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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:44 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:44 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12366-0.txt b/12366-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f13cde --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3150 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12366 *** + +THE +COST OF SHELTER. + + +By +ELLEN H. RICHARDS + + +Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry, +Massachusetts Institute of Technology. + + +1905. + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLD EXISTS FOR ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS: + + +Two or more persons form an alliance + +(a) for protection against the outside world; + +(b) for protection against the outside world and for the rearing of + children; + +(c) for the greater gain in convenience which the common life can give + over that of single effort; + +(d) for companionship; + +(e) for the greater independence it gives to the group; + +(f) for the greater ease in satisfying one's prejudices or whims. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE. TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTRES OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY + +CHAPTER II. + + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING + +CHAPTER III. + + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, ILL ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS, CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION + +CHAPTER IV. + + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY + +CHAPTER V. + + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE + +CHAPTER VI. + + COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY FOR VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER + +CHAPTER VII. + + RELATION BETWEEN COST OF SHELTER AND TOTAL INCOME TO BE EXPENDED + +CHAPTER VIII. + + TO RENT OR TO OWN: A DIFFICULT QUESTION + + + + +THE COST OF SHELTER. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE; TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTERS OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY. + + "There is no noble life without a noble aim."--CHARLES DOLE. + +The word Home to the Anglo-Saxon race calls to mind some definite house as +the family abiding-place. Around it cluster the memories of childhood, the +aspirations of youth, the sorrows of middle life. + +The most potent spell the nineteenth century cast on its youth was the +yearning for a home of their own, not a piece of their father's. The +spirit of the age working in the minds of men led them ever westward to +conquer for themselves a homestead, forced them to go, leaving the aged +behind, and the graves of the weak on the way. + +There must be a strong race principle behind a movement of such +magnitude, with such momentous consequences. Elbow room, space, and +isolation to give free play to individual preference, characterized +pioneer days. The cord that bound the whole was love of home,--one's own +home,--even if tinged with impatience of the restraints it imposed, for +home and house do imply a certain restraint in individual wishes. And +here, perhaps, is the greatest significance of the family house. It cannot +perfectly suit _all_ members in its details, but in its great office, that +of shelter and privacy--ownership--the house of the nineteenth century +stands supreme. No other age ever provided so many houses for single +families. It stands between the community houses of primitive times and +the hives of the modern city tenements. + +As sociologically defined, the family means a common house--common, that +is, to the family, but excluding all else. This exclusiveness is +foreshadowed in the habits of the majority of animals, each pair +preempting a particular log or burrow or tree in which to rear its young, +to which it retreats for safety from enemies. Primitive man first borrowed +the skins of animals and their burrowing habits. The space under fallen +trees covered with moss and twigs grew into the hut covered with bark or +sod. The skins permitted the portable tent. + +It is indeed a far cry from these rude defences against wind and weather +to the dwelling-houses of the well-to-do family in any country to-day, but +the need of the race is just the same: protection, safety from danger, a +shield for the young child, a place where it can grow normally in peaceful +quiet. It behooves the community to inquire whether the houses of to-day +are fulfilling the primary purposes of the race in the midst of the +various other uses to which modern man is putting them. + +As already shown, shelter in its first derivation, as well as in its +common use, signifies protection from the weather. Bodily warmth saves +food, therefore is an economy in living. From the first it also implied +protection from enemies, a safe retreat from attack and a refuge when +wounded. But above all else it has, through the ages, stood for a safe and +retired place for the bringing up of the young of the species. + +The colonial houses of New England with large living-room, dominated by +the huge fireplace with its outfit of cooking utensils, with groups of +buildings for different uses clustered about them, giving protection to +the varied industries of the homestead, illustrate the most perfect type +of family life. Each member had a share in the day's work, therefore to +each it was home. To the old homestead many a successful business man +returns to show his grandchildren the attic with its disused loom and +spinning-wheel; the shop where farm-implements were made, in the days of +long winter storms, to the accompaniment of legend and gossip; the dairy, +no longer redolent of cream. These are reminders of a time past and gone, +before the greed of gain had robbed even these houses of their peace. The +backward glance of this generation is too apt to stop at the transition +period, when the factory had taken the interesting manufactures out of the +hands of the housewife and left the homestead bereft of its best, when the +struggle to make it a modern money-making plant, for which it was never +designed, drove the young people away to less arduous days and more +exciting evenings. + +This stage of farm life was altogether unlovely, not wholly of necessity, +but because the adjustment was most painful to the feelings and most +difficult to the muscles of the elders. + +Because the family ideal was the ruling motive, the house-building of the +colonial period shows a more perfect adaptation to family life than any +other age has developed. + +Where is the boasted adaptability of the American? He should be ready to +see the effect of the inevitable mechanical changes and modify his ideas +to suit. For it cannot be too often reiterated that it is a case of +_ideas_, not of wood and stone and law. + +This homestead has passed into history as completely as has the Southern +colonial type, differing only in arrangement. Climate, as well as domestic +conditions, demanded a more complete separation of the manufacturing +processes, including cooking, laundry, etc., otherwise the ideal was the +same. "The house" meant a family life, a gracious hospitality, a busy hive +of industry, a refuge indeed from social as well as physical storms. Work +and play, sorrow and pleasure, all were connected with its outward +presentment as with the thought. For its preservation men fought and women +toiled, but, alas! machinery has swept away the last vestige of this life +and, try as the philanthropist may to bring it back, it will never return. +The very essence of that life was the _making of things_, the preparation +for winter while it was yet summer, the furnishing of the bridal chest +years before marriage. Fancy a bride to-day wearing or using in the house +anything five years old! + +There are no more pioneer and colonial communities on this continent. +Railroads and steamboats and electric power have made this rural life a +thing of the past. Let us not waste tears on its vanishing, but address +ourselves to the future. + +There are two directions in which great change in household conditions has +occurred quite outside the volition of the housekeeper. They are the +disappearance of industries, and lack of permanence in the homestead. +Those who are busily occupied in productive work of their own are +contented and usually happy. The results of their efforts, stored for +future use--barns filled with hay or grain, shelves of linen and +preserves--yield satisfaction. + +Destructive consumption may be pleasurable for the moment, but does not +satisfy. The child pulls the stuffing from the doll with pleasure, but +asks for another in half an hour. The delicious meal daintily served is a +joy for an hour. A room put in perfect order, clean, tastefully decorated, +is a delight to the eye for three hours and then it must be again cleaned +and rearranged. Is this productive work? Is there any reason why we should +be satisfied with it or happy in it? + +In an earlier time, that from which we derive so many of our cherished +ideals, the house built by or for the young people was used as a homestead +by their children and their children's children. Customs grew up slowly, +and for some reason. Furniture, collected as wanted, found its place; all +the routine went as by clockwork. Saturday's baking of bread and pies went +each on to its own shelf, as the cows went each to her own stall. If the +duties were physically hard, the routine saved worrying. + +To-day how few of us live in the house we began life with! How few in that +we occupied even ten years ago! And this number is growing smaller and +smaller. The housewife has not time to form habits of her own; she engages +a maid and expects her to fall at once into the family ways, when the +family has no ways. + +In the sociological sense, shelter may mean protection from noise, from +too close contact with other human beings, enemies only in the sense of +depriving us of valuable nerve-force. It should mean sheltering the +children from contact with degrading influences. + +Charles P. Neill, United States Commissioner of Labor, in his address at +the New York School of Philanthropy, July 16, 1905, said: "In my own +estimation home, above all things, means privacy. It means the possibility +of keeping your family off from other families. There must be a separate +house, and as far as possible separate rooms, so that at an early period +of life the idea of rights to property, the right to things, to privacy, +may be instilled." + +There may be such a thing as too much shelter. To cover too closely breeds +decay. Are we in danger of covering ourselves and our children too closely +from sun and wind and rain, making them weak and less resistant than they +should be? The prevalence of tuberculosis and its cure by fresh air seems +to indicate this. The attempt to gain privacy under prevailing conditions +tends this way. + +Hitherto students of social economics have usually considered the most +pressing problem in the life of the wage-earner to be that of sufficient +and suitable food. But in any large city and in most smaller communities +there are found those who have refined instincts, aspirations for a life +of physical and moral cleanness, who by force of circumstances are obliged +to come in contact with filth and squalor and careless disorder in order +to find shelter. If they can be kept from degenerating, their rise when +it comes will lift those below them, but it is a Herculean task to lift +them by lifting all below as well. The burden which presses most heavily +on this valuable material for social betterment is that of shelter rather +than of food. + +The thought underlying this whole series on Cost is that the place to put +the leaven of progress is in the middle. The class to work for is the +great mass of intelligent, industrious, and ambitious young people turned +out by our public schools with certain ideals for self-betterment, but in +grave danger of losing heart in the crush due to the pressure of society +around them and above them. They fear to incur the responsibility of +marriage when they see the pecuniary requirements it involves. + +This growing body makes up so large a proportion of the whole in America +that, once aroused, it may become an all-powerful force for regeneration, +thanks to the pervading influence of public-school education when enlisted +on the side of right. Faith in the uprightness of American youth is so +strong that strenuous effort for their enlightenment is justified. Once +they have their attention drawn to the need of action, they will act. +Self-preservation is one of the strongest instincts, and it may be +dangerous to call upon the self-interest of these inexperienced souls; but +for the sake of the results we must risk the lesser evil, if we can +develop a resolution to secure a personal and race efficiency. + +When the young people, with a deep appreciation of the possibilities of +sane and wholesome living, marry and attempt to realize their ideals, the +conditions are all against them. They find little sympathy in their +yearnings for a rational life, and soon give up the effort, deciding that +they are too peculiar. They slip almost insensibly into the routine of +their neighbors. There is great need of a cooperation of like-minded young +married people to form a little community, setting its own standards and +living a fairly independent life. Two or three such groups would do more +than many sermons to awaken attention to the problem before the race +to-day. Shall man yield himself to the tendencies of natural selection and +be modified out of existence by the pressure of his environment, or shall +he turn upon himself some of the knowledge of Nature's forces he has +gained and by "conscious evolution" begin an adaptation of the environment +to the organism? For we no longer hold with Robert Owen and the socialists +that man is necessarily controlled and moulded by his surroundings, that +he is absolutely subject to the laws of animal evolution. A new era will +dawn when man sees his power over his own future. Then, and not till then, +will come again that willingness to sacrifice present ease and pleasure +for the sake of race progress, which alone can make the restrained life a +satisfaction. + +The environment is, more largely than we think, the house and the manner +of life it forces upon us. Therefore the first point of attack is the +shelter under which the family life of the newly married pair establishes +itself. If it is too large for their income, it leads to extravagance and +debt before the first two years have passed; if it is too small, it cramps +the generous and hospitable impulses. If unsuited to this need, it +irritates and deforms character, as a plaster cast compresses a limb +encased in it. + +Imagine the young people beginning life in the average city flat, at a +rent of twenty to thirty dollars a month, with its shams, its makeshifts, +its depressing, unsanitary, morally unsafe quarters for the maid, its +friction with janitor and landlord--the whole sordid round necessitated by +the mere manner of building, and by that only. + +A few strong souls flee to the country. Counting the cost and finding that +all the earnings go to mere living, they decide to get that living in +company with nature under free skies--their own employers. Such may live +in Altruria with the happy zest of the authors of that charming sketch. + +It is not given to many of earth's children to be so well mated and so +heavenly-wise. The young man has been brought up to consider the house the +young wife's prerogative, and she--well, she has been trained to believe +that housewifely wisdom will come to her as unsought as measles. + +Two thirds the friction in the early years of married life is caused by +the house and its defects, resulting in dissatisfaction, disenchantment, +and the flight to a hotel or non-housekeeping apartment. + +If some of the problems to be faced and the difficulties in solving them +could be presented to the young people to be studied and discussed before +the actual encounter came, they would be more prepared. + +In discussing this part of the subject, as in the consideration of the +Cost of Living in general and the Cost of Food, we shall deal in +particular with incomes of from $1000 to $5000 a year for families of +five, recognizing that under present-day conditions the annual sum of +$1500 to $3000 means the greatest struggle between desires and power of +gratifying them. + +On the surface it appears that the things which go to make up delicate +cleanly living cost more and more each year, with no limit in sight. It is +not only the poet who moves from one boarding-house to another; the young +clerk and struggling business man go into smaller and smaller quarters +until the traditional limit of room to swing a cat is reached. + +The constantly diminishing space occupied by a family seems to prove that +the 40% increase in the cost of living within a few years is not caused +by an advance in the necessary cost of food; it is certainly not due to +the increased cost of necessary clothes. It is more than probable that the +increasing cost of shelter and all that it implies--increased +water-supply, service, repairs, etc.--is the main factor in the +undoubtedly increased expense. This will be considered in some detail in +Chapter VIII. + +While the socialist may take the ground that salaries must be raised to +keep pace with the rise in living expenses, the student of social +ethics--Euthenics, or the science of _better_ living--may well ask a +consideration of the topic from another standpoint. Is this increased cost +resulting in higher efficiency? Are the people growing more healthy, +well-favored, well-proportioned, stronger, happier? If not, then is there +not a fallacy in the common idea that more money spent means a fuller +life? + +Recent examination of school children in various cities in England and +America has revealed a state of physical ill-being most deplorable in the +present, and horrifying to contemplate for its future results. One has +only to keep one's eyes open in passing the streets to become aware of the +physical deterioration of thousands of the wage-earners. One has only to +listen to the housewife's complaints of inefficiency, lack of strength +among the housemaids, to realize that the world's work is not being well +done in so far as it depends upon human hands. + +This loss of efficiency is usually attributed to insufficient food and +long hours, but it is at least an open question if housing conditions are +not the more potent factor not only in the case of the very poor, but even +in the case of the family having an income of $2000 a year. Life in a +boarding-house adapted from the use by one family to that of five or six +without increase of bathing and ventilating conveniences, with old-style +plumbing, cannot be mentally or bodily invigorating. + +The house cannot be said to be a place of safety so long as the "great +white plague" lurks in every dark corner--tuberculosis, colds, influenza, +etc., fasten themselves upon its occupants. Explorers exposed to extremes +of weather do not thus suffer. The dark, damp house incubates the germs. + +But homes there must be: places of safety for children, of refuge for +elders. Men will marry and women may keep house. How shall it be managed +so as to be in harmony with present-day demands? Certainly not by ignoring +the difficulties. Progress in any direction does not come through wringing +of hands and deploring the decadence of the present generation. President +Roosevelt's advice is to bring up boys and girls to overcome obstacles, +not to ignore them. Let the educated, intelligent young people join in +devising a way to surmount this obstacle as the engineers of 1890 invented +new ways of crossing impassable gorges and "impossible" mountain ranges. + +The writer has no ready-prepared panacea to offer. Patent medicine is not +the remedy. This kind cometh out only by fasting and prayer. A long course +of diet is needed to cure a chronic disease. + +This little volume is intended merely as a spur to the imagination of the +indolent student, to arouse him to the mental effort required to deal with +the readjustment of ideas to conditions before it is too late. + +It is no exaggeration to say that the social well-being of the community +is threatened. The habits of years are broken up; sad to say, the +middle-aged will suffer unrelieved, but the young can be incited to +grapple with the situation and hew out for themselves a way through. + +Certain elements in the problem will be touched upon in the following +pages as a result of much going to and fro in the "most favored land on +earth." Certain questions will be raised as to what constitutes a home and +a shelter for the family in the twentieth-century sense of both family and +shelter. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING. + + It is not what we lack, but what we see others have, + that makes us discontented. + +There has been noted in every age a tendency to measure social preĆ«minence +by the size and magnificence of the family abode. Mediaeval castles, +Venetian palaces, colonial mansions, all represented a form of social +importance, what Veblen has called conspicuous waste. This was largely +shown in maintaining a large retinue and in giving lavish entertainments. +The so-called patronage of the arts--furnishings, fabrics, pictures, +statues, valued to this day--came under the same head of rivalry in +expenditure. + +In America a similar aspiration results in immense establishments far +beyond the needs of the immediate family. But, unlike society in the +middle ages, social aspiration does not stop short at a well-defined line. +In the modern state each level reaches up toward the next higher and, +failing to balance itself, drops into the abyss which never fills. + +There is no contented layer of humanity to equalize the pressure; heads +and hands are thrust up through from below at every point. Democracy has +taken possession of the age and must be reckoned with on all sides. + +At first sight sumptuous housing might seem to be the least objectionable +form of conspicuous waste. Safer than rich food, less wasteful than +gorgeous clothing, but, as Veblen truly says, "through discrimination in +favor of visible consumption it has come about that the domestic life of +most classes is relatively shabby. As a consequence people habitually +screen their private life from observation." This is from a different +motive than the instinct of privacy, of personal withdrawal for rest and +quiet. This shabby private life is why true hospitality is disappearing. +The chance guest is no longer welcome to the family table; we are ashamed +of our daily routine, or we have an idea that our fare is not worthy of +being shared. Whatever it is, unconscious as it often is, it is a canker +in the family life of to-day. It leads to selfishness, to a laxness in +home manners very demoralizing. It is doubtless one of the great factors +in the distinct deterioration of children's public manners. + +Because the house is held to be the visible evidence of social standing, +because its location, style of architecture, fittings and furniture may be +made to proclaim the pretensions of its inhabitants, it is often dishonest +and one of the sources of the prevalent untruth in other things, since +dishonesty in housing has been not infrequently one of the first signs of +dishonesty in business. To move to a less fashionable quarter is to +confess financial stress at once. + +It is because the concomitant expenses of an establishment may be +curtailed without attracting public notice that a moral danger exists. The +outside shell is not the whole nor even the chief outlay. The operating +expenses run away with more money than the house itself, and it is in +these that the family, conscious of impending ruin, curtail, and thus +become dishonest in their own souls. + +The moral of it all is to live just a little below the probable limit, +whatever that may be, rather than to assume a greater income than is quite +certain. Granted that in the quickly changing conditions of to-day this is +difficult, it is not often impossible. + +It is only needed to set some other standard of social position than +shelter and to use the house for its legitimate purposes only, that of an +abode of the family in health and joyful cooperation. The class for which +this series is written should seek a shelter sufficient for these normal +uses, and make it so home-like that friends will gladly share it when +permitted. + +Let good manners, keen intelligence, bright and entertaining conversation +take the place of the showy but frequently uncomfortable houses and +wholesale entertainments of to-day. + +It is time that a beginning was made of that form of social pleasure and +mental recreation which the century must develop, or fail of its promise. + +What is the value, of present-day knowledge if not to stimulate the +conscious group, through the individual perhaps, but the group finally, to +better use of its powers and opportunities toward a higher form of social +life? + +We have been told that the house should be as much an expression of +individuality as clothes. Since clothes are constantly and easily changed, +and a family home built to order is comparatively permanent, such +expression in wood or stone should be carefully thought out; but how +rarely do we gain a pleasant impression from the houses built for the +purpose of setting forth social standards! The owner and the architect +have neither of them the highest ideals, and a sort of ready-made, +composite, often irritating, always displeasing result follows. The +pretence shows through more often than the occupant realizes. + +Society has the power to regulate its own conventions. Once convinced that +it is dangerous to put the strain of living on to mere superficial +pretence, mere location, ornament, new standards will be set up; as, +indeed, they are under other conditions. In frontier life, for instance, +where shortness of tenure is recognized, dress and the table take the +place of the house as indications. In a mining town, one is astonished at +the costumes seen on persons issuing from insignificant houses, and at the +excellent bill of fare in a restaurant with the barest necessities of +furnishing. Cursory observation often reads the signs of civilization +wrongly. The eastern traveller, accustomed to the outward glitter and the +finish of settled communities, fails to interpret the real efficiency of a +more flexible society. West of the Mississippi, that new empire we are +just beginning to appreciate, good food is recognized as of prime +importance, dress gives an opportunity for showing conspicuous waste, and +buildings are made for show only when permanence of residence is assured. + +Let society once thoroughly understand that safe shelter is essential to +its very life, that this safety is threatened, if not lost, by present +habits, and, by quick money-making schemes in house-building, it will +establish standards of living which shall not only be for the material +welfare, but for the mental, moral, and spiritual progress of the race. + +This progress can be secured by applying centrifugal force to congested +districts, by interesting capitalists to consider housing at the same time +with manufacturing plants, not only providing safe, economical houses, but +by making it socially possible to live in them on moderate incomes. + +The rising half, we must remember, is more affected by social conventions +than the submerged tenth. + +The well-to-do should consider more conscientiously those who recruit +their ranks, who, if started right without danger of debt, will have +freedom to advance. The present muddle has come about in part because no +one has taken the trouble to investigate the reasons. The young family +with $3000 a year has ideals for the manners and morals of the children +which are not satisfied with those of the inexpensive tenement quarter. +Prevention they consider better than cure, hence they pay higher rent than +the income warrants to secure elevating examples and morally wholesome +surroundings. + +[Illustration: The Morris Company's Block of Single Houses, with Central +Heating Plant (*remainder cut off).] + +[Illustration: The Morris Building Company's Block of Single Houses, with +Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +A single family cannot control a whole street, although cooperation can +accomplish a great deal in the way of congenial neighborhoods. But the +risk involved, the liability to error of judgment, as well as the large +outlay of capital, at once prevents the adoption of this means of +satisfactory housing for the business and professional class to any great +extent, at least in the city. The acumen needed to discover the profitable +in real estate, the skill to acquire large contiguous tracts of land, both +belong to the capitalist. Only when he is a philanthropist besides, is the +housing question safe in his hands. Such an example we find in the Morris +houses, Willoughby Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. This set of family dwellings was +put up to meet this very need. Congenial neighborhood, safe +playgrounds for the children, labor-saving devices for the housekeeper. +When first built they were in advance of anything in an eastern city of +their class. To-day Mr. Pratt has even more advanced ideas which will take +form in the future. + +[Illustration: Aerial-view Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +These attractive and comfortable houses, so near the working places of +the teachers and professional and business men who occupy them, were +possible only because of the comparative cheapness of the land, which had +been held undesirable for high-class single houses, not for sanitary +reasons, but solely on account of social conditions. This cluster of forty +houses makes its own atmosphere. This is the lesson to be learned. Let +groups of like-minded families make their own surroundings. The capitalist +will soon learn where his interest lies. + +[Illustration: Floor-plan Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +[Illustration: Floor-plan Drawing The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +Very probably it will be necessary to enlarge the scope and, perhaps, to +build two stories higher, so that the elders and perhaps bachelors of +both sexes, who do not care for the garden, may help to bear the expense +of the children's playground. Whatever form the advance may take, this is +a sign-post in the right direction. + +In the nature of things, however, the first experiments will be costly and +must be combined with business of a sure kind. In this instance the +heating and hot-water supply was made possible by a combination with +factory plant. But if a larger group of, say, one hundred houses were run +by a central establishment, the Morris Building Company estimates the cost +at about fifty dollars per year. + +These houses will be referred to again under Chapter VI, but the especial +value of this experiment was its social significance. How much better to +keep desirable land for residential purposes by such means than to permit +families to move away and give up satisfactory dwellings solely because +the lower end of the street has a few foreigners! Our older cities abound +in instances of this quick abandonment of most desirable streets without +any concerted effort to retain their character. + +The dangerous sanitary degeneration of these abandoned houses is one of +the worst features of the situation and a prolific cause of the +overcrowding of cities. + +The more thoughtful students of progressive tendencies are grouping +themselves in "parks" where houses are put up with the aid of the +capitalist under such restrictions as to price as is supposed to insure a +congenial neighborhood, and under such regulations as to land as to +prevent manufacturing establishments. When these plans are not purely +speculative, designed to entrap the young people by their best hopes of a +permanent home, much satisfaction may come from the plan. But even in this +country or suburban life the shadow of fashion falls sooner or later, and +the savings vanish with the years. Some deeper principle must come into +play, some stronger force than mere whim of society leaders, before our +young people can be released from the bondage of living on the right side +of a street under penalty of social ostracism. + +There are gratifying indications of an awakening. The following statement +appeared in a newspaper of a recent date: + +"A corporation of women has been formed in Indianapolis, Ind., for the +purpose of building small but artistic houses for people of moderate +means. All of the directors are business women; one of the vice-presidents +is Miss Elizabeth Browning, the city librarian, and another is the +principal of one of the public schools. The secretary has for some time +been in charge of the office of a savings and loan association and is the +only woman member of the Indianapolis fire insurance inspection board. Six +houses are to be erected at once in various parts of the city." + +No better use of money or effort can be made at the present time than in +similar endeavors to meet the needs of the time. The study of conditions +will prove an education in itself and a stimulus to invention. + +When the social conscience is once awakened the bride with $2000 a year +will not be expected to begin where her mother left off. + +The young people will be provided with just as comfortable and just as +sanitary homes, but they will not be expected to entertain lavishly in +order to show the wedding presents before they are broken. They will be +visited, even if they live in an unfashionable quarter on a side street. +Is it not more honest? + +If society would put its stamp on the manner of life adapted to the +welfare of the young people, it would not be unfashionable to live within +one's income. + +The tyranny of things is very real and most distressing in connection with +this problem of shelter and all that it involves. + +There is only needed a social awakening to result in an adjustment of +men's views as to what is good and right. New social habits adapted to the +age we live in will be accepted by the next generation as good form. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOT ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION. + + "A large part of the evils of which we complain socially to-day + are due to the kind of houses we live in and the exactions they + make upon us."