World Battlefronts: Private Enterprise

In the fighting for Momote airfield in the Admiralty Islands six months ago a U.S. soldier picked up a Jap pistol. Then the profit system went to work:

¶ The G.I. traded the pistol to an officer for eight quarts of whiskey he had lugged out from the U.S. (the whiskey had cost the officer $2 a bottle, but the private could get $75 a bottle for it in the arid Admiralties).

¶ The officer sold the pistol to another officer for $175. In two more sales the pistol passed to a soldier for three quarts of whiskey (original cost: $18).

¶ The soldier sold the pistol for $75. It was promptly resold for $125 to a sailor, who then sold it to a Navy officer for five quarts of whiskey.

By last week the liquor brought into the local market by the chain of pistol sales had pulled down the price of whiskey in the Admiralty Islands to $45 a bottle. And everybody was happy—everybody had made a profit.