El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-03-05

Z 6eTrg charged IlEy DuF1
\ the best time for them to get nd Of that mistaken
suppression For mistake it certainly must be- If there
any basis Of fact in it. the chamber Of commerce viii be
glad to 60 into the matter on behaf OF any oeer OF en-
fsted man who has reasonable substantaon for his be-
hes hresh the dispute out to satisfactory conclusion
With the offending merchant or merchants
In several such instances the chamber of has
Investigated, but with two exceptions, and civilians
as well soldiers had been victims of these places there
vas nothing the bottom of the charges year ago,
when the Georgia national guardsmen were here complaint
made to The Herald by militiaman Of numerous
oyeTehaTges" as ne put it IN general way me Herald
offered to 60 into any Of these cases with him and publish
the result, but he failed to resurn with his proofs.
this practice is force FL PasO does not want it.
Il viii be stopped if the aggrieved men viii present their
proofs The chamber Of commerce calls for such proofs
claims
Complaint has been made that soldiers charged
IA the barber Shops restaurants shoe shops and other stores
civilians That Is hard to credit if the soldier IS
PatTcnizing the hrsclass shops There is sometimes
ndency in shops Of the second class to oVercharge tran
sient customer civilian soldier, opportunity affords;
this has happened since the beginning Of the barber bust
II specific be presented IN II Paso, how
ever either By soldiers civilians the chamber Of COM
erce and city officials viii make 1t unhealthy for the
place praccing the charge In all the frstass barber
fhops downtown the prices are plainly displayed Some
pce acus so cents and shaves at Is cents and others
charge IS cents for haircut and IS cents for shave
That applies to any customer, military civilian, and
enough soldiers have been paying the regular prices to
Sic barber shop cashiers that may know oveTchag
stsndable Why any soldier would allow himself to be
charged than the regular shop prices as shown on
val cards or IN the WINDOWS
The is true Of the restaurants They have their
menus with the price in each case plainly stated Over
sharging would be difficult
man ordinarily buys a pair Of shoes after reading
descriptions and prices IN the newspaper advertisements OF
shoes which appeals to his taste and the price ticket on
shoes which appeals to his taste and the pprce ticket on
which satisfies his judgment CT value Then he goes IN
and calls for shoe IN his size tries pair to be sure
81 the fit and buys it
II there & snv overchargug it must in purchases of
goods which not bear price marks that the customer can
zad It would be possible then to add something to the
nzice and escape detection If anything of that sort is
q Paso viii it for minute and viii vel
come the presentation Of any evidence which would fasten
such a charge indisputably any merchant no matter
who he Is. The legitimate merchants, too would vel
There nav be some truth in the statement sometimes
hesrd that officers families charged more Tor house
Of the same class Civilians generally get favorable
terms by Of yearly leases Soldiers apt to be or
dered away day, unable to avail themselves OF
lease terms and Just flour costs proporonaey more
by the single pound than by the barrel so house rent costs
more BY tie month than by the year.
Complaint Of overchargDg in stores somewhat general
With the army It has been made at Nogales Douglas II
Psso San Antonio in New York and Chicago and at most
of the southern camp Here and there the charge
has been proved In isolated cases. the perpeator Of the
outrage generally being low person who became
greedy when he a soldier with money to spend Or
dinary there Is nothing whatever 10 the allegation
Belief Of soldier that he being oyercharged' often
develops in this way His knowledge Of prices generally
stops he enters the military service where nearly
everything he needs is provided for him without effort
his part Six months later he needs article and
surprised find If costs considerably more than 1t did
when he went into the army Maybe he ascoes II to the
higher cost of living The chances are that he believes
storekeeper trying gouge" him Civilians often think
the same thing and generally they mistaken
Last year when the national guard troops came to the
home close to the place Of Manufacture Also they came
at time of constantly ascending prices There ensued