REDUCING COST OF LIVING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1455, 1 June 1912, Page 11

REDUCING COST OF LIVING.

J)OL'GHTY AMBKICAN WOMEN. CAPTURING FOOD SUPPLIES. 'It is <v very niodost little button, white fcrith a dark blue outer rim. It bears Dimply tho uamo "Housewives League. One would never call it an emblem ot war nor o danger signal, and yet at tins dftto it stands for the mightiest and most effective- economic campaign ever waged bv American women against food trusts arid tho middlemen (writes Izoln Forrester in "Good Housekeeping"). It is the symbol of tho first organised national uprising of tho houseu'ite, sho who onirics tho pocketbook on which the dealer depends for his existence. It is backed on one side by the united and sympathetic strength of an almost incalculable force, tho great mass of women of the rural districts, and the National Federation of Women's Clubs, on the otiver side. . During the few months since tho league started its work, it has affected trade conditions, and controlled them as no other protesting body has over been able to. It has focused the eyes of tho public on the extortion of middlemen, taught tho latter class their weakness, and incidentally, found out its own strength. Its origin, is as follows:-A committee on Home Economics of tho Now York City Federation of Women s Clubs, bad mot to discuss tho conditions of the nshi" price of food stuffs, among them bein? butter, which had lately risen abnormally. Mrs. Julian Heath, the founder of the Housewives' Union, made a simple proposal: "Ladies, let's not buy any more butter." And at onco the butter bovcott was begun. '"'lt \vas seen at once that a new organisation, must be meet the. situation," said Mrs. Heath, in speaking of it afterward;. "The Housewives League was born, and we started out with the full backing of the city federation behind us, and the women in New Jersey, Long Island, and our own State brought up tho total to 300,000, as we estimated when tho boycott was over. "Then it was an assured fact that this was not a city movement, not even a State one, but one,which, if properly orMni s ed, would consolidate tho women ot the "country, the housewives' and home-makers-and women, too, who had no tomes of their own, but loved them, and hoped" to have some day—into a power almost unparalleled ia the economic history, of the. country. "Joined by Housewives all over the Country "At the present writing the league has (jwept housewives into organisation .from

New York State west to Colorado, north to Wisconsin, south to Florida. Whole clubs join in a body, appoint a House-' wives' League Committee, ■ and start out to work at their own town organisation. "'Wherever I speuk to the women," eaid Mrs. Heath, "I say, first get in touch with your own authorities. Go to your health commissioner, your food inspectors, your commissioners of weights and measures, to the men who are giving out tho licenses to the middlemen. Offer vouv assistance. It will not be refused. Tho .Srst tiling I did liere in New York was to go directly to Mr. Lederle, of the Department of Health, .to Mr. Williams, of tho Department of Labour, and Mr. Walsh, commissioner of weights and measures. 'Gentlemen, we aro going to help, not hinder you,' I told them. 'We are going to help you do your work. "Bvery housewife will be her own inspector at hnr own market and store, and we. will re-port to you conditions that are wrniis.' And w<?"were assured" of help and co-operation by the men themselves. Why shouldn't they welcome us? It lighions their work. "l'aimers have caught the full signifieauco of tho movement almost instantly. Eviry day I get letters from all parts of Ilia co'untrv asking when wo women aro going to "have public markets, and where. I toll thorn the nearest point of organisation they aro at, and wiro to tho league at that point to get in immediate touch with them. "We did not waliso our strength until that wiro Hashed cast from Elgin (when tho price of butter fell) this message U> EfistOTn markets:— " 'Price luvs broken to 32 cents a. pound because tho consumer has refmftd ti> buy.' "Now we know what wo can do. And It is not one middleman we fight against. It Is this having live and six middlemen getting tlvcir share of the pie before we aro given tho privilege of paying for the whole of it. Yet we tako the feminine position in it. I wish to emphasise this. vVe do not indulge in window-smashing or brass-band effects. People tell us this Hum and that man is to blame. We don't caro who is to Uame. Somebody is to blame, and wo simply butt our backs against tho wall, and say wo do not care who it is. 'Gentlemen, we won't buy.'" Tlio American housewife, she who n-an-dlos, it is estimated, 90 per cent, of the wortingman's income, and 75 per cent, of that of the upper classes, felt that she wm to blame for allowing the middleman to cbifgo! her any price he liked, irrespective nf-trfl.de conditions. She used a pencil to find out just where she stood ja the line o; criuatioii, .

