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producing it, whatever it is; and labor that is used to produce the needless thing is labor taken away from the great task of producing necessary goods.' I've got here a compilation by the Federal Bureau of Labor statistics showing the number of workers on the pay-rolls at the end of August, 1917, as compared with August, 1916, a year ago. They show a reduction in all the industries examined except ready-made clothing and automobile manufacturing.

"The rich have been among the first to give themselves and their sons to the country. Now it is up to them to set the example of sacrificing their comfort and convenience to win the war. The poor man can hardly be expected to give up his little luxuries or cut down his pleasures if he sees the rich woman buying furs and jewelry, and motoring around with a footman beside the driver on the box of her limousine. She's got to walk! And it's up to you, John, to make her!" His face cleared and a smile broke over it.

"I've got your job cut out for you, old man! You must be the prophet of this new doctrine-that the people at home must make sacrifices to save the lives of the boys in the trenches; that money-savers are lifesavers. You must educate the people to the fact that just as the soldiers have got to be drilled and disciplined, so the people of the United States have got to be drilled and disciplined into a great universal army of savers !"

"It's a great cause!"

"The greatest in the history of the nation!”

"I'll do what I can!" I agreed heartily. "I can see already how easy it would be to release an enormous amount of materials and labor by a slight individual sacrifice." *

"One of the easiest ways would be for every family to reduce the number of the servants employed in its

* The report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue indicates that the people of the United States spent, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, upon

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This shows the "economic slack" that could be taken up if necessary. But it doesn't stop there, by any means. If the men did not smoke, chew, and drink, their wives and children would still abandon themselves to the delights of chewing-gum, soda-water, candy, and the movies. A recognized authority puts these hardly vital expenditures at the following figures for the nation:

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Four billion dollars would be the interest on a Liberty Loan of one hundred billion dollars. We expect to put the Kaiser where he belongs for considerably less than that. We do not need to worry about mere money.

household," answered Morris. "There are sixty thousand servant-girls in this city alone. Look at the hundreds of able-bodied men employed to walk up and down in livery in front of apartment-houses, theatres, and stores, the thousands of scene-shifters, electricians, ticket-sellers, painters, ushers, and doormen at the theatres. And I can't help reverting to those ninety-two thousand chauffeurs! But there isn't any use trying to particularize. There should be no luxuries bought or sold. We should cherish our coal and wood as if they were precious metals. Indeed, the fuel administrator and the priority board are considering the curtailment of the use of coal and coke in the production of eleven important commodities, namely, pleasure vehicles, brewery products, candy, toys, table glassware, pottery, athletic goods, jewelry, silverware, window-glass, electric signs, and electricsign lighting. Whoever saves, helps. Every time we spend anything it means that somebody has to work for us. Whenever you refrain from travelling you save the coal used for producing the motive power of either steam or electric roads, and gasolene for the buses and taxis. If people walked more instead of riding, fewer public conveyances would have to be run, and the labor of those who run them could be diverted to more useful employment.

"The British committee have put it in a nutshell when they say: 'To save money is to release labor,

goods, and services for other purposes. If we lend the money we save to the nation, we lend to the nation the power to command the labor, goods, and services that we have released.' You can't state it any better. We must all save on everything! As soon as we have enough of anything—that is, as soon as the point of efficiency has been reached-we should save. The chief things to do without are those that do not promote efficiency-the non-essentials. Pianos, for instance-jewelry, for which, by the way, we spend two hundred million dollars every year in the United States-furniture, house decorations, pictures, hangings-the list is legion!

"The men who have made watches and clocks must be put at making time-fuses. Those who machined the cylinders for automobile-engines must turn out shells and guns. The iron-workers who have been employed in the construction of skyscrapers must become ship-builders. The spinners and weavers who made expensive dress-fabrics must manufacture khaki and cotton duck. The thousands and hundreds of thousands of men who have hitherto been engaged in making and distributing such non-essentials as perfumery, sporting-goods, furniture, expensive china, silks, laces, pictures (both stationary and moving), and the scores of other things that are paid for but do not contribute to our health or efficiency must be freed to work and fight for the nation."

"There's one thing on which the women can come in strong," interjected Lord, "and that's clothes. They should only allow themselves one evening dress. And by universal consent there should be no new styles until the war is over."

"In England," assented Morris, "they put up placards all over London, reading:

'BAD FORM IN DRESS!

TO DRESS EXTRAVAGANTLY IN WARTIME IS
NOT ONLY UNPATRIOTIC-IT IS

BAD FORM!'

That got 'em! Even the women who were selfish slackers made themselves look as dowdy as possible.

"There isn't any beginning or end to it. There's a real shortage in sugar, for instance, but there wouldn't be if it were not for the preposterous amount which we Americans eat. The Department of Commerce estimates that before the war the per-capita consumption of sugar was sixteen pounds in Germany, twenty-eight in France, thirty in Great Britain, and about fourteen, I think, in Italy. Now, our per-capita consumption of sugar in 1880 was thirty-nine and onehalf pounds, and it has increased to such an extent that it is to-day eighty-one pounds for every man, woman, and child in the United States. We could cut our demand in half, and then be using more than England did before the war. Then there's leather-”

Lord laughed.

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