--H.G. WELLS. + +Four classes of houses have come down to us: + +(1) The family homestead in the country set low on the ground with damp +walls and dark cellar, one of a cluster of rambling buildings; with a +well, the only water supply, in close proximity to various sources of +pollution. These houses are for the most part now abandoned to the +foreigner, who uses them for the primitive purposes of shelter without the +ennobling intellectual life they once harbored. Now and then a grandson +rescues the old place, brings water from a spring or brook, digs a drain, +lets light into the cellar, and builds on a kitchen and dining-room. + +The expense is often greater than to build anew, but the effect is usually +very good when the changes are made under sanitary supervision. + +(2) The village or suburban house set in its own grounds, too near the +street usually, but with garden and fruit-trees in the rear, and possibly +a stable for horse and cow. This was the compromise made by the generation +just from the free life of the farm-house, who, consciously or +unconsciously, clung to the green of grass and trees, and the blue of the +sky. So long as habit or love of caring for the things lasted all went +well. The father found his recreation in planting the garden before +breakfast, as in his boyhood. The mother cared for flower and +vegetable-garden, as she recalled her mother's life; she picked her own +beans and corn, even if she did not cook the dinner. + +But the _children_ had to hurry off to school, and it was a pity to call +them early: they had lessons to learn in the afternoon. To them the garden +was work, not play as it should have been; so they failed to gain that +contact with mother earth which gives inspiration as well as health; they +failed to acquire a love of nature, became infected with the germ of +gregariousness, preferred the glare of lights, the rush of hurrying +crowds, and lost the relish for fresh air and quiet. This second +generation came to the city boarding-house and flat as soon as they were +free, leaving their parents' houses to go the same way as the +grandfather's farmhouse, into the hands of the foreigner not yet +Americanized to high standards of cleanliness and orderliness. + +These houses, too, are settling down into unkempt grounds with +dilapidated porches and blinds. Such eyesores as one finds on the +trolley-lines in any direction! They may have town-water supply, or they +may depend on wells, but they are frequently without sewer-connection. + +It is costly to be neat and clean, and only those whose minds require such +surroundings in order to be comfortable will pay the cost in time, +trouble, and money. + +(3) Some families made a compromise and built what is called a modern +house with bath-room and furnace (after the air-tight-stove craze passed), +with jigsaw ornamentation outside and in, pretentious-looking dwellings +with no proper kitchen accompaniments, and an unsavory garbage-barrel in +the small back yard, under the next neighbor's windows. These houses are +so close together that sounds and smells mingle; there is so little land +that there is no satisfaction in caring for it. Houses of this sort are +altogether too frequently found, occupying good locations and jarring on +the nerves of the better-trained young people of to-day. What is to be +done with them? They are too expensive to pull down, and hence are the +last resort of those who find they must retrench. They are mere temporary +shelters, not loved homes. + +The plumbing is usually of a cheap order, and the drains are not +infrequently broken, so that sanitarily these dwellings are often more +suspicious than the abandoned farmhouse. + +(4) The influx from village and country made demand for city housing of +an inexpensive sort, and there came into being all over the land the type +of the family house squeezed by the price of land to four stories high, 16 +to 20 feet wide, built in long rows and blocks. The "ugly sixties" bred +not only distressful village "villas," but unpleasant city houses of this +type, which are to-day a real menace to wholesome living. Many such blocks +may be found in any of our older cities, casting a depressing influence +upon all who come in sight of them, and deteriorating the manners and +morals of all who live in them. For these have gone the way of the other +classes mentioned and become perverted from the uses they were designed +for. In the seventies there were still motherly women who had come to town +to make a home for the children no longer content out of it. They were +willing and capable of mothering a few other children and lonely teachers +and clerks, so the boarding-house began as a real family home for the +homeless. There were not enough of these women to go around, and soon +boarding-houses began to be run for profit only. Home privileges were +fewer and fewer, the common parlor was rented, the one-family kitchen was +made to do duty for twenty persons. The house became pervaded with burned +fat and tobacco-smoke--a most villainous combination, gossip flourished, +and the limit of discomfort was reached. What wonder that a good Samaritan +built the first flat where the wearied nerves could find peace in the +thicker walls, and could escape the eternal "fry" by going out to meals! +It is a perfectly natural evolution from the impossible conditions which +the eighties and nineties developed. + +The early attempts, built on the old lines after the old ideas, before the +new life was accepted, are not satisfactory and, being built of brick or +stone, they are even more difficult to get rid of than the preceding. So +each type goes down in the scale of decent living. A given roof is made to +cover more people crowding closer and closer, causing home in the sense of +privacy and comfort to recede farther and farther away, until the lover of +his kind stands aghast at the magnitude of the problem before society when +it awakens to the task confronting it. Fortunately these rows of houses +are disappearing under the demand of business. The invasion of the +residential district is a real blessing, in that it pulls down these +houses which in twenty years have outlived their usefulness and can serve +a good purpose no longer. + +Let us hope that either the demands of business or the common sense of +society will also sweep away the fifth class: (5) City flats put up by the +conscienceless money-maker with only that idea of giving the public what +the public wants (because it knows no better) which gives the newspaper +its pernicious influences. At first it was supposed the flat-dwellers +would keep house, and arrangements of a sort were made. This compressed +the work of the house into such small quarters that the maid was given a +room down in the basement along with the furnace, or in the top story +adjoining ten or more other rooms--a dormitory arrangement without +supervision and without the quiet needed for rest. The difficulty of +securing good service under these conditions, together with the thousand +and one annoyances of living at too close quarters, noisy children and +pianos, grumpy janitors, smelly garbage, have led to the latest phase: +non-housekeeping flats with daily care of a sort supplied by the janitor +if desired, a kitchenette where eggs and coffee for breakfast and dishes +for invalids may be prepared, and restaurants galore for other meals. Thus +the women of the family are set free to roam the streets in search of +bargains and to join others like unto themselves for matinĆ©es and +promenades. + +This sort of shelter is increasing more rapidly than any other in all the +cities investigated. An estimate has been made that 80 or 90 per cent of +the recent building has been of this sort. Six rooms in an unfashionable +locality rent for about $25 or $30 a month; in a fashionable quarter, for +$200 to $250 per month, with a floor-space one half larger. These latter +cost about 50 cents per week per room for daily care, whereas the former, +if cared for from outside, are served only at intervals of two weeks or a +month. The inmates do most of the daily care themselves. While the +building is new and fresh this means little work; but as time goes on the +poor construction shows, the surface varnish wears off, cracks come, and a +general shabbiness appears, so that the tenant prefers to move into a new +building. The owner, or more probably the agent, puts on a little shining +varnish, and rents again without real repair, and these buildings also go +from bad to worse. Many of them are known to change tenants two or three +times a year. There is always a demand for the newest house. + +A study of social conditions reveals the fact that for the larger part of +the wage-earners the house has come to be the place where money is spent, +not earned or even saved. It has gone back to its primitive use--shelter +from weather and a sleeping-place, a temporary one at that. A real-estate +authority has made the assertion that three fifths of the rent-payers in +large cities are made up of non-householders and one half of these are +confined to one room--mostly women. This indicates a change in +requirements for the housing of the individual as distinguished from the +family. And it is this element which has complicated city living to a +great extent, and to which attention has been drawn by the accusation that +home life is shirked by it. + +To the bachelor man and maid are added the commercial traveller who leaves +wife and possibly child behind four fifths of the time. For him, as for +several other classes of young business men, the locality which he can +choose for headquarters changes with the requirements of business. He is +under orders and must go at a moment's notice across the continent, +perhaps. It is not his fault but the exigency of business that destroys +the desire for a permanent abiding-place. The numbers of such homeless +young people are far greater than any one but the real-estate agent +realizes. Then this loosening of the home tie renders easy the shifting +from city to country and seashore. A considerable proportion of the $2000 +to $5000 class shut up the flat or leave the boarding-house several times +in the year. There is usually one place where the furniture and +bric-a-brac and the other season's clothing are kept, but it is only a +storehouse or a temporary retreat that holds their property, growing less +and less as they move, until they may practically live in their trunks. + +The legacy which outranks all the others in disastrous consequences is the +notion that the young people must begin where their parents left off; that +the house must be, if anything, a little more elaborate. Therefore in +starting life the rent is allowed to consume one third the income in +sight, without considering the cost of maintaining such an establishment. +With a probable income of $2000 a year the young man does not hesitate to +pay $500 for a house, not realizing that at least half as much more should +be spent on wages for the care of the nineteenth-century house, and as +much more on incidentals, car-fares, and unexpected demands. What wonder +that the young people find themselves in debt by the second year? + +The parents are quite as much, if not more, to blame for encouraging this +extravagance. The father and mother are entitled to their ease and to the +use of their income for it, but the newly married pair have, in this age, +no right to assume the same attitude. They have their way to make, their +work to do in the years ahead of them. They should not mortgage the future +for the sake of the present luxury; and because of the uncertainties of +occupation and of health it is wise to take out of the expected income one +fourth or one third for a reserve fund and divide the remainder for +expenses. For instance, from $2000 a year subtract $500, then divide the +$1500 into $300 for rent, $300 for food, $300 for operating expenses, $200 +for clothing, $200 for travel, leaving $200 for the other expenses. If +unlooked-for expenses must be incurred, there is the $500 to draw upon; +but do not court the extra outlay: save the nest-egg if possible. + +The ideals of the home are said to rule the world. The young business man +who does not take the sane view of his own expenses will not rightly +consider his employer's interests. It is more than probable that the +much-deplored laxness, to call it by no harsher name, in business circles +is directly traceable to this falseness and dishonesty in standards of +home life. This moral effect is what makes the housing problem so serious. +It leads to an outward show not balanced by an ability to maintain an +inner life in harmony. It leads to an attempt to carry on a four-servant +house with two servants, or a three servant establishment with one. + +Lack of study and experience leads the family living in the suburbs, in +one of the worst legacies of the past, to attempt the same style as +friends maintain in a lately built apartment house, without in the least +understanding wherein the difference lies. + +From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to Texas, comes the same dull +and sullen roar of domestic unrest. Lack of faithful service is causing +the abandonment of the family home, and the fear of the obstacles in the +way of establishing new ones threatens the whole social fabric. + +The housewife is inclined to connect this state of things almost entirely +with food preparation, and is prone to fancy that if eating could be +abolished peace would return. + +The trouble goes much deeper, however, even to the foundations. The +nineteenth-century house is not suited to twentieth-century needs. In +other words, lack of adaptation to present conditions of the houses we +live in is a large factor in the prevailing domestic discontent. The next +largest has been referred to as attempting a style of living beyond one's +income. + +In all other walks of life, in transportation, in manufacturing, machinery +has come in to replace the heavier and more mechanical portions of labor. +The steam-shovel, the hoisting-engine, an infinite combination of +mechanical principles have been applied to the doing of things to save +human muscle. To stand by the machine which turns out the familiar +grape-basket, ready to fill with the fruit, and then to watch the +housemaid bending over some piece of work, is to realize the difference. +In few, very few operations is it necessary to-day that men should bend +their backs, but in how many household processes is the worker expected to +get down on all fours? The free-born American rebels. Perchance it is the +unconscious protest over a four-footed ancestry, or it may be that disuse +has really weakened the spinal column. Whatever the cause, the fact +remains. It is not the idea of work, of service, but of bending the back +to work that is so repugnant; likewise the effect on the hands of hot +water and scrubbing. Close observation has convinced me that care of the +hands has become an indication of freedom from manual labor quite +unthought of fifteen or twenty years ago. The increase of +manicuring-rooms, like the increase of restaurants, is a clear sign of the +trend of the times. Not only the class who likes to waste conspicuously, +but many a teacher, many a young man in State or Government employ with +an income of one, two, or three thousand a year patronizes these rooms. + +This daintiness reflects downward, and the girl whose acquaintances in her +high-school days are in a position to keep well manicured, if not +"lily-white," hands does not like to have hers show the effect of +housework, when that means scrubbing the floor and cleaning the stove. +Gloves? Ah, well, James Nasmyth once wrote: "Kid-gloves are great +non-conductors of knowledge." I believe that gloves of any kind are a +makeshift in real cleaning of dirty corners; but _there should not be +corners to catch dirt_. + +The unnecessary nastiness of the scrub-water with its fine soot which +works into every pore is a great objection to the girl who must work for +her living. If she goes to visit her friends, her hands betray her. She +can remove the other badges of her toil, her cap and apron; she may go out +on the street as brave as her mistress; but the moment her gloves are +removed her hands tell the tale. With the means at hand this need not be. +It is one of the legacies which have come down to us, and which we have +connected with the servant problem. The work in the most modern apartments +does not require the soiling of the hands in a serious way. With hard wood +floors, bright gas-stoves, porcelain lined dishes, no pots and kettles, +all the stairs, halls, etc., cared for by the janitor, the work is of a +far less smutting kind than in the suburban house, where there is still +need for much cleaning up of a roughening sort which cannot be escaped. +This has more to do than we are apt to think with the distaste for the +country, unless several servants are kept, some for this work only. In the +old type of city house the travel up-and down-stairs to answer bell and +telephone has demanded strength of back not possessed by the modern maid. +The house is not yet adapted to the new demands of the workers, and they +shun it. The mistress herself finds it beyond her strength, even if the +traces of rough work were not quite so distasteful to her. + +Miss Pettengill in her story of domestic service brings out the great part +played by sooty dust, sifting in even through closed windows, in the +burden of the waitress who is expected to keep the dining-room immaculate. + +This is only one instance where the blame really belongs on the actual +material house rather than on the mistress, except that she does not +discover a remedy, does not even know where to look for the cause. I have +great faith in the business woman, who does see much that is better done +and who will bring it back into the home. + +Fashions in philanthropy do not yet tend in the direction of house +betterment. + +"A busy man cannot stop his life-work to teach architects what they ought +to know," says Wells; but on the other hand "we cannot be expected to +teach men and their wives, as well as draw plans for them," says the +architect who has tried it. + +The centrifugal forces that our social prophets are so fond of invoking, +holding that the words "town" and "city" may become as obsolete as +"mail-coach," will have to reckon with these features of country life. + +It is assumed that the work of women is "housekeeping." I should like to +put the question suddenly to a thousand men. What is twentieth-century +housekeeping? I venture the guess that less than a hundred would take into +account the utter difference in their wives' duties from their mothers', +as they remember them; and yet the house, even the flat, is built more or +less along the old lines. The women do not know enough to assert +themselves, and have not the skill to show the builder what is wrong. The +architects could tell tales if they would. The utter ignorance of what a +house means, of the steps necessary to make a successful livable place, is +appalling. The young man who has $3000 as a legacy feels he can build. His +wife chooses the location near her friends whose houses she likes, and the +architect is called in. Do you wish back stairs? Are you to keep three +servants or none? Do you wish the rooms separate or connecting? All such +questions find a blank stare. "What difference does that make in the style +and price?" the would-be owner says. The architect is not always able to +show him that these little things are the whole problem in building a +_home_. The house as a home is merely outer clothing, which should fit as +an overcoat should, without wrinkles and creases that show their +ready-made character. The woman, born housekeeper as she considers +herself, is rigid in her ideas of what she thinks she wants, but when the +builder has followed her plans she is far from satisfied with the result. +She is used to material which puckers and stretches in her clothing; she +cannot understand the inflexibility of wood and stone. The remedy is for +high-school girls, probably even grammar-school pupils as well, to have +along with their drawing some problems in house-planning and some lessons +in carpentry. + +It will be seen from the foregoing glance at the rapid change and steady +deterioration of houses that the care of such living-places must involve +special discomforts in most cases. + +The time required to keep clean old splintered floors, to carry pails of +water up and down stairs, to dry out the cloths--the base boards with +their grimy streaks tell the story of carelessness--is not counted in the +wage schedule. + +Why is there so much dirt brought into the house? Because shoes and +streets are muddy. Why is there so much lint? Because we have too many +things in a room--too much wear and tear. + +And unnecessary dirt is found even in the newer apartment-houses with the +ever-changing population and ever-lessening space for maids' quarters, +together with the sham character of construction due to the fact that most +of these houses have been put up by speculators at the lowest cost of the +cheapest materials which will show wear in a few months. Flimsy +construction is a direct result of the notorious lack of care taken by the +tenant, so that quick returns must be the rule; also of the probability +that the neighborhood will deteriorate and that a class which will bear +crowding and be less critical will replace the first tenants. + +Conveniences for doing work in the houses built to rent, that is to bring +in the greatest returns in the shortest time, will not be put in (for the +first cost is great) unless the house will rent for more. The sharpest +Hebrew or Irish landlord will allow his architect to add bathtubs if he +believes the flat will rent for a few dollars more, where he will not do +it for the sake of cleanliness. The supply of hot water, together with the +gas stove, has done much to reconcile the housewife who does her own work +to the cramped quarters of the flat, and also has done more than anything +else to render the maids discontented with that legacy from the nineteenth +century which requires the building of a coal fire before hot water can be +had. The coal fire makes necessary rising an hour earlier and this, after +the late hours the seven-o'clock dinner enforces, causes friction all +along the line. + +The acceptance by young women without a study of cause and effect of +whatever presents itself makes them bad housekeepers, in the sense of +ignorant ones unable to cope with present conditions, because lack of +experience is not supplemented by a spirit of investigation and a +resolution to work out the problem. They seem to think that housekeeping +is to go on in the same old way no matter whatever else may change, +whereas it is most sensitive to the general direction of progress if they +but knew it. The wage-earner is more fully aware of the currents of the +irresistible river modern life has become (the slow-moving car of +Juggernaut is no longer an adequate symbol) than is the money spender. + +Indeed is any part of the house, as we now most frequently find it, +adapted to the uses of the twentieth century? + +The careless capitalist who makes possible the "cockroach landlord," he +who sublets and crowds and skimps the tenants for his own gain, is greatly +to blame for the distressing conditions of the lower income limit of the +wage-earner, but I fear he is not altogether blameless for the sort of +house the $1500 man has to look for in the city. Decent living with light +and air within half an hour of work is growing so rare that society must +take a hand in the matter. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY. + + "We have entered upon the period of conscious evolution, have + begun the adaptation of the environment to the organism."--Sir + OLIVER LODGE. + + +The hopeless pessimism of the past, that saw in the unmerciful progress of +organic evolution no escape for the human animal from the grip of fate, is +about to give way to the enthusiasm of conscious directing and controlling +power. + +This is the beneficent result of the age of the machine. Man has +discovered that he can not only change his environment, but that by this +change he can modify himself. The hope of the future lies in the moulding +of man's surroundings to his needs. In physiological terms, "the +adaptation of structure to function." + +The day is long past when shelter implied chiefly a tight roof and a dry +floor. The housing of the twentieth-century family means location, central +and fashionable. It means in cost far more than what the roof covers and +the floor supports. It means plumbing and interior finish; it also means +a finish on the outside, smoothly shaven lawns and immaculate sidewalks. + +Sigh as we may for the colonial house, we confess that the standards of +the time did not include the comfort of hot baths, polished floors, +plate-glass windows, elevators, ice-closets, and lawn-mowers. These are +necessary adjuncts to what is held as merely decent living; _how_ can the +$2000 man have them, not why _will_ he not? + +What then is the house and the life in it to become for the great majority +of families and individuals with an income of $3000 a year and necessarily +nomadic habits. I say necessarily, because these families are at the mercy +of business and social conditions quite beyond their control and +impossible to foretell. + +So far as prophetic vision sees through the mists of time, the aim of the +twentieth century is to live the _effective life_. + +The simple life has been preached, the strenuous life has been lauded, +but, as William Barclay Parsons recently stated it:[1] "We need force, we +need a vigorous force; we need that direction and avoidance of the +unnecessary which is simplicity, but with either one alone there is +something lacking. Instead of latent force and great energy without +control, instead of quiet gentleness, of power of control without vigor +to be controlled, what we need is force and energy applied where necessary +and always under control, always working to a definite purpose, and at the +same time avoiding complications and unnecessary friction. + +[Footnote 1: William Barclay Parsons, N.E.A., Asbury Park, 1905. _Eng. +Record_, Aug. 12, 1905.] + +"That is to have a life whose great underlying motive is effectiveness. +Instead of speaking of the strenuous life or the simple life, let us have +as a doctrine 'the effective life.' + +"What we need is not merely a man who acts, but one who _does_; that is, +one who will do what he has to do regardless of intervening obstacles. +Efficiency and effectiveness are the key-notes of success in actual life. +They are also the lessons taught by every parable in the New Testament, +even if that work is regarded as a code of ethics, and they form the +spirit of that stirring definition of engineering[1] which is based on the +direction of the vital forces of nature and the doing of things for +mankind." + +[Footnote 1: "Ability to do and the _doing_, efficiency, and the use of it +all for mankind."--Tredgold's definition of Engineering.] + +Manufacturing concerns have found it pays them to provide decent tenements +for their workers, but society has not yet awakened to the fact that the +rank and file of the great army of salaried employees is left to fend for +itself in a world only too prone to take advantage of its necessities. +There is danger in this neglect of wholesome living surroundings, because +from this stratum develops normally the intelligence of the future, and +how can mentally active children grow up under the prevailing unsightly +and unsanitary conditions? + +Of course with the passing of pioneer conditions will pass in a measure +the courage and adaptability which braced itself to meet and overcome +obstacles. The salaried position in a great combine, instead of work for +one's self in an independent business, tends to magnify the value of mere +money-income gained through smartness rather than by ability. If life is +made too easy, men will settle into indolent sterility, just as animals +and plants degenerate with too much food. + +The future will surely bring greater mechanical perfection and thus leave +it possible for the individual, for each member of the family group, to do +for himself many little things which are not comfortable to do now. But +will he be willing to do them? Not unless he feels it to be a duty or a +pleasure. Not unless there is an undercurrent of principle which carries +him along. Without this principle strong enough to give an impetus over +hard places in the early stages of life, the individual and the family +will surely drift into the hotel and boarding-house, where everything is +done on a money basis and nothing for love of one's kind; where a tip +salves the hurt of menial work. These habits once gained are hard to break +up; therefore it is much better for young people to begin life doing some +things for themselves in a house where machinery responds to their call +without a tip, where they may economize without loss of self-respect. We +need to revive some of the pagan ideals of the beauty and value of the +human body and human life which consists in the care and use of this body. +There is no menial work in the daily living rightly carried out; that +which the last century wrongly permitted is made needless by the machinery +of to-day. + +The point of view is most important. + +The first steps toward social betterment will come through a cooperation +of three forces: (1) a recognition of the need; (2) an awakening of social +conscience to the duty of supplying the need; and (3) the movement of +moneyed philanthropy to fulfil the requirement quickly. + +As was natural, sympathy flowed first to the class which had the most +visible need, not necessarily the greater need. + +The New York Model Tenement Association has shown the world how easy it +is, when there is a will, to find a way. That association has already +taken the first step in advanced housing, and reduced the cost of safe and +rentable city shelter to its lowest terms. Fireproof, sanitary, and +convenient so far as rooms go (it is quite a climb for the mother with a +baby in her arms to the sixth story), with neighbors carefully sorted, +repairs well looked after, a sympathetic woman as agent always in the +office; _but_ only a minimum of light and air and sun; bedrooms 7x8, +living-rooms 10x13; the smallest spaces the law allows; no grass, no +flowers outside, no pets, nothing of one's own that cannot be put in a +cart; common stairways where only partial privacy is gained; clothes-yards +on the roof, and laundry in the basement, to be used in turn by twenty +tenants. Because this is better than the slums for the emerging class, and +because they like the gregariousness, is no argument for continuing the +type up into the range of the $2000 group. But this is just what most of +the small apartments do--those built to make all the money that they will +bear. Hardly any better facilities are given. It will be easy for more +roomy living-places to be built on similar plans, with elevators and +labor-saving devices, and yet within the limit of moderate incomes, such +blocks to be always under competent sanitary supervision. + +From these model tenements it will not be difficult to advance to the +suburban square with sufficient variety in house plans to content those +who are willing to yield small personal whims. Hitherto the erratic fancy +of would-be tenants, the dissatisfaction with the arrangements provided, +has made building _en masse_ difficult. As long as the builder was called +upon to suit those who had lived in houses of their own for many years his +task was difficult, but now he will have to do with the young people who +know no other life and who will more readily fall in with the standards +set by the house itself. + +For this very reason those who have social welfare at heart must come to +the rescue, and devise and put up samples, of the best that modern science +can offer, to rent for $300 to $500 a year. Let any one who loves his +kind, if he have a talent this way, not wrap it in a napkin, but give it +to the builder and the philanthropist to materialize. Now is the time to +set standards for the next thirty years. The electric car is opening new +country as never before. Who will make the practical advance? + +These new houses will be roomy and yet, I think, will not fail of +sun-parlors or enclosed piazzas which will serve as extensions of the +house when occasion demands. I am sure they will not contain the +forbidding "front room" set apart for weddings and funerals and rare +family gatherings. More open-air life will be fashionable and practicable +as soon as we have learned that a wind-break and not a tightly-enclosed +space is what we need. In northern latitudes especially it is the wind +which makes the climate seem so inclement. The amount of accessible +sunshine may be doubled with great advantage in most of the +semi-country-houses. Shelter should not suggest a prison. + +The education of the child demands that housing shall include land for +pets, for vegetables and flowers; not merely to increase beauty and +selfish pleasure, but for the ethical value of contact with things +dependent on care and forethought. The thoughtful sociologist recognizes +as one of the greatest needs for the children of to-day a closer +companionship with fathers--is urging that even money-making should be +secondary to the time given to moulding the character of the little ones, +instead of leaving them to nurses and coachmen or to the school of the +streets. Companionship in the garden-work will secure this opportunity in +a natural way. + +It is only by going into the country that sufficient land for a simple +house with yard in front and garden in the rear--the ideal English +home--can be had. There will be a sacrifice of some of the things the city +gives, but a compromise is the only possible outcome of many claims. + +Those who are feeling the return to Nature, who find pleasure in gardening +and in all the soothing effects of country life, or who can bring +themselves to it with moderate pleasure for the sake of the children who +must be encouraged to delight in it, should go out at least ten miles from +the city. In a well-regulated household the early breakfast will be a +natural thing, and the meal will be no more hurried than any other. It is +the class which tries to be both city and country that fills the columns +of the magazines with the trials of the commuter. The father need not see +less of his children, and the common occupation and interest will furnish +opportunities for wise counsel. Much nonsense is written about the perils +of habit and the dangers of routine. It all depends upon what those habits +are. All animal functions are better performed as a matter of habit, +without thought; it saves energy for more intellectual pursuits, which, I +grant, are better kept under volitional control. The animal act of +breakfasting at a given hour, of taking a given train, can be accomplished +as unconsciously as breathing. Early rising should be the rule, because +the children are then available as they are not at night. + +We shall assume that the sane man will hold the little home in the country +with all outdoors to breathe in as worth the half-hour journey and the +early breakfast, and that the woman will have time set free by the +labor-saving devices sure to come as fast as she will use them wisely. +This free time she will give to the aesthetic side of life and will make +of her home a more attractive place than the club. + +_But_ once a week let them both go into town either to the club or to some +other place for dinner and an entertainment afterward. This will be +sufficient to keep them out of an intellectual rut, will brighten the +appetite with needed variety, and make the next quiet evening more +delightful. + +Once a week is sufficient to break the monotony of diet and routine, and +not often enough to create that insatiable appetite for the glare of +lights and the rush of people which makes all family life "deadly dull," +as one cafĆ©-haunting woman confessed. + +While this country life is the only thing for a family of young children +and for those who really enjoy the country, there is a larger number +needing rational housing which will be left behind, let us hope with more +room because of the flitting of these others. + +Much as I deprecate the evils of the present apartment system, I do +believe that an idealized modification will be needed for many years, +especially for the elderly, for the commercial traveler, for the bachelor +men and maids temporarily or permanently living single, for the newly +married as yet unsettled in business or profession, for the man who does +not know his own mind or whose employers do not know theirs. An instance +has come to the writer's knowledge of a young man who, after his wedding +cards were out, was ordered to take charge of an office in another city. + +Marrying for shelter is and should be no longer necessary; and as for the +fear that this habit of bachelor quarters will be hard to break up and +tend to delay marriage, it will all depend upon whether it comes from the +merely animal layer of the brain or from the intellectual. + +This housing of the individual instead of the family has introduced an +entirely new problem into house-building. + +Formerly when a widow or widower, a maiden aunt, a homeless uncle or +cousin made his home with relatives, it was "as one of the family"; only +the minister was recognized as having need for a separate sitting-room. +The trials of this forced companionship have been told in many a witty +story; and pathetic instances that never came to print are matters of +common knowledge. + +Will any one dare question the fact that the sum of human happiness has +been increased by the freedom given to these prisoned souls by the small +independent apartment? + +I have been reminded that here is no provision for the different +generations to live together under the same roof; that the nineteenth +century held it to be of great social value to have the children grow up +with the elders. I am sorry for the twentieth-century grandparents if they +are obliged to live in a flat with the twentieth-century child; some +readjustment of manners and ideals must be made before such living will be +comfortable, and it seems as if they are better apart until the new order +is accepted or modified. The comfort of those whose work is done and who +have leisure to enjoy life was never so easily secured as to-day. To turn +the key and take the train at an hour's notice, leaving no cares to +follow, tends to a serene old age. + +Moralists may squabble over the discipline of living with one's +mother-in-law, and of the loss to the children of grandmother's petting, +but at least physical content and mental satisfaction have increased. Has +selfishness also? Who shall say? And anyway it is a part of the progress +of the age, and what are we to do about it? + +For one group of single persons the change has been only beneficial. It +was a strict code of the early nineteenth century that a single woman +should find shelter under the roof of some family house, however +independent, financially, her condition. Latch-key privileges were denied +her. Result, the boarding-house of the later half of the century, +nominally a family home, actually a hotbed of faultfinding and gossip, +most wearing to the teacher and fledgling professional woman, however +acceptable to the milliner and seamstress. Privacy could not be maintained +in a house built for a family of five made to do duty for twelve, with one +bath-room, thin-walled bedrooms with connecting doors through which the +light streamed when one wished to sleep, and words frequently came not +intended for outsiders. Who that has experienced the two could ever think +the bachelor apartment with its neat bath-room and double-doored entrance +an objectionable feature in modern intellectual life? Ah! here is the key. +We are to-day living a life of the intellect far more than ever before, +and for that a certain amount of withdrawal from our fellow man is +needed, at least a withdrawal from that portion which finds its interest +in the affairs of others. + +But if we eliminate the house itself, and the heavy furniture from the +"home" possessions, what have we left? The little girl was right: "My home +is where my dishes is." My _possessions_, whatever they are--the things I +can call my own under all circumstances make my home. These circumstances +change from time to time, but the ideal is there. As a concrete instance: +let us have books, not a lot of books, but books that are friends with +whom one may spend a comforting hour anywhere; books that have power to +charm away the gloom of discontent, books to lend gayety to festal days. + +Rugs and draperies a few, those you find satisfying to your sense of +color, of design, and with which you feel at home. Ugly tables, chairs, +and "sofas" disappear under an Indian shawl. A Persian or a Navajo blanket +covers a multitude of aesthetic sins. Only let these harmonize with each +other, let them be chosen once for all to go in company; then if they are +distributed, it will not matter; but in any case avoid the "museum" look +given by mere collecting. Alas! these are expensive articles, and the +young people may not be able to get all at once. Let society then turn +over a new leaf in the wedding-present line, and cease this senseless +giving of cut-glass and silver to those who may go to a mining-camp in the +Rockies or to Mexico, or even into a ten-by-twelve New York apartment. +Let there be a committee--we are so fond of committees--to receive +contributions in a money-bank or in sealed envelopes, and then when all is +collected, let this committee scour the shops for articles of value, and +when found consult the bridal pair as to their preferences. The choice may +be made of one or more, as the money permits. The particular gift will +still be a surprise and yet of permanent value. Lace and embroideries are +always good, but let the waste of money on the "latest" in orange-knives, +oyster-plates, go up higher, that is, to the class with money for +conspicuous waste, if it must still exist, but let sensible people be +sensible, and not require the young folks to live up to their hopes for +future advancement. Wedding gifts are meant to be kindly help to a young +housewife, not a burden which drags her down to the level of a drudge. But +if the house is surely their own, and in the country, there will be +shelves to fill and walls to cover; _then_ is the opportunity for +individual gifts of china, glass, and pictures. + +To make the best of the increasing tendency to a semi-country living, +there is need for students of domestic architecture, women with a trained +taste added to an experience in doing things, not merely seeing them +already done. Let these evolve beautiful exteriors, with interiors so +finely proportioned that they will be a delight to all beholders, so +adapted to their purposes that no one will wish to change them. There is a +right dimension, in relation to other dimensions, which is always +satisfying and independent of furniture or decoration. + +The ugly houses, ill adapted to any useful purpose, which line the +roadside bear witness to the ignorance of the women of to-day. The effort +for mere decoration, for pretentious show, is so evident that one wishes +for an earthquake to swallow them all. + +Another cause for rise in rent demanded for a given space is the heavy tax +borne by real estate for public improvement, for good lighting, clean +streets, plentiful water, sufficient sewerage, free baths, parks, and +schools. Again, this falls heaviest on our three- to five-thousand dollar +class, who pay more than their share, especially when the millionaire +shirks his duty by paying his taxes elsewhere. What can the man with +limited income do but avoid the responsibility of a family? Has he a moral +right to bring unhappiness to his wife and two children? Having been +caught in the trap, why give him all the blame if he tries to increase his +income by speculation? + +The more one studies this question of shelter for the salaried group, the +more is one convinced that it lies at the root of our social discontent +and is a large factor in our moral as well as physical deterioration. