals
to rest for n week or two, but insists
on having n 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 Manila.
We Americans also have the taxi
cab mania. There is n 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 a group of twenty
uNib INT uie hbouN IOii II
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 States7 1t
is a 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 OF 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
in the high class hotels, as well as the
better shops outside, take from us i'm