The sun., 1919-08-16
Mrs. G. d. Hirst, Speaking for
Club Women of Country,
Warns Retailers.
EVERY HOUSEWIFE TO ACT
Will Pry Secret Facts and Fig
ures From Food Deal
ers by Quiz.
Bow, Retailer, to the QUESTIONABLE:
Make confession to the consumaire--
(Apolories to Mark Twain

country should all have a nightmare to-
night-the same nightmare-and IL there
is anything in the theory that warnings
retail dealers would surely take this
form: A large woman Of threatening
aspect with a market basket on her arm,
! completely filling the vision of the gasp
ing dreamers and waving before them n
list Of questions about profits. &c, which
II they answer they will be incriminated
and II they refuse to answer they will
be led out and shot at sunrise.
Not that the reality will be as bad as
, that But it's sausages to beefsteaks
that what Congress and the President
are planning to do to the food prof1teers
won't worry profiteering retailers half
so much as what the club women are
preparing for them. And the work of
the women ought to bring better results
, IL, as Mrs. Charles d. Hirst of the Daily
Food Alliance says, they can overcome
timidity and the fear of being thought
| Cheap skates by their grocers and
butchers, and can genuinely cooperate
to obtain data which will show just how
far the retailer Is guilty in the present
abominable cost of food.
Mrs. Hirst and the leaders of the
Women's National Economic Committee,
which has Just opened headquarters at
1926 East Seventeenth street and Is
rapidly making connections with women s
clubs and organizations throughout the
country. believe that a fair proportion
of the 100000 women of the United
States will respond and do their duty
like soldiers. Anyhow they will be asked
to. As fast as possible the housewives
from the Atlantic to the Pacific will re-
raiu nf he
submitted to dealers.
Women Do Most Buying.
women do 90 per cent. Of the buying
of the country. and this crisis Is mat
ter for u.s. Mrs. Hirst said yesterday.
81 can't altogether see what's to be done
with the big appropriations that Con-
gress Is asking for. One million hve
hundred thousand dollars for an inves-
tigation--how will that money be spent?
We have been having food commissions
and Investigations, municipal. State and
national. for years. and still prices go
up. Some OF the legislation proposed
now Is actually bad many women be-
lieve. Take the Kenyon bill to license
packers and the Kellogg bill to license
all food producers-they will. II they
become laws. just make the big food
profiteers holder: they will take advan-
tase OF the license and so further than
they ever dared without It.
mo. the thing that Is needed OF Con-
gress to stabilize conditions and lower
prices and make things normal again Ii
to ratify the League OF Nations. Moth
ing can be settled till that Is settled.
However. that is my personal opinion.
The Daily Food Alliance and the
womens National Economic Committee
Rave nothing to do with politics: they
are concerned with trying to line up the
women of the United States in an effort
TO do what they can pending the ratifi-
cation of the League of Nations, and
while we are foundering around in the
chaotic conditions that seem to be get
ting worse and worse all the time, to
nall the profteers. All the world seems
to be bitten with the desire to get what
they can, and tho littlest retailer has
the disease same as the big packer.
Well, It's the women who have the re-
taller in the hollow Of their hands II
they only knew it."
Here's the Questionnaire.
Here is the QUESTIONABLE for house.
wives TO get answered by grocers."
Name of grocer.
Number OF clerks.
Street and city.
Does he carry
l..Bresdl
D. Staple groceries such as sugar. starch.
-four. green vegetables. canned goods.
What does he nay for breadf At what price
does he sell III Is unsold returnablef
What does he pay for eggst How sold?
How much profit does he take on fresh
How much profit does he take on smoked
From whom does he buy,
How frequently does he turn his stock overt
Does he NJ percentsge OF profit on what
he buys FOR, or what he sells for,
overhead' tAsk him; the answer to this is
importantly
What does delivery to his customer cost
hm7 What does he charger
Does he run a delicatessenl What profit
does he tAkei
What profit on fruit1
On what basis of payment IL charger
Get Wholesale prices and terms of the six
articles most frequently used
To Aid Small Dealer.
To each woman with the copy of this
QUESTIONABLE goes a letter explaining
that definite action can hardly be taken
TIL the reasons for the advance in the
cost OF foodstuffs are known, and that
this survey will be OF the utmost value
in ascertaining the reasons Retailers,
It is added. ought to cooperate willingly
with their customers In this, and II, as
most fthem assert. they are paying
TOO much to the wholesaler the women
will be very glad to carry the tight
higher up and help the small dealer to
reduce the costs.
Wont II take a good deal of money
to get this questionable to the women
OF the country" THE SUN man asked
Mrs. Hirst.
Not with the clubs cooperating" she
said. I'VE shall send copies in pack
ages to all the clubs and they will dis
tribute them to members. The woman's
National Economic Committee is or
ganiEed for the purpose of getting at
college women. expert workers OF vari-
Gus sorts. business women, who don't
have time to belong to women's cluba
and can't be reached through them.
'It il a pity that this is summer and
most women out OF the city. for we'd like
to have some mass meetings In New
York as they have had in Indianapolis
and other places. But there is no use
trying It now, so we shall do the best we
can through the mails"
Mrs. Hirst Is the president OF the
Daily Food Alliance, and Mrs. Frank II.
Dean of Brooklyn and Miss Claudia Q.
Murphy, whose profession is "consultant
In home economies" are vice-presidents.
Miss Mary Garrett May. Miss Helen
Varick Boswell. Mrs, Eugene j. Grant
and Mrs. A. M. Palmer are among the
directors. The creed OF the Alliance is
that women should inform themselves on
food qualities.
Many women don't know enough
about food to question the dealer intelii-