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE. + + "We are far from the noon of man: + There is time for the race to grow."--TENNYSON. + + "There appears no limit to the invasion of life by the machine." + H.G. WELLS. + +The house as a centre of manufacturing industry has passed (for even if +village industries do spring up, the work-rooms will be separate from the +living-rooms); the house as a sign of pecuniary standing is passing: what +next? Why, of course, the house as the promoter of "the effective life." +Rebel as the artistic individual may at this word, it expresses the spirit +of the twentieth century as nothing else can. Social advance must be made +along the line of efficiency, even if it lead to something different and +not at first sight better. The appeal to self-interest is soonest +answered. The man or woman with any ambition will keep clean, will buy +better milk for the baby, will pay more for rent if he or she is convinced +that it will bring in or save money in the end, because money has been the +measure of success in the nineteenth century. But as the full significance +of this "machine-made" age is grasped it will be seen that it has set free +the human laborer, if only he will qualify himself to use the power at +his hand. The house will become the first lesson in the use of mechanical +appliances, in control of the harnessed forces of nature, and of that +spirit of cooperation which alone can bring the benefits of modern science +to the doors of all. One family cannot as a rule put up in a city or in +the suburbs--and half the world lives in cities--its own idea of a house +without undue expenditure; but ten families may combine and secure a +building which fairly suits them all. I say fairly, because all +cooperation means some sacrifice of whim or special liking. The +well-balanced individual will, however, choose the plan yielding on the +whole the greater efficiency, thus following a law of natural selection +which, so far, the human race has ignored--a neglect which has been +carrying him toward destruction as surely as there is law in nature. Is +this neglect to go on, or is man to turn before it is too late to a +cultivation of the effective life? In everything else he has advanced, but +in his intimate personal relations with nature and natural force he has +acted as if he believed himself not only lord of the beasts of the field, +but of the very laws of nature without understanding them. Mechanical +progress has come from an humble attitude toward the powers of wind and +water. Home efficiency will arrive just as soon as the home-keeper will +put herself in a receptive frame of mind and be prepared to learn her +limitations and the extent of her control of material things. When she +will stop saying "I do not believe" and set herself to learn patiently the +facts in the case, then will housekeeping take on a new phase and the +house become the nursery of effective workers who will at the same time +enjoy life. To manage this machine-driven house will require delicate +handling; but let women once overcome their fear of machinery and they +will use it with skill. + +The undue influence of sentiment retards all domestic progress. Because +our grandfather's idea of perfect happiness was to sit before the fire of +logs, we are satisfied with the semblance in the form of the +asbestos-covered gas-log. "It is not for the iconoclastic inventor or +architect to improve the hearth out of existence." Sentiment is a useful +emotion, but when it held open funerals of diphtheria victims, society +stepped in and forbade. With a certain advance in social consciousness +public opinion will step in and regulate sentiment in regard to many +things depending on individual whim. + +Heating might now be accomplished without dust and ashes, without the +destructive effects of steam, if enough houses would take electricity to +enable a company to supply it in the form of a sort of dado carrying wires +safely embedded in a non-conducting substance, or in the form of a carpet +threaded with conducting wire. Both heating and cooling apparatus could be +installed in the shape of a motor to replace the punkah man and the +present buzz-wheel fan, and to give fresh air without the opening of +windows which leads to half our housekeeping miseries. O woman, how can +you resist the thought of a clean, cool house, sans dust, sans flies and +mosquitoes, sans the intolerable street-noise, with abundance of fresh +filtered air at the desired temperature! It is all ready at your hand. A +windmill on the roof can store power, or a solar motor can save the sun's +rays, or capsules of compressed air may be had to run the machine, if only +you were not so afraid of the very word machine that no man dares propose +it to you. Of what use is all the invention of the time if it cannot save +the lives of the children, half of whom fall victims to house diseases, if +it cannot sweep away consumption and influenza and all the kindred +diseases arising from over-shelter and under-cleanliness of that shelter +(lack of air). Both men and women are sentimental and non-progressive, but +education is assumed to make wiser human beings. Women are said to be +monopolizing the education; is it making them more amenable to +reasonableness and less under the control of unprogressive conservatism? + +It does require quick adaptation to keep up with the possibilities of +invention, but should we not aim at that which will advance our race on a +par with its opportunities? Every other department is getting ahead of us. +We should hang our heads in shame that we have neglected so long the means +for saner living. + +[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Old Kitchen Remodelled. (Stone, Carpenter & +Wilson, Architects, Providence, R.I.) Looking toward the range. Servants' +sitting-room beyond; porcelain sink at left; boiler (*remainder cut off).] + +[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Old Kitchen Remodelled. Showing glass shelves +and labelled glass jars for all stores. Glass mixing table at left +(*remainder cut off).] + +It has been said that the highest modern civilization is shown not so +much by costly monuments and works of art as by the perfection of house +conveniences. Where then do we stand? And in what direction are we to look +for the coming advance? We have had some sixty years of public sanitation; +we have secured a supply of sanitary experts to whom all questions +affecting the physical welfare of masses of people may be referred. We +have a few architects who know the requirements of a _livable_ house, not +merely one which shows off well as first built. + +We _need_ sixty years of private-house sanitation. We need to educate +house experts, home advisers, those who know how to examine a house not +only while it is empty but while it is throbbing with the life of the +family. This adviser must be, for many years at least, able to suggest +practical methods of overcoming structural defects (more difficult than +fresh construction), as well as of modifying personal prejudices. + +These house experts will, I think, be women of the broadest education, +scientific and social. They will have not only a certain amount of medical +knowledge, but also the tact and enthusiasm of the missionary which will +bring them as friends and benefactors to the despairing mother and the +discouraged householder. + +That there is a beginning of this demand, I can testify; that it will +grow, I believe. As soon as a group of trained women are ready, they will +find occupation if the advance in housing conditions which I foresee is to +become a reality. + +Within the last two or three years the author has received requests from +all over the country for suggestions as to kitchen design and +construction. + +The two illustrations here given show one little step in the right +direction. The cuts represent a remodelled kitchen in Providence, R.I. + +The floor is of lignolith laid down in one sheet and carried up as a +wainscoting so that no crevice exists for entrance of insects or dust. +Such floors are yet in their infancy and need suitable preparation for +laying, just as macadamized streets fail if the foundation is faulty. The +idea is all that we are here concerned with. One of the features to be +especially noted is the use of glass for shelves. Why should the hospital +monopolize the materials for antiseptic work? When it is understood how +much hospital work is caused because of dirt in the preparation and +keeping of food, the kitchen will receive its share of attention. + +To-day the cost of shelter is about one third for the house and two thirds +for the expense of running it, largely due to dirt and its consequences. +Mr. Wells wisely says: "Most dusting and sweeping would be quite avoidable +if houses were wiselier done." + +When the real twentieth-century house is put up our young engineer and +college instructor will be willing to pay $400 to $500 rent, because wages +and running expenses will be $100 less and the company owning the houses +will not expect more than 4%, largely because repairs will be less and +permanence of tenure more assured. The old type of wooden house used by +the old type of tenant could not be expected to last more than a few +years, which justified a higher rate of interest. For the tenement tenant +of the better class twenty years has been the estimate, so that the cost +of building could not be distributed over fifty years as it should be. + +The house will be made of reinforced concrete or its successor; certainly +not of wood. Whether a single house or one of two or more "compartments," +each family will have a side, that is, the entrance doors will not be side +by side. Such have been built in Somerville, Mass., by a railroad company +for its employees. Those who wish to have a garden may; but no one will be +obliged, for there will be regulations about the general appearance of the +whole park, and every man his own lawn-mower will not be true. The +cultivation of taste will have so far advanced that the grouping advised +by the landscape architect will appeal to the occupant more than his own +fancied arrangement. + +Since the heating will be supplied from outside, there will be a hothouse +and cold-frames for those who wish to have a share in the garden, just as +now there are bins in the basement. The care of these may replace the +exercise now gained in scrubbing the front steps. The windows of the house +will be dust-proof, fly-, mosquito-, and moth-proof; the air supplied will +be strained by galleries of screens, if indeed social advance has not +eliminated soot from chimneys and grit from the streets. Most certainly +dirt will not be permitted to come in on shoes and long dresses. Warmed or +cooled, moistened or dried air will be circulated as needed. In such a +house rugs may stay undisturbed for a month or more, books for years, and +the dust-cloth be rarely in evidence; the redding will consist of putting +back in place the things used; but as each member of the family will do +this as soon as he is old enough, there will be but a few minutes' work. + +The breakfast will be of uncooked or simply heated food, parched grains +and cream, fruit fresh or dried, and nuts. If coffee or cocoa is desired, +the electric heater serves it to the requisite degree of heat. Each adult +member of the family will probably take this in his own room or at his own +convenience, without the formality of a meal. The few glasses and other +dishes may be plunged into a tank of water and left for future cleaning. +Luncheon will depend altogether on the habits of the family, but dinner, +at whatever hour that may be, will be the family symposium. Dressed in its +honor, with a sprightly addition to the conversation of experience or +information or conjecture, there will be form and ceremony of a simple, +refined kind, such that once again the family may welcome a guest without +anxiety. Good conversation and fresh interests will thus come into the +children's lives. How much they have missed in these days of the barring +out all hospitality! Is it perchance one reason, if not the chief, why +manners have degenerated? + +This meal will not have more than four courses of food carefully selected +and perfectly cooked, whether in the house or out matters not so it is +served fresh and of just the right temperature. No kind of cooking will be +permitted which "meets the guest in the hall and stays with him in the +street"; therefore the dishes may be washed by neatly dressed maids or by +the children, who thus learn to care for the fitness of things; plenty of +towels and hot water, with all hands doing a little, leaves everything +snug and no one too tired. We will let Mr. H.G. Wells describe the bedroom +of the future house:[1] + +[Footnote 1: A Modern Utopia, p. 103.] + +"The room is, of course, very clear and clean and simple: not by any means +cheaply equipped, but designed to economize the labor of redding and +repair just as much as possible. + +"It is beautifully proportioned and rather lower than most rooms I know on +earth. There is no fireplace, and I am perplexed by that until I find a +thermometer beside six switches on the wall. Above this switchboard is a +brief instruction: one switch warms the floor, which is not carpeted, but +covered by a substance like soft oilcloth; one warms the mattress (which +is of metal with resistance coils threaded to and fro in it); and the +others warm the wall in various degrees, each directing current through a +separate system of resistances. The casement does not open, but above, +flush with the ceiling, a noiseless rapid fan pumps air out of the room. +The air enters by a Tobin shaft. + +"There is a recess dressing-room, equipped with a bath and all that is +necessary to one's toilet; and the water, one remarks, is warmed, if one +desires it warm, by passing it through an electrically-heated spiral of +tubing. A cake of soap drops out of a store-machine on the turn of a +handle, and when you have done with it, you drop that and your soiled +towels, etc., which are also given you by machines, into a little box, +through the bottom of which they drop at once and sail down a smooth +shaft. [Better stay in the box and not infect the shaft.--Author.] + +"A little notice tells you the price of the room, and you gather the +price is doubled if you do not leave the toilet as you find it. Beside +the bed, and to be lit at night by a handy switch over the pillow, is a +little clock, its face flush with the wall [no dust-catcher]. + +"The room has no corners to gather dirt, wall meets floor with a +gentle curve, and the apartment could be swept out effectually by a +few strokes of a mechanical sweeper [sucked out by the now-used +cleaning-machine.--Author]. The door-frames and window-frames are of +metal, rounded and impervious to draft. You are politely requested to +turn a handle at the foot of your bed before leaving the room, and +forthwith the frame turns up into a vertical position, and the bedclothes +hang airing. You stand in the doorway and realize that there remains not +a minute's work for any one to do. Memories of the fetid disorder of many +an earthly bedroom after a night's use float across your mind. + +[In America the use of the sleeping-room as a sitting-room is more common +than in England, and the fetid disorder is far greater.] + +"And you must not imagine this dustless, spotless, sweet apartment as +anything but beautiful. Its appearance is a little unfamiliar, of course, +but all the muddle of dust-collecting hangings and witless ornament that +cover the earthly bedroom, the valances, the curtains to check the draft +from the ill-fitting windows, the worthless irrelevant pictures, usually a +little askew, the dusty carpets, and all the paraphernalia about the dirty +black-leaded fireplace are gone. The faintly tinted walls are framed with +just one clear colored line, as finely placed as the member of a Greek +capital; the door-handles and the lines of the panels of the door, the two +chairs, the framework of the bed, the writing-table, have all that +exquisite finish of contour that is begotten of sustained artistic effort. +The graciously shaped windows each frame a picture--since they are +draughtless the window-seats are no mere mockeries as are the window-seats +of earth--and on the sill the sole thing to need attention in the room is +one little bowl of blue Alpine flowers." + +The true office of the house is not only to be useful, but to be +aesthetically a background for the dwellers therein, subordinate to them, +not obtrusive. In most of our modern building and furnishing the people +are relegated to the background as insignificant figures. This is largely +why the home feeling is absent, why children do not form an affection for +the rooms they live in. + +Let there be nothing in the room because some other person has it; this +shows poverty of ideas. Let there be nothing in the room which does not +satisfy some need, spiritual or physical, of some member of the family. +How bare our rooms would become! Let the skeptical reader try an +experiment. Take everything out of a given room, then bring back one by +one the things one feels essential not merely because it fills space but +for the presence of which some one can give a good and sufficient reason. +It will mean a trial of a few days, because it is not easy to separate +habit from need. A table _has stood_ in a certain spot: that is no reason +in itself why it should continue to stand there unless it supplies a need. + +If a fetish stands in the way of social progress, do away with it. If the +idea of home as the shell is standing in the way of developing the idea of +home as a state of mind, then let us cast loose the load of things that +are sinking us in the sea of care beyond rescue. + +It is quite possible that we may return to that state of mind in which +there was a pleasure in caring for beautiful objects. The housewife of +colonial days did not disdain the washing of her cups of precious china or +doing up the heirlooms of lace and embroidery. When our possessions +acquire an intrinsic value, when all the work of the house which cannot be +done by machinery is that of handling beautiful things and has a meaning +in the life of the individual and the family, service will not be required +in the vast majority of homes: then we may approach to the Utopian ideal +of the nobility of labor. + +"The plain message that physical science has for the world at large is +this, that were our political and social and moral devices only as well +contrived to their ends as a linotype machine, an antiseptic +operating-plant, or an electric tram-car, there need now, at the present +moment, be no appreciable toil in the world, and only the smallest +fraction of the pain, the fear, and the anxiety that now make human life +so doubtful in its value. There is more than enough for every one alive. +Science stands as a too competent servant behind her wrangling, underbred +masters, holding out resources, devices, and remedies they are too stupid +to use."[1] + +[Footnote 1: H.G. Wells.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + THE COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY OF VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER. + + "The strongest needs conquer." + +An outlay of $1500 to $2500 will secure a cottage in the country, or a +tenement with five or six rooms in the suburbs, for a wage-earner's +family. The rent for this should be from $125 to $200 per year, but, as in +the case of the model tenements in New York, a minimum of sanitary +appliances and of labor-saving devices is found in such dwellings. They +are adapted to a family life of mutual helpfulness and forbearance. + +The lack of this kind of housing has been a disgrace to our so-called +civilization. Public attention has, however, been directed to the need, +and it is gratifying to find in the report of the U.S. Bureau of Labor, +Bulletin 54, Sept. 1904, a full account, with photographs and plans, of +the work of sixteen large manufacturing establishments in housing their +employees. + +Euthenics, the art of better living, is being recognized as of money value +in the case of the wage-earning class, but the wave of social betterment +has not yet lifted the salaried class to the point of cooperation for +their own elevation. They are obliged to put up with the better grade of +workmen's dwellings, or to pay beyond their means for a poor quality of +the house designed for the leisure class. In either case, the weight bears +hardest on the woman's shoulders, and it is to her awakening that we must +look for an impetus toward an understanding of the problems confronting +us. + +The college-educated women of the country believe so fully that the +twentieth century will develop a civilization in which brain-power and +good taste will outrank mere lavish display, that they have sent out a +call to their associations to devise methods of sane and wholesome living +which shall leave time and energy free for intellectual pleasure--some, at +least, of that time now absorbed by the house and its demands as insignia +of social rank. + +Trained and thoughtful women are convinced that the first step in social +redemption is adequate and adaptable shelter for the family. Just so long +as tradition and thoughtlessness bind the wife and mother to that form of +housekeeping which taxes all the forces of man to supply money and of +women to spend it, so long will the most intelligent women decline to +sacrifice themselves for so little return. + +The constructive arts dealing with wood, stone, and metal have been +conceded to be man's province. He has used new materials and labor-saving +devices in railway stations and place of amusements, not selfishly, but +because of the appreciation of the travelling public. It is the fashion to +decry labor-saving devices in the house, because they do away with that +sign of pecuniary ability, the capped and aproned maid. The obvious saving +of steps by the speaking-tube and telephone-call is frowned upon for the +same reason. It is this attitude of society which stands in the way of the +adoption of those mechanical helps which might do away with nearly all the +drudgery and dirty heavy work of the house. + +The new epoch[1] "is more and more replacing muscle-power fed on wheat at +eighty cents a bushel, by machine-power fed on coal at five cents a +bushel," thus liberating man from hard and deadening toil. As his mental +activity increases his needs in the way of the comforts and decencies of +refined living increase. More sanitary appliances are demanded, more +expense for fundamental cleanliness is incurred, and for that tidiness and +trimness of aspect inside and outside the house which adds both to the +labor and to the cost of living, especially in old-style houses. + +[Footnote 1: The New Epoch. Geo. S. Morison.] + +While we can but applaud this desire, we must confess that the new +building laws, the increased cost of land, and the higher wages of workmen +have raised the cost of shelter for human efficiency to double or treble +that of the so-called workman's cottage. A fair rule is that each room +costs $1000 to $2000 to build. + +This means that our lowest limit of income, $1000 a year with $200 for +rent, can have only two or at most three rooms and bath, and those without +elevators and janitor service. It is only when the income reaches $2000 to +$3000 a year that the family may have the advantage of good building in a +good locality, and even then it means some sacrifice in other directions. +It is clear that the common theory that a young man must have a salary of +$3000 a year before he dares to marry has some foundation when $600 to +$800 is demanded for rent. + +The increased sanitary requirements have doubled the cost of a given +enclosed space, the finish and fittings now found in the best houses have +doubled this again, so that it is quite within bounds to say that a house +which might have been put up to meet the needs of the day in 1850 for, +say, $5000 will now cost $20,000. + +Much of the increase is for real comfort and advance in decent living, and +so far it is to be commended. Such part of the increase as is for +ostentation, for show and sham, is to be frowned upon, for this high cost +of shelter is to-day the greatest menace to the social welfare of the +community. When the average young man finds it impossible to support a +family, when the professional man finds it necessary to supplement his +chosen work by pot-boiling, by public lectures and any outside work which +will bring in money, what wonder that scholarship is not thriving in +America? Pitiful tales of such stifling of effort have come to my ears, +and have in large part led me to make a plea for a scientific study of the +living conditions of this class, and for a readjustment of ideals to the +absolute facts of the situation. + +We may give sympathy to those Italians who pay only $2 a month for the +shelter of the whole family, but we must give help to the harder case of a +family with refined tastes and high ideals who can pay only $200 a year. + +In the real country, at a distance from the railroad, air, water, and soil +are cheap. Here a house may be put up with its own windmill or gas-engine +to pump water, with its own drainage system, giving all the sanitary +comforts of the city house, for about $5000. The same inside comforts in +one quarter the space, minus the isolation and garden, may be had in a +suburban block for one half that sum. This is probably the least expensive +shelter to-day for the family whose duties require one or more members of +it to be in the city daily, for, as the centre of the city is approached, +land rent increases, so that dwelling space must be again curtailed one +half or rent doubled. The majority take half a house or go into the city +and put up with one quarter the space. + +The curtailment of space in which families live is going on at an alarming +rate, although not yet seriously taken into account by the sociologist +for the group we are studying. + +[Illustration: Figs. 8 and 9.--House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in temperate +America, to cost $5000, if it must not more (*remainder cut off).] + +[Illustration: Figs. 10 and 11.--House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in +temperate America, to cost only $3000, if possible. (Josselyn & Taylor +Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa).] + +This crowding is causing the refinements of life to be disregarded, is +depriving the children of their rights, and doing them almost more harm +than comes to the tenement dwellers, for they have the parks to play in +and are not kept within doors. + +Mr. Michael Lane in his "Level of Social Motion" claims that present +tendencies are leading to a level of $2000 a year and a family of two +children as an average. Mr. Wells claims as a tendency in living +conditions the practically automatic and servantless household. In +connection with the Mary Lowell Stone Home Economics Exhibit a design of +an approach to this kind of a dwelling was asked for in sketch. The +accompanying plans were made by a firm who have had not only experience in +this kind of domestic building, but who have sympathy with and personal +knowledge of similar conditions in widely separated parts of the country. + +These sketches are not of an _ideal_ house and not for a given plot of +land, but only a hint of what Mrs. Michael Lane "must expect if she +attempts to build in the country or suburbs." + +Since these were drawn many changes have come about in costs and in +materials available. The architects expressly disclaim the word "model" in +relation to them. Mrs. Lane and her two children will do their own work, +and therefore steps and stairs must be few, and yet they wish light and +air and cleanliness. + +The author hopes that her readers will make a study of house-plans, not +the cheap ones, but those that will bear the test of time and living in. + +The increased cost of shelter should mean both more comfort and greater +beauty. If it does not, something is wrong with society. + +It appears from all that has been gathered that single houses for a family +of five will cost about $5000 to $10,000 for some years to come; that +these houses should be so constructed and cared for as to rent for $300 to +$400 if the occupant is to keep the grounds in order, to use the house +with care, and furnish heat and light. + +The question of return on capital invested and of care of exteriors and +grounds must be studied most carefully in the light of the new conditions, +and a new set of conventions devised by society to meet the various +circumstances arising out of them. + +This suburban living is the vital point to be attacked, because in cities +the matter is already pretty well settled; there is in sight nothing that +will greatly change the rule already given, a cost of $1000 per room of +about 1200 cubic feet, with the finish and sanitary appliances demanded. + +Our family of five must pay for rent $500 to $800 for the smallest +quarters they can compress themselves into. Subtracting the cost of heat +and light and the car-fares, this may be no more expensive than the +suburban house at $300 or $400, _but_ the difference comes in light and +air. The upper floors of an isolated skyscraper give more than a country +house, but at the expense of other houses in the darkened street. + +In the city the question is then not so much one of cost of construction +as of a fair arrangement of streets and parks, so as to avoid the loss of +light and air for living-places. The single individual may find shelter of +a safe and refined sort in all respects except air for $200 to $300 a year +in the newer apartment-houses, and two friends to share it may halve this +sum. A great need is for as good rooms to be furnished in the suburbs +where more light and air may be had. + +The content of the country house costing $5000 to $10,000 will be +approximately 50,000 to 70,000 cubic feet, or 10,000 for a person. The +suburban block will furnish about 12,000 to 20,000 for the family, while +the city apartment of six so-called rooms renting for from $400 to $500 a +year shrinks to 6000 to 8000 cubic feet, giving only one tenth the +air-space the country house affords, as well as far less outside air and +sunshine. The best city tenements cost $1 a week for 600 cubic feet +air-space. What wonder that the sanitarian is aghast at the prospect! + +According to the President of the English Sanitary Inspectors' Association +it seems probable that if the nineteenth-century city continues to drain +the country of its potentially intellectual class and to squeeze them into +smaller and smaller quarters, it will dry up the reservoirs of strength in +the population (address, Aug. 18, 1905). + +The houses of the Morris Building Co., illustrated in Chapter II, show +what may be done. These houses rent for $35 to $45 a month with constant +heat and hot water, so that the heavy work is reduced to a minimum; but +the exigencies of family life are illustrated in the fact of the almost +universal demand of the tenants for continuous heat and hot water night as +well as day. The ordinary childless apartment house banks its fires at +night. A supplementary apparatus would mean work by the tenants, however. +This is a good example of the balance which must be struck in all new +plans until they are tested. + +The change in what one gains under the name of shelter, what one pays rent +for, must be kept clearly in mind. Two or three decades since it was a +tight roof, thinly plastered walls, and a chimney with "thimble-holes for +stoves," possibly a furnace with small tin flues, a well or cistern, or +perhaps one faucet delivering a small stream of water. To-day even in the +suburbs there is furnished light, heat, abundant water, care of halls and +sidewalks. The elevator-boy takes the place of "buttons," the engineer and +janitor relieve the man of the house of care, so that it may not be so +extravagant as it sounds to give one third the $3000 income for rent, +since it stops that leaky sieve, that bottomless bag of "operating +expenses." The income may be pretty definitely estimated in this case, +especially if meals are taken in the cafĆ©. If the family dine as it +happens, the cost mounts up. Here are a few estimates for verification and +criticism: + +Rent of an apartment............$ 600.00 to $ 700.00 +Meals........................... 1200.00 " 1000.00 +Clothing........................ 400.00 " 600.00 +Incidentals, amusements, etc.... 200.00 " 300.00 +Savings, _nil_. + --------- -------- +Total income................... $2400.00 to $2600.00 + +If the wife can manage the "kitchenette" and part of the clothing, about +$600 may be saved, but in that case it represents her earnings, and should +be at her disposal. If it should be possible for safe shelter to be had +for $400, then with the wife's help $700 should be the sum in the "region +of choice." I hold that, unless the income can be managed so as to secure +_choice_, all the daily toil is embittered. Even if some is spent +foolishly, it is safer than the burden "just not enough." + +The more common cost of decent living in our Eastern cities is: + +Rent...............................$1000 to $1500 +Meals.............................. 1200 " 1400 +Clothing........................... 500 " 700 +Incidentals........................ 300 " 600 +Savings, _nil_. + ----- ----- +Total..............................$3000 to $4000 + +This goes far toward justifying the saying that a young man cannot afford +to marry on less than $3000 a year. + +With these figures in mind, what can our $2000 family with two children +do? The rent that they can pay will not cover service or heat. There must +be a maid to fill the lamps, see to the furnace, help with the cooking, +and the wife must stay by the house pretty closely and probably decline +most invitations. For the five persons, ten dollars a week for raw-food +materials and five for its preparation is the lowest limit likely to be +cheerfully submitted to. + +Rent, heat, light, etc..................... $400 +Food....................................... 800 +Clothing hardly less than.................. 400 +Children's education, even with free + schools, and their illnesses will use up. 100 +Car-fares, church, etc..................... 100 +Wages and sundries......................... 200 + ------ +Total..................................... $2000 + +In the bank nothing. + +But what shelter can this refined, intelligent family find to-day for +$400? Certainly nothing with modern conveniences. The lack of these is +_made up by women's work_--hard, rough work. And that is the crux of the +servant problem to-day. It is the reason why more families do not go into +the country to live. The work required in an old house to bring living up +to modern standards is too appalling to be undertaken lightly. + +In England the Sunlight Park and other plans, in America the Dayton and +Cincinnati schemes, are samples of what is being done for the $500 to $800 +family, but where are the examples (outside the Morris houses) for the +salaried class for whom we are pleading? The great army of would-be +home-makers are forced into a nomadic life by the exigencies resulting +from the great combines--a shifting of offices, a closing of factories, a +breaking up of hundreds of homes. I believe this to be the _chief factor_ +in the decline of the American home--a hundred-fold more potent than the +college education of women. + +The unthinking comment on this rise in the cost of shelter is usually +condemnation of greedy landlords and soulless capitalists; but is that the +whole story? + +In the present order of things it seems to be inevitable that the gain of +one class in the community is loss to another. Probably the law has always +existed, and only the very rapid and sudden changes bring it into +prominence, because of the swift readjustment needed, an operation which +torpid human nature resents when consciously pressed. + +For instance, the efforts of the philanthropist and working man together +have succeeded in shortening hours of labor and increasing wages--without, +alas! increasing the speed or quality of the work done, especially in the +trades which have to do with materials of construction, so that +house-building has about doubled in cost within twenty-five years, largely +due to cost of labor. This increased cost has fallen heavily on the very +group of people least able to bear it, the skilled artisan, the teacher, +and the young salaried man. Again I call attention to the need of a +philanthropist who shall raise his eyes to that group, the hope of our +democracy, those whom he has held to be able to help themselves--and given +time would do so; but time is the very thing denied them in this motor +age. Help to make quick adjustment must come to the rescue of those to +whom time more than equals money. + +One used to wait patiently for seed-sown lawns to become velvety turf. +Money can bring sod from afar and in a season give the results of years. +So the housing of the $2000 family can be accomplished just as soon as it +seems sufficiently desirable. It needs a research just as truly as the +cancer problem or desert botany, and affects thousands more. + +One other cause of increased cost in construction and operation which +does, if wisely carried out, increase health and efficiency is the +sanitary provision of our recent building laws. + +The instalment of these sanitary appliances becomes increasingly costly +because of the rise in wages of the workmen, plumbers, masons, etc. The +careful statistics of the Bureau of Labor show conclusively that all +building trades have decreased hours of labor and increased wages per +hour, so that cost of construction has doubled, and the sanitary +requirements have again doubled the cost, so that it is easy to see why +the family with a stationary income has quartered its dwelling-space. + +The end is not yet: the new devices mentioned in previous chapters will at +first increase cost of construction. + +From lack of business training the public is at fault in estimating +relative costs. A well-built "automatic house" costs too much, they say. +Yes, but what does it save? Cost looms large, saving seems small. +Moreover, the value of mental serenity, of that peace of mind consequent +on the smooth running of the domestic machine, is undervalued. The +American child such as he is is largely the product of the American house +and its ill adapted construction. I must reiterate my belief that the +modification of the house itself to the life the twentieth century is +calling for is the first step in social reform. