Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-11-27
HDI|OR POINTS 10
GRAVE DlNGERs N /
FTlESSNEss
Blind Scribe Of Portland, Ore,
Describes Wild Buying
Spree" Of Americans as Ma
tional Menace.
By B. F. IRVINE.

BY b. f. IRVINE,
Blind Editor Of Portland (Ore) Journal.
1t Is doubtful IL America has ever
been confronted with conditions SO pre-
carious. There never was psychology
DO extraordinary
Expenditures are terrific. Tue people
are on q mad financial spree. Normal
business principles are dead Thoughts
Of thrift are forgotten. A mans hat
1t $2O has become a commonplace.
Portland dealers placed them on sale
and the supply was exhausted. The
dealers were plunged into wonderment
and awe. They are now buying hats
that will be sold at $25 and $50.
PUBLIC PAYS.
Nothing Is stable. New York manu-
1acturers and jobbers no longer quote
prices of goods on future delivery.
They tell you the price now and say
that the price on future orders will be
controlled by the then market. Mean
while. operatives in the factories de-
mand higher and higher wages and
operators grant them. Operators have
found that any price asked will be paid,
and the advance wage is granted and
added with increased profit to the price
at which the goods go to the retailer.
The public comes along and pays what
ever Is asked.
And so the pyramiding goes on. Peo-
pie were excited during the war. In
many ways they are crazy now. They
never saw SO much money spent before,
never saw 1t spent so lavishly, never
saw it come and go so easily.
UNCLE SANS MONEY.
All have forgotten that it was gov
eminent money that we have been
spending. 1t was the great sums told
Off in billions that fed the shipyards,
the munition factories, the machine
works, the spruce camps and all the
other great works of production. In
all the history Of the world, money
was never poured into industry with
such prodigal hand.
The spirit of those days has become
epidemic. Though the great supply
source that the government maintained
during hostilities is cut off, the spend
ing goes on. 1t Is without end or
shape or limit. The shipworker's
$1,000 automobile, and milady's $4,000
fur the housemaid's $3.50 tailor suit, the
stenographer's 5000 coat, a woman's
handbag at $3.50, a lady's gown dis
played in a San Francisco shop win
dow at the price of house and lot.
lavishness in this extravaganza of ex-
penditure.
> PEOPLE CRAZY.
that any extravagant thing, any prodi-
gal purchase, any figure of wage, any
measure of profit Is obtainable.
Do you realize what havoc habits of
unthrift are working in America? In
Portland in 1918, with an increase of
$4,000 in population, we built 266
dwelling houses. We bought $500 auto
mobiles. We spent something over half
q million for houses; more than ten
million for, automobiles. The mort
gage Indebtedness placed on homes for
the purchase Of automobiles was
37,000,000.
SOME FIGURES.
Listen: Sxty-siX out of every hum
dred persons who die in the United
States leave no estate whatever, and of
the remaining thirty-four only nine
leave estates larger than $4,000. At the
age of 60, ninety seven out of every
hundred persons in America are par
tally or wholly dependent upon rela :
tives, friends or the public for their
daily bread, for their clothing and for
q roof under which to sleep. Ninety
eight per cent of the American people
are living from day to day on their
wages and a loss of employment would
mean pauperism for all but two per
cent.
Fewer than 100000 American fami-
lies own their own homes, 10000 900 are
carrying mortgages, and II 100000 are
renters Every seven years, third
of the population of the city of New
York applies for charity. One person