Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1919-08-22
SPENDING INToxICATIoN"

/ Mr. William Mather Lewis, director
lof the savings division of the Treas
ury Department, expresses the belle
that the high cost of living problem
Ican not be solved until the American
poole shake off their prasen
spending intoxication." He suggest.
that the people themselves are il
large part to blame if the prices Of
necessities rise, because merchant.
have observed "the absolute careless
ness with which poole part with then
money"
Mr.. Lewis is merely restating ii
plain and blunt terms the dignifed-
not to say ladylike-counsel already
offered by other government officials
Federal reserve bank literature has
carried warnings against eXtrava.
gance, Admonitions to thrift are as
the sands Of the sea in number. The
slogan Labor and Save" is familiar
to every household-and in many is
bitterly resented The appeals to
thrift are wasted upon the folks who
1 find their earnings and incomes barely
sufficient to pay their present living
expenses. They naturally resent the
assumption that their troubles are due
rather to the cost of high living
than to the high cost of living" Yet
the time-worn play upon words never
has had a truer or wider application
than now.
Millions are victims, beyond any
question, Of the 'high cost Of living"
but other millions just as surely are
pinehed merely by the "cost of high
living" Most of them do not realize
1t. They are trying to live up to the
fantastic standard of living whose
principal requirement is that a man
shall spend all that he hath--and then
some-for junk that he and his fam
lily can get along without. And be-
cause they spend their money freely
for anything and everything that may
tickle their fancy, and pay whatever
price may be demanded they not only
make the going hard for themselves,
but desperately, almost intolerably,
hard for the millions of their country
men who can not be "eXtravagant"
because the excessive cost Of actual
necessaries leaves them nothing to be
eNtravagant with.
For months trade reviews from the
great markets have noted that the
principal demand in the line Of man
ufactured goods, is for the high
priced grades or lines The higher
the prices were pitched, the more in
sistant was the demand. Is it surprs-
ing that, in these circumstances,
and spectators Of profit
cering bent should improve the gold
en- opportunity to trim the boobs"
who are indulging in the spending
jag?' And since it is the "higher-
priced lines" that have been chiefly
and the boosting of quota
tions has merely whetted the buying
APPETITE, is it surprising that trade
practices should have been largely re-
organized to accommodate the free
5penders who insist upon blowing in
their cash for the highest-priced stuff
obtainable on the theory that "the .
pest is none too good TO rthem ?"
Mr.. Lewis suggestion that the
american people must shake OIL their /
spending INVESTIGATION and quit tempt /.
ng the profiteers by "the absolute
with which people spend |
heir money" may perhaps get under
he skins Of folks who have ignored |
he more dignifed warnings and APP
oeals. His assumption that all of us
are indulging in the spending spree"
s mistaken. But it is unquestionably |
rue that the "spreers" of this order
ire much too numerous, that they en- /
courage proiteering by their reckless
'Xpenditure-and that they can make
he times easier and better for them
selves and for their neighbors by |
shaking off their spending intoxica-
ion. Times Picayune.