YOUR MONEY'S WORTH
Sheridan, Mary
Your Moneys Worth By mary sheridan PERHAPS mild Winter has discouraged most furnace tenders and coal customers from falling for the advertised magic of the "coal saver" products on the market. I...
...I hope so...
...They simply do not tally with individual consumers' increased cash outlay for the necessities of life...
...They do not register the lower quality that consumers now pay more for...
...That's right—just plain salt...
...In a graphic illustration of what it means by "hidden price increase," The Economic Outlook examines a pair of men's shoes made by the same manufacturer of the same style, and sold as the same style number for the same price in 1941 and 1943...
...One of the products spawned in wartime is "Victory Coal Saver," a chemical concoction, made in Albany, N. Y., which claims to be effective in reducing the amount of coal you have to burn to keep the old homestead warm...
...But the Federal Trade Commission, which investigates such glittering claims, dissents...
...The decline of quality in a garment is of course equivalent to a rise in its price...
...But it is a hidden rise and consequently escapes the attention of field examiners and statisticians...
...It will give more heat with less coal...
...27, the date set for the OPA to pour 2,000,000,000 plastic ration tokens into circulation...
...Many people expect and are able to pay more for civilian goods during wartime—but they balk at paying outrageous prices for junk...
...Housewives' purses will bulge and rattle more than ever after Feb...
...The manufacturer of this alleged gift to coal furnace owners is having difficulties with the Federal Trade Commission...
...If I had a coal furnace and got one of those ads in the mail one frosty morning, particularly one frosty morning when the mailman also brought a coal bill, I'd be tempted to order a supply of "Victory Coal Saver" at once...
...Victory Coal Saver' Those are persuasive arguments...
...The Bureau of Mines, claim the ads, has endorsed the product and said that its "Ingredient A" prevents formation of soot in chimneys or gets rid of soot already formed...
...Furthermore, the Federal Trade 'Commission steps still harder on the toes of "Victory Coal Saver" and "Victory Coal Saver Manufacturing Company" with a charge that the use of these trade names "is misleading and deceptive in that they imply to the consuming public that the product will effect a saving in coal consumption, when such is not a fact...
...change will be given in the red discs...
...Odds and Ends Restricted use of plastics ordered by the War Production Board will mean fewer plastic combs, buttons, cosmetic containers, zippers, and small kitchenware items during the coming months...
...They'll be about the size of a dime, and there'll be 1,-100,000,00 red ones and 900,000,000 blue...
...Ration stamps will be 10 points each...
...This means a hidden price increase of 43 per cent, ac- cording to the publication, because of deterioration in wearing qualities...
...Those Hidden Price Increases Beyond the yelping from consumer and cooperative groups, little or nothing is being done to keep prices in line with quality...
...While necessity is the mother of invention, the threat of necessity speeds the creation of quack substitutes and extenders as well as meritorious ones...
...Salt may, in sufficiently high concentrations, be an effective soot remover, but not in the quantity recommended by the manufacturer...
...Nor will it, adds the Commission, accomplish the other results claimed for it...
...It will make coal, the ads continue, burn more slowly and evenly...
...According to its tests, the 1943 shoe will give 30 per cent less wear...
...Blues will be spent for processed food...
...Those federal agency statistical stories reporting rising living costs that pop up in the paper periodically are almost meaningless...
...The FTC has charged that most of the advertising claims of "Victory Coal Saver," which has been advertised through the mails, are false...
...The Economic Outlook, issued by the CIO's department of research and education, emphasizes in its current issue that a vital deficiency of the Bureau of Labor Standards' surveys of living costs "is its failure to register deterioration of quality of goods, notably clothing...
...In its complaint against the maker of "Victory Coal Saver," the FTC charges that the product will not effect a saving of 30 to 50 per cent—or any other percentage—in coal consumption...
...And junk is the blunt word for most moderate-priced clothing and some household articles on sale in stores today...
...That mysterious-sounding "Ingredient A" in "Victory Coal Saver" is, according to the FTC, common salt...
...According to its ads, "Victory Coal Saver" will save 30 to 50 per cent in coal consumption...
Vol. 8 • January 1944 • No. 3
