Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 128, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1917 — PRICE OF SHOES EXPLAINED [ARTICLE]

PRICE OF SHOES EXPLAINED

Musical Comedy Footwear, Not War, Sent the Coot of Footwear Up, Says Writer. An interestlag story which is being widely reprinted credits the high cost of shoes to a brilliant idea which hatched In the brain of a California shoe retailer, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. The writer of the story, which appeared first In a Western newspaper, says that the Los Angeles-merchant despaired of finding sale for his wares among Eastern women who were motoring in California. He hit upon the plan of introducing startling varieties of footwear at fancy prices. He bought up a large quantity of “ladies' boots” with high tops in fancy colors. They were the sort of "boots" that had been seen often in musical comedy, hut had not been worn by women on the street. The EAsterners, upon beholding his window display, imagined that something new had “struck the East," from r Paris or elsewhere, and that they while traveling through the hinterland -had not kept up with the fashions. They bought < musical comedy shoes at any price the dealer was bold enough to ask. When they went back to New York with their smart “boots” the fashion was set. Manufacturers began at once to make high-topped shoes of all of the colors of the rainbow, and women who previously had regarded * as the highest price to be thought of began to buy. the musical comedy shoes eagerly at from sl2 to $25. It is not the high cost of leather or the European war that caused shoes to advance, according Ito this story. One lone Los Angeles merchant established a new standard of values which women accept without question.