The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-08-14

means increased losses and longer
duration Of the war. My new suit Of
clothes may cost, therefore, the life
of my son.
The supply of goods, of labor and Of
transportation is limited. It is mat
ter of common agreement that this
limited supply is not sufficient freely to
satisfy all wants and that unrestricted
attempts on the part Of each Individual
to satisfy his own requirements may
lead to a wild scramble and destruc.
tive competition with the government
resulting in fatal delay and endless in
crease in prices.
The loaf Of bread available for our
selves and for our allies is not large
enough to go around" II we all want
to eat more than is absolutely neces-
sary for our maintenance. II is every,
body's duty, therefore, at this time to
tighten his belt" and to make a genu.
Inc effort to live on as thin slice OF
the loaf As he can. Unless that be
done we must buy additional food In
neutral countries, thereby using ton
mage that should be kept available for
our military operations and increasing
our difficulties in adjusting our trade
balances with neutral countries.
Hurts Uncle Sam In Many Ways.
To return to our story OF the suit
of clothes: During last year the United
States had to import AL ,000, 900
pounds Of wool representing value Of
about 100000. About half Of this
came from Argentina. Our suits Of
clothes called for a substantial portion
OF this wool and therefore to that ex-
tent robbed Uncle Sam OF the use Of
his ships Moreover, our factories be-
ing busy in producing the things re-
CURED for the prosecution of the war
and our home consumption still pro-
ceeding at almost top speed, the guam
tity Of goods available for shipment to
Argentina In payment for the wool Tor
for that matter TO Chile for nitrates, TO
Peru for copper, and 80 on), is insuffi-
cient. AS consequence the United
States had to pay for more goods in
South America than South America
has had to pay for goods bought in the
United States, thereby causing a de-
cline OF dollar exchange in these nsu-
trail countries. This shrinkage In the
price Of the dollar means that II has
lost a corresponding part of its pur-
chasing power In neutral countries.
The scarcity OF goods available for
our export trade has thus become a
serious obstacle in our way in trying to
secure at reasonable prices or in ade-
quate quantities some OF the things
that we absolutely require from for
eign countries.
My suit OF clothes has hurt Uncle
Sam, therefore, In several ways:
have consumed more wool than neces-
sary and thereby forced the United
States to import a correspondingly
large quantity of this article; have
consumed more cotton goods than nee
essary and to that extent have de-
prived Uncle Sam of the means with
which to pay for the minimum OF wool
which we may have 10 import.
Clothing But One Of Many.
have used the illustration OF a new
suit Of clothes; it would be easy.
though somewhat tedious, to show that
we have been dealing only with one
case in point. The country is short
at this time Of hides and skins and
has to import large quantities from
neutral countries because we are ex-
trayagant in our individual purchases
OF shoes Similarly, though we are
the largest producers Of copper. we are
forced TO import copper from Peru be-
cause our civilian population has not
begun sufficiently to curtail its use
In like manner we might ask ourselves
is IL at all eIcusable that at this time
we still manufacture such articles as
silk stockings, when every thread OF
silk must be imported, while we could
use our own cotton?
It lie impossible and unnecessary TO
enumerste the many articles that are
in similar position. Many billions
OF dollars can easily be saved when