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + THE RELATION BETWEEN COST OF HOUSING AND TOTAL INCOME. + + "It must be made possible to live within one's income." + +The thrifty French rule is one fifth for rent. In towns where land is +cheap and wood abundant, or in college communities exempt from taxes, +comfortable housing is found in this country for as little as fifteen or +eighteen per cent of the total income. In some mining towns where all +prospects are uncertain and the house has no particular social +significance the rent may be even lower, although it is often very high. +It depends on the demand, on competition rather than quality. In our older +and more settled communities it is most common for rent to use up one +fourth the salary of all town dwellers with incomes within our limits. +This was true in Boston fifty years ago, and it is true to-day in dozens +of cities and towns personally investigated. It is not unknown that a +teacher or business man should exceed this in the hope of a rise in +salary by the second year. Adding the expenses of operating the house, of +repairs and additions and improvements if the house is owned, nearly half +the money available must go for the mere housing of the family. + +If it is true, as I believe it is, that for each fraction over one fifth +spent for rent a saving must be made in some other direction--in the daily +expense, less service, less costly food, or less expensive clothing, or, +last to be cut down, less of the real pleasure of life,--it will be seen +what a far-reaching question this is, how it touches the vital point, to +have or not to have other good things in life. + +A large part of the increase is due, as we have said, to increased demand +for sanitary conveniences, but far more potent is the pressure resulting +from the price of land. + +This pressure has led to the building of smaller and smaller apartments, +so that four and six rooms are made out of floor-space sufficient for two. +It sounds better to say we have a six-room flat, even though there is no +more privacy than in two rooms, for the rooms are mere cells unless the +doors are always open. It is not uncommon in such suites renting for $50 +to $60 per month for six rooms, to find three of them with only one window +on one side, with no chance for cross-ventilation unless the doors of the +whole suite are open. + +This style of building prevails even in the suburbs where air and +sunshine should be free. The would-be renter looking at such suites with +all the doors open and the rooms innocent of fried fish and bacon does not +think of the place as it _will be_ under living conditions when privacy +can be had only by smothering. + +The model tenements in New York rent for one dollar per week per room; the +better houses for double, or two dollars for 450 cubic feet. Many of those +I have examined renting for forty to sixty dollars per month give no more +space for the money, only a little better finish--marble and tile in the +bath-room, for instance. + +The three-room tenement does, however, shelter as many persons as the +six-room flat, hence there is more real overcrowding. In all these grades +of shelter it is fresh air that is wanting. What wonder the white plague +is always with us? What remedy so long as millions sleep in closets with +no air-currents passing through? + +Accepting the French rule, the artisan who rents the model tenement at +$3.50 per week should earn $3 a day wage for six days. If he earn only $2, +then more than one quarter must go for housing. There are hundreds of +Italian families in New York who pay only $2 _per month_ for such shelter +as they have, but it is only providing for the primitive idea of mere +shelter, not for the comforts of a true home life. After the fashion of +early man, these people spend their lives in the open air, eat wherever +they may be, and use this makeshift shelter as protection from the weather +and as a place of deposit for such articles as they do not carry about +with them and for such weaklings as cannot travel. + +As man rises in the scale of wants he pays more, in attention and in +money, for housing, because he leaves wife and children to its comforts +while he goes forth to his daily tasks. As ideals rise, the proportion +rises until even one third of his earnings goes for mere shelter. But this +limits his desires in other directions, so that it becomes a pertinent +question, when is it right to give as much as one third of the moderate +income for housing? As every heart knows its own bitterness, so every man +knows his own business and what proportion of his income he is _willing_ +to spend for a house, for the comforts of life pertain largely to bed and +board. It must be acknowledged, however, that comfort and discomfort are +so largely matters of habit and personal point of view that education as +to ideals is an important duty of society in its own defence. + +If two people without children prefer to spend more on shelter than on any +other one thing, then with $3000 a year, $1000 may be given for rent if +that covers heat, light, and general outside care. But the _family_ with +children to consider must not think of allowing one third for rent under +our very highest limit of $5000 a year, and it is unwise even then. In +fact the ratio must be governed by circumstances. It is true, however, +that the conditions must be interpreted by a fixed principle in living and +not by any mere fashion or prejudice of the moment. + +The one question every person asks when these suggested improvements are +discussed is, but how much will it cost? Thus confessing that cost, not +effectiveness, is the measure; that old ideals as to money value still +rule the world. It costs too much to have a furnace large enough to warm a +sufficient volume of air, it costs too much to put in safe plumbing, it +costs too much to keep the house clean, and so on through the list. We +have been too busy getting and spending money to study the cost of neglect +of cardinal principles of right living. The farmer knows the cost of his +young animals, but the father cares little and knows less of what it ought +to cost to bring up his children--of the economy of spending wisely on a +safe shelter for them. + +A new estimate of what necessary things must cost has to be made before +the present generation will live comfortably in presence of the +account-book. + +Here again a readjustment is coming; some expenses in house construction +common now will be lessened or done away with; for example, fancy shapes, +grooved and carved wood, projecting windows and door-frames. + +It is usual, when the various new methods are brought up, to estimate the +cost as additional to all that has gone before, rather than to see in it a +substitute for much that may go. + +Our family with $1500 income may safely pay $300 for rent, if that covers +enough comfort and does not mean too much car-fare. + +The house may cost $3000 if built on the old lines, and if the land it is +placed on is not too expensive. + +A fire-proof house such as is described in the July number of the +_Brickbuilder and Architect_, 85 Water St., Boston, and probably also a +house of reinforced concrete, will cost at present some $10,000 besides +the land. Because of freedom from repairs it should be possible to rent +such houses for $500, which will bring them within the reach of our $3000 +a year family, but not within the means of the $2000. What is to be done? + +It will be remarked by some that little attention has been given in these +pages to the various so-called cooperative plans, like Mrs. Stuckert's +oval of fifty houses connected by a tramway at each level, with a central +kitchen from which all meals come and to which all used dishes return, +with a central office from which service is sent, etc. + +Frankly, to my mind this is not enough better than the apartment hotel, as +we now know it, to pay for the effort to establish it. As now evolved by +demand, the establishments renting from one to fifteen thousand a year are +on progressive lines. According to Mr. Wells, this shareholding class is +on the way to extinction in any case, fortunately he also thinks, and the +student of social economics need not concern himself with its future, only +so far as its example influences the real bone and sinew of the republic, +the working men and women who make the world the place it is. + +Within the ten-mile radius it has been usual to include a front yard, if +not a garden, in the house-lot. The cost of keeping this in the trim +fashion decreed as essential, of planting and pruning of shrubs, of +maintaining in immaculate condition the sidewalks and front steps, like +most of the items in cost of living, is due to changed standards, just as +the cost of table-board has advanced from $3 to $6 without a corresponding +betterment in quality. + +Engle's law, "The lodging, warming, and lighting have an invariable +proportion whatever the income," does not hold under modern conditions for +the group we are considering, for our wise ones need the best, and not a +few of them are unwilling to buy their family sanctity at the price of a +closet in the basement for the faithful maid. + +Plans may look well on paper, the completed house may seem attractive, but +when the family _live_ in the house its deficiencies become apparent. +Cheap materials, flimsy construction, damp location, any one of a dozen +possibilities may make the family uncomfortable, may cost in heating and +doctor's bills, may compel a moving before the year is out. Cheap houses +in this decade are suspicious; the more need for a knowledge on the part +of young people of what may be expected. + +For this reason it is a part of sound education to give a certain amount +of attention to living conditions in the high-school curriculum. It is as +important as book-keeping; for of what avail are money and business, if +the home life is perilled? Besides, some of the pupils may have attention +called to deficiencies which they may show talent in overcoming. + +Courses in Home Economics and Household Administration in colleges and +universities should be directed to careful study of this branch of +sociology. + +There is a great opportunity before women's clubs and civic-improvement +associations to arouse an interest in the provision of suitable shelter +for the young families in their several neighborhoods. Concerted movement +by the Federation could revolutionize public opinion within a decade. + +The student of social science may well say that the first effort should be +directed to a rise in the pay of these educated young men; that no family +should be expected to live on the sums here considered; that it is not +right even to consider a way out on the present basis. Possibly so. Much +agitation is abroad in relation to the pay of teachers, clerks, and +skilled workmen, but that is another question which cannot be considered +here. + +The salaried class has so enormously increased of late years because of +the great consolidation of business interests that the final adjustment +has not been made. The one fact of uncertain tenure of position and +uncertain promotion has profoundly affected living conditions, ownership +of the family abode, and, incidentally, marriage. + +There are prizes enough, however, to keep the young people on the alert +for advancement, and they feel it more likely to come if they establish +themselves as if it had arrived. + +There is no denying that in the estimation of a large number of the groups +we are considering, the question of neat and orderly service, the capped +and aproned maid, the liveried bell-boy and butler, express--like the +smoothly shaven lawn--a certain social convention; and because it means +expense, the house in working order means more than shelter: it sets forth +pecuniary standing in the community. So long as this means social standing +also, so long will the professional and business family on $2000 a year be +shut out, because these adjuncts to a luxurious living are impossible. Can +society afford to shut out the intellectual and mentally progressive +element, or must it accept as normal these salaries and make it +respectable to begin on them? It is the strain which unessential social +conventions give to the young families that leads the business father to +speculate in order to get into the $10,000-a-year class, and that leads +the young scientific and literary man to take extra work outside of his +normal duties. This sort of thing cannot go on without serious danger to +the Republic. Cleanliness and good manners should be insisted upon, but +they may be secured on $3000 a year if too much else is not required. How +to secure them on $1500 is a problem to be solved, for cleanliness costs +more each decade. + +After all is said, if the young people have an earnest _purpose_ in life +it is easy to plan a method of living and to carry it out. The sacrifices +one must make in the house superficially, in the consideration of a +certain class, are cheerfully borne and soon forgotten. + +Little discomforts which affect only one's feelings and not one's health +make rather good stories after they are over. What is worth while? Are we +become too sensitive to little things? Do we imagine we show our higher +civilization by discerning with the little princess the pea under +twenty-four feather beds? + +Let our shelter be first of all healthful, physically and morally. If to +gain these qualities we must take a house in an unfashionable +neighborhood, it should not cause distress. Why is this particular region +unfashionable? Is it not merely because certain would-be leaders choose +to live beyond their means in company with those who are able to spend +more? + +Why not be honest and happy? Live within your income and make it cover the +truest kind of living. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + TO OWN OR TO RENT: A DIFFICULT QUESTION. + + "Half the sting of poverty is gone when one keeps house for + one's own comfort and not for the comment of one's neighbors." + --Miss MULOCK. + +When the ideals of an older generation are forced upon a younger, already +struggling under new and strange environment, the effect is often opposite +to that intended. The elders in their pride of knowledge, and the +real-estate promoters in their greed for gain, have been urging the young +man to own his house on penalty of shirking his plain duty. They say he +must have a home to offer his bride, as the bird has a nest. Building-loan +associations, homes on the instalment plan, appeal to the sentiments they +think the young man ought to heed. + +The young man is often modest, almost always sensitive, and he prefers to +bear dispraise rather than to tell the real reason he hesitates. His ear +is closer to the ground, he feels even if he cannot express the doubt of +the disinterestedness of the land-scheme promoter, of the wisdom of his +father. He knows better than his elders the uncertainties of salaried men, +young men with a way to make in the unstable conditions of to-day. + +The effect of this well-meant advice is not to hasten his marriage, but to +put it off because he is not allowed to take the course he feels safest. +Or if he is willing, the parents of his prospective bride are not, and so +young people do not marry on $1000 a year, for fear of the elder +generation and their supposed wisdom. + +The young people are not justified by present-day conditions in owning a +house on an income of $2000 a year _unless_ + +(1) They have money to put into it which it will not cripple them for life +to lose; + +(2) They care so much for the idea of ownership that they are willing to +take the risk of losing one half the investment should they be compelled +to move; + +(3) They possess the fortitude to give it up at the call of duty after all +they have lavished on it; + +(4) They care enough for the real education and the real fun they will get +out of it to save in other ways what the running and repairs will cost +_over and above the amount estimated_. This saving will be largely by +doing many things with their own hands. + +To be bound hand and foot either by unsalable real estate or by sentiment +is an uncomfortable condition for the young family who may find itself in +uncongenial surroundings, in an unhealthful situation, or who may need to +retrench temporarily. + +Another serious objection to building and owning a house in the first +years of married life is the chance that the house will be too large or +too small, or the railroad station will be moved, or the trolley line will +be run under the garden window, or a smoking chimney will fill the library +with soot (although the latter will not be permitted in the real +twentieth-century town). + +A new element has come into the question of ownership by the family of +limited means which did not meet the elder generation of house-owners. In +the past the repairs were confined to a coat of paint now and then, new +shingles, an added hen-house, or a bay window. The well might have to be +deepened, but little expense was put into or onto the house for fifty +years. The married son or daughter might add a wing, but the main house +once built was never disturbed. In the modern plastic condition of both +ideals and materials this is all changed. In any city well known to my +readers how many streets bear the same aspect as five years ago? In any +suburban village made familiar by the trolley how many houses are the same +as five years ago? Even if their outward aspect is not changed, that worst +of all havocs, new plumbing, has been put in. The installation of neither +furnace nor plumbing is accomplished once for all; at the end of ten years +at most repairs or replacement must be made on penalty of loss of health. +As the community grows in wisdom and in knowledge it makes sanitary +regulations more stringent notwithstanding the fact that the increase in +expense bears most heavily on the small householder with a family whose +need is out of proportion to the income. Many a parent who grieves the +loss of his child would gladly have paid a reasonable sum for repairs, but +would have been in the poor debtors' court if he had allowed the plumbers +to enter his house. The new laws made since he bought his house require +diametrically opposite things, and the old fittings must all be torn out +as well as four times as costly put in. + +It is a sad fact that the advantages of all modern sanitation are so often +denied to those who need and who would appreciate them. The renter has +here an advantage over the owner. He can call for an examination by the +city or town inspector before he takes a lease; the capitalist owner must +then put matters right. But as yet a man has a right to live with leaky +sewer- or gas-pipes in his own house without being disturbed by an +inspector. How far into the century this will be allowed is uncertain; in +time there will be an inspection of the premises of the small owner. + +The only remedy in sight is for an investment of capital in up-to-date +houses of various grades in city, suburbs, and country; such investment to +bring 4 per cent, not 40, or even 15, unless by rise of land values. No +better use of idle money could be made at the present time. In +"Anticipations" Mr. Wells writes: "The erection of a series of +experimental labor-saving houses by some philanthropic person for +exhibition and discussion would certainly bring about an extraordinary +advance in domestic comfort; but it will probably be many years before the +cautious enterprise of advertising firms approximates to the economies +that are theoretically possible to-day." This is truer now than when Mr. +Wells was writing. + +The great difficulty in the way is the first outlay. So many things will +have to be designed, patterns made and machinery built to make them; for +this advance in construction will not be by hand-made things. There will +be more head-work put into the various articles, but the mass of +constructive material must be machine-made, at least for the family of +limited income. And these articles need not be ugly. There must be many of +the same kind in the world, to be sure; but if the design fits the +purpose, this may not be an evil. No one objects to a beautiful elm-tree +in his field because in hundreds of fields there are similar elm-trees. +Slight variations in finish, color, etc., can give individuality to the +simplest chair. + +Therefore the first outlay for the new order will be beyond the purse of +any single family of this group. If we had learned to cooperate sanely, a +group might undertake it, but the most probable method will be for some +far-sighted men to agree to sink a certain amount of money in experiment, +just as they now sink money in prospecting a mine with all the uncertainty +it brings. Ability to _risk_ in an experiment must go hand in hand with +capital to use. + +The objection commonly made is that all individuality will be taken away, +that each one must live like every one else in the neighborhood. This is +not an essential consequence, but will it be so impossible to have a +certain similarity in the dwellings of like-minded people? In +"Anticipations" it is declared that "Unless some great catastrophe in +Nature breaks down all that man has built, these great kindred groups of +capable men and educated adequate women must be under the forces we have +considered so far, the element finally emergent amid the vast confusions +of the coming time."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Anticipations, pp. 153-4.] + +The practical people, the engineering and medical and scientific people, +will become more and more _homogeneous_ in their fundamental culture. + +The decreasing of the space one can call one's own within urban limits has +so steadily increased, and the need for freer air has become so fully +recognized, that the case of the single householder in the suburbs and +even in the country is bound to press harder and harder. The group system +elsewhere referred to, with central heating plant and workers of all +grades at telephone-call, will make possible at a reasonable rent within +easy reach of the city the single household of one, two, or three, as the +case may be, and if without children of their own, to such shelter may +come some of those homeless little ones we have with us always, to share +in the sun and wind and garden. In the real country, with acres instead of +feet of land, much of the same kind of elaborate simplicity will be found. +Certainly the same kind of fire-proof house of only one story with more +light, "roofs of steel and glass on the louver principle," will obviate so +frequent a change of air as a shut-in house requires, and give more +equable temperature. + +In the city? Since physicians will surely be more insistent on light, as +well as fresh air, roof-gardens and balconies and glazed walls, so to +speak, will be arranged by the architect so as not to offend the eye and +yet to accomplish the results. He will cease from trying to put the new +ideas of the twentieth century into the old houses of the eighteenth or +fifteenth even, and that beauty, which is fitness, will come forth from +the tangle of ugliness everywhere. If, as the economist tells us, "cost +measures lack of adjustment," then the perfectly adjusted house will not +be costly in reality, it will be adapted to the production and protection +of effective human beings. + +The cellar has for some years been changing to a storage for trunks +instead of vegetables. The old-fashioned housewife exclaims at the lack of +storage in the house of to-day, and we are eliminating it still more. A +twentieth-century axiom is, "Throw or give away everything you have not +immediate or prospective use for." It is as true of household furniture as +of books; only the very best is of any value second-hand. Our young people +may have heirlooms, but they will buy very little in the way of sideboards +or first editions. The moral of modern tendencies is, buy only what you +are sure you will need or what you care for so intensely that you will +keep it come what may. Housing of possible treasures is far too +costly. + +At the foundation of the ethical side of ownership is the primitive +impulse of possession, that ownership which led to wife-capture, to feudal +castles, to accumulation of things, and to-day is expressed by the man who +prefers to have his steak cooked in his own kitchen even if it is burned. + +It is notorious that most of us put up with discomfort if it is caused by +_our own_. A family of eight will use one bath-room without murmur if the +house is theirs, but will complain loudly if the landlord will not add two +without increasing the rent. + +At the foundation of what seem exorbitant rents is this demand for modern +improvements in old houses, and the atrocious carelessness of tenants of +property. It is not their own, and they do not obey the golden rule in the +use of it. + +Every five years or so plumbing laws are changed, and if an old house is +touched the fixtures and pipes must be all renewed. Tenants have learned +to fear the sanitation of old houses, and yet abuse the appliances they +should care for. + +Public ownership or corporate ownership or an increased lawlessness are +accountable for a disregard of others' rights and of property which is +unnecessarily increasing the cost of living. + +I have said elsewhere that it is not because the landlord does not want +children in the house but because he does not want such ill-bred children, +vandals, who have no respect for anything. He charges high rent because +his investment is good for only ten years. + +The shibboleth of duty to own a home has so strong a hold on the moral +sense of the people that it is made use of by the promoter who may in some +cases think himself the philanthropist he intends others to call him. I +mean that the duty of owning and the heinousness of paying rent are so +ingrained that buying on the instalment plan has seemed a righteous thing, +even with the examples of broken lives in plain sight. As an incentive to +save, if there were anything to save, it might have been justified in the +days of feudalism. But for an independent American to confess that he +cannot put money in the bank, and that he must bind himself and his family +to slavery, for the sake of owning a bit of property which they will +probably wish to sell before they have it paid for, is disgraceful. +Intelligent men should see that here is the profit in the transaction; +that enough go to the wall to pay for the trouble of the rest, just as in +life insurance enough die before the expected time to put money in the +pockets of the riskers. + +A drunken father may need to be held, but the young professor, the lawyer, +the engineer, should have sufficient self-respect and firmness to save +that which in his judgment is necessary, without being tied by "the +instalment plan." This method is a very viper in the finances of to-day. +The wise business man never ventures more than he can afford to lose in a +risk, but the man who takes bread and milk from his children to invest in +"a sure thing" takes a risk with what is not his to give. + +To buy land for investment is another supposed virtue, an inheritance from +the time when slow growth, once started in a given direction, kept on, so +that great acumen was not needed to buy; but that is all changed to-day. +Only those "in the ring" can tell where the "boom" will go next. + +In these days of unparalelled rapidity of change in industrial and social +conditions it is most undesirable for a man to be hampered by a shell +which is too large to carry about with him and too valuable to be left +behind. To each reader will occur instances of the refusal of an +advantageous offer because the family home could not be realized upon at +once, the location once so favorable had become undesirable, and the +values put into it could not be recovered because of social conditions +following industrial changes. + +The keen observer hesitates in view of all these conditions to advise any +young man to invest in real estate for a home beyond a sum which he can +afford to lose if need arises to move. These changes carry a need for +mobilization of its army of workers. The encumbrance of family Lares and +Penates cannot be tolerated. Only a small per cent of young men are to-day +sure of remaining in the city in which they begin business. What folly to +encumber themselves with real estate which, sold at a sacrifice, brings +barely half its price! Moral exhorters have not carefully considered this +side of the question in their arguments for house-owning and +family-rearing as anchors to the young man. + +The fact noted earlier is a case in point. After the wedding-cards were +out the bridegroom was transferred to the charge of the company's office +in another city. + +The expenses necessitated by these frequent removals make an +unaccounted-for item in many incomes. + +If the young couple have saved or inherited between them, say, $3000, +shall they build a home with it? Decidedly not. Because the house will +cost $5000 before they are done. Not only because of the unexpected in +strikes and change in prices of materials, but because, as the plans take +shape, the wife or the husband or both will see so many little points +which they will ask for, the paper plan not having conveyed a definite +idea to either. An excellent plan was carried out by a college woman. She +made a model to scale in pasteboard, of such a size that every essential +detail was shown in its relation to other portions of the structure. + +Even if these young people do not yield at the moment of building, they +will probably wish they had yielded when they come to live in the house. +There will be nothing for it but to mortgage the place to make it +satisfactory. One cannot take up a newspaper without finding notice after +notice, reading, "Must be sold to pay the mortgage." + +Exorbitant rent is of course social waste, and society must protect its +ablest young people from their own folly; but when they understand the +rules of the financial game better they will lend themselves more readily +to some cooperative plan of relief. + +It is, as I well know, rank heresy, but I firmly believe that building and +owning of houses can be afforded only by those having the higher limit of +income, $3000 to $5000 a year, _unless_ the person has a permanent +position or a business of great security, and in these days who can be +_sure_ of anything? + +When the land-scheme promoter advertises homes on the instalment plan, +beware of the trap! + +Let no one buy in the suburbs from a sense of duty and then hate the life. + +Comfort in living is far more in the brains than in the back. + +It is so easy for a man or woman with one set of ideals to do that which +another would consider impossible drudgery. + +My final advice is that the sensible young couple both of whom agree about +essentials, and who are willing and glad to work together for a common +end, and who love nature and gardening and believe in family life so +strongly as not to miss the crowd and theatres, may safely start a home in +the country with a garden, and pets for the children, if they have a +reasonable prospect of ten years in one spot. Let them make the place +attractive for some family, even if they have to leave it. + +The women of this group will, I believe, have the qualities Mr. Wells +predicts: not only intelligence and education, but a reasonableness and +reliability not always found to-day. + +Unless a reasonable prospect of ten years' occupancy is assured, then +begin life in a rented house, not necessarily in a flat. Begin with a few +things of your own some which have been yours for years, some which you +have bought together and which have a meaning for one of you and are not +irritating to the other. + +Devote a part of your leisure to a critical study of the house you would +like, draw plans, make sketches in color, study color effects, learn about +fabrics, collect them for the future. You will find an amusing and +instructive occupation. + +The essential point is to begin this life on two thirds of what you have +reason to expect as the year's income; keep the rest invested or in the +bank. There are to-day many temptations to spend for things attractive in +themselves but not necessary to the effective life. If friends are so +silly as to rally you on living in an unfashionable quarter, ask them in +to see your sketches and plans, and talk them into enthusiasm over the +idea. Do missionary work with them rather than be ridiculed out of your +convictions. It sometimes seems as if young people had no convictions, as +if they drifted with the wind of newspaper suggestion. So do not allow +your friends to drive you to greater expense than you have determined +upon, lest the end of the first two years of life find you in debt with no +fair start for the baby, whose life should begin in an atmosphere of quiet +assurance that all is well. It is not impossible that the nervous +irritability and recklessness of many are due to the atmosphere of +childhood. Then remember that _the welfare and security of the child is +the watchword of the future_. + + + + +A FEW BOOKS. + +Anticipations. H.G. Wells. + +Mankind in the Making. H.G. Wells. Scribners. + +A Modern Utopia. H.G. Wells. Scribners. + +Twentieth-century Inventions: a Forecast. Geo. Sutherland. + Longmans, Green, & Co. + +The Level of Social Motion. Michael Lane. Macmillan. + +The Theory of the Leisure Class. Thorstein Veblen. Macmillan. + +The Woman who Spends. Whitcomb and Barrows. + +Physical Deterioration: Its Causes and their Cure. A. Watt Smyth. + E.P. Dutton. + +Shelter. Syllabus 94, Home Education Dept, Univ. of N.Y. + State Library, Albany. + +Report of the Tenement-house Commission. + + + + +INDEX. + +A + +Adaptation + lack of +"Anticipations" +Advisers, home +Age, spirit of the +Air +Altruria +Albert's, Prince, advice +Apartment houses +Architects +Architecture, domestic +Arts, constructive + +B + +Bachelor + apartment +Back, bending the + strength of +Badges of toil +Boarding houses + origin of +Breakfast +Building + laws + loan associations +Building trades +Bureau of Labor, U.S. + +C + +Capital +Care of rooms + human body +Carpentry in high school +Centrifugal force +Children + deterioration of manners of +Choice +City + houses +Civilization +Class to work for +Cleaning machine +Cleanliness +Clothing +Colonial houses + period, housebuilding of + Southern type of, houses +Commuter, trials of +Companionship +Compromise +Concrete +Consciousness, social +Construction +Consumption, destructive +Conveniences +Cooperation +Cost + increasing + of housing and total income + per person and per family +Country +Crowding + +D + +Dayton scheme +Debt +Demand + business +Democracy +Deterioration of houses +Dirt +Discomforts +Discontent +Dishonesty in standards +Dole, Charles +Domestic comfort + machine + progress, retarded + unrest +Drainage +Drudgery +Dust + +E + +Economics, home, exhibit + household + social +Economist +Economy +Effective life + workers +Effectiveness +Efficiency + loss of +Energy +Engineering, definition of +Engle's law +Environment +Euthenics +Evolution +Expense +Expenses + operating +Experience in doing + lack of +Experts, house +Extravagance + +F + +Family + table +Farm life +Flat +Flats +Floors, hard-wood + lignolith +Food +Force + for regeneration +Foreigner +Friction due to house + +G + +Garden +Gardening +Gas-stoves +Group system + +H + +Habit, perils of +Habits +Hands +Heating +Home + abandonment of + advisers + Anglo-Saxon meaning of + building of +Home economics + feeling + life + love of + makers + means privacy + ties loosened +Homeless +Homestead +Hospitality +Hot water +House + building + Colonial + evidence of social standing + -keepers + -keeping, twentieth-century + -maids, physical inefficiency of + planning in High School + plans + suburban +Houses + city + Colonial, of New England + four classes of + modern +Housing + +I + +Ideal +Ideas +Improvements +Income +Individual +Industries, disappearance of +Installment plan +Invasion of residential districts +Invention +Investment + +K + +Kitchen + accompaniments + remodelled, in Providence +Kitchenette + +L + +Labor, Bureau of + -saving devices +Lack of + adaptation + business training + experience + faithful service + harmony + study +Land +Landlord +Land-scheme promoter +Lane, Mr. Michael +Leaven of progress +Legacy +"Level of Social Motion" +Life + effective + frontier + fuller + home + open air + private, shabby + restrained +Light +Living, decent + sane + cost of +Location +Lodge, Sir Oliver + +M + +Machinery +Maid's rooms +Making of things +Man, early + primitive +Manners +Marriage, responsibility of +Meals +Mechanical + progress +Menial +Middle, leaven of progress in +Model Tenement Association, New York +Money + basis + measure of success + spender + value +Morison, Geo. S +Morris Building Co +Mulock, Miss + +N + +Nasmyth, James +Natural selection +Nature + love of + return to +Neill, Chas. P., extracts from address by +New Epoch, The + +O + +Opinion, public +Owen, Robert +Own or rent +Ownership + +P + +Parks +Parsons, Wm. Barclay +Patronage of the arts +Permanence in homestead, lack of +Pettingill, Miss [Transcriber's Note: Pettengill in text.] +Philanthropist +Philanthropy +Physical ill-being in + domestics + school children + wage-earners +Place of the house +Plans +Plumbing +Possibilities in sight +Preeminence, social +Primitive man +Principle, fixed + race +Privacy +Private life shabby +Productive work +Progress + leaven of + race +Protection + +Q + +Question, a difficult + +R + +Race principle +Readjustment +Real estate +Refuge +Regeneration, force for +Rent + or own + -payers +Residential districts, invasion of +Responsibility of marriage +Restaurant +Restrained life +Return to nature +Rights to property, etc. +Roosevelt, President + +S + +Sanitarian +Sanitary + English, Inspectors Association, President of +Sanitation +Saving +Schools, public +Science +Scrubbing +Selection, natural +Self-interest + -preservation +Service + faithful, lack of +Sewer connection, houses without +Shelter +Shelter, marrying for +Sheltering the children +Simplicity +Social advance + aspiration + betterment + conditions +Social conscience + consciousness + convention + economics + ostracism + pleasure + preĆ«minence + science + significance + standing + welfare +Society +Sociologist +Sociology +Somerville +Space + diminishing +Spender +Spirit of the age +Standards +Stone, Mary Lowell, Home Economics Exhibit +Structure +Stuckert, Mrs +Study, lack of +Suburban + houses + living + square +Suburbs +Sun-parlors +Sunlight Park, England + +T + +Table, family +Tax +Temporary home +Tenant +Tenement + N.Y. Model, Association +Tennyson +Tenure, + permanence of + shortness of + uncertain +Transition period +Tuberculosis + +U + +U.S. Bureau of Labor +Unrest, domestic +Unsanitary +Utopian + +V + +Veblen +Ventilation +Village houses + influx from + +W + +Wage-earners +Waste, conspicuous +Watchword of the future +Water, hot +Wedding presents +Well-being of community threatened +Wells, H.G. +White plague +Wife +Window +Woman +Women, corporation of +Women's work +Work, + menial + productive + women's +Workers, effective +Working men + +Y + +Young people +Youth, American + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Cost of Shelter, by Ellen H. Richards + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12366 *** diff --git a/12366-h/12366-h.htm b/12366-h/12366-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7993955 --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/12366-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3714 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Cost of Shelter + by Ellen H. Richards. