Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-18

- PEAKING of hard times-and
who isn't. these days?-I had a
very stimulating afternoon at a
~ certain San Francisco woman's
club a few weeks ago, when
quiet. busineSs-like little woman arose
to read a paper upon "What we can
Do About the Depression
And. by the way, if your club hasn't
given an afternoon to this subject yet,
it would be a wise thing to do. For
there is no use in saying lmpatlently,
"Oh. do let's get away from 1t When
ever we CAM
We can't get away from it, or around
it. or under tive have to go through
it. Depression rolls like the waters OF
the Red Sea before us; as the old hymn
says. There is no other way but
through"
The little woman at the club was
all ready for hard times. She was too
young to remember as do. two other
such crises in our national history
the bread-lines and bank panicS OF
1893-my father was a country banker,
and his older children shared the gen.
eral anxiety-and the harder times In
1901. Factories were closing every
where then, and there were unemploy-
ment parades in San Francisco. Jack
Abyss" at about that time, and few
years later Tressall wrote, of these
times the terrible Ragged Trousered
PhilanthropiSts and we who were
young and ignorant read them with
trembling hearts. j..
It was to the trembling hearts OF
the newer generation that my little
practical friend of the club was speak
ing the other afternoon. She was not
afraid, she could see the light beyond
the darkness, the dawn beyond the
night.
"We'd gotten entirely away from the
good solid EARTH" she said. We've got
to get back. Even last year this coun-
try spent more on morton cars tnan on
food, and more on theatrical amuse-
rnerts of various sorts than on rent.
Even last year, in this city she said,
men spent thousands of dollars adj
vertising bread and motor cars.
X *
THESE are sensational statements,
aren't they? But If you care to
investigate them, as l immediately did,
YOU will find them true. More money,
per capita, was spent on motor cars last
year in California than on food, more
money was spent on theaters than IN
rent.
We've been educated up to these
high standards of amusement and trans
portation. and a good thing. too. We're
nevr going back to the Old World stand
ards most of our grandparents knew;
we're not going back to dark, upSanl-
tary Easements of cabins. to coal stoves
and gaSlight, to long weary tramps to
and from work. to evenings without the
theater, the movie, the radio or the
phonosraph
But. as this little lady pointed out,
even in spending every cent OF our
money, even in living up to our old
standard we can change the way OF
living and spending. Still paying rent
regularly on the first Of every month.
we can find lower rent. Still eating
three good meals a day, we can eat
quite different meals. No matter where
we 60 in America, We can't get away
from thousand things that to the
European woman Of the poorer classes
still seem windows, floors,
gas stove. electric light. bath room. not
water. free schooling, free clinic treat
mente-and probably sewing machne,
telephone, radio-all the things we take
for granted.
These changes. and the sensational
reduction in the cost of foods. ought
to meet half way that frightening de-
crease in income-ought even to make
1t possible to weather that uneasy time
when some member of the family Is
out of work.
ONE of the wisest of our social author
" tiles says that the really serious
trouble just now Is that so MANY lam
lilies will not make those changes.
They have grown accustomed to the
salaries and income of an inflated time,
and with complete simplicity they con-
tinue to pay their high rent, to keep
their car, to charge purchases at the
market, and to hope that somehow
things will presently return 10 Wnat
was never a normal state.
These persons continue to live IN
crowded and fashionable neighbor-
hoods; they must have apartments on
Park avenue even though rents on
the infinitely more charming Riverside
sdrive are about half what the Park
avenue rents are: they must jam INTO
the high-priced first-run movie houses,
even though the same identical pictures
will be around the corner in a few
weeks. Even in the very hardest times.
last Winter, there were long lines OF
plsinly-dressed folk waiting outside the
extensive New York movies-they
couldn't wait the few necessary weeks
TO save four-ffths of the price.