is cry;
"Must we spend as much as we do?" "How do people get along who get less
than we do?"

To this his wife has the answer, "We must have _this_, and we _must_
have that. We must live as our neighbors do."

Here is the keynote to the situation. There has been a democratization
of society of this nature; there has been a spread throughout the
community of aristocratic tastes. The woman of even the poor and the
middle classes must have her spring and autumn suits, her dresses for
summer, her summer and winter hats. Her husband too must change his
clothes with each shift of the season. For this the enterprise of the
clothing trade, the splendid display of the department stores are
responsible, awakening desire and dissatisfaction.

While the man accuses the woman of extravagance, he is as guilty as she.
He too spends money freely,--on his cigars and cigarettes, on every
edition of the newspapers, on the shine which he might easily apply
himself, on a thousand and one nickels that become a muckle. The
American is lavish, hates to stint, detests being a "piker", says, "Oh,
what's the difference; it will all be the same in a hundred years," but
kicks himself mentally afterwards.

Meanwhile he quarrels with his wife, who really is extravagant. In this
battle the man wins, even if he loses, for he rarely broods over the
defeat. But it brings about a sense of tension in his wife; it brings
about a disunion in her heart, because she wants to please her husband,
and at the same time she wants to "keep up" with her neighbors and
friends. And who sets the pace for her, for all of her group; who
establishes the standard of expenditure? Not the thrifty, saving woman,
not the one who mends her clothes and makes her own hats, but the
extravagant woman, the rich woman perhaps of recently acquired wealth
who cares little for a dollar. Against her better judgment the woman of
the house enters a race with no ending and becomes intensely
dissatisfied, while her husband becomes desperate over the bills.

This disunion in her spirit does what all such disunions do,--it
predisposes her to a breakdown. It makes the housework harder; it makes
the relations with her husband more difficult. It takes away pleasure
and leaves discontent and doubt,--the mother-stuff of nervousness.

While most American husbands are generous, there are enough stingy ones
to set off their neighbors. To these men the goal of life is the
accumulation of money, a