THE MIDDLEMAN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12772, 25 May 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MIDDLEMAN.

PROTEST. BY NEW YORK HOUJE- -."' WIVES, : yX\ NEW YORK, April 14. As a protest against the increasing high cost of living and an attempt to abolish shopping by telephone, which is the alleged cause of. overcharging and defrauding, the recently-formed JJovuk.--wives' League, a fashionable marketing reform organisation, held a monster demonstration m Now York at the end cf last week. Hundreds of well-knmv.i ladies, armed with baskets, deserting the high-class up-town stores, walked m procession to the old-time Washington Market for a day's shopping. In hcn< r of the event the aisles yvere gaily decorated, and bands were m attendance playingi ''Every little housewife liao a basket pf her own.-' Mv Gaynor, Mayor of N,ew York, was busy at the City HaU when he was informed of the event. •Hurriedly he jumped into. a taxi m order to attend, and on, arriving the basket-laden lad ios gave him a routing reception. There was a demand for a speech . "Glad you are here," Hhe Mayor said.; '-I wish my wife would come, too. We would halve our cost of living. All .women should shop m this way. Please send the committee immediately to fetch my wife." Mrs Gaynor, accompanied by the wives of the city officials, eventually arrived, amid cheers, the band playing "Alexander's Rag-time Band." ,;S|vera J qf the younger members pf '.the*: J^eague executed two-steps, ayouhd the atalls, while the elderly matrons gasped with horror. Mrs Pulian Heath, the founder, says the outcome of the demonstration will be the establishment of public markets up, town m opposition to the bandit storekeepers. y : 7