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AN interesting note in yesterday's telegrams records the growing disposition of the public ''to} confine purchases to absolute essentials as a protest against high prices, which may lead to a further restriction of consumption.'' Illustrative of this, an article in a recent issue of the "Times" describes what is happening in the boot trade. Before the war, under pressure of foreign competition, English manufacturers produced a very cheap boot: but being so cheap it was also nasty; its materials were bad, it did not wear and it let in, water like a sponge. During the war, when the manufacture of boots was controlled for civilians as for the army, there was, we are told, a reversion to better' practices, and so we come today to "ithe National Standard boot, which involves a guarantee of reliability, w limitation of pr tit and an undertaking that any reduction in the cost of produc-i ould be passed to the} Apparently the public is sceptical as to these promises, i that it has heard it sort of thing before; and it insists on cheaper boots or will make shift as best it may, with out byying new ones. The verse side of this economy is an increase in unemployment, At the present time," says the "Tine: contributor, "the hoot trade is considering the desir ability of working short time many other trades must be in a similar position." In a word, the manufacturer does not lose. When wages have to be raised he takes it out of the public; when the consumer refuses to buy, he turns off his workmen. There are, no doubt, exceptions to this practice, but it is general enough to have instilled a firm belief in the public mind that it is invariable.
Another aspect of the demand for economy is the increasing indignation at the expenditure on Government departments. The Budget, with its terrific item of, over £500 millions on the Civil Service, went through because it had to, and the Government's big battalions preferred to sanction it and keep their seats rather than risk an appeal to the country, which must have followed on a defeat of the Government on a financial question. But the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.