The Prescott daily news., 1919-10-17
GIRLS WITH :s5 A WEEK WEARING
 s300 FUR COATS
INVESTIGATORS FIND VALID REA. SON FOR THE HIGH COST
 OF LIVING.
SENSELESS SPENDING HURTS
Economy and Increased Production Is Hope of Nation, Says Ambassa-
 dor D. R. Francis. =

When it was discovered that girls earning less than $15 per week were buying coats costing all the way from $125 to $500 each, paying down and pledging their meagre incomes for months and years to come, economists gasped.
 It was while committee from the Connecticut War Savings Organiza- tion, working in cooperation with Robert Scoville, state food admins trator, in an attempt to. track the high cost of living to it's lair, made the discovery
 "A woman representative of one of the stores in Hartford is reported to have taken orders for 250 fur coats from girl employees of one insurance company, on a $1 a week basis,' says 6 statement issued by the committee.
 "These coats cost from $125 to $500 each, but in this insurance office they were purchased by girls earning prob ably $15 per week or less. Some of the girls will be paying on their coats for three or four years. By such reck- less extravagance as this the prices of luxuries are made to soar, and to some extent the prices of necessities follow" "H'
 The statement also declared that the owner of the department store has told other merchants of Hartford that the spreading of the gospel of thrift among the people would be ''bad busi- ness."
 The statement also cites the in stance of young women employees of the American Thread. Mills at Will limantic who, when they were. work ing only 36 hours per week. sold fheir Liberty Bonds and War Savings Stamps to buy expensive clothing.
 Last winter, it is estimated by the committee, 25 per cent of the. bonds sold were by girl employees in various factories to make initial payments on fur coats.
 The committee points out there is profiteering, undoubtedly, but that profiteering is by no means the whole story.
 The work of the Connecticut thrift campaigners might we'll be emulated by War Savings committees in other states. The American people are not likely to persist in foolish policy as regards their individual spending if the obvious foolishness of that policy is pointed out to them. .sn
 MT. Scoville says that even the poor people judge the quality of the goods they buy by the price rather than by common sense. What merchant, in such case. would not charge high prices for goods that would otherwise be left on his shelves?
 Every large city could stand an in- vestigation along these lines. The peo pie got the thrift lesson during the war. They got it very quickly and they adhered to it admirably. But the end ing of hostilities seemed to them, also, to be the. ending. of their responsibil- ity. k was not the end-not by any means. And the people will respond to the appeal if the sound common sense of it is made clear to them.
 David R., Francis of St. Louis, Am bassador to Russia, in recent addresses In his home city, has. taken occasion to point out the fact that Germany is certain to recover quickly from the setback of the war, and If Americans do not guard themselves Germany will surpass this country and gain com mercial supremacy.
 On all hands it is conceded that the high prices prevalent everywhere may be attributed more to lack of produc- tion than any one thing, Ambassador, Francis shows that the thrifty Ger mans are now asking that they be permitted to work 10 hours day in- stead of eight hours, and the first thing the German does is to begin to save and accumulate fund to pay off the debt and rehabilitate himself in a commercial way
 The U. s. government plan to save is ideal, and is made to reach all classes. The child saver is provided with the 25 cent Thrift Stamp. Then in successive steps come the $5 War Savings Stamp and the $l00 and $1,000 Treasury Savings Certificate. These securities pay APT per cent if held until maturity, on January l, 1924. a more profitable investment than the government of any other nation can offer it's people.
 And no investment on earth can be safer. as the entire wealth of every state in inc Union is ~ahind these Stamps and Certificates