Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 197, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1920 — SPEND BILLIONS FOR LUXURIES [ARTICLE]

SPEND BILLIONS FOR LUXURIES

Secretary of the Treasury Shows How Americans Can Save $22,700,000,000. GLEANED FROM TAX RETURNS Carpets, Furs, Autos and Soap Classed With Gum, Candy and Rouge—s76o,ooo,ooo Spent for Perfumery and Cosmetics. Washington.—Cut out the chewing gum, lay off the cigarettes, pull the sweet tooth, drink only water, do without cosmetics, perfumes, cigars, tobacco, snuff, furs, carpets and such clothing luxuries as silk shirts; wash your face with yellow soap, ride the street cars Instead of the autos and depend upon your own cultivated or uncultivated. voice for music—and you will save $22,700,000,000! , That, in effect, is the advice recently handed out by Secretary of the Treasury Houston to the 110,000,000 Americans, jn the course of an economy article. His figures for expenditures upon so-called 'luxuries are compiled from federal tax returns and are probably, for that reason, not very far from the truth. Just how many persons might agree with Secretary Houston concerning his definition of what constitutes a luxury—for instance carpets, tobacco, automobiles and toilet soaps—is problematical. It is a deflnition similar to that famous hypothetical question —never answeerd—“when is a man drunk?" Likewise the wartime puzzle of “what is an essential Industry?” Here Ari Our Luxury Expenditure*. However, the figures are Interesting from the standopint of knowing approximately what the American people do spend on things that they could do without and still go on living. The table of “luxury” expenditures arranged by Secretary- Houston from the reports from the present Internal revenue system, federal tax returns, and so on, follows: Chewing gum I 60,000,000 Candy 1,000,000,000 Cigarettes 7.. 800,000,000 Soft drinks. Including ice cream and soda 360,000,000 Perfumery and cosmetics 750,000,000 Cigars 510,000,000 Tobacco and snuff 800,000,000 Furs 300,000,000 -Carpets and luxurious clothing. 1,600,000,000 Automobiles and parts 2,000,000,000 Toilet soaps 400,000,000 Pianos, organs and phonographs 260,000,000 Making Costs Still Higher. According to comment In an editorial In the New York Journal of Commerce, which prints Secretary Houston’s table of figures, “few persons would deny that of those items which

have been specifically enumerated here, nearly all could be greatly reduced to amount without Inflicting suffering or even Inconvenience upon the population. “The fact that the American public is spending such sums as these for the purposes mentioned gives point to the often repeated and often disregarded Injunction to be guided by the policy of thrift at least to a reasonable extent in both personal and business expenditure,” says the editorial. “It also throws a glaring light upon the current complaints concerning the cost of living. If the nation can spend $22,700,000,000 upon articles which in large part are purely Tuxurles, It evidently is not suffering from a depressed standard of living. While, on the other hand, it is obviously making things much harder for Itself by drawing off the commodities, services and capital used In the production of this great volume of consumable goods which otherwise would go to make the *necessaries of life’ more plentiful and hence cheaper.’’