Part 10 (1/2)

”Set the right example, free labour for more useful purposes, save money and lend it to the Nation and so help your Country.”

A gruesome, but none the less striking, poster is ent.i.tled: ”What is the Price of Your Arms?”

Then comes the following dialogue:

Civilian: ”How did you lose your arm, my lad?”

Soldier: ”Fighting for you, sir.”

Civilian: ”I'm grateful to you, my lad.”

Soldier: ”How much are you grateful, sir?”

Civilian: ”What do you mean?”

Soldier: ”How much money have you lent your Country?”

Civilian: ”What has that to do with it?”

Soldier: ”A lot. How much is one of your arms worth?”

Civilian: ”I'd pay anything rather than lose an arm.”

Soldier: ”Very well. Put the price of your arm, or as much as you can afford, into Exchequer Bonds or War Savings Certificates, and lend your money to your Country.”

Still another is ent.i.tled ”BAD FORM IN DRESS” and reads:

”The National Organising Committee for War Savings appeals against extravagance in women's dress.

”Many women have already recognised that elaboration and variety in dress are bad form in the present crisis, but there is still a large section of the community, both amongst the rich and amongst the less well to do, who appear to make little or no difference in their habits.

”New clothes should only be bought when absolutely necessary and these should be durable and suitable for all occasions. Luxurious forms, for example, of hats, boots, shoes, stockings, gloves, and veils should be avoided.

”It is essential, not only that money should be saved, but that labour employed in the clothing trades should be set free.”

Harnessed to the Saving and Investment Campaign is a definite and organised crusade against drink, ancient curse of the British worker, male and female. It is really part of the movement inst.i.tuted by the Government at the beginning of the war to curtail liquor consumption.

One phase is devoted to Anti-Treating, which makes it impossible to buy any one a drink in England. This was followed by a drastic restriction of drinking hours in all public places where alcohol is served. Liquors may only be obtained now between the hours of 12 noon and 2:30 in the afternoon and from 6 to 9:30 at night. As a matter of fact, the only tipple that you can get at supper after the play, even in the smartest London hotels, is a fruit cup, which is a highly sterilised concoction.

The War Savings Committee has borne down hard on the drinking evil and England's enormous yearly outlay for liquor--nearly a billion dollars--is used as a telling argument for thrift. A poster and a pamphlet that you see on all sides is headed, ”THE NATION'S DRINK BILL,”

and reads:

”The National War Savings Committee calls attention to the fact that the sum now being spent by the Nation on alcoholic liquors is estimated at

182,000,000 a year.

”And appeals earnestly for an immediate and substantial reduction of this expenditure in view of the urgent and increasing need for economy in all departments of the Nation's life.

”Obviously, in the present national emergency a daily expenditure of practically 500,000 on spirits, wine and beer cannot be justified on the ground of necessity. This expenditure, therefore, like every other form and degree of expenditure beyond what is required to maintain health and efficiency is directly injurious to national interests.

”Much of the money spent on alcohol could be saved. Even more important would be (1) the saving for more useful purposes of large quant.i.ties of barley, rice, maize and sugar; and (2) the setting free of much labour urgently needed to meet the requirements of the Navy and the Army.

”To do without everything not essential to health and efficiency while the war lasts is the truest patriotism.”