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; background-color: white} + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + .ind4{margin-left: 4%; } + .olalpha {list-style-type:lower-alpha} + .ctr { text-align: center; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12366 ***</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<center> +<h1> + THE COST OF SHELTER +</h1> + +<h2> + By<br> + ELLEN H. RICHARDS +</h2> +<p> </p> + +<h3> + Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry,<br> + Massachusetts Institute of Technology. +</h3> +<h3> + 1905 +</h3> +</center> + +<a name="CHPRE"></a> +<p> </p> + +<hr> +<p> + THE HOUSEHOLD EXISTS FOR ONE OR MORE + OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS: +</p> +<p> + Two or more persons form an alliance +</p> +<ol class="olalpha"> + <li>for protection against the outside world;</li> + <li>for protection against the outside world + and for the rearing of children;</li> + <li>for the greater gain in convenience which the common life can give + over that of single effort;</li> + <li>for companionship;</li> + <li>for the greater independence it gives to the group;</li> + <li>for the greater ease in satisfying one's prejudices or whims.</li> + </ol> +<hr> + +<p> </p> +<h2> + TABLE OF CONTENTS +</h2> +<a href="#CH1">CHAPTER I</a> +<p> + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE. TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTRES OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY +</p> +<a href="#CH2">CHAPTER II</a> +<p> + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING +</p> +<a href="#CH3">CHAPTER III</a> +<p> + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, ILL ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS, CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION +</p> +<a href="#CH4">CHAPTER IV</a> +<p> + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY +</p> +<a href="#CH5">CHAPTER V</a> +<p> + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE +</p> +<a href="#CH6">CHAPTER VI</a> +<p> + COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY FOR VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER +</p> +<a href="#CH7">CHAPTER VII</a> +<p> + RELATION BETWEEN COST OF SHELTER AND TOTAL INCOME TO BE EXPENDED +</p> +<a href="#CH8">CHAPTER VIII</a> +<p> + TO RENT OR TO OWN: A DIFFICULT QUESTION +</p> + +<p><a href="#CH9">A FEW BOOKS</a></p> + +<p><a href="#CHIND">INDEX</a></p> + +<hr> +<p> </p> +<h2> + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +</h2> +<p><a href="#image-1"> +The Morris Company's Block of Single Houses, with Central +Heating Plant. </a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-2"> +The Morris Building Company's Block of Single Houses, with +Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-3"> +Aerial-view Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-4"> +Floor-plan Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-5"> +Floor-plan Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-6"> +Fig. 6.—Old Kitchen Remodelled. (Stone, Carpenter & +Wilson, Architects, Providence, R.I.) Looking toward the range. Servants' +sitting-room beyond; porcelain sink at left; boiler.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-7"> +Fig. 7.—Old Kitchen Remodelled. Showing glass shelves +and labelled glass jars for all stores. Glass mixing table at left.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-8"> +Figs. 8 and 9.—House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in temperate +America, to cost $5000, if it must not more. </a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-9"> +Figs. 10 and 11.—House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in +temperate America, to cost only $3000, <i>if possible</i>. +(Josselyn & Taylor Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa).</a></p> + + +<hr> +<p> </p> +<h2> + THE COST OF SHELTER. +</h2> +<a name="CH1"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER I. +</h3> +<p> + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE; TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTERS OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "There is no noble life without a noble aim."<br> + —CHARLES DOLE. +</p> +<p> + The word Home to the Anglo-Saxon race calls to mind some definite house as + the family abiding-place. Around it cluster the memories of childhood, the + aspirations of youth, the sorrows of middle life. +</p> +<p> + The most potent spell the nineteenth century cast on its youth was the + yearning for a home of their own, not a piece of their father's. The + spirit of the age working in the minds of men led them ever westward to + conquer for themselves a homestead, forced them to go, leaving the aged + behind, and the graves of the weak on the way. +</p> +<p> + There must be a strong race principle behind a movement of such + magnitude, with such momentous consequences. Elbow room, space, and + isolation to give free play to individual preference, characterized + pioneer days. The cord that bound the whole was love of home,—one's + own home,—even if tinged with impatience of the restraints it + imposed, for home and house do imply a certain restraint in individual + wishes. And here, perhaps, is the greatest significance of the family + house. It cannot perfectly suit <i>all</i> members in its details, but in + its great office, that of shelter and privacy—ownership—the + house of the nineteenth century stands supreme. No other age ever provided + so many houses for single families. It stands between the community houses + of primitive times and the hives of the modern city tenements. +</p> +<p> + As sociologically defined, the family means a common house—common, + that is, to the family, but excluding all else. This exclusiveness is + foreshadowed in the habits of the majority of animals, each pair + preempting a particular log or burrow or tree in which to rear its young, + to which it retreats for safety from enemies. Primitive man first borrowed + the skins of animals and their burrowing habits. The space under fallen + trees covered with moss and twigs grew into the hut covered with bark or + sod. The skins permitted the portable tent. +</p> +<p> + It is indeed a far cry from these rude defences against wind and weather + to the dwelling-houses of the well-to-do family in any country to-day, but + the need of the race is just the same: protection, safety from danger, a + shield for the young child, a place where it can grow normally in peaceful + quiet. It behooves the community to inquire whether the houses of to-day + are fulfilling the primary purposes of the race in the midst of the + various other uses to which modern man is putting them. +</p> +<p> + As already shown, shelter in its first derivation, as well as in its + common use, signifies protection from the weather. Bodily warmth saves + food, therefore is an economy in living. From the first it also implied + protection from enemies, a safe retreat from attack and a refuge when + wounded. But above all else it has, through the ages, stood for a safe and + retired place for the bringing up of the young of the species. +</p> +<p> + The colonial houses of New England with large living-room, dominated by + the huge fireplace with its outfit of cooking utensils, with groups of + buildings for different uses clustered about them, giving protection to + the varied industries of the homestead, illustrate the most perfect type + of family life. Each member had a share in the day's work, therefore to + each it was home. To the old homestead many a successful business man + returns to show his grandchildren the attic with its disused loom and + spinning-wheel; the shop where farm-implements were made, in the days of + long winter storms, to the accompaniment of legend and gossip; the dairy, + no longer redolent of cream. These are reminders of a time past and gone, + before the greed of gain had robbed even these houses of their peace. The + backward glance of this generation is too apt to stop at the transition + period, when the factory had taken the interesting manufactures out of the + hands of the housewife and left the homestead bereft of its best, when the + struggle to make it a modern money-making plant, for which it was never + designed, drove the young people away to less arduous days and more + exciting evenings. +</p> +<p> + This stage of farm life was altogether unlovely, not wholly of necessity, + but because the adjustment was most painful to the feelings and most + difficult to the muscles of the elders. +</p> +<p> + Because the family ideal was the ruling motive, the house-building of the + colonial period shows a more perfect adaptation to family life than any + other age has developed. +</p> +<p> + Where is the boasted adaptability of the American? He should be ready to + see the effect of the inevitable mechanical changes and modify his ideas + to suit. For it cannot be too often reiterated that it is a case of + <i>ideas</i>, not of wood and stone and law. +</p> +<p> + This homestead has passed into history as completely as has the Southern + colonial type, differing only in arrangement. Climate, as well as domestic + conditions, demanded a more complete separation of the manufacturing + processes, including cooking, laundry, etc., otherwise the ideal was the + same. "The house" meant a family life, a gracious hospitality, a busy hive + of industry, a refuge indeed from social as well as physical storms. Work + and play, sorrow and pleasure, all were connected with its outward + presentment as with the thought. For its preservation men fought and women + toiled, but, alas! machinery has swept away the last vestige of this life + and, try as the philanthropist may to bring it back, it will never return. + The very essence of that life was the <i>making of things</i>, the + preparation for winter while it was yet summer, the furnishing of the + bridal chest years before marriage. Fancy a bride to-day wearing or using + in the house anything five years old! +</p> +<p> + There are no more pioneer and colonial communities on this continent. + Railroads and steamboats and electric power have made this rural life a + thing of the past. Let us not waste tears on its vanishing, but address + ourselves to the future. +</p> +<p> + There are two directions in which great change in household conditions has + occurred quite outside the volition of the housekeeper. They are the + disappearance of industries, and lack of permanence in the homestead. + Those who are busily occupied in productive work of their own are + contented and usually happy. The results of their efforts, stored for + future use—barns filled with hay or grain, shelves of linen and + preserves—yield satisfaction. +</p> +<p> + Destructive consumption may be pleasurable for the moment, but does not + satisfy. The child pulls the stuffing from the doll with pleasure, but + asks for another in half an hour. The delicious meal daintily served is a + joy for an hour. A room put in perfect order, clean, tastefully decorated, + is a delight to the eye for three hours and then it must be again cleaned + and rearranged. Is this productive work? Is there any reason why we should + be satisfied with it or happy in it? +</p> +<p> + In an earlier time, that from which we derive so many of our cherished + ideals, the house built by or for the young people was used as a homestead + by their children and their children's children. Customs grew up slowly, + and for some reason. Furniture, collected as wanted, found its place; all + the routine went as by clockwork. Saturday's baking of bread and pies went + each on to its own shelf, as the cows went each to her own stall. If the + duties were physically hard, the routine saved worrying. +</p> +<p> + To-day how few of us live in the house we began life with! How few in that + we occupied even ten years ago! And this number is growing smaller and + smaller. The housewife has not time to form habits of her own; she engages + a maid and expects her to fall at once into the family ways, when the + family has no ways. +</p> +<p> + In the sociological sense, shelter may mean protection from noise, from + too close contact with other human beings, enemies only in the sense of + depriving us of valuable nerve-force. It should mean sheltering the + children from contact with degrading influences. +</p> +<p> + Charles P. Neill, United States Commissioner of Labor, in his address at + the New York School of Philanthropy, July 16, 1905, said: "In my own + estimation home, above all things, means privacy. It means the possibility + of keeping your family off from other families. There must be a separate + house, and as far as possible separate rooms, so that at an early period + of life the idea of rights to property, the right to things, to privacy, + may be instilled." +</p> +<p> + There may be such a thing as too much shelter. To cover too closely breeds + decay. Are we in danger of covering ourselves and our children too closely + from sun and wind and rain, making them weak and less resistant than they + should be? The prevalence of tuberculosis and its cure by fresh air seems + to indicate this. The attempt to gain privacy under prevailing conditions + tends this way. +</p> +<p> + Hitherto students of social economics have usually considered the most + pressing problem in the life of the wage-earner to be that of sufficient + and suitable food. But in any large city and in most smaller communities + there are found those who have refined instincts, aspirations for a life + of physical and moral cleanness, who by force of circumstances are obliged + to come in contact with filth and squalor and careless disorder in order + to find shelter. If they can be kept from degenerating, their rise when + it comes will lift those below them, but it is a Herculean task to lift + them by lifting all below as well. The burden which presses most heavily + on this valuable material for social betterment is that of shelter rather + than of food. +</p> +<p> + The thought underlying this whole series on Cost is that the place to put + the leaven of progress is in the middle. The class to work for is the + great mass of intelligent, industrious, and ambitious young people turned + out by our public schools with certain ideals for self-betterment, but in + grave danger of losing heart in the crush due to the pressure of society + around them and above them. They fear to incur the responsibility of + marriage when they see the pecuniary requirements it involves. +</p> +<p> + This growing body makes up so large a proportion of the whole in America + that, once aroused, it may become an all-powerful force for regeneration, + thanks to the pervading influence of public-school education when enlisted + on the side of right. Faith in the uprightness of American youth is so + strong that strenuous effort for their enlightenment is justified. Once + they have their attention drawn to the need of action, they will act. + Self-preservation is one of the strongest instincts, and it may be + dangerous to call upon the self-interest of these inexperienced souls; but + for the sake of the results we must risk the lesser evil, if we can + develop a resolution to secure a personal and race efficiency. +</p> +<p> + When the young people, with a deep appreciation of the possibilities of + sane and wholesome living, marry and attempt to realize their ideals, the + conditions are all against them. They find little sympathy in their + yearnings for a rational life, and soon give up the effort, deciding that + they are too peculiar. They slip almost insensibly into the routine of + their neighbors. There is great need of a cooperation of like-minded young + married people to form a little community, setting its own standards and + living a fairly independent life. Two or three such groups would do more + than many sermons to awaken attention to the problem before the race + to-day. Shall man yield himself to the tendencies of natural selection and + be modified out of existence by the pressure of his environment, or shall + he turn upon himself some of the knowledge of Nature's forces he has + gained and by "conscious evolution" begin an adaptation of the environment + to the organism? For we no longer hold with Robert Owen and the socialists + that man is necessarily controlled and moulded by his surroundings, that + he is absolutely subject to the laws of animal evolution. A new era will + dawn when man sees his power over his own future. Then, and not till then, + will come again that willingness to sacrifice present ease and pleasure + for the sake of race progress, which alone can make the restrained life a + satisfaction. +</p> +<p> + The environment is, more largely than we think, the house and the manner + of life it forces upon us. Therefore the first point of attack is the + shelter under which the family life of the newly married pair establishes + itself. If it is too large for their income, it leads to extravagance and + debt before the first two years have passed; if it is too small, it cramps + the generous and hospitable impulses. If unsuited to this need, it + irritates and deforms character, as a plaster cast compresses a limb + encased in it. +</p> +<p> + Imagine the young people beginning life in the average city flat, at a + rent of twenty to thirty dollars a month, with its shams, its makeshifts, + its depressing, unsanitary, morally unsafe quarters for the maid, its + friction with janitor and landlord—the whole sordid round + necessitated by the mere manner of building, and by that only. +</p> +<p> + A few strong souls flee to the country. Counting the cost and finding that + all the earnings go to mere living, they decide to get that living in + company with nature under free skies—their own employers. Such may + live in Altruria with the happy zest of the authors of that charming sketch. +</p> +<p> + It is not given to many of earth's children to be so well mated and so + heavenly-wise. The young man has been brought up to consider the house the + young wife's prerogative, and she—well, she has been trained to + believe that housewifely wisdom will come to her as unsought as measles. +</p> +<p> + Two thirds the friction in the early years of married life is caused by + the house and its defects, resulting in dissatisfaction, disenchantment, + and the flight to a hotel or non-housekeeping apartment. +</p> +<p> + If some of the problems to be faced and the difficulties in solving them + could be presented to the young people to be studied and discussed before + the actual encounter came, they would be more prepared. +</p> +<p> + In discussing this part of the subject, as in the consideration of the + Cost of Living in general and the Cost of Food, we shall deal in + particular with incomes of from $1000 to $5000 a year for families of + five, recognizing that under present-day conditions the annual sum of + $1500 to $3000 means the greatest struggle between desires and power of + gratifying them. +</p> +<p> + On the surface it appears that the things which go to make up delicate + cleanly living cost more and more each year, with no limit in sight. It is + not only the poet who moves from one boarding-house to another; the young + clerk and struggling business man go into smaller and smaller quarters + until the traditional limit of room to swing a cat is reached. +</p> +<p> + The constantly diminishing space occupied by a family seems to prove that + the 40% increase in the cost of living within a few years is not caused + by an advance in the necessary cost of food; it is certainly not due to + the increased cost of necessary clothes. It is more than probable that the + increasing cost of shelter and all that it implies—increased + water-supply, service, repairs, etc.—is the main factor in the + undoubtedly increased expense. This will be considered in some detail in + Chapter VIII. +</p> +<p> + While the socialist may take the ground that salaries must be raised to + keep pace with the rise in living expenses, the student of social + ethics—Euthenics, or the science of <i>better</i> living—may + well ask a consideration of the topic from another standpoint. Is this + increased cost resulting in higher efficiency? Are the people growing more + healthy, well-favored, well-proportioned, stronger, happier? If not, then + is there not a fallacy in the common idea that more money spent means a + fuller life? +</p> +<p> + Recent examination of school children in various cities in England and + America has revealed a state of physical ill-being most deplorable in the + present, and horrifying to contemplate for its future results. One has + only to keep one's eyes open in passing the streets to become aware of the + physical deterioration of thousands of the wage-earners. One has only to + listen to the housewife's complaints of inefficiency, lack of strength + among the housemaids, to realize that the world's work is not being well + done in so far as it depends upon human hands. +</p> +<p> + This loss of efficiency is usually attributed to insufficient food and + long hours, but it is at least an open question if housing conditions are + not the more potent factor not only in the case of the very poor, but even + in the case of the family having an income of $2000 a year. Life in a + boarding-house adapted from the use by one family to that of five or six + without increase of bathing and ventilating conveniences, with old-style + plumbing, cannot be mentally or bodily invigorating. +</p> +<p> + The house cannot be said to be a place of safety so long as the "great + white plague" lurks in every dark corner—tuberculosis, colds, + influenza, etc., fasten themselves upon its occupants. Explorers exposed + to extremes of weather do not thus suffer. The dark, damp house incubates + the germs. +</p> +<p> + But homes there must be: places of safety for children, of refuge for + elders. Men will marry and women may keep house. How shall it be managed + so as to be in harmony with present-day demands? Certainly not by ignoring + the difficulties. Progress in any direction does not come through wringing + of hands and deploring the decadence of the present generation. President + Roosevelt's advice is to bring up boys and girls to overcome obstacles, + not to ignore them. Let the educated, intelligent young people join in + devising a way to surmount this obstacle as the engineers of 1890 invented + new ways of crossing impassable gorges and "impossible" mountain ranges. +</p> +<p> + The writer has no ready-prepared panacea to offer. Patent medicine is not + the remedy. This kind cometh out only by fasting and prayer. A long course + of diet is needed to cure a chronic disease. +</p> +<p> + This little volume is intended merely as a spur to the imagination of the + indolent student, to arouse him to the mental effort required to deal with + the readjustment of ideas to conditions before it is too late. +</p> +<p> + It is no exaggeration to say that the social well-being of the community + is threatened. The habits of years are broken up; sad to say, the + middle-aged will suffer unrelieved, but the young can be incited to + grapple with the situation and hew out for themselves a way through. +</p> +<p> + Certain elements in the problem will be touched upon in the following + pages as a result of much going to and fro in the "most favored land on + earth." Certain questions will be raised as to what constitutes a home and + a shelter for the family in the twentieth-century sense of both family and + shelter. +</p> +<a name="CH2"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER II. +</h3> +<p> + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + It is not what we lack, but what we see others have,<br> + that makes us discontented. +</p> +<p> + There has been noted in every age a tendency to measure social preĆ«minence + by the size and magnificence of the family abode. Mediaeval castles, + Venetian palaces, colonial mansions, all represented a form of social + importance, what Veblen has called conspicuous waste. This was largely + shown in maintaining a large retinue and in giving lavish entertainments. + The so-called patronage of the arts—furnishings, fabrics, pictures, + statues, valued to this day—came under the same head of rivalry in + expenditure. +</p> +<p> + In America a similar aspiration results in immense establishments far + beyond the needs of the immediate family. But, unlike society in the + middle ages, social aspiration does not stop short at a well-defined line. + In the modern state each level reaches up toward the next higher and, + failing to balance itself, drops into the abyss which never fills. +</p> +<p> + There is no contented layer of humanity to equalize the pressure; heads + and hands are thrust up through from below at every point. Democracy has + taken possession of the age and must be reckoned with on all sides. +</p> +<p> + At first sight sumptuous housing might seem to be the least objectionable + form of conspicuous waste. Safer than rich food, less wasteful than + gorgeous clothing, but, as Veblen truly says, "through discrimination in + favor of visible consumption it has come about that the domestic life of + most classes is relatively shabby. As a consequence people habitually + screen their private life from observation." This is from a different + motive than the instinct of privacy, of personal withdrawal for rest and + quiet. This shabby private life is why true hospitality is disappearing. + The chance guest is no longer welcome to the family table; we are ashamed + of our daily routine, or we have an idea that our fare is not worthy of + being shared. Whatever it is, unconscious as it often is, it is a canker + in the family life of to-day. It leads to selfishness, to a laxness in + home manners very demoralizing. It is doubtless one of the great factors + in the distinct deterioration of children's public manners. +</p> +<p> + Because the house is held to be the visible evidence of social standing, + because its location, style of architecture, fittings and furniture may be + made to proclaim the pretensions of its inhabitants, it is often dishonest + and one of the sources of the prevalent untruth in other things, since + dishonesty in housing has been not infrequently one of the first signs of + dishonesty in business. To move to a less fashionable quarter is to + confess financial stress at once. +</p> +<p> + It is because the concomitant expenses of an establishment may be + curtailed without attracting public notice that a moral danger exists. The + outside shell is not the whole nor even the chief outlay. The operating + expenses run away with more money than the house itself, and it is in + these that the family, conscious of impending ruin, curtail, and thus + become dishonest in their own souls. +</p> +<p> + The moral of it all is to live just a little below the probable limit, + whatever that may be, rather than to assume a greater income than is quite + certain. Granted that in the quickly changing conditions of to-day this is + difficult, it is not often impossible. +</p> +<p> + It is only needed to set some other standard of social position than + shelter and to use the house for its legitimate purposes only, that of an + abode of the family in health and joyful cooperation. The class for which + this series is written should seek a shelter sufficient for these normal + uses, and make it so home-like that friends will gladly share it when + permitted. +</p> +<p> + Let good manners, keen intelligence, bright and entertaining conversation + take the place of the showy but frequently uncomfortable houses and + wholesale entertainments of to-day. +</p> +<p> + It is time that a beginning was made of that form of social pleasure and + mental recreation which the century must develop, or fail of its promise. +</p> +<p> + What is the value, of present-day knowledge if not to stimulate the + conscious group, through the individual perhaps, but the group finally, to + better use of its powers and opportunities toward a higher form of social + life? +</p> +<p> + We have been told that the house should be as much an expression of + individuality as clothes. Since clothes are constantly and easily changed, + and a family home built to order is comparatively permanent, such + expression in wood or stone should be carefully thought out; but how + rarely do we gain a pleasant impression from the houses built for the + purpose of setting forth social standards! The owner and the architect + have neither of them the highest ideals, and a sort of ready-made, + composite, often irritating, always displeasing result follows. The + pretence shows through more often than the occupant realizes. +</p> +<p> + Society has the power to regulate its own conventions. Once convinced that + it is dangerous to put the strain of living on to mere superficial + pretence, mere location, ornament, new standards will be set up; as, + indeed, they are under other conditions. In frontier life, for instance, + where shortness of tenure is recognized, dress and the table take the + place of the house as indications. In a mining town, one is astonished at + the costumes seen on persons issuing from insignificant houses, and at the + excellent bill of fare in a restaurant with the barest necessities of + furnishing. Cursory observation often reads the signs of civilization + wrongly. The eastern traveller, accustomed to the outward glitter and the + finish of settled communities, fails to interpret the real efficiency of a + more flexible society. West of the Mississippi, that new empire we are + just beginning to appreciate, good food is recognized as of prime + importance, dress gives an opportunity for showing conspicuous waste, and + buildings are made for show only when permanence of residence is assured. +</p> +<p> + Let society once thoroughly understand that safe shelter is essential to + its very life, that this safety is threatened, if not lost, by present + habits, and, by quick money-making schemes in house-building, it will + establish standards of living which shall not only be for the material + welfare, but for the mental, moral, and spiritual progress of the race. +</p> +<p> + This progress can be secured by applying centrifugal force to congested + districts, by interesting capitalists to consider housing at the same time + with manufacturing plants, not only providing safe, economical houses, but + by making it socially possible to live in them on moderate incomes. +</p> +<p> + The rising half, we must remember, is more affected by social conventions + than the submerged tenth. +</p> +<p> + The well-to-do should consider more conscientiously those who recruit + their ranks, who, if started right without danger of debt, will have + freedom to advance. The present muddle has come about in part because no + one has taken the trouble to investigate the reasons. The young family + with $3000 a year has ideals for the manners and morals of the children + which are not satisfied with those of the inexpensive tenement quarter. + Prevention they consider better than cure, hence they pay higher rent than + the income warrants to secure elevating examples and morally wholesome + surroundings. +</p> +<a name="image-1"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/illus0144.jpg" width="269" height="219" +alt="The Morris Company's Block of Single Houses, +with Central Heating Plant (*remainder cut off)."> +</p> +<a name="image-2"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/illus0146.jpg" width="258" height="229" +alt="The Morris Building Company's Block of Single Houses, +with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York."> +</p> +<p> + A single family cannot control a whole street, although cooperation can + accomplish a great deal in the way of congenial neighborhoods. But the + risk involved, the liability to error of judgment, as well as the large + outlay of capital, at once prevents the adoption of this means of + satisfactory housing for the business and professional class to any great + extent, at least in the city. The acumen needed to discover the profitable + in real estate, the skill to acquire large contiguous tracts of land, both + belong to the capitalist. Only when he is a philanthropist besides, is the + housing question safe in his hands. Such an example we find in the Morris + houses, Willoughby Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. This set of family dwellings was + put up to meet this very need. Congenial neighborhood, safe + playgrounds for the children, labor-saving devices for the housekeeper. + When first built they were in advance of anything in an eastern city of + their class. To-day Mr. Pratt has even more advanced ideas which will take + form in the future. +</p> +<a name="image-3"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/031.jpg" width="212" height="274" +alt="Aerial-view Drawing: +The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, +Brooklyn, New York."> +</p> +<p> + These attractive and comfortable houses, so near the working places of + the teachers and professional and business men who occupy them, were + possible only because of the comparative cheapness of the land, which had + been held undesirable for high-class single houses, not for sanitary + reasons, but solely on account of social conditions. This cluster of forty + houses makes its own atmosphere. This is the lesson to be learned. Let + groups of like-minded families make their own surroundings. The capitalist + will soon learn where his interest lies. +</p> +<a name="image-4"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/032.jpg" width="175" height="286" +alt="Floor-plan Drawing: +The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, +Brooklyn, New York."> +</p> +<a name="image-5"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/033.jpg" width="175" height="232" +alt="Floor-plan Drawing: +The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, +Brooklyn, New York."> +</p> +<p> + Very probably it will be necessary to enlarge the scope and, perhaps, to + build two stories higher, so that the elders and perhaps bachelors of + both sexes, who do not care for the garden, may help to bear the expense + of the children's playground. Whatever form the advance may take, this is + a sign-post in the right direction. +</p> +<p> + In the nature of things, however, the first experiments will be costly and + must be combined with business of a sure kind. In this instance the + heating and hot-water supply was made possible by a combination with + factory plant. But if a larger group of, say, one hundred houses were run + by a central establishment, the Morris Building Company estimates the cost + at about fifty dollars per year. +</p> +<p> + These houses will be referred to again under Chapter VI, but the especial + value of this experiment was its social significance. How much better to + keep desirable land for residential purposes by such means than to permit + families to move away and give up satisfactory dwellings solely because + the lower end of the street has a few foreigners! Our older cities abound + in instances of this quick abandonment of most desirable streets without + any concerted effort to retain their character. +</p> +<p> + The dangerous sanitary degeneration of these abandoned houses is one of + the worst features of the situation and a prolific cause of the + overcrowding of cities. +</p> +<p> + The more thoughtful students of progressive tendencies are grouping + themselves in "parks" where houses are put up with the aid of the + capitalist under such restrictions as to price as is supposed to insure a + congenial neighborhood, and under such regulations as to land as to + prevent manufacturing establishments. When these plans are not purely + speculative, designed to entrap the young people by their best hopes of a + permanent home, much satisfaction may come from the plan. But even in this + country or suburban life the shadow of fashion falls sooner or later, and + the savings vanish with the years. Some deeper principle must come into + play, some stronger force than mere whim of society leaders, before our + young people can be released from the bondage of living on the right side + of a street under penalty of social ostracism. +</p> +<p> + There are gratifying indications of an awakening. The following statement + appeared in a newspaper of a recent date: +</p> +<p> + "A corporation of women has been formed in Indianapolis, Ind., for the + purpose of building small but artistic houses for people of moderate + means. All of the directors are business women; one of the vice-presidents + is Miss Elizabeth Browning, the city librarian, and another is the + principal of one of the public schools. The secretary has for some time + been in charge of the office of a savings and loan association and is the + only woman member of the Indianapolis fire insurance inspection board. Six + houses are to be erected at once in various parts of the city." +</p> +<p> + No better use of money or effort can be made at the present time than in + similar endeavors to meet the needs of the time. The study of conditions + will prove an education in itself and a stimulus to invention. +</p> +<p> + When the social conscience is once awakened the bride with $2000 a year + will not be expected to begin where her mother left off. +</p> +<p> + The young people will be provided with just as comfortable and just as + sanitary homes, but they will not be expected to entertain lavishly in + order to show the wedding presents before they are broken. They will be + visited, even if they live in an unfashionable quarter on a side street. + Is it not more honest? +</p> +<p> + If society would put its stamp on the manner of life adapted to the + welfare of the young people, it would not be unfashionable to live within + one's income. +</p> +<p> + The tyranny of things is very real and most distressing in connection with + this problem of shelter and all that it involves. +</p> +<p> + There is only needed a social awakening to result in an adjustment of + men's views as to what is good and right. New social habits adapted to the + age we live in will be accepted by the next generation as good form. +</p> +<a name="CH3"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER III. +</h3> +<p> + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOT ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "A large part of the evils of which we complain socially to-day<br> + are due to the kind of houses we live in and the exactions they<br> + make upon us."<br> + —H.G. WELLS. +</p> +<p> + Four classes of houses have come down to us: +</p> +<ol> + <li><p><!