516 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



workmanship. How many pairs of black shoes do we see people 

 wearing today? Two suits equal in quality of material and workmanship, 

 vary from $5 to $10, and more in price and yet people pay the higher 

 price for the privilege of buying in a "smart" place — and must pay for 

 the overhead charges. And these are but a few of 'many similar 

 Instances. 



Just as long as the buying public insists on giving merchants to 

 understand that they want nothing but the best and highest priced 

 wares and goods; just as long they will take on credit or pay for any 

 foolish little fancy luxury which attracts their eyes; just as long as they 

 continue to refuse to consider the prices asked for goods, will high prices 

 continue. The merchant is keenly responsive to the pulse of public 

 buying; if the fever of buying expensive luxuries is epidemic it is not 

 difficult to understand why he would increase prices. The larger re- 

 sponsibility rests upon the buying public; if people would refuse to 

 buy, prices would soon drop. The attitude of many merchants was well 

 expressed in a recent cartoon when a representative of this class is 

 made to say; "Profiteer? Of course I'm a profiteer. I've never seen 

 so many boobs who are trying to get rid of their money. We can't mark 

 up prices fast enough to keep them from buying. The more expensive 

 an article is, the more determined they are to buy it. If they want to 

 throw money away, that's their business; we can't turn 'em out of 

 the store." 



It would be amusing if it were not so serious to hear men or women, 

 every time two or more get together, rant and rave of high costs, 

 "grafting," "profiteering," "crooked officials," "inefficient public servants," 

 etc., and to listen to their furious demand that "the government do 

 something to put a stop to it." The fact that these women were 

 setting a furious pace in their attempt to outstrip each other for the 

 honors of being the best dressed, the fact that they were buying $12.00 

 silk shirts and $45.00 to $75.00 leather coats for their 13 year old boys, 

 the fact that 15 year old daughter has not worn a pair of stockings 

 other than silk to school for the past three years, never seem to occur 

 to them as having any bearing on the high costs at which they so 

 vehemently protest. And father, probably following son's example, buys 

 $3 or $5 neckwear when he could get a neat tie, which would serve 

 his purpose just as well, for 85 cents if he would step around the corner 

 to another store. If one were to call the attention of these people to 

 the fact that they were not a little responsible for present inflated values, 

 they would probably answer that this expenditure was necessary to 

 "maintain one's social position." This is the root of one of the chief 

 reasons for this present orgy of buying — a desire to "Keep up with the 

 Jones." Mother must not be outclassed by "Mrs. Smith;" son must have 

 expensive "nobby clothes" like all the other fellows;" daughter must 

 wear silk stockings because wool or cotton stockings "look frightful, and 

 Sadie Smith or none of the other girls wear anything but silk, and even 

 Stella Brown whose father drives a coal wagon, wears them;" and father 

 feels that his business success warrants purchasing clothes in keeping 

 with "his position." You meet it in every stratum of our social life, this 

 desire to out-do the other; even those who realize the foolish extrava- 



