BUSINESS YEAST

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 274, 15 August 1919, Page 8

BUSINESS YEAST

Sir,—When will inflation of prices cease? As I don't know, I ask you, and doubtless you will follow the non-acous-tic precedent of the Arab poet's echo, and answer "When?" (or was h "Where?") But it must stop; so why not arrange an early date for it? Big money is little' use to people whoso pockets are ripped open by the pincers of the exploiter. In a .local shop yesterday I saw a man's tweed skull cap marked 13s. 6d! It was of the kind that was sold for 4s. or 3s. 6d. a few years ago. The ordinary skull cap, once Is. 6d. and Is., now is retailed for 4s. 6d. to 7s. (id. Now, Sir, strictly between you and me and the rest of your readers, don't you think it time that some outfitter was hung, by his bootheel from his first story window, by way of warning to profiteers? I saw' in V cablegram iasfc week that the Bight Hon. W. M. Hughes would send them to a crematorium (he spelt the word with four letters), but personally I would not be as severe as that. The outfitters and the ill-fitters, with their dear tweed and dearer leather, have "'just about got my goat" as the Minister of Cussems would put it. With your kind backing. Mr. Editor, I would join the no-hat brigade and walk arm-in-arm with you down Lambtou Quay in • dignified, bareheaded protest against exploitation by outfitters and infirters alike. A man these days must pay an extra penny on his tea and scone at mid-day (.a sort of amusement tax, perhaps r , anaSif he wants illfitting with meat and vegetables he is up against a disbursement nf 50 per cent, above pre-war prices. There has been n rife in everything except profiteers—and their day may be coming. As Parliament meets this month I will wait and wfctch, but meanwhile I fim that each person who is ]>y needs compelled to buy, must burst a shilling io obtain a pair of leather laces, and that a hundred pounds of coal ■'costs him 3s. 6d., a new necktie anything from 2s. Gd. to 6s. (53., a pound of pork chops Is. 2d., and a suit .&f. clothes much uiore than any honest man can afford to pay for it. He lias not even the resource i the lato King David, for sackcloth in these days costs BTg money, while firewood is too dear for anjone to own enough aAhes to be worth while sitting in.—l am. etc., HENRY SAMUEL MUNS. Brooklyn.