U.S. YOUTH PROBLEM
CROWDS SPEND FREELY WOIIKKRS AND SERVICEMEN Broadway, Now York's famous "great white way,' is enjoying a prosperity unequalled even in the J days of the 1929 boom. It is congested with milling crowds whose only thought seems to be to get rid of dollars. Sober observers wonder where the money i s coming fiom cables a New York correspondent oi' the Melbourne Ilerak!. White-collar workers, who are fighting a losing battle with the high cost of living, cannot afford night life. Servicemen, with their wives and sweethearts, constitute perhaps .10 per cent of Broadway's crowds, but their pockets ar- , not limitless. The fact remains that 53 licensed night clubs and cabarets wkhin a mile of Times Square are catering for 22(5,000 persons a week. Crowds stand patiently in line for hours to get a table or seats. New York's dozen mammoth cinemas and theatres are booked to capacity months ahead. Two hundred restaurants in the Times Square area are tr.rning thousands away each night. People, are no longer content to return home after .supper, but go from one cabaret or bar to another until dawn. 1 Jewellers also are profiting. Nine ,of the largest cities 'in the United States revealed that their jewellery ! slades had advanced 20 to 100 Jp,4r> cent within the year, yet shops re- ' port that the middle and upper classes are buying less. ! The business is coming from war workers, commission men and servicemen, all of whom are baying expensive items like watches' i'liced at 150 to 200 dollars,, and gold-plat-ed costume jewellery ]() to 50 dollars. Furr.ers report a similar demand for fur coats, which nowadays are worn by every second woman or girl. The story is not merely one of selfish extravagance heedless of. the possibility of inflation, but of declining morals. America is confronted with ( a youth problem .similar to that preoccupying social workers in Britain as uniform-crazy girls and boys, attracted by the ease with which unqualified persons earn 20 to 10 dollars a week, leave home. These children in their 'teens present a growI ing problem to the authorities. Gambling and bootlegging are also spreading although New York's liquor supplies are estimated to be high. Record hoarding by individuals,, fearing future shortages, and dealers holding out for higher prices, have resulted in an artificial scarcity of whisky. As a result, bootlegging, hi-jack'lng and stock robberies are increasing. The Christian Science Monitor, describing the War as -'easy money war'for the United States," says:— "The American people might .be shocked to find how many pocketbooks peace would hit. The majority have profited financially from the war. Many have had higher living costs without increased incomes, but for America as a whole the war has been a boom time."
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 52, 29 February 1944, Page 2
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457U.S. YOUTH PROBLEM Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 52, 29 February 1944, Page 2
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