wasting money on sweeping the streets?

THE CLERK. We have to. We dropped it for a while; but the infant
death rate went up something frightful.

AUGUSTUS. What matters the death rate of Little Pifflington in a
moment like this? Think of our gallant soldiers, not of your
squalling infants.

THE CLERK. If you want soldiers you must have children. You can't
buy em in boxes, like toy soldiers.

AUGUSTUS. Beamish, the long and the short of it is, you are no
patriot. Go downstairs to your office; and have that gas stove
taken away and replaced by an ordinary grate. The Board of Trade
has urged on me the necessity for economizing gas.

THE CLERK. Our orders from the Minister of Munitions is to use
gas instead of coal, because it saves material. Which is it to
be?

AUGUSTUS [bawling furiously at him]. Both! Don't criticize your
orders: obey them. Yours not to reason why: yours but to do and
die. That's war. [Cooling down.] Have you anything else to say?

THE CLERK. Yes: I want a rise.

AUGUSTUS [reeling against the table in his horror]. A rise!
Horatio Floyd Beamish, do you know that we are at war?