The Nevada County picayune., 1919-10-16
PRESCOTT, NEVADA COUNTY, ARKANSAS.
GIRLS DRAWING S15 PER
 WEEK BUYING $500 FUR COATS
High Cost of Living, the Bugaboo of the Nation is Kept Alive by EXtray- agant Acts of Thoughtiess People.

agant Acts of Thoughtiess People.
 When if was discovered that girls earning less than S15 per week were buying coats costing all the way from $125 to S300 each, paying part down and pledging their meagre incomes for months and years to come, economists gasped.
 It was while a committe from the Connecticut War Savings Organzat tion working in cooperation with Robert Scoville, state Food Administrator 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 $1 q week basis" says statement issued by the committee.
 These coats cost from $125 to $500
 
 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 reckless extravaganza as this, the prices of lux uries are made to soar, and to some extent the prices of necessities follow" st al lsA hn hn 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 business"
 The statement also cites the instance of young women employees of the American Thread Mills at Willimantic who when they were working only thir- ty-six hours per week, sold their Liber- | ty Bonds and War Savings Stamps to buy expensive clothing.
 | f. ?eato stffi-Ssoas (oytesmbinedthon Last winter, it is estimated by the l 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 lprofteering, undoubtedly. but that pro- | fiteering is by no means the whole story campaigners might well be emuated | by War Savings Committees in other states. The American people are not likely to persist in a foolish policy as regards their individual spending of the obvious foolishness of that policy is pointed out to them.
 Mir. Scoville says that evn 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 ad hered to il admirably. But the ending of hostilitieS seemed to them. also, to be the ending of their responsibility. It was not the end-not by any means. And the people will respond to the ap- peal if the sound common sense of it is made clear to them.
 David k. Francis of St. Louis. Am hassador to Russia, in recent address ed in his home city. has taken occasion certain to recOved quickly from the set back Of the war, and if Americans do not guard themselves the Germans will surpass this country and gain commer cial supremacy
 On all hands it is conceded that the high prices prevalent everywhere may he attributed more to lack of produc- tion than to any one thing. Ambass- ador Francis shows that the thrifty Germans are now asking that they be permitted to work ten hours a day in stead of eight hours, and the first thing the German does is to begin to save and accumulate a fund to pay off the debt and rehabilitate himself in conner cial way.
 The l.. $. Government plan to save is ideal. and is made to reach all class es. The child saver is provided with the twenty-fiv cent Thrift Stamp. Then in successive steps come the S5 War Savings Stamp and the S100 and 5000 Treasury Savings Certificate. These securities pay 4.27 per cent if held un- til maturity, on Jan. l, 1924, moer profitable investment than the Govern