Poverty

In the U. S. prosperity has been greatly overrated, states the National Catholic Welfare Conference, which through its work among 18,000,000 churchgoers should know. Admitting that wage levels are at the highest yet known, it adds that living costs are correspondingly high, that the buying power of farmers, who are a third of the consuming public, has decreased, that "great numbers" of men make but $3 and $4 a day, "great numbers" of women $12--$14 a week, while "great numbers" of both men and women have no work at all. The $1,000,000,000 of U. S. investments abroad, apart from War loans, is seen as an indication of "something wrong" with the domestic market. Purchase of goods, usually nonessentials, on long-term payments, is blamed for "bolstering up" business dangerously with industrial depression sure to follow.