Liquor, Pipes, and Records Scarce as War Hits Square

Unless a student neither drinks, smokes a pipe, indulges in sports, or has a victroia, he is going to find the next years at College a time of great shortage, a survey of stores around the Square reveals. The liquor situation in particular is becoming acute, with existing stocks of gin almost exhausted while the government plans to take over distilleries for war purposes. Furthermore, the manufacture of rum has been seriously curtailed, leaving whiskey and been the only liquor staples whose sale will remain unaffected.

Investigation of tobacco shops in the Square discloses another respect in which University students will have to cut down on luxuries. One pipe shop has been so hard hit by the widespread lack of briar that it has decided to suspend business for the duration. Most briar, of which Leavitt and Peirco report they still have a large reserve stock, comes from France, Italy, and Greece, and now is unobtainable.

Record Production Curtailed

Latest victim of the war are the music stores, for on April 22 the government froze 70 per cent of the shellae vital to the production of phonograph records. Now record producers insist that dealers turn in one used record for every three new ones they obtain, and music stores feel that soon they will have to ask customers to bring in old recordings in exchange for new purchases. Radio manufacture also was stopped in April, but the most acute shortage in this connection is of skilled repairmen, many of whom have joined the Army Signal Corps.

Sports stores have been the hardest hit of all. Because of the serious shortages of cotton and rubber goods, the commandeering of many athletic supplies by the armed forces, and the increased student demand due to the compulsory athletic program, they find the situation particularly difficult.

Clothing stores, too, are feeling the pinch of war, since the uniform requirement for Army and Navy officers has created a shortage of material