Omaha daily bee., 1919-08-10
A Boomerang that
Must Be
Met
Investigations Only Cost
Money and Reduce Food
Prices Not At All.
By BEATRICE FAIRFAX.

sntdtCS SSldtOT Sdlu 10 llle the Other |
lay with an amused chortle. At the
'ame time he handed me a letter
rom lady demanding a congress
sional inquiry into the high cost OF
living.
The letter stated that the writer
had been recently enfranchsed and
as voter she wished to have the
impossible prices of the necessaries
OF life investigated.
| read the letter, which seemed
reasonable enough to have escaped
the senator's fling at the sex Then
the signature caught my eye, and
| Joined him in the chortle.
The letter was from lady who
had worked early and late to de-
feat woman suffrage. While con-
scientiously repeating the parrot
formula of the disgruntled sister
hood that suffrage would take
woman from the home and cause
her children to be neglected." this
anti-suffrage Mrs. Jellyby was sell
dom to be found at her own hearth
stone.
Stoutly maintaining that she re-
manned away from her own sacred
precincts only to compel other
women to keep to theirs--the habit
seemed to grow upon her, and it
was a red-letter morning indeed
when Mr.. Jellyby drank his break
fast coffee opposite Mrs. Jellyby.
Many is the time l have seen this
taH in ha
served for antisuffragists-a pink
rose pinned to her bosom-gazing
down admiringly on the junior SEN
ator from New York, who was sim
ilarly garnished. But that is all over
now, and the pale pink dog-in-the-
manger rose is not as popular as it
used to be. And behold the first to
leave the sinking anti-suffrage ship
is the lady who demands an investi-
cation Of the high cost of living, now
that the new order is practically es-
tablished.
Well. as the senator said, Girls
will be girls"
In the meantime, we women have
been promised a congressional in
vestigation into the high cost of
living. A good many of US are feel
ing "fed up" on this kind of tea
party. We recall so many investiga-
tons that began with the beating of
tom-toms, and the boom and crash
of oratory, and concluded with
little futurist whitewashing of all
parties concerned, that we are not
losing any sleep over the pending
investigation.
Women feel, however. that at last
they hold the medicine in their own
hands; they are able to vote, and
common sense indicates that they
will not vote for men who are indif-
ferent to their interests. Women
are more difficult to deceive than
men in regard to the high cost of
living.
Most women spend their lives in
petty economies; they don't at all
mind walking a block or two to save
a couple of coppers. And in the way
of making over clothes. economic
camouAage is second nature to them
they won't stand too much bunk
um" about the cost of production,
etc.
Easier to Fool All the Men.
1t may be comparatively easy to
fool all the men all the time about
the cost of food. Men, as shoppers,
have always helped to fill the joke
column But it's different with
women; they have been trained in
too hard a school; you can't fool all
the women all the time about the
cost of food and the other neces-
saries of life.
1t will be highly interesting to
watch what this latest of investi-
cations will develop. Food produc-
ers describe the beggarly margin
of their profits, their bare living
wage, their struggle with labor;
the martyrdom of selling round
steak at S. and 80 cents a pound,
cheese at as cents pound and but
ter at 20. But one never hears of
any of the big packers quitting.
Them seem to scrape along, earning
a beggarly profit of score of mill
ions or so annually. and continue to
complain of the ingratitude of the
public.
1t will be interesting to see if
the recently acquired political
power of women will produce an
investigation that will really in
vestigate. In the meantime, whether
the inve stigation is productive of
actual results, or only futurist
whitewashing, the food producer
has been unwittingly hurting boom
erapgs at his business, along with
his high prices.
The cost of meat has been so tre-
mendous that many people have
learned to do without it, or are
eating it in ever lessening quanti-
ties. Furthermore, they find they
are just as we'll off without meat,
and there is ample medical author
ity to back them tip in their econ
omy. Diabetes. Bright's disease,
rheumatism and high blood pres
sure are less prevalent among the
spare meat eaters than among those
in the habit of eating it two or
three times day.
The Value of Meat Substitutes.
When round steak scared to SO
: and 90 cents a pound, and even the
humble frankfurter commanded So
and 40. women throughout the coun-
try turned their attention to meat
substitutes. AS a nation we have
never been very skilful in preparing
these dishes, until the tremendous