What Turkeys Led To, Last December in America the price of Turkeys soared, as usual, but this time the American housewife began to ask why. Her tradesmen assured her these booms were inevitable, and unforeseen. They were all in the maw of samo intangible monstrous bogy called the l'ooil Trust," which was constantly mystifying them all, and advising them to go roundSho made no oi'rfcry, hut started out to find tho lair of this monster, and ill's. Heath told her it led right back to tho stores, where she bought her food, &ho n«kcd if there were mi laws to cover tlio point, to prevent a man from buying up home commodities, foodstufls essential to the housewife's supplies, ami holding them in freight cars or cold storage m order to force up prices at opportune moments beyond reach of the masses. Sho was told that "until women havo a voic» in the management and control of government, tho only effective weapon against the trusts and combinations was the so-called boycott." Two days beforo Christmas the Mayor of Indianapolis, Samuel Lewis Shank, took- the first step toward rebellion. He sent word to farmers to bring their goods to the city market, and to the housewives to come, there and buy openly. The farmers came, and backed up their ivapons to the curb, and the Mayor sola to the housewives. Fifteen hundred turkey* went at seventeen cents a pound, and the Mayor wired for tlirce thousand more. Five hundred pounds of butter sold at twentv-eMit cents a pound, while the East wasWincr s'sfr. The women began to Iptirn the lesson of tho Mayor's open market. , , ~ And all through that first day, while "The Little Father of the Consumer, as they, call him out West, sold turkeys, there stood shoulder to shoulder with him a little, smiling, happy-eyed women who weighed turkeys, and thoroughly enjoyed this first whack, as the Mayor called it, at "busting the Food Trust." Thoselong hours in the cold when Mrs. Shank weighed turkeys for Christmas tables marked an epoch in the economic standin? of women. In the Bast, after the butter boycott, the cry for the onen market became too strong'to be put down by the food interests. How they are Fighting. What is being planned now is the establishment in New York of headquarters, where women can meet and discuss these questions, and be taught how to battle with wrong conditions in the food market. "We want a bulletin board up in plain sHit where wo can mark down market

prices, and if they jump above normal, wire the women's leagues throughout the country giving the normal prices and warning them not to buy above it. The price will go down. The man who has the food to sell must sell it or he loses a!!." The sentiment and policy of tho Housewives' League has stirred tho entire nation, and touched it on its dearest point, the family. Plans are on foot for the opening of a groat now public market in New York City under the great Queonsborough Bridge at Fifty-ninth Street. The Marketing Club movement, which originated in Brooklyn, last September, works upon different principles from the Housewives' League. It is rallying thousands of women in New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, and promises to be a largo factor in the reduction of the cost of living. It was in September that Mrs. Bleecker Bangs started the little Market Club, working, in groups of ten or more, among the housewives of Brooklyn. This club has aimed to bring the wholesale commission merchant direct to the housekeeper, with wholesale prices. Ono woman buyer buys for the neighbourhood groups, and does tho marketing daily. "Wo do not employ the boycott," says Mrs. Bangs emphatically. "We do not go without tilings. We get them and at wholesale prices." In Pittsburg, say the Marketing Club, the movement has spread to the outlying sections, and already definite results have been accomplished. Tho movement has enrolled over 150,000 members in the New York, 'Pittsburg, and Chicago districts. Ono railroad, the Bessemer and Lake Erie,* , is about to erect a market house in East PittsliUTg, and to run a .market train making stops at rural stations, also to provide a rural agent to look after product , !, and the welfare of the buyers, ilrs. John 5, Tannery, of Pittsbnrg, is the chairman of the I'ederated Marketing Club of the Congress of Clubs of Western Pennsylvania. A new ordinance, drafted for Pittsburg will give the Marketing Club the right to open a. market house also, and a track (o the trolly system will (ipen the wny to farmers.