After having gone barefoot for a million
years or so the majority of mankind have decided to wear shoes and this
change in fashion comes at a time, roughly speaking, when pasture land
is getting scarce. Also there are books to be bound and other new things
to be done for which leather is needed. The war has intensified the
stringency; so has feminine fashion. The conventions require that the
shoe-tops extend nearly to skirt-bottom and this means that an inch or
so must be added to the shoe-top every year. Consequent to this rise in
leather we have to pay as much for one shoe as we used to pay for a
pair.
Here, then, is a chance for Necessity to exercise her maternal function.
And she has responded nobly. A progeny of new substances have been
brought forth and, what is most encouraging to see, they are no longer
trying to worm their way into favor as surreptitious surrogates under
the names of "leatheret," "leatherine," "leatheroid" and
"leather-this-or-that" but come out boldly under names of their own
coinage and declare themselves not an imitation, not even a substitute,
but "better than leather.
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