The Women of the West 63 



done in churches and schools that might be better 

 done at home. It would seem as if the women of 

 the West, living in a country where everything is 

 on a large scale, were absolutely unable to see what 

 is small. With their eyes fixed on the mountains 

 they ignore the molehills. The men will tell you, 

 with a fine disregard of ancient wisdom, that if you 

 take care of the dollars, the cents will take care of 

 themselves. Such matters are ordered better in 

 France. There the men make the francs, and the 

 women save the centimes. But in the West the 

 dollars made by the men are squandered by the 

 women. And the children buy candy with the 

 cents. 



Perhaps the word "squander" is ill-chosen. The 

 Western woman is keen to get what she calls " value 

 received " for her money. She will spend a morning 

 as lightly as a dollar, looking over samples at a dry- 

 goods store. Generally speaking, she buys some- 

 thing unsuited to her station in life and her husband's 

 monthly income. You see more trash upon the 

 counters of Western shops than anywhere else in 

 the world : cheap shoes, cheap clothes, cheap jew- 

 elry, cheap underwear. What is plain and service- 

 able finds no favour and no sale. 



Some of the men and women who think about 

 these things have said to me that what is wanted is 

 an example : a Eoosevelt in petticoats, who will 

 preach and practise the gospel of simplicity and 

 thrift. One cannot help feeling that such work — 

 now that the war is over — might be undertaken 

 by the Eed Cross Society. Comfort is one of the 

 most alluring words in the English language, but in 



