Americus times-recorder., 1920-05-17
BY RUTH E. FINLEY.

GLEN OSBORNE, Pa, May IT.
Mary Roberts Rinehart, most. sue
cessful woman novelist, short stor.
writer, and playwright in the Eng
disappearing world today, believes
that every issue of the coming presi-
dental campaign should be reduced
to the terms of the individual home,
and in the same breath accuses both
great parties, Republican and DEM
ocrat, of side-stepping America s
most vital home problem.
This problem, she says, is the
high cost of living.
There is not a single home, not a
single member of single family,
that this matter of exorbitant prices
does not touch" said Mrs. Rinehart.
"Yet both political parties so far
have side-stepped it. in this peri
cd of postwar reconstruction it
seems to me high time that some
constructive work be done. There S
been lot of talking which is the
only cheap thing in America today"
Most Typical Woman.
1t is fair to assume that if Mrs.
Rinehart is of this opinion concern
ing the present political situation,
| rs per cent of the entire adult WON
anhood of the country holds the same
views. Lord Northcliffe, England'S
| best known newspaper publisher
said when last visiting the United
States that he considered Mrs. Rine-
hart the most typical American wom
an he had ever met.
"Aside from profteering, which
is criminal rather than an econom
ical matter" said Mrs. Rinehart
''there are, as | see it, two basic
causes for our continued high prices
They are under-production and over
demand"
! This opinion is expressed by Mrs
Rinehart after a business tril
throughout the country which gave
her unusual opportunity for obser
vation. During this trip, extending
over period of several months, anC
covering territory from the Atlantic
to the Pacific coasts and the extreme
southern states, she talked informal
| ly with hundreds of representative
women.
Demand Too Much.
eve, the women of the country,
said Mrs. Rinehart, "are going tt
have to realize that we are prett.
much responsible for one of th'
causes of high costs. We're demand
ing too much. We have come t.
think of comfort and luxury as syn
onymous terms They are not
Necessities we must have, but luXu
ries we can do without-like silk
stockings at $5 pair.
Labor" she continued, which l:
needed by farmers in their fields anC
! by manufacturers of staples in thell
mills, is making costly articles sucf
as only a luxurious people demands.
Mrs. Rinehart's statement con
cerning the transfer of labor from
the production of necessities to thai
of luxuries is given force by sucf
facts as the following:
A recent bulletin issued by the Y
S. Department of Agriculture shows
decrease in farm labor of % pei
cent. The significance of this figure
/ is further emphasized by the assert
ton of the American Farm Bureau
Federation, after survey of the e
chief agricultural states.
| Farms Will Be Untitled.
"In New York state alone, 25,OOC
farms will be untitled this summer
for lack of labor" he said in his re
port made in Washington in April OF
this year alabama farmers are
leaving idle 100000 acres because
Of help shortage, while Iowa, one Of
the richest of agricultural states, is
more than 10000 workers short.
! In comparison the Bureau of La.
! Dor statistics show an inrcease of
37.7 per cent in January of 1920
over the same month in 1919 of the