--1--> + The family homestead in the country set low on the ground with damp + walls and dark cellar, one of a cluster of rambling buildings; with a + well, the only water supply, in close proximity to various sources of + pollution. These houses are for the most part now abandoned to the + foreigner, who uses them for the primitive purposes of shelter without the + ennobling intellectual life they once harbored. Now and then a grandson + rescues the old place, brings water from a spring or brook, digs a drain, + lets light into the cellar, and builds on a kitchen and dining-room. +</p> +<p> + The expense is often greater than to build anew, but the effect is usually + very good when the changes are made under sanitary supervision. +</p> +</li> +<li><p><!--2--> + The village or suburban house set in its own grounds, too near the + street usually, but with garden and fruit-trees in the rear, and possibly + a stable for horse and cow. This was the compromise made by the generation + just from the free life of the farm-house, who, consciously or + unconsciously, clung to the green of grass and trees, and the blue of the + sky. So long as habit or love of caring for the things lasted all went + well. The father found his recreation in planting the garden before + breakfast, as in his boyhood. The mother cared for flower and + vegetable-garden, as she recalled her mother's life; she picked her own + beans and corn, even if she did not cook the dinner. +</p> +<p> + But the <i>children</i> had to hurry off to school, and it was a pity to call + them early: they had lessons to learn in the afternoon. To them the garden + was work, not play as it should have been; so they failed to gain that + contact with mother earth which gives inspiration as well as health; they + failed to acquire a love of nature, became infected with the germ of + gregariousness, preferred the glare of lights, the rush of hurrying + crowds, and lost the relish for fresh air and quiet. This second + generation came to the city boarding-house and flat as soon as they were + free, leaving their parents' houses to go the same way as the + grandfather's farmhouse, into the hands of the foreigner not yet + Americanized to high standards of cleanliness and orderliness. +</p> +<p> + These houses, too, are settling down into unkempt grounds with + dilapidated porches and blinds. Such eyesores as one finds on the + trolley-lines in any direction! They may have town-water supply, or they + may depend on wells, but they are frequently without sewer-connection. +</p> +<p> + It is costly to be neat and clean, and only those whose minds require such + surroundings in order to be comfortable will pay the cost in time, + trouble, and money. +</p> +</li> +<li><p><!--3--> + Some families made a compromise and built what is called a modern + house with bath-room and furnace (after the air-tight-stove craze passed), + with jigsaw ornamentation outside and in, pretentious-looking dwellings + with no proper kitchen accompaniments, and an unsavory garbage-barrel in + the small back yard, under the next neighbor's windows. These houses are + so close together that sounds and smells mingle; there is so little land + that there is no satisfaction in caring for it. Houses of this sort are + altogether too frequently found, occupying good locations and jarring on + the nerves of the better-trained young people of to-day. What is to be + done with them? They are too expensive to pull down, and hence are the + last resort of those who find they must retrench. They are mere temporary + shelters, not loved homes. +</p> +<p> + The plumbing is usually of a cheap order, and the drains are not + infrequently broken, so that sanitarily these dwellings are often more + suspicious than the abandoned farmhouse. +</p> +</li> +<li><p><!--4--> + The influx from village and country made demand for city housing of + an inexpensive sort, and there came into being all over the land the type + of the family house squeezed by the price of land to four stories high, 16 + to 20 feet wide, built in long rows and blocks. The "ugly sixties" bred + not only distressful village "villas," but unpleasant city houses of this + type, which are to-day a real menace to wholesome living. Many such blocks + may be found in any of our older cities, casting a depressing influence + upon all who come in sight of them, and deteriorating the manners and + morals of all who live in them. For these have gone the way of the other + classes mentioned and become perverted from the uses they were designed + for. In the seventies there were still motherly women who had come to town + to make a home for the children no longer content out of it. They were + willing and capable of mothering a few other children and lonely teachers + and clerks, so the boarding-house began as a real family home for the + homeless. There were not enough of these women to go around, and soon + boarding-houses began to be run for profit only. Home privileges were + fewer and fewer, the common parlor was rented, the one-family kitchen was + made to do duty for twenty persons. The house became pervaded with burned + fat and tobacco-smoke—a most villainous combination, gossip flourished, + and the limit of discomfort was reached. What wonder that a good Samaritan + built the first flat where the wearied nerves could find peace in the + thicker walls, and could escape the eternal "fry" by going out to meals! + It is a perfectly natural evolution from the impossible conditions which + the eighties and nineties developed. +</p> +<p> + The early attempts, built on the old lines after the old ideas, before the + new life was accepted, are not satisfactory and, being built of brick or + stone, they are even more difficult to get rid of than the preceding. So + each type goes down in the scale of decent living. A given roof is made to + cover more people crowding closer and closer, causing home in the sense of + privacy and comfort to recede farther and farther away, until the lover of + his kind stands aghast at the magnitude of the problem before society when + it awakens to the task confronting it. Fortunately these rows of houses + are disappearing under the demand of business. The invasion of the + residential district is a real blessing, in that it pulls down these + houses which in twenty years have outlived their usefulness and can serve + a good purpose no longer. +</p> +<p> + Let us hope that either the demands of business or the common sense of + society will also sweep away the fifth class: +</p> +</li> +<li><p><!--5--> + City flats put up by the + conscienceless money-maker with only that idea of giving the public what + the public wants (because it knows no better) which gives the newspaper + its pernicious influences. At first it was supposed the flat-dwellers + would keep house, and arrangements of a sort were made. This compressed + the work of the house into such small quarters that the maid was given a + room down in the basement along with the furnace, or in the top story + adjoining ten or more other rooms—a dormitory arrangement without + supervision and without the quiet needed for rest. The difficulty of + securing good service under these conditions, together with the thousand + and one annoyances of living at too close quarters, noisy children and + pianos, grumpy janitors, smelly garbage, have led to the latest phase: + non-housekeeping flats with daily care of a sort supplied by the janitor + if desired, a kitchenette where eggs and coffee for breakfast and dishes + for invalids may be prepared, and restaurants galore for other meals. Thus + the women of the family are set free to roam the streets in search of + bargains and to join others like unto themselves for matinĆ©es and + promenades. +</p> +<p> + This sort of shelter is increasing more rapidly than any other in all the + cities investigated. An estimate has been made that 80 or 90 per cent of + the recent building has been of this sort. Six rooms in an unfashionable + locality rent for about $25 or $30 a month; in a fashionable quarter, for + $200 to $250 per month, with a floor-space one half larger. These latter + cost about 50 cents per week per room for daily care, whereas the former, + if cared for from outside, are served only at intervals of two weeks or a + month. The inmates do most of the daily care themselves. While the + building is new and fresh this means little work; but as time goes on the + poor construction shows, the surface varnish wears off, cracks come, and a + general shabbiness appears, so that the tenant prefers to move into a new + building. The owner, or more probably the agent, puts on a little shining + varnish, and rents again without real repair, and these buildings also go + from bad to worse. Many of them are known to change tenants two or three + times a year. There is always a demand for the newest house. +</p> +</li> +</ol> + +<p> + A study of social conditions reveals the fact that for the larger part of + the wage-earners the house has come to be the place where money is spent, + not earned or even saved. It has gone back to its primitive use— + shelter from weather and a sleeping-place, a temporary one at that. A + real-estate authority has made the assertion that three fifths of the + rent-payers in large cities are made up of non-householders and one half of + these are confined to one room—mostly women. This indicates a change + in requirements for the housing of the individual as distinguished from the + family. And it is this element which has complicated city living to a + great extent, and to which attention has been drawn by the accusation that + home life is shirked by it. +</p> +<p> + To the bachelor man and maid are added the commercial traveller who leaves + wife and possibly child behind four fifths of the time. For him, as for + several other classes of young business men, the locality which he can + choose for headquarters changes with the requirements of business. He is + under orders and must go at a moment's notice across the continent, + perhaps. It is not his fault but the exigency of business that destroys + the desire for a permanent abiding-place. The numbers of such homeless + young people are far greater than any one but the real-estate agent + realizes. Then this loosening of the home tie renders easy the shifting + from city to country and seashore. A considerable proportion of the $2000 + to $5000 class shut up the flat or leave the boarding-house several times + in the year. There is usually one place where the furniture and + bric-a-brac and the other season's clothing are kept, but it is only a + storehouse or a temporary retreat that holds their property, growing less + and less as they move, until they may practically live in their trunks. +</p> +<p> + The legacy which outranks all the others in disastrous consequences is the + notion that the young people must begin where their parents left off; that + the house must be, if anything, a little more elaborate. Therefore in + starting life the rent is allowed to consume one third the income in + sight, without considering the cost of maintaining such an establishment. + With a probable income of $2000 a year the young man does not hesitate to + pay $500 for a house, not realizing that at least half as much more should + be spent on wages for the care of the nineteenth-century house, and as + much more on incidentals, car-fares, and unexpected demands. What wonder + that the young people find themselves in debt by the second year? +</p> +<p> + The parents are quite as much, if not more, to blame for encouraging this + extravagance. The father and mother are entitled to their ease and to the + use of their income for it, but the newly married pair have, in this age, + no right to assume the same attitude. They have their way to make, their + work to do in the years ahead of them. They should not mortgage the future + for the sake of the present luxury; and because of the uncertainties of + occupation and of health it is wise to take out of the expected income one + fourth or one third for a reserve fund and divide the remainder for + expenses. For instance, from $2000 a year subtract $500, then divide the + $1500 into $300 for rent, $300 for food, $300 for operating expenses, $200 + for clothing, $200 for travel, leaving $200 for the other expenses. If + unlooked-for expenses must be incurred, there is the $500 to draw upon; + but do not court the extra outlay: save the nest-egg if possible. +</p> +<p> + The ideals of the home are said to rule the world. The young business man + who does not take the sane view of his own expenses will not rightly + consider his employer's interests. It is more than probable that the + much-deplored laxness, to call it by no harsher name, in business circles + is directly traceable to this falseness and dishonesty in standards of + home life. This moral effect is what makes the housing problem so serious. + It leads to an outward show not balanced by an ability to maintain an + inner life in harmony. It leads to an attempt to carry on a four-servant + house with two servants, or a three servant establishment with one. +</p> +<p> + Lack of study and experience leads the family living in the suburbs, in + one of the worst legacies of the past, to attempt the same style as + friends maintain in a lately built apartment house, without in the least + understanding wherein the difference lies. +</p> +<p> + From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to Texas, comes the same dull + and sullen roar of domestic unrest. Lack of faithful service is causing + the abandonment of the family home, and the fear of the obstacles in the + way of establishing new ones threatens the whole social fabric. +</p> +<p> + The housewife is inclined to connect this state of things almost entirely + with food preparation, and is prone to fancy that if eating could be + abolished peace would return. +</p> +<p> + The trouble goes much deeper, however, even to the foundations. The + nineteenth-century house is not suited to twentieth-century needs. In + other words, lack of adaptation to present conditions of the houses we + live in is a large factor in the prevailing domestic discontent. The next + largest has been referred to as attempting a style of living beyond one's + income. +</p> +<p> + In all other walks of life, in transportation, in manufacturing, machinery + has come in to replace the heavier and more mechanical portions of labor. + The steam-shovel, the hoisting-engine, an infinite combination of + mechanical principles have been applied to the doing of things to save + human muscle. To stand by the machine which turns out the familiar + grape-basket, ready to fill with the fruit, and then to watch the + housemaid bending over some piece of work, is to realize the difference. + In few, very few operations is it necessary to-day that men should bend + their backs, but in how many household processes is the worker expected to + get down on all fours? The free-born American rebels. Perchance it is the + unconscious protest over a four-footed ancestry, or it may be that disuse + has really weakened the spinal column. Whatever the cause, the fact + remains. It is not the idea of work, of service, but of bending the back + to work that is so repugnant; likewise the effect on the hands of hot + water and scrubbing. Close observation has convinced me that care of the + hands has become an indication of freedom from manual labor quite + unthought of fifteen or twenty years ago. The increase of + manicuring-rooms, like the increase of restaurants, is a clear sign of the + trend of the times. Not only the class who likes to waste conspicuously, + but many a teacher, many a young man in State or Government employ with + an income of one, two, or three thousand a year patronizes these rooms. +</p> +<p> + This daintiness reflects downward, and the girl whose acquaintances in her + high-school days are in a position to keep well manicured, if not + "lily-white," hands does not like to have hers show the effect of + housework, when that means scrubbing the floor and cleaning the stove. + Gloves? Ah, well, James Nasmyth once wrote: "Kid-gloves are great + non-conductors of knowledge." I believe that gloves of any kind are a + makeshift in real cleaning of dirty corners; but <i>there should not be + corners to catch dirt</i>. +</p> +<p> + The unnecessary nastiness of the scrub-water with its fine soot which + works into every pore is a great objection to the girl who must work for + her living. If she goes to visit her friends, her hands betray her. She + can remove the other badges of her toil, her cap and apron; she may go out + on the street as brave as her mistress; but the moment her gloves are + removed her hands tell the tale. With the means at hand this need not be. + It is one of the legacies which have come down to us, and which we have + connected with the servant problem. The work in the most modern apartments + does not require the soiling of the hands in a serious way. With hard wood + floors, bright gas-stoves, porcelain lined dishes, no pots and kettles, + all the stairs, halls, etc., cared for by the janitor, the work is of a + far less smutting kind than in the suburban house, where there is still + need for much cleaning up of a roughening sort which cannot be escaped. + This has more to do than we are apt to think with the distaste for the + country, unless several servants are kept, some for this work only. In the + old type of city house the travel up-and down-stairs to answer bell and + telephone has demanded strength of back not possessed by the modern maid. + The house is not yet adapted to the new demands of the workers, and they + shun it. The mistress herself finds it beyond her strength, even if the + traces of rough work were not quite so distasteful to her. +</p> +<p> + Miss Pettengill in her story of domestic service brings out the great part + played by sooty dust, sifting in even through closed windows, in the + burden of the waitress who is expected to keep the dining-room immaculate. +</p> +<p> + This is only one instance where the blame really belongs on the actual + material house rather than on the mistress, except that she does not + discover a remedy, does not even know where to look for the cause. I have + great faith in the business woman, who does see much that is better done + and who will bring it back into the home. +</p> +<p> + Fashions in philanthropy do not yet tend in the direction of house + betterment. +</p> +<p> + "A busy man cannot stop his life-work to teach architects what they ought + to know," says Wells; but on the other hand "we cannot be expected to + teach men and their wives, as well as draw plans for them," says the + architect who has tried it. +</p> +<p> + The centrifugal forces that our social prophets are so fond of invoking, + holding that the words "town" and "city" may become as obsolete as + "mail-coach," will have to reckon with these features of country life. +</p> +<p> + It is assumed that the work of women is "housekeeping." I should like to + put the question suddenly to a thousand men. What is twentieth-century + housekeeping? I venture the guess that less than a hundred would take into + account the utter difference in their wives' duties from their mothers', + as they remember them; and yet the house, even the flat, is built more or + less along the old lines. The women do not know enough to assert + themselves, and have not the skill to show the builder what is wrong. The + architects could tell tales if they would. The utter ignorance of what a + house means, of the steps necessary to make a successful livable place, is + appalling. The young man who has $3000 as a legacy feels he can build. His + wife chooses the location near her friends whose houses she likes, and the + architect is called in. Do you wish back stairs? Are you to keep three + servants or none? Do you wish the rooms separate or connecting? All such + questions find a blank stare. "What difference does that make in the style + and price?" the would-be owner says. The architect is not always able to + show him that these little things are the whole problem in building a + <i>home</i>. The house as a home is merely outer clothing, which should fit + as an overcoat should, without wrinkles and creases that show their + ready-made character. The woman, born housekeeper as she considers + herself, is rigid in her ideas of what she thinks she wants, but when the + builder has followed her plans she is far from satisfied with the result. + She is used to material which puckers and stretches in her clothing; she + cannot understand the inflexibility of wood and stone. The remedy is for + high-school girls, probably even grammar-school pupils as well, to have + along with their drawing some problems in house-planning and some lessons + in carpentry. +</p> +<p> + It will be seen from the foregoing glance at the rapid change and steady + deterioration of houses that the care of such living-places must involve + special discomforts in most cases. +</p> +<p> + The time required to keep clean old splintered floors, to carry pails of + water up and down stairs, to dry out the cloths—the base boards with + their grimy streaks tell the story of carelessness—is not counted in + the wage schedule. +</p> +<p> + Why is there so much dirt brought into the house? Because shoes and + streets are muddy. Why is there so much lint? Because we have too many + things in a room—too much wear and tear. +</p> +<p> + And unnecessary dirt is found even in the newer apartment-houses with the + ever-changing population and ever-lessening space for maids' quarters, + together with the sham character of construction due to the fact that most + of these houses have been put up by speculators at the lowest cost of the + cheapest materials which will show wear in a few months. Flimsy + construction is a direct result of the notorious lack of care taken by the + tenant, so that quick returns must be the rule; also of the probability + that the neighborhood will deteriorate and that a class which will bear + crowding and be less critical will replace the first tenants. +</p> +<p> + Conveniences for doing work in the houses built to rent, that is to bring + in the greatest returns in the shortest time, will not be put in (for the + first cost is great) unless the house will rent for more. The sharpest + Hebrew or Irish landlord will allow his architect to add bathtubs if he + believes the flat will rent for a few dollars more, where he will not do + it for the sake of cleanliness. The supply of hot water, together with the + gas stove, has done much to reconcile the housewife who does her own work + to the cramped quarters of the flat, and also has done more than anything + else to render the maids discontented with that legacy from the nineteenth + century which requires the building of a coal fire before hot water can be + had. The coal fire makes necessary rising an hour earlier and this, after + the late hours the seven-o'clock dinner enforces, causes friction all + along the line. +</p> +<p> + The acceptance by young women without a study of cause and effect of + whatever presents itself makes them bad housekeepers, in the sense of + ignorant ones unable to cope with present conditions, because lack of + experience is not supplemented by a spirit of investigation and a + resolution to work out the problem. They seem to think that housekeeping + is to go on in the same old way no matter whatever else may change, + whereas it is most sensitive to the general direction of progress if they + but knew it. The wage-earner is more fully aware of the currents of the + irresistible river modern life has become (the slow-moving car of + Juggernaut is no longer an adequate symbol) than is the money spender. +</p> +<p> + Indeed is any part of the house, as we now most frequently find it, + adapted to the uses of the twentieth century? +</p> +<p> + The careless capitalist who makes possible the "cockroach landlord," he + who sublets and crowds and skimps the tenants for his own gain, is greatly + to blame for the distressing conditions of the lower income limit of the + wage-earner, but I fear he is not altogether blameless for the sort of + house the $1500 man has to look for in the city. Decent living with light + and air within half an hour of work is growing so rare that society must + take a hand in the matter. +</p> +<a name="CH4"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER IV. +</h3> +<p> + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "We have entered upon the period of conscious evolution, have<br> + begun the adaptation of the environment to the organism."<br> + —Sir OLIVER LODGE. +</p> +<p> + The hopeless pessimism of the past, that saw in the unmerciful progress of + organic evolution no escape for the human animal from the grip of fate, is + about to give way to the enthusiasm of conscious directing and controlling + power. +</p> +<p> + This is the beneficent result of the age of the machine. Man has + discovered that he can not only change his environment, but that by this + change he can modify himself. The hope of the future lies in the moulding + of man's surroundings to his needs. In physiological terms, "the + adaptation of structure to function." +</p> +<p> + The day is long past when shelter implied chiefly a tight roof and a dry + floor. The housing of the twentieth-century family means location, central + and fashionable. It means in cost far more than what the roof covers and + the floor supports. It means plumbing and interior finish; it also means + a finish on the outside, smoothly shaven lawns and immaculate sidewalks. +</p> +<p> + Sigh as we may for the colonial house, we confess that the standards of + the time did not include the comfort of hot baths, polished floors, + plate-glass windows, elevators, ice-closets, and lawn-mowers. These are + necessary adjuncts to what is held as merely decent living; <i>how</i> can + the $2000 man have them, not why <i>will</i> he not? +</p> +<p> + What then is the house and the life in it to become for the great majority + of families and individuals with an income of $3000 a year and necessarily + nomadic habits. I say necessarily, because these families are at the mercy + of business and social conditions quite beyond their control and + impossible to foretell. +</p> +<p> + So far as prophetic vision sees through the mists of time, the aim of the + twentieth century is to live the <i>effective life</i>. +</p> +<p> + The simple life has been preached, the strenuous life has been lauded, + but, as William Barclay Parsons recently stated + it:<a href="#note-1"><small><sup>1</sup></small></a> "We need force, we + need a vigorous force; we need that direction and avoidance of the + unnecessary which is simplicity, but with either one alone there is + something lacking. Instead of latent force and great energy without + control, instead of quiet gentleness, of power of control without vigor + to be controlled, what we need is force and energy applied where necessary + and always under control, always working to a definite purpose, and at the + same time avoiding complications and unnecessary friction. +</p> +<a name="note-1"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>1</u></sup> [William Barclay Parsons, N.E.A., Asbury Park, 1905. +<i>Eng. Record</i>, Aug. 12, 1905.] +</p> +<p> + "That is to have a life whose great underlying motive is effectiveness. + Instead of speaking of the strenuous life or the simple life, let us have + as a doctrine 'the effective life.' +</p> +<p> + "What we need is not merely a man who acts, but one who <i>does</i>; that + is, one who will do what he has to do regardless of intervening obstacles. + Efficiency and effectiveness are the key-notes of success in actual life. + They are also the lessons taught by every parable in the New Testament, + even if that work is regarded as a code of ethics, and they form the + spirit of that stirring definition of + engineering<a href="#note-2"><small><sup>2</sup></small></a> which is + based on the direction of the vital forces of nature and the doing of + things for mankind." +</p> +<a name="note-2"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>2</u></sup> ["Ability to do and the <i>doing</i>, efficiency, and +the use of it all for mankind."—Tredgold's definition of Engineering.] +</p> +<p> + Manufacturing concerns have found it pays them to provide decent tenements + for their workers, but society has not yet awakened to the fact that the + rank and file of the great army of salaried employees is left to fend for + itself in a world only too prone to take advantage of its necessities. + There is danger in this neglect of wholesome living surroundings, because + from this stratum develops normally the intelligence of the future, and + how can mentally active children grow up under the prevailing unsightly + and unsanitary conditions? +</p> +<p> + Of course with the passing of pioneer conditions will pass in a measure + the courage and adaptability which braced itself to meet and overcome + obstacles. The salaried position in a great combine, instead of work for + one's self in an independent business, tends to magnify the value of mere + money-income gained through smartness rather than by ability. If life is + made too easy, men will settle into indolent sterility, just as animals + and plants degenerate with too much food. +</p> +<p> + The future will surely bring greater mechanical perfection and thus leave + it possible for the individual, for each member of the family group, to do + for himself many little things which are not comfortable to do now. But + will he be willing to do them? Not unless he feels it to be a duty or a + pleasure. Not unless there is an undercurrent of principle which carries + him along. Without this principle strong enough to give an impetus over + hard places in the early stages of life, the individual and the family + will surely drift into the hotel and boarding-house, where everything is + done on a money basis and nothing for love of one's kind; where a tip + salves the hurt of menial work. These habits once gained are hard to break + up; therefore it is much better for young people to begin life doing some + things for themselves in a house where machinery responds to their call + without a tip, where they may economize without loss of self-respect. We + need to revive some of the pagan ideals of the beauty and value of the + human body and human life which consists in the care and use of this body. + There is no menial work in the daily living rightly carried out; that + which the last century wrongly permitted is made needless by the machinery + of to-day. +</p> +<p> + The point of view is most important. +</p> +<p> + The first steps toward social betterment will come through a cooperation + of three forces: (1) a recognition of the need; (2) an awakening of social + conscience to the duty of supplying the need; and (3) the movement of + moneyed philanthropy to fulfil the requirement quickly. +</p> +<p> + As was natural, sympathy flowed first to the class which had the most + visible need, not necessarily the greater need. +</p> +<p> + The New York Model Tenement Association has shown the world how easy it + is, when there is a will, to find a way. That association has already + taken the first step in advanced housing, and reduced the cost of safe and + rentable city shelter to its lowest terms. Fireproof, sanitary, and + convenient so far as rooms go (it is quite a climb for the mother with a + baby in her arms to the sixth story), with neighbors carefully sorted, + repairs well looked after, a sympathetic woman as agent always in the + office; <i>but</i> only a minimum of light and air and sun; bedrooms 7x8, + living-rooms 10x13; the smallest spaces the law allows; no grass, no + flowers outside, no pets, nothing of one's own that cannot be put in a + cart; common stairways where only partial privacy is gained; clothes-yards + on the roof, and laundry in the basement, to be used in turn by twenty + tenants. Because this is better than the slums for the emerging class, and + because they like the gregariousness, is no argument for continuing the + type up into the range of the $2000 group. But this is just what most of + the small apartments do—those built to make all the money that + they will bear. Hardly any better facilities are given. It will be easy for + more roomy living-places to be built on similar plans, with elevators and + labor-saving devices, and yet within the limit of moderate incomes, such + blocks to be always under competent sanitary supervision. +</p> +<p> + From these model tenements it will not be difficult to advance to the + suburban square with sufficient variety in house plans to content those + who are willing to yield small personal whims. Hitherto the erratic fancy + of would-be tenants, the dissatisfaction with the arrangements provided, + has made building <i>en masse</i> difficult. As long as the builder was + called upon to suit those who had lived in houses of their own for many + years his task was difficult, but now he will have to do with the young + people who know no other life and who will more readily fall in with the + standards set by the house itself. +</p> +<p> + For this very reason those who have social welfare at heart must come to + the rescue, and devise and put up samples, of the best that modern science + can offer, to rent for $300 to $500 a year. Let any one who loves his + kind, if he have a talent this way, not wrap it in a napkin, but give it + to the builder and the philanthropist to materialize. Now is the time to + set standards for the next thirty years. The electric car is opening new + country as never before. Who will make the practical advance? +</p> +<p> + These new houses will be roomy and yet, I think, will not fail of + sun-parlors or enclosed piazzas which will serve as extensions of the + house when occasion demands. I am sure they will not contain the + forbidding "front room" set apart for weddings and funerals and rare + family gatherings. More open-air life will be fashionable and practicable + as soon as we have learned that a wind-break and not a tightly-enclosed + space is what we need. In northern latitudes especially it is the wind + which makes the climate seem so inclement. The amount of accessible + sunshine may be doubled with great advantage in most of the + semi-country-houses. Shelter should not suggest a prison. +</p> +<p> + The education of the child demands that housing shall include land for + pets, for vegetables and flowers; not merely to increase beauty and + selfish pleasure, but for the ethical value of contact with things + dependent on care and forethought. The thoughtful sociologist recognizes + as one of the greatest needs for the children of to-day a closer + companionship with fathers—is urging that even money-making should + be secondary to the time given to moulding the character of the little ones, + instead of leaving them to nurses and coachmen or to the school of the + streets. Companionship in the garden-work will secure this opportunity in + a natural way. +</p> +<p> + It is only by going into the country that sufficient land for a simple + house with yard in front and garden in the rear—the ideal English + home—can be had. There will be a sacrifice of some of the things the + city gives, but a compromise is the only possible outcome of many claims. +</p> +<p> + Those who are feeling the return to Nature, who find pleasure in gardening + and in all the soothing effects of country life, or who can bring + themselves to it with moderate pleasure for the sake of the children who + must be encouraged to delight in it, should go out at least ten miles from + the city. In a well-regulated household the early breakfast will be a + natural thing, and the meal will be no more hurried than any other. It is + the class which tries to be both city and country that fills the columns + of the magazines with the trials of the commuter. The father need not see + less of his children, and the common occupation and interest will furnish + opportunities for wise counsel. Much nonsense is written about the perils + of habit and the dangers of routine. It all depends upon what those habits + are. All animal functions are better performed as a matter of habit, + without thought; it saves energy for more intellectual pursuits, which, I + grant, are better kept under volitional control. The animal act of + breakfasting at a given hour, of taking a given train, can be accomplished + as unconsciously as breathing. Early rising should be the rule, because + the children are then available as they are not at night. +</p> +<p> + We shall assume that the sane man will hold the little home in the country + with all outdoors to breathe in as worth the half-hour journey and the + early breakfast, and that the woman will have time set free by the + labor-saving devices sure to come as fast as she will use them wisely. + This free time she will give to the aesthetic side of life and will make + of her home a more attractive place than the club. +</p> +<p> + <i>But</i> once a week let them both go into town either to the club or to + some other place for dinner and an entertainment afterward. This will be + sufficient to keep them out of an intellectual rut, will brighten the + appetite with needed variety, and make the next quiet evening more + delightful. +</p> +<p> + Once a week is sufficient to break the monotony of diet and routine, and + not often enough to create that insatiable appetite for the glare of + lights and the rush of people which makes all family life "deadly dull," + as one cafĆ©-haunting woman confessed. +</p> +<p> + While this country life is the only thing for a family of young children + and for those who really enjoy the country, there is a larger number + needing rational housing which will be left behind, let us hope with more + room because of the flitting of these others. +</p> +<p> + Much as I deprecate the evils of the present apartment system, I do + believe that an idealized modification will be needed for many years, + especially for the elderly, for the commercial traveler, for the bachelor + men and maids temporarily or permanently living single, for the newly + married as yet unsettled in business or profession, for the man who does + not know his own mind or whose employers do not know theirs. An instance + has come to the writer's knowledge of a young man who, after his wedding + cards were out, was ordered to take charge of an office in another city. +</p> +<p> + Marrying for shelter is and should be no longer necessary; and as for the + fear that this habit of bachelor quarters will be hard to break up and + tend to delay marriage, it will all depend upon whether it comes from the + merely animal layer of the brain or from the intellectual. +</p> +<p> + This housing of the individual instead of the family has introduced an + entirely new problem into house-building. +</p> +<p> + Formerly when a widow or widower, a maiden aunt, a homeless uncle or + cousin made his home with relatives, it was "as one of the family"; only + the minister was recognized as having need for a separate sitting-room. + The trials of this forced companionship have been told in many a witty + story; and pathetic instances that never came to print are matters of + common knowledge. +</p> +<p> + Will any one dare question the fact that the sum of human happiness has + been increased by the freedom given to these prisoned souls by the small + independent apartment? +</p> +<p> + I have been reminded that here is no provision for the different + generations to live together under the same roof; that the nineteenth + century held it to be of great social value to have the children grow up + with the elders. I am sorry for the twentieth-century grandparents if they + are obliged to live in a flat with the twentieth-century child; some + readjustment of manners and ideals must be made before such living will be + comfortable, and it seems as if they are better apart until the new order + is accepted or modified. The comfort of those whose work is done and who + have leisure to enjoy life was never so easily secured as to-day. To turn + the key and take the train at an hour's notice, leaving no cares to + follow, tends to a serene old age. +</p> +<p> + Moralists may squabble over the discipline of living with one's + mother-in-law, and of the loss to the children of grandmother's petting, + but at least physical content and mental satisfaction have increased. Has + selfishness also? Who shall say? And anyway it is a part of the progress + of the age, and what are we to do about it? +</p> +<p> + For one group of single persons the change has been only beneficial. It + was a strict code of the early nineteenth century that a single woman + should find shelter under the roof of some family house, however + independent, financially, her condition. Latch-key privileges were denied + her. Result, the boarding-house of the later half of the century, + nominally a family home, actually a hotbed of faultfinding and gossip, + most wearing to the teacher and fledgling professional woman, however + acceptable to the milliner and seamstress. Privacy could not be maintained + in a house built for a family of five made to do duty for twelve, with one + bath-room, thin-walled bedrooms with connecting doors through which the + light streamed when one wished to sleep, and words frequently came not + intended for outsiders. Who that has experienced the two could ever think + the bachelor apartment with its neat bath-room and double-doored entrance + an objectionable feature in modern intellectual life? Ah! here is the key. + We are to-day living a life of the intellect far more than ever before, + and for that a certain amount of withdrawal from our fellow man is + needed, at least a withdrawal from that portion which finds its interest + in the affairs of others. +</p> +<p> + But if we eliminate the house itself, and the heavy furniture from the + "home" possessions, what have we left? The little girl was right: "My home + is where my dishes is." My <i>possessions</i>, whatever they are—the + things I can call my own under all circumstances make my home. These + circumstances change from time to time, but the ideal is there. As a + concrete instance: let us have books, not a lot of books, but books that + are friends with whom one may spend a comforting hour anywhere; books that + have power to charm away the gloom of discontent, books to lend gayety to + festal days. +</p> +<p> + Rugs and draperies a few, those you find satisfying to your sense of + color, of design, and with which you feel at home. Ugly tables, chairs, + and "sofas" disappear under an Indian shawl. A Persian or a Navajo blanket + covers a multitude of aesthetic sins. Only let these harmonize with each + other, let them be chosen once for all to go in company; then if they are + distributed, it will not matter; but in any case avoid the "museum" look + given by mere collecting. Alas! these are expensive articles, and the + young people may not be able to get all at once. Let society then turn + over a new leaf in the wedding-present line, and cease this senseless + giving of cut-glass and silver to those who may go to a mining-camp in the + Rockies or to Mexico, or even into a ten-by-twelve New York apartment. + Let there be a committee—we are so fond of committees—to + receive contributions in a money-bank or in sealed envelopes, and then when + all is collected, let this committee scour the shops for articles of value, + and when found consult the bridal pair as to their preferences. The choice + may be made of one or more, as the money permits. The particular gift will + still be a surprise and yet of permanent value. Lace and embroideries are + always good, but let the waste of money on the "latest" in orange-knives, + oyster-plates, go up higher, that is, to the class with money for + conspicuous waste, if it must still exist, but let sensible people be + sensible, and not require the young folks to live up to their hopes for + future advancement. Wedding gifts are meant to be kindly help to a young + housewife, not a burden which drags her down to the level of a drudge. But + if the house is surely their own, and in the country, there will be + shelves to fill and walls to cover; <i>then</i> is the opportunity for + individual gifts of china, glass, and pictures. +</p> +<p> + To make the best of the increasing tendency to a semi-country living, + there is need for students of domestic architecture, women with a trained + taste added to an experience in doing things, not merely seeing them + already done. Let these evolve beautiful exteriors, with interiors so + finely proportioned that they will be a delight to all beholders, so + adapted to their purposes that no one will wish to change them. There is a + right dimension, in relation to other dimensions, which is always + satisfying and independent of furniture or decoration. +</p> +<p> + The ugly houses, ill adapted to any useful purpose, which line the + roadside bear witness to the ignorance of the women of to-day. The effort + for mere decoration, for pretentious show, is so evident that one wishes + for an earthquake to swallow them all. +</p> +<p> + Another cause for rise in rent demanded for a given space is the heavy tax + borne by real estate for public improvement, for good lighting, clean + streets, plentiful water, sufficient sewerage, free baths, parks, and + schools. Again, this falls heaviest on our three- to five-thousand dollar + class, who pay more than their share, especially when the millionaire + shirks his duty by paying his taxes elsewhere. What can the man with + limited income do but avoid the responsibility of a family? Has he a moral + right to bring unhappiness to his wife and two children? Having been + caught in the trap, why give him all the blame if he tries to increase his + income by speculation? +</p> +<p> + The more one studies this question of shelter for the salaried group, the + more is one convinced that it lies at the root of our social discontent + and is a large factor in our moral as well as physical deterioration. +</p> +<a name="CH5"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER V. +</h3> +<p> + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "We are far from the noon of man:<br> + There is time for the race to grow."<br> + —TENNYSON. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "There appears no limit to the invasion of life by the machine."<br> + H.G. WELLS. +</p> +<p> + The house as a centre of manufacturing industry has passed (for even if + village industries do spring up, the work-rooms will be separate from the + living-rooms); the house as a sign of pecuniary standing is passing: what + next? Why, of course, the house as the promoter of "the effective life." + Rebel as the artistic individual may at this word, it expresses the spirit + of the twentieth century as nothing else can. Social advance must be made + along the line of efficiency, even if it lead to something different and + not at first sight better. The appeal to self-interest is soonest + answered. The man or woman with any ambition will keep clean, will buy + better milk for the baby, will pay more for rent if he or she is convinced + that it will bring in or save money in the end, because money has been the + measure of success in the nineteenth century. But as the full significance + of this "machine-made" age is grasped it will be seen that it has set free + the human laborer, if only he will qualify himself to use the power at + his hand. The house will become the first lesson in the use of mechanical + appliances, in control of the harnessed forces of nature, and of that + spirit of cooperation which alone can bring the benefits of modern science + to the doors of all. One family cannot as a rule put up in a city or in + the suburbs—and half the world lives in cities—its own idea of + a house without undue expenditure; but ten families may combine and secure + a building which fairly suits them all. I say fairly, because all + cooperation means some sacrifice of whim or special liking. The + well-balanced individual will, however, choose the plan yielding on the + whole the greater efficiency, thus following a law of natural selection + which, so far, the human race has ignored—a neglect which has been + carrying him toward destruction as surely as there is law in nature. Is + this neglect to go on, or is man to turn before it is too late to a + cultivation of the effective life? In everything else he has advanced, but + in his intimate personal relations with nature and natural force he has + acted as if he believed himself not only lord of the beasts of the field, + but of the very laws of nature without understanding them. Mechanical + progress has come from an humble attitude toward the powers of wind and + water. Home efficiency will arrive just as soon as the home-keeper will + put herself in a receptive frame of mind and be prepared to learn her + limitations and the extent of her control of material things. When she + will stop saying "I do not believe" and set herself to learn patiently the + facts in the case, then will housekeeping take on a new phase and the + house become the nursery of effective workers who will at the same time + enjoy life. To manage this machine-driven house will require delicate + handling; but let women once overcome their fear of machinery and they + will use it with skill. +</p> +<p> + The undue influence of sentiment retards all domestic progress. Because + our grandfather's idea of perfect happiness was to sit before the fire of + logs, we are satisfied with the semblance in the form of the + asbestos-covered gas-log. "It is not for the iconoclastic inventor or + architect to improve the hearth out of existence." Sentiment is a useful + emotion, but when it held open funerals of diphtheria victims, society + stepped in and forbade. With a certain advance in social consciousness + public opinion will step in and regulate sentiment in regard to many + things depending on individual whim. +</p> +<p> + Heating might now be accomplished without dust and ashes, without the + destructive effects of steam, if enough houses would take electricity to + enable a company to supply it in the form of a sort of dado carrying wires + safely embedded in a non-conducting substance, or in the form of a carpet + threaded with conducting wire. Both heating and cooling apparatus could be + installed in the shape of a motor to replace the punkah man and the + present buzz-wheel fan, and to give fresh air without the opening of + windows which leads to half our housekeeping miseries. O woman, how can + you resist the thought of a clean, cool house, sans dust, sans flies and + mosquitoes, sans the intolerable street-noise, with abundance of fresh + filtered air at the desired temperature! It is all ready at your hand. A + windmill on the roof can store power, or a solar motor can save the sun's + rays, or capsules of compressed air may be had to run the machine, if only + you were not so afraid of the very word machine that no man dares propose + it to you. Of what use is all the invention of the time if it cannot save + the lives of the children, half of whom fall victims to house diseases, if + it cannot sweep away consumption and influenza and all the kindred + diseases arising from over-shelter and under-cleanliness of that shelter + (lack of air). Both men and women are sentimental and non-progressive, but + education is assumed to make wiser human beings. Women are said to be + monopolizing the education; is it making them more amenable to + reasonableness and less under the control of unprogressive conservatism? +</p> +<p> + It does require quick adaptation to keep up with the possibilities of + invention, but should we not aim at that which will advance our race on a + par with its opportunities? Every other department is getting ahead of us. + We should hang our heads in shame that we have neglected so long the means + for saner living. +</p> +<a name="image-6"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/fig6.jpg" width="278" height="238" +alt="Fig. 6.—Old Kitchen Remodelled. +(Stone, Carpenter & Wilson, Architects, Providence, R.I.) +Looking toward the range. Servants' sitting-room beyond; +porcelain sink at left; boiler(*remainder cut off)."> +</p> +<a name="image-7"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/fig7.jpg" width="281" height="237" +alt="Fig. 7.—Old Kitchen Remodelled. +Showing glass shelves and labelled glass jars for all stores. +Glass mixing table at left (*remainder cut off)."> +</p> +<p> + It has been said that the highest modern civilization is shown not so + much by costly monuments and works of art as by the perfection of house + conveniences. Where then do we stand? And in what direction are we to look + for the coming advance? We have had some sixty years of public sanitation; + we have secured a supply of sanitary experts to whom all questions + affecting the physical welfare of masses of people may be referred. We + have a few architects who know the requirements of a <i>livable</i> house, + not merely one which shows off well as first built. +</p> +<p> + We <i>need</i> sixty years of private-house sanitation. We need to educate + house experts, home advisers, those who know how to examine a house not + only while it is empty but while it is throbbing with the life of the + family. This adviser must be, for many years at least, able to suggest + practical methods of overcoming structural defects (more difficult than + fresh construction), as well as of modifying personal prejudices. +</p> +<p> + These house experts will, I think, be women of the broadest education, + scientific and social. They will have not only a certain amount of medical + knowledge, but also the tact and enthusiasm of the missionary which will + bring them as friends and benefactors to the despairing mother and the + discouraged householder. +</p> +<p> + That there is a beginning of this demand, I can testify; that it will + grow, I believe. As soon as a group of trained women are ready, they will + find occupation if the advance in housing conditions which I foresee is to + become a reality. +</p> +<p> + Within the last two or three years the author has received requests from + all over the country for suggestions as to kitchen design and + construction. +</p> +<p> + The two illustrations here given show one little step in the right + direction. The cuts represent a remodelled kitchen in Providence, R.I. +</p> +<p> + The floor is of lignolith laid down in one sheet and carried up as a + wainscoting so that no crevice exists for entrance of insects or dust. + Such floors are yet in their infancy and need suitable preparation for + laying, just as macadamized streets fail if the foundation is faulty. The + idea is all that we are here concerned with. One of the features to be + especially noted is the use of glass for shelves. Why should the hospital + monopolize the materials for antiseptic work? When it is understood how + much hospital work is caused because of dirt in the preparation and + keeping of food, the kitchen will receive its share of attention. +</p> +<p> + To-day the cost of shelter is about one third for the house and two thirds + for the expense of running it, largely due to dirt and its consequences. + Mr. Wells wisely says: "Most dusting and sweeping would be quite avoidable + if houses were wiselier done." +</p> +<p> + When the real twentieth-century house is put up our young engineer and + college instructor will be willing to pay $400 to $500 rent, because wages + and running expenses will be $100 less and the company owning the houses + will not expect more than 4%, largely because repairs will be less and + permanence of tenure more assured. The old type of wooden house used by + the old type of tenant could not be expected to last more than a few + years, which justified a higher rate of interest. For the tenement tenant + of the better class twenty years has been the estimate, so that the cost + of building could not be distributed over fifty years as it should be. +</p> +<p> + The house will be made of reinforced concrete or its successor; certainly + not of wood. Whether a single house or one of two or more "compartments," + each family will have a side, that is, the entrance doors will not be side + by side. Such have been built in Somerville, Mass., by a railroad company + for its employees. Those who wish to have a garden may; but no one will be + obliged, for there will be regulations about the general appearance of the + whole park, and every man his own lawn-mower will not be true. The + cultivation of taste will have so far advanced that the grouping advised + by the landscape architect will appeal to the occupant more than his own + fancied arrangement. +</p> +<p> + Since the heating will be supplied from outside, there will be a hothouse + and cold-frames for those who wish to have a share in the garden, just as + now there are bins in the basement. The care of these may replace the + exercise now gained in scrubbing the front steps. The windows of the house + will be dust-proof, fly-, mosquito-, and moth-proof; the air supplied will + be strained by galleries of screens, if indeed social advance has not + eliminated soot from chimneys and grit from the streets. Most certainly + dirt will not be permitted to come in on shoes and long dresses. Warmed or + cooled, moistened or dried air will be circulated as needed. In such a + house rugs may stay undisturbed for a month or more, books for years, and + the dust-cloth be rarely in evidence; the redding will consist of putting + back in place the things used; but as each member of the family will do + this as soon as he is old enough, there will be but a few minutes' work. +</p> +<p> + The breakfast will be of uncooked or simply heated food, parched grains + and cream, fruit fresh or dried, and nuts. If coffee or cocoa is desired, + the electric heater serves it to the requisite degree of heat. Each adult + member of the family will probably take this in his own room or at his own + convenience, without the formality of a meal. The few glasses and other + dishes may be plunged into a tank of water and left for future cleaning. + Luncheon will depend altogether on the habits of the family, but dinner, + at whatever hour that may be, will be the family symposium. Dressed in its + honor, with a sprightly addition to the conversation of experience or + information or conjecture, there will be form and ceremony of a simple, + refined kind, such that once again the family may welcome a guest without + anxiety. Good conversation and fresh interests will thus come into the + children's lives. How much they have missed in these days of the barring + out all hospitality! Is it perchance one reason, if not the chief, why + manners have degenerated? +</p> +<p> + This meal will not have more than four courses of food carefully selected + and perfectly cooked, whether in the house or out matters not so it is + served fresh and of just the right temperature. No kind of cooking will be + permitted which "meets the guest in the hall and stays with him in the + street"; therefore the dishes may be washed by neatly dressed maids or by + the children, who thus learn to care for the fitness of things; plenty of + towels and hot water, with all hands doing a little, leaves everything + snug and no one too tired. We will let Mr. H.G. Wells describe the bedroom + of the future house:<a href="#note-3"><small><sup>3</sup></small></a> +</p> +<a name="note-3"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>3</u></sup> [A Modern Utopia, p. 103.] +</p> +<p> + "The room is, of course, very clear and clean and simple: not by any means + cheaply equipped, but designed to economize the labor of redding and + repair just as much as possible. +</p> +<p> + "It is beautifully proportioned and rather lower than most rooms I know on + earth. There is no fireplace, and I am perplexed by that until I find a + thermometer beside six switches on the wall. Above this switchboard is a + brief instruction: one switch warms the floor, which is not carpeted, but + covered by a substance like soft oilcloth; one warms the mattress (which + is of metal with resistance coils threaded to and fro in it); and the + others warm the wall in various degrees, each directing current through a + separate system of resistances. The casement does not open, but above, + flush with the ceiling, a noiseless rapid fan pumps air out of the room. + The air enters by a Tobin shaft. +</p> +<p> + "There is a recess dressing-room, equipped with a bath and all that is + necessary to one's toilet; and the water, one remarks, is warmed, if one + desires it warm, by passing it through an electrically-heated spiral of + tubing. A cake of soap drops out of a store-machine on the turn of a + handle, and when you have done with it, you drop that and your soiled + towels, etc., which are also given you by machines, into a little box, + through the bottom of which they drop at once and sail down a smooth + shaft. [Better stay in the box and not infect the shaft.—Author.] +</p> +<p> + "A little notice tells you the price of the room, and you gather the price + is doubled if you do not leave the toilet as you find it. Beside the bed, + and to be lit at night by a handy switch over the pillow, is a little + clock, its face flush with the wall [no dust-catcher]. +</p> +<p> + "The room has no corners to gather dirt, wall meets floor with a gentle + curve, and the apartment could be swept out effectually by a few strokes + of a mechanical sweeper [sucked out by the now-used + cleaning-machine.—Author]. The door-frames and window-frames are + of metal, rounded and impervious to draft. You are politely requested to + turn a handle at the foot of your bed before leaving the room, and + forthwith the frame turns up into a vertical position, and the bedclothes + hang airing. You stand in the doorway and realize that there remains not + a minute's work for any one to do. Memories of the fetid disorder of many + an earthly bedroom after a night's use float across your mind. +</p> +<p> + [In America the use of the sleeping-room as a sitting-room is more common + than in England, and the fetid disorder is far greater.] +</p> +<p> + "And you must not imagine this dustless, spotless, sweet apartment as + anything but beautiful. Its appearance is a little unfamiliar, of course, + but all the muddle of dust-collecting hangings and witless ornament that + cover the earthly bedroom, the valances, the curtains to check the draft + from the ill-fitting windows, the worthless irrelevant pictures, usually a + little askew, the dusty carpets, and all the paraphernalia about the dirty + black-leaded fireplace are gone. The faintly tinted walls are framed with + just one clear colored line, as finely placed as the member of a Greek + capital; the door-handles and the lines of the panels of the door, the two + chairs, the framework of the bed, the writing-table, have all that + exquisite finish of contour that is begotten of sustained artistic effort. + The graciously shaped windows each frame a picture—since they are + draughtless the window-seats are no mere mockeries as are the window-seats + of earth—and on the sill the sole thing to need attention in the room + is one little bowl of blue Alpine flowers." +</p> +<p> + The true office of the house is not only to be useful, but to be + aesthetically a background for the dwellers therein, subordinate to them, + not obtrusive. In most of our modern building and furnishing the people + are relegated to the background as insignificant figures. This is largely + why the home feeling is absent, why children do not form an affection for + the rooms they live in. +</p> +<p> + Let there be nothing in the room because some other person has it; this + shows poverty of ideas. Let there be nothing in the room which does not + satisfy some need, spiritual or physical, of some member of the family. + How bare our rooms would become! Let the skeptical reader try an + experiment. Take everything out of a given room, then bring back one by + one the things one feels essential not merely because it fills space but + for the presence of which some one can give a good and sufficient reason. + It will mean a trial of a few days, because it is not easy to separate + habit from need. A table <i>has stood</i> in a certain spot: that is no + reason in itself why it should continue to stand there unless it supplies + a need. +</p> +<p> + If a fetish stands in the way of social progress, do away with it. If the + idea of home as the shell is standing in the way of developing the idea of + home as a state of mind, then let us cast loose the load of things that + are sinking us in the sea of care beyond rescue. +</p> +<p> + It is quite possible that we may return to that state of mind in which + there was a pleasure in caring for beautiful objects. The housewife of + colonial days did not disdain the washing of her cups of precious china or + doing up the heirlooms of lace and embroidery. When our possessions + acquire an intrinsic value, when all the work of the house which cannot be + done by machinery is that of handling beautiful things and has a meaning + in the life of the individual and the family, service will not be required + in the vast majority of homes: then we may approach to the Utopian ideal + of the nobility of labor. +</p> +<p> + "The plain message that physical science has for the world at large is + this, that were our political and social and moral devices only as well + contrived to their ends as a linotype machine, an antiseptic + operating-plant, or an electric tram-car, there need now, at the present + moment, be no appreciable toil in the world, and only the smallest + fraction of the pain, the fear, and the anxiety that now make human life + so doubtful in its value. There is more than enough for every one alive. + Science stands as a too competent servant behind her wrangling, underbred + masters, holding out resources, devices, and remedies they are too stupid + to use."<a href="#note-4"><small><sup>4</sup></small></a> +</p> +<a name="note-4"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>4</u></sup> [H.G. Wells.] +</p> +<a name="CH6"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER VI. +</h3> +<p> + THE COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY OF VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "The strongest needs conquer." +</p> +<p> + An outlay of $1500 to $2500 will secure a cottage in the country, or a + tenement with five or six rooms in the suburbs, for a wage-earner's + family. The rent for this should be from $125 to $200 per year, but, as in + the case of the model tenements in New York, a minimum of sanitary + appliances and of labor-saving devices is found in such dwellings. They + are adapted to a family life of mutual helpfulness and forbearance. +</p> +<p> + The lack of this kind of housing has been a disgrace to our so-called + civilization. Public attention has, however, been directed to the need, + and it is gratifying to find in the report of the U.S. Bureau of Labor, + Bulletin 54, Sept. 1904, a full account, with photographs and plans, of + the work of sixteen large manufacturing establishments in housing their + employees. +</p> +<p> + Euthenics, the art of better living, is being recognized as of money value + in the case of the wage-earning class, but the wave of social betterment + has not yet lifted the salaried class to the point of cooperation for + their own elevation. They are obliged to put up with the better grade of + workmen's dwellings, or to pay beyond their means for a poor quality of + the house designed for the leisure class. In either case, the weight bears + hardest on the woman's shoulders, and it is to her awakening that we must + look for an impetus toward an understanding of the problems confronting + us. +</p> +<p> + The college-educated women of the country believe so fully that the + twentieth century will develop a civilization in which brain-power and + good taste will outrank mere lavish display, that they have sent out a + call to their associations to devise methods of sane and wholesome living + which shall leave time and energy free for intellectual pleasure—some, at + least, of that time now absorbed by the house and its demands as insignia + of social rank. +</p> +<p> + Trained and thoughtful women are convinced that the first step in social + redemption is adequate and adaptable shelter for the family. Just so long + as tradition and thoughtlessness bind the wife and mother to that form of + housekeeping which taxes all the forces of man to supply money and of + women to spend it, so long will the most intelligent women decline to + sacrifice themselves for so little return. +</p> +<p> + The constructive arts dealing with wood, stone, and metal have been + conceded to be man's province. He has used new materials and labor-saving + devices in railway stations and place of amusements, not selfishly, but + because of the appreciation of the travelling public. It is the fashion to + decry labor-saving devices in the house, because they do away with that + sign of pecuniary ability, the capped and aproned maid. The obvious saving + of steps by the speaking-tube and telephone-call is frowned upon for the + same reason. It is this attitude of society which stands in the way of the + adoption of those mechanical helps which might do away with nearly all the + drudgery and dirty heavy work of the house. +</p> +<p> + The new epoch<a href="#note-5"><small><sup>5</sup></small></a> "is + more and more replacing muscle-power fed on wheat at + eighty cents a bushel, by machine-power fed on coal at five cents a + bushel," thus liberating man from hard and deadening toil. As his mental + activity increases his needs in the way of the comforts and decencies of + refined living increase. More sanitary appliances are demanded, more + expense for fundamental cleanliness is incurred, and for that tidiness and + trimness of aspect inside and outside the house which adds both to the + labor and to the cost of living, especially in old-style houses. +</p> +<a name="note-5"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>5</u></sup> [The New Epoch. Geo. S. Morison.] +</p> +<p> + While we can but applaud this desire, we must confess that the new + building laws, the increased cost of land, and the higher wages of workmen + have raised the cost of shelter for human efficiency to double or treble + that of the so-called workman's cottage. A fair rule is that each room + costs $1000 to $2000 to build. +</p> +<p> + This means that our lowest limit of income, $1000 a year with $200 for + rent, can have only two or at most three rooms and bath, and those without + elevators and janitor service. It is only when the income reaches $2000 to + $3000 a year that the family may have the advantage of good building in a + good locality, and even then it means some sacrifice in other directions. + It is clear that the common theory that a young man must have a salary of + $3000 a year before he dares to marry has some foundation when $600 to + $800 is demanded for rent. +</p> +<p> + The increased sanitary requirements have doubled the cost of a given + enclosed space, the finish and fittings now found in the best houses have + doubled this again, so that it is quite within bounds to say that a house + which might have been put up to meet the needs of the day in 1850 for, + say, $5000 will now cost $20,000. +</p> +<p> + Much of the increase is for real comfort and advance in decent living, and + so far it is to be commended. Such part of the increase as is for + ostentation, for show and sham, is to be frowned upon, for this high cost + of shelter is to-day the greatest menace to the social welfare of the + community. When the average young man finds it impossible to support a + family, when the professional man finds it necessary to supplement his + chosen work by pot-boiling, by public lectures and any outside work which + will bring in money, what wonder that scholarship is not thriving in + America? Pitiful tales of such stifling of effort have come to my ears, + and have in large part led me to make a plea for a scientific study of the + living conditions of this class, and for a readjustment of ideals to the + absolute facts of the situation. +</p> +<p> + We may give sympathy to those Italians who pay only $2 a month for the + shelter of the whole family, but we must give help to the harder case of a + family with refined tastes and high ideals who can pay only $200 a year. +</p> +<p> + In the real country, at a distance from the railroad, air, water, and soil + are cheap. Here a house may be put up with its own windmill or gas-engine + to pump water, with its own drainage system, giving all the sanitary + comforts of the city house, for about $5000. The same inside comforts in + one quarter the space, minus the isolation and garden, may be had in a + suburban block for one half that sum. This is probably the least expensive + shelter to-day for the family whose duties require one or more members of + it to be in the city daily, for, as the centre of the city is approached, + land rent increases, so that dwelling space must be again curtailed one + half or rent doubled. The majority take half a house or go into the city + and put up with one quarter the space. +</p> +<p> + The curtailment of space in which families live is going on at an alarming + rate, although not yet seriously taken into account by the sociologist + for the group we are studying. +</p> +<a name="image-8"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/fig8.jpg" width="246" height="152" +alt="Figs. 8 and 9.—House for 'Mrs. L.,' anywhere in +temperate America, to cost $5000, if it must not more +(*remainder cut off)."> +</p> +<a name="image-9"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/fig10.jpg" width="269" height="219" +alt="Figs. 10 and 11.—House for 'Mrs. L.,' anywhere in +temperate America, to cost only $3000 if possible. +(Josselyn & Taylor Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa)."> +</p> +<p> + This crowding is causing the refinements of life to be disregarded, is + depriving the children of their rights, and doing them almost more harm + than comes to the tenement dwellers, for they have the parks to play in + and are not kept within doors. +</p> +<p> + Mr. Michael Lane in his "Level of Social Motion" claims that present + tendencies are leading to a level of $2000 a year and a family of two + children as an average. Mr. Wells claims as a tendency in living + conditions the practically automatic and servantless household. In + connection with the Mary Lowell Stone Home Economics Exhibit a design of + an approach to this kind of a dwelling was asked for in sketch. The + accompanying plans were made by a firm who have had not only experience in + this kind of domestic building, but who have sympathy with and personal + knowledge of similar conditions in widely separated parts of the country. +</p> +<p> + These sketches are not of an <i>ideal</i> house and not for a given plot of + land, but only a hint of what Mrs. Michael Lane "must expect if she + attempts to build in the country or suburbs." +</p> +<p> + Since these were drawn many changes have come about in costs and in + materials available. The architects expressly disclaim the word "model" in + relation to them. Mrs. Lane and her two children will do their own work, + and therefore steps and stairs must be few, and yet they wish light and + air and cleanliness. +</p> +<p> + The author hopes that her readers will make a study of house-plans, not + the cheap ones, but those that will bear the test of time and living in. +</p> +<p> + The increased cost of shelter should mean both more comfort and greater + beauty. If it does not, something is wrong with society. +</p> +<p> + It appears from all that has been gathered that single houses for a family + of five will cost about $5000 to $10,000 for some years to come; that + these houses should be so constructed and cared for as to rent for $300 to + $400 if the occupant is to keep the grounds in order, to use the house + with care, and furnish heat and light. +</p> +<p> + The question of return on capital invested and of care of exteriors and + grounds must be studied most carefully in the light of the new conditions, + and a new set of conventions devised by society to meet the various + circumstances arising out of them. +</p> +<p> + This suburban living is the vital point to be attacked, because in cities + the matter is already pretty well settled; there is in sight nothing that + will greatly change the rule already given, a cost of $1000 per room of + about 1200 cubic feet, with the finish and sanitary appliances demanded. +</p> +<p> + Our family of five must pay for rent $500 to $800 for the smallest + quarters they can compress themselves into. Subtracting the cost of heat + and light and the car-fares, this may be no more expensive than the + suburban house at $300 or $400, <i>but</i> the difference comes in light and + air. The upper floors of an isolated skyscraper give more than a country + house, but at the expense of other houses in the darkened street. +</p> +<p> + In the city the question is then not so much one of cost of construction + as of a fair arrangement of streets and parks, so as to avoid the loss of + light and air for living-places. The single individual may find shelter of + a safe and refined sort in all respects except air for $200 to $300 a year + in the newer apartment-houses, and two friends to share it may halve this + sum. A great need is for as good rooms to be furnished in the suburbs + where more light and air may be had. +</p> +<p> + The content of the country house costing $5000 to $10,000 will be + approximately 50,000 to 70,000 cubic feet, or 10,000 for a person. The + suburban block will furnish about 12,000 to 20,000 for the family, while + the city apartment of six so-called rooms renting for from $400 to $500 a + year shrinks to 6000 to 8000 cubic feet, giving only one tenth the + air-space the country house affords, as well as far less outside air and + sunshine. The best city tenements cost $1 a week for 600 cubic feet + air-space. What wonder that the sanitarian is aghast at the prospect! +</p> +<p> + According to the President of the English Sanitary Inspectors' Association + it seems probable that if the nineteenth-century city continues to drain + the country of its potentially intellectual class and to squeeze them into + smaller and smaller quarters, it will dry up the reservoirs of strength in + the population (address, Aug. 18, 1905). +</p> +<p> + The houses of the Morris Building Co., illustrated in Chapter II, show + what may be done. These houses rent for $35 to $45 a month with constant + heat and hot water, so that the heavy work is reduced to a minimum; but + the exigencies of family life are illustrated in the fact of the almost + universal demand of the tenants for continuous heat and hot water night as + well as day. The ordinary childless apartment house banks its fires at + night. A supplementary apparatus would mean work by the tenants, however. + This is a good example of the balance which must be struck in all new + plans until they are tested. +</p> +<p> + The change in what one gains under the name of shelter, what one pays rent + for, must be kept clearly in mind. Two or three decades since it was a + tight roof, thinly plastered walls, and a chimney with "thimble-holes for + stoves," possibly a furnace with small tin flues, a well or cistern, or + perhaps one faucet delivering a small stream of water. To-day even in the + suburbs there is furnished light, heat, abundant water, care of halls and + sidewalks. The elevator-boy takes the place of "buttons," the engineer and + janitor relieve the man of the house of care, so that it may not be so + extravagant as it sounds to give one third the $3000 income for rent, + since it stops that leaky sieve, that bottomless bag of "operating + expenses." The income may be pretty definitely estimated in this case, + especially if meals are taken in the cafĆ©. If the family dine as it + happens, the cost mounts up. Here are a few estimates for verification and + criticism: +</p> +<table border="0" summary="This table estimates basic costs of living in Eastern cities."> + <tr> + <td>Rent of an apartment</td> + <td>$ 600.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td>$ 700.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Meals</td> + <td> 1200.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 1000.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Clothing</td> + <td> 400.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 600.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Incidentals, amusements, etc.</td> + <td> 200.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 300.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Savings, <i>nil</i>.</td> + <td>________</td> + <td> </td> + <td>________</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Total income</td> + <td>$2400.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td>$2600.00</td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> + If the wife can manage the "kitchenette" and part of the clothing, about + $600 may be saved, but in that case it represents her earnings, and should + be at her disposal. If it should be possible for safe shelter to be had + for $400, then with the wife's help $700 should be the sum in the "region + of choice." I hold that, unless the income can be managed so as to secure + <i>choice</i>, all the daily toil is embittered. Even if some is spent + foolishly, it is safer than the burden "just not enough." +</p> +<p> + The more common cost of decent living in our Eastern cities is: +</p> +<table border="0" summary="This table estimates more common (higher) costs of +living in Eastern cities."> + <tr> + <td>Rent</td> + <td> 1000</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 1500</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Meals</td> + <td> 1200</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 1400</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Clothing</td> + <td> 500</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 700</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Incidentals</td> + <td> 300</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 600</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Savings, <i>nil</i>. </td> + <td>_____</td> + <td> </td> + <td>_____</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Total</td> + <td> $3000</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> $4000</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p> + This goes far toward justifying the saying that a young man cannot afford + to marry on less than $3000 a year. +</p> +<p> + With these figures in mind, what can our $2000 family with two children + do? The rent that they can pay will not cover service or heat. There must + be a maid to fill the lamps, see to the furnace, help with the cooking, + and the wife must stay by the house pretty closely and probably decline + most invitations. For the five persons, ten dollars a week for raw-food + materials and five for its preparation is the lowest limit likely to be + cheerfully submitted to. +</p> + +<table border="0" summary="This table estimates lowest possible living costs." > + <tr> + <td>Rent, heat, light, etc.</td> + <td> $ 400</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Food</td> + <td> 800</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Clothing hardly less than</td> + <td> 400</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Children's education, even with free<br> + schools, and their illnesses will<br> + use up</td> + <td> 100</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Car-fares, church, etc.</td> + <td> 100</td> + <tr> + <td>Wages and sundries</td> + <td> 200</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>_____</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Total</td> + <td>$2000</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p> + In the bank nothing. +</p> +<p> + But what shelter can this refined, intelligent family find to-day for + $400? Certainly nothing with modern conveniences. The lack of these is + <i>made up by women's work</i>—hard, rough work. And that is the crux of the + servant problem to-day. It is the reason why more families do not go into + the country to live. The work required in an old house to bring living up + to modern standards is too appalling to be undertaken lightly. +</p> +<p> + In England the Sunlight Park and other plans, in America the Dayton and + Cincinnati schemes, are samples of what is being done for the $500 to $800 + family, but where are the examples (outside the Morris houses) for the + salaried class for whom we are pleading? The great army of would-be + home-makers are forced into a nomadic life by the exigencies resulting + from the great combines—a shifting of offices, a closing of factories, a + breaking up of hundreds of homes. I believe this to be the <i>chief + factor</i> in the decline of the American home—a hundred-fold more + potent than the college education of women. +</p> +<p> + The unthinking comment on this rise in the cost of shelter is usually + condemnation of greedy landlords and soulless capitalists; but is that the + whole story? +</p> +<p> + In the present order of things it seems to be inevitable that the gain of + one class in the community is loss to another. Probably the law has always + existed, and only the very rapid and sudden changes bring it into + prominence, because of the swift readjustment needed, an operation which + torpid human nature resents when consciously pressed. +</p> +<p> + For instance, the efforts of the philanthropist and working man together + have succeeded in shortening hours of labor and increasing + wages—without, alas! increasing the speed or quality of the work + done, especially in the trades which have to do with materials of + construction, so that house-building has about doubled in cost within + twenty-five years, largely due to cost of labor. This increased cost has + fallen heavily on the very group of people least able to bear it, the + skilled artisan, the teacher, and the young salaried man. Again I call + attention to the need of a philanthropist who shall raise his eyes to that + group, the hope of our democracy, those whom he has held to be able to + help themselves—and given time would do so; but time is the very + thing denied them in this motor age. Help to make quick adjustment must + come to the rescue of those to whom time more than equals money. +</p> +<p> + One used to wait patiently for seed-sown lawns to become velvety turf. + Money can bring sod from afar and in a season give the results of years. + So the housing of the $2000 family can be accomplished just as soon as it + seems sufficiently desirable. It needs a research just as truly as the + cancer problem or desert botany, and affects thousands more. +</p> +<p> + One other cause of increased cost in construction and operation which + does, if wisely carried out, increase health and efficiency is the + sanitary provision of our recent building laws. +</p> +<p> + The instalment of these sanitary appliances becomes increasingly costly + because of the rise in wages of the workmen, plumbers, masons, etc. The + careful statistics of the Bureau of Labor show conclusively that all + building trades have decreased hours of labor and increased wages per + hour, so that cost of construction has doubled, and the sanitary + requirements have again doubled the cost, so that it is easy to see why + the family with a stationary income has quartered its dwelling-space. +</p> +<p> + The end is not yet: the new devices mentioned in previous chapters will at + first increase cost of construction. +</p> +<p> + From lack of business training the public is at fault in estimating + relative costs. A well-built "automatic house" costs too much, they say. + Yes, but what does it save? Cost looms large, saving seems small. + Moreover, the value of mental serenity, of that peace of mind consequent + on the smooth running of the domestic machine, is undervalued. The + American child such as he is is largely the product of the American house + and its ill adapted construction. I must reiterate my belief that the + modification of the house itself to the life the twentieth century is + calling for is the first step in social reform. +</p> +<a name="CH7"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER VII. +</h3> +<p> + THE RELATION BETWEEN COST OF HOUSING AND TOTAL INCOME. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "It must be made possible to live within one's income." +</p> +<p> + The thrifty French rule is one fifth for rent. In towns where land is + cheap and wood abundant, or in college communities exempt from taxes, + comfortable housing is found in this country for as little as fifteen or + eighteen per cent of the total income. In some mining towns where all + prospects are uncertain and the house has no particular social + significance the rent may be even lower, although it is often very high. + It depends on the demand, on competition rather than quality. In our older + and more settled communities it is most common for rent to use up one + fourth the salary of all town dwellers with incomes within our limits. + This was true in Boston fifty years ago, and it is true to-day in dozens + of cities and towns personally investigated. It is not unknown that a + teacher or business man should exceed this in the hope of a rise in + salary by the second year. Adding the expenses of operating the house, of + repairs and additions and improvements if the house is owned, nearly half + the money available must go for the mere housing of the family. +</p> +<p> + If it is true, as I believe it is, that for each fraction over one fifth + spent for rent a saving must be made in some other direction—in the daily + expense, less service, less costly food, or less expensive clothing, or, + last to be cut down, less of the real pleasure of life,—it will be seen + what a far-reaching question this is, how it touches the vital point, to + have or not to have other good things in life. +</p> +<p> + A large part of the increase is due, as we have said, to increased demand + for sanitary conveniences, but far more potent is the pressure resulting + from the price of land. +</p> +<p> + This pressure has led to the building of smaller and smaller apartments, + so that four and six rooms are made out of floor-space sufficient for two. + It sounds better to say we have a six-room flat, even though there is no + more privacy than in two rooms, for the rooms are mere cells unless the + doors are always open. It is not uncommon in such suites renting for $50 + to $60 per month for six rooms, to find three of them with only one window + on one side, with no chance for cross-ventilation unless the doors of the + whole suite are open. +</p> +<p> + This style of building prevails even in the suburbs where air and + sunshine should be free. The would-be renter looking at such suites with + all the doors open and the rooms innocent of fried fish and bacon does not + think of the place as it <i>will be</i> under living conditions when privacy + can be had only by smothering. +</p> +<p> + The model tenements in New York rent for one dollar per week per room; the + better houses for double, or two dollars for 450 cubic feet. Many of those + I have examined renting for forty to sixty dollars per month give no more + space for the money, only a little better finish—marble and tile in + the bath-room, for instance. +</p> +<p> + The three-room tenement does, however, shelter as many persons as the + six-room flat, hence there is more real overcrowding. In all these grades + of shelter it is fresh air that is wanting. What wonder the white plague + is always with us? What remedy so long as millions sleep in closets with + no air-currents passing through? +</p> +<p> + Accepting the French rule, the artisan who rents the model tenement at + $3.50 per week should earn $3 a day wage for six days. If he earn only $2, + then more than one quarter must go for housing. There are hundreds of + Italian families in New York who pay only $2 <i>per month</i> for such shelter + as they have, but it is only providing for the primitive idea of mere + shelter, not for the comforts of a true home life. After the fashion of + early man, these people spend their lives in the open air, eat wherever + they may be, and use this makeshift shelter as protection from the weather + and as a place of deposit for such articles as they do not carry about + with them and for such weaklings as cannot travel. +</p> +<p> + As man rises in the scale of wants he pays more, in attention and in + money, for housing, because he leaves wife and children to its comforts + while he goes forth to his daily tasks. As ideals rise, the proportion + rises until even one third of his earnings goes for mere shelter. But this + limits his desires in other directions, so that it becomes a pertinent + question, when is it right to give as much as one third of the moderate + income for housing? As every heart knows its own bitterness, so every man + knows his own business and what proportion of his income he is + <i>willing</i> to spend for a house, for the comforts of life pertain + largely to bed and board. It must be acknowledged, however, that comfort + and discomfort are so largely matters of habit and personal point of view + that education as to ideals is an important duty of society in its own + defence. +</p> +<p> + If two people without children prefer to spend more on shelter than on any + other one thing, then with $3000 a year, $1000 may be given for rent if + that covers heat, light, and general outside care. But the <i>family</i> + with children to consider must not think of allowing one third for rent + under our very highest limit of $5000 a year, and it is unwise even then. + In fact the ratio must be governed by circumstances. It is true, however, + that the conditions must be interpreted by a fixed principle in living and + not by any mere fashion or prejudice of the moment. +</p> +<p> + The one question every person asks when these suggested improvements are + discussed is, but how much will it cost? Thus confessing that cost, not + effectiveness, is the measure; that old ideals as to money value still + rule the world. It costs too much to have a furnace large enough to warm a + sufficient volume of air, it costs too much to put in safe plumbing, it + costs too much to keep the house clean, and so on through the list. We + have been too busy getting and spending money to study the cost of neglect + of cardinal principles of right living. The farmer knows the cost of his + young animals, but the father cares little and knows less of what it ought + to cost to bring up his children—of the economy of spending wisely + on a safe shelter for them. +</p> +<p> + A new estimate of what necessary things must cost has to be made before + the present generation will live comfortably in presence of the + account-book. +</p> +<p> + Here again a readjustment is coming; some expenses in house construction + common now will be lessened or done away with; for example, fancy shapes, + grooved and carved wood, projecting windows and door-frames. +</p> +<p> + It is usual, when the various new methods are brought up, to estimate the + cost as additional to all that has gone before, rather than to see in it a + substitute for much that may go. +</p> +<p> + Our family with $1500 income may safely pay $300 for rent, if that covers + enough comfort and does not mean too much car-fare. +</p> +<p> + The house may cost $3000 if built on the old lines, and if the land it is + placed on is not too expensive. +</p> +<p> + A fire-proof house such as is described in the July number of the + <i>Brickbuilder and Architect</i>, 85 Water St., Boston, and probably also + a house of reinforced concrete, will cost at present some $10,000 besides + the land. Because of freedom from repairs it should be possible to rent + such houses for $500, which will bring them within the reach of our $3000 + a year family, but not within the means of the $2000. What is to be done? +</p> +<p> + It will be remarked by some that little attention has been given in these + pages to the various so-called cooperative plans, like Mrs. Stuckert's + oval of fifty houses connected by a tramway at each level, with a central + kitchen from which all meals come and to which all used dishes return, + with a central office from which service is sent, etc. +</p> +<p> + Frankly, to my mind this is not enough better than the apartment hotel, as + we now know it, to pay for the effort to establish it. As now evolved by + demand, the establishments renting from one to fifteen thousand a year are + on progressive lines. According to Mr. Wells, this shareholding class is + on the way to extinction in any case, fortunately he also thinks, and the + student of social economics need not concern himself with its future, only + so far as its example influences the real bone and sinew of the republic, + the working men and women who make the world the place it is. +</p> +<p> + Within the ten-mile radius it has been usual to include a front yard, if + not a garden, in the house-lot. The cost of keeping this in the trim + fashion decreed as essential, of planting and pruning of shrubs, of + maintaining in immaculate condition the sidewalks and front steps, like + most of the items in cost of living, is due to changed standards, just as + the cost of table-board has advanced from $3 to $6 without a corresponding + betterment in quality. +</p> +<p> + Engle's law, "The lodging, warming, and lighting have an invariable + proportion whatever the income," does not hold under modern conditions for + the group we are considering, for our wise ones need the best, and not a + few of them are unwilling to buy their family sanctity at the price of a + closet in the basement for the faithful maid. +</p> +<p> + Plans may look well on paper, the completed house may seem attractive, but + when the family <i>live</i> in the house its deficiencies become apparent. + Cheap materials, flimsy construction, damp location, any one of a dozen + possibilities may make the family uncomfortable, may cost in heating and + doctor's bills, may compel a moving before the year is out. Cheap houses + in this decade are suspicious; the more need for a knowledge on the part + of young people of what may be expected. +</p> +<p> + For this reason it is a part of sound education to give a certain amount + of attention to living conditions in the high-school curriculum. It is as + important as book-keeping; for of what avail are money and business, if + the home life is perilled? Besides, some of the pupils may have attention + called to deficiencies which they may show talent in overcoming. +</p> +<p> + Courses in Home Economics and Household Administration in colleges and + universities should be directed to careful study of this branch of + sociology. +</p> +<p> + There is a great opportunity before women's clubs and civic-improvement + associations to arouse an interest in the provision of suitable shelter + for the young families in their several neighborhoods. Concerted movement + by the Federation could revolutionize public opinion within a decade. +</p> +<p> + The student of social science may well say that the first effort should be + directed to a rise in the pay of these educated young men; that no family + should be expected to live on the sums here considered; that it is not + right even to consider a way out on the present basis. Possibly so. Much + agitation is abroad in relation to the pay of teachers, clerks, and + skilled workmen, but that is another question which cannot be considered + here. +</p> +<p> + The salaried class has so enormously increased of late years because of + the great consolidation of business interests that the final adjustment + has not been made. The one fact of uncertain tenure of position and + uncertain promotion has profoundly affected living conditions, ownership + of the family abode, and, incidentally, marriage. +</p> +<p> + There are prizes enough, however, to keep the young people on the alert + for advancement, and they feel it more likely to come if they establish + themselves as if it had arrived. +</p> +<p> + There is no denying that in the estimation of a large number of the groups + we are considering, the question of neat and orderly service, the capped + and aproned maid, the liveried bell-boy and butler, express—like the + smoothly shaven lawn—a certain social convention; and because it + means expense, the house in working order means more than shelter: it sets + forth pecuniary standing in the community. So long as this means social + standing also, so long will the professional and business family on $2000 + a year be shut out, because these adjuncts to a luxurious living are + impossible. Can society afford to shut out the intellectual and mentally + progressive element, or must it accept as normal these salaries and make it + respectable to begin on them? It is the strain which unessential social + conventions give to the young families that leads the business father to + speculate in order to get into the $10,000-a-year class, and that leads + the young scientific and literary man to take extra work outside of his + normal duties. This sort of thing cannot go on without serious danger to + the Republic. Cleanliness and good manners should be insisted upon, but + they may be secured on $3000 a year if too much else is not required. How + to secure them on $1500 is a problem to be solved, for cleanliness costs + more each decade. +</p> +<p> + After all is said, if the young people have an earnest <i>purpose</i> in + life it is easy to plan a method of living and to carry it out. The + sacrifices one must make in the house superficially, in the consideration + of a certain class, are cheerfully borne and soon forgotten. +</p> +<p> + Little discomforts which affect only one's feelings and not one's health + make rather good stories after they are over. What is worth while? Are we + become too sensitive to little things? Do we imagine we show our higher + civilization by discerning with the little princess the pea under + twenty-four feather beds? +</p> +<p> + Let our shelter be first of all healthful, physically and morally. If to + gain these qualities we must take a house in an unfashionable + neighborhood, it should not cause distress. Why is this particular region + unfashionable? Is it not merely because certain would-be leaders choose + to live beyond their means in company with those who are able to spend + more? +</p> +<p> + Why not be honest and happy? Live within your income and make it cover the + truest kind of living. +</p> +<a name="CH8"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER VIII. +</h3> +<p> + TO OWN OR TO RENT: A DIFFICULT QUESTION. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "Half the sting of poverty is gone when one keeps house for<br> + one's own comfort and not for the comment of one's neighbors."<br> + —Miss MULOCK. +</p> +<p> + When the ideals of an older generation are forced upon a younger, already + struggling under new and strange environment, the effect is often opposite + to that intended. The elders in their pride of knowledge, and the + real-estate promoters in their greed for gain, have been urging the young + man to own his house on penalty of shirking his plain duty. They say he + must have a home to offer his bride, as the bird has a nest. Building-loan + associations, homes on the instalment plan, appeal to the sentiments they + think the young man ought to heed. +</p> +<p> + The young man is often modest, almost always sensitive, and he prefers to + bear dispraise rather than to tell the real reason he hesitates. His ear + is closer to the ground, he feels even if he cannot express the doubt of + the disinterestedness of the land-scheme promoter, of the wisdom of his + father. He knows better than his elders the uncertainties of salaried men, + young men with a way to make in the unstable conditions of to-day. +</p> +<p> + The effect of this well-meant advice is not to hasten his marriage, but to + put it off because he is not allowed to take the course he feels safest. + Or if he is willing, the parents of his prospective bride are not, and so + young people do not marry on $1000 a year, for fear of the elder + generation and their supposed wisdom. +</p> +<p> + The young people are not justified by present-day conditions in owning a + house on an income of $2000 a year <i>unless</i> +</p> +<ol> + <li><p> + They have money to put into it which it will not cripple them for life + to lose; +</p> +<li><p> + They care so much for the idea of ownership that they are willing to + take the risk of losing one half the investment should they be compelled + to move; +</p> +<li><p> + They possess the fortitude to give it up at the call of duty after all + they have lavished on it; +</p> +<li><p> + They care enough for the real education and the real fun they will get + out of it to save in other ways what the running and repairs will cost + <i>over and above the amount estimated</i>. This saving will be largely by + doing many things with their own hands. +</p> +</ol> + +<p> + To be bound hand and foot either by unsalable real estate or by sentiment + is an uncomfortable condition for the young family who may find itself in + uncongenial surroundings, in an unhealthful situation, or who may need to + retrench temporarily. +</p> +<p> + Another serious objection to building and owning a house in the first + years of married life is the chance that the house will be too large or + too small, or the railroad station will be moved, or the trolley line will + be run under the garden window, or a smoking chimney will fill the library + with soot (although the latter will not be permitted in the real + twentieth-century town). +</p> +<p> + A new element has come into the question of ownership by the family of + limited means which did not meet the elder generation of house-owners. In + the past the repairs were confined to a coat of paint now and then, new + shingles, an added hen-house, or a bay window. The well might have to be + deepened, but little expense was put into or onto the house for fifty + years. The married son or daughter might add a wing, but the main house + once built was never disturbed. In the modern plastic condition of both + ideals and materials this is all changed. In any city well known to my + readers how many streets bear the same aspect as five years ago? In any + suburban village made familiar by the trolley how many houses are the same + as five years ago? Even if their outward aspect is not changed, that worst + of all havocs, new plumbing, has been put in. The installation of neither + furnace nor plumbing is accomplished once for all; at the end of ten years + at most repairs or replacement must be made on penalty of loss of health. + As the community grows in wisdom and in knowledge it makes sanitary + regulations more stringent notwithstanding the fact that the increase in + expense bears most heavily on the small householder with a family whose + need is out of proportion to the income. Many a parent who grieves the + loss of his child would gladly have paid a reasonable sum for repairs, but + would have been in the poor debtors' court if he had allowed the plumbers + to enter his house. The new laws made since he bought his house require + diametrically opposite things, and the old fittings must all be torn out + as well as four times as costly put in. +</p> +<p> + It is a sad fact that the advantages of all modern sanitation are so often + denied to those who need and who would appreciate them. The renter has + here an advantage over the owner. He can call for an examination by the + city or town inspector before he takes a lease; the capitalist owner must + then put matters right. But as yet a man has a right to live with leaky + sewer- or gas-pipes in his own house without being disturbed by an + inspector. How far into the century this will be allowed is uncertain; in + time there will be an inspection of the premises of the small owner. +</p> +<p> + The only remedy in sight is for an investment of capital in up-to-date + houses of various grades in city, suburbs, and country; such investment to + bring 4 per cent, not 40, or even 15, unless by rise of land values. No + better use of idle money could be made at the present time. In + "Anticipations" Mr. Wells writes: "The erection of a series of + experimental labor-saving houses by some philanthropic person for + exhibition and discussion would certainly bring about an extraordinary + advance in domestic comfort; but it will probably be many years before the + cautious enterprise of advertising firms approximates to the economies + that are theoretically possible to-day." This is truer now than when Mr. + Wells was writing. +</p> +<p> + The great difficulty in the way is the first outlay. So many things will + have to be designed, patterns made and machinery built to make them; for + this advance in construction will not be by hand-made things. There will + be more head-work put into the various articles, but the mass of + constructive material must be machine-made, at least for the family of + limited income. And these articles need not be ugly. There must be many of + the same kind in the world, to be sure; but if the design fits the + purpose, this may not be an evil. No one objects to a beautiful elm-tree + in his field because in hundreds of fields there are similar elm-trees. + Slight variations in finish, color, etc., can give individuality to the + simplest chair. +</p> +<p> + Therefore the first outlay for the new order will be beyond the purse of + any single family of this group. If we had learned to cooperate sanely, a + group might undertake it, but the most probable method will be for some + far-sighted men to agree to sink a certain amount of money in experiment, + just as they now sink money in prospecting a mine with all the uncertainty + it brings. Ability to <i>risk</i> in an experiment must go hand in hand with + capital to use. +</p> +<p> + The objection commonly made is that all individuality will be taken away, + that each one must live like every one else in the neighborhood. This is + not an essential consequence, but will it be so impossible to have a + certain similarity in the dwellings of like-minded people? In + "Anticipations" it is declared that "Unless some great catastrophe in + Nature breaks down all that man has built, these great kindred groups of + capable men and educated adequate women must be under the forces we have + considered so far, the element finally emergent amid the vast confusions + of the coming time."<a href="#note-6"><small><sup>6</sup></small></a> +</p> +<a name="note-6"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>6</u></sup> [Anticipations, pp. 153-4.] +</p> +<p> + The practical people, the engineering and medical and scientific people, + will become more and more <i>homogeneous</i> in their fundamental culture. +</p> +<p> + The decreasing of the space one can call one's own within urban limits has + so steadily increased, and the need for freer air has become so fully + recognized, that the case of the single householder in the suburbs and + even in the country is bound to press harder and harder. The group system + elsewhere referred to, with central heating plant and workers of all + grades at telephone-call, will make possible at a reasonable rent within + easy reach of the city the single household of one, two, or three, as the + case may be, and if without children of their own, to such shelter may + come some of those homeless little ones we have with us always, to share + in the sun and wind and garden. In the real country, with acres instead of + feet of land, much of the same kind of elaborate simplicity will be found. + Certainly the same kind of fire-proof house of only one story with more + light, "roofs of steel and glass on the louver principle," will obviate so + frequent a change of air as a shut-in house requires, and give more + equable temperature. +</p> +<p> + In the city? Since physicians will surely be more insistent on light, as + well as fresh air, roof-gardens and balconies and glazed walls, so to + speak, will be arranged by the architect so as not to offend the eye and + yet to accomplish the results. He will cease from trying to put the new + ideas of the twentieth century into the old houses of the eighteenth or + fifteenth even, and that beauty, which is fitness, will come forth from + the tangle of ugliness everywhere. If, as the economist tells us, "cost + measures lack of adjustment," then the perfectly adjusted house will not + be costly in reality, it will be adapted to the production and protection + of effective human beings. +</p> +<p> + The cellar has for some years been changing to a storage for trunks + instead of vegetables. The old-fashioned housewife exclaims at the lack of + storage in the house of to-day, and we are eliminating it still more. A + twentieth-century axiom is, "Throw or give away everything you have not + immediate or prospective use for." It is as true of household furniture as + of books; only the very best is of any value second-hand. Our young people + may have heirlooms, but they will buy very little in the way of sideboards + or first editions. The moral of modern tendencies is, buy only what you + are sure you will need or what you care for so intensely that you will + keep it come what may. Housing of possible treasures is far too + costly. +</p> +<p> + At the foundation of the ethical side of ownership is the primitive + impulse of possession, that ownership which led to wife-capture, to feudal + castles, to accumulation of things, and to-day is expressed by the man who + prefers to have his steak cooked in his own kitchen even if it is burned. +</p> +<p> + It is notorious that most of us put up with discomfort if it is caused by + <i>our own</i>. A family of eight will use one bath-room without murmur if the + house is theirs, but will complain loudly if the landlord will not add two + without increasing the rent. +</p> +<p> + At the foundation of what seem exorbitant rents is this demand for modern + improvements in old houses, and the atrocious carelessness of tenants of + property. It is not their own, and they do not obey the golden rule in the + use of it. +</p> +<p> + Every five years or so plumbing laws are changed, and if an old house is + touched the fixtures and pipes must be all renewed. Tenants have learned + to fear the sanitation of old houses, and yet abuse the appliances they + should care for. +</p> +<p> + Public ownership or corporate ownership or an increased lawlessness are + accountable for a disregard of others' rights and of property which is + unnecessarily increasing the cost of living. +</p> +<p> + I have said elsewhere that it is not because the landlord does not want + children in the house but because he does not want such ill-bred children, + vandals, who have no respect for anything. He charges high rent because + his investment is good for only ten years. +</p> +<p> + The shibboleth of duty to own a home has so strong a hold on the moral + sense of the people that it is made use of by the promoter who may in some + cases think himself the philanthropist he intends others to call him. I + mean that the duty of owning and the heinousness of paying rent are so + ingrained that buying on the instalment plan has seemed a righteous thing, + even with the examples of broken lives in plain sight. As an incentive to + save, if there were anything to save, it might have been justified in the + days of feudalism. But for an independent American to confess that he + cannot put money in the bank, and that he must bind himself and his family + to slavery, for the sake of owning a bit of property which they will + probably wish to sell before they have it paid for, is disgraceful. + Intelligent men should see that here is the profit in the transaction; + that enough go to the wall to pay for the trouble of the rest, just as in + life insurance enough die before the expected time to put money in the + pockets of the riskers. +</p> +<p> + A drunken father may need to be held, but the young professor, the lawyer, + the engineer, should have sufficient self-respect and firmness to save + that which in his judgment is necessary, without being tied by "the + instalment plan." This method is a very viper in the finances of to-day. + The wise business man never ventures more than he can afford to lose in a + risk, but the man who takes bread and milk from his children to invest in + "a sure thing" takes a risk with what is not his to give. +</p> +<p> + To buy land for investment is another supposed virtue, an inheritance from + the time when slow growth, once started in a given direction, kept on, so + that great acumen was not needed to buy; but that is all changed to-day. + Only those "in the ring" can tell where the "boom" will go next. +</p> +<p> + In these days of unparalelled rapidity of change in industrial and social + conditions it is most undesirable for a man to be hampered by a shell + which is too large to carry about with him and too valuable to be left + behind. To each reader will occur instances of the refusal of an + advantageous offer because the family home could not be realized upon at + once, the location once so favorable had become undesirable, and the + values put into it could not be recovered because of social conditions + following industrial changes. +</p> +<p> + The keen observer hesitates in view of all these conditions to advise any + young man to invest in real estate for a home beyond a sum which he can + afford to lose if need arises to move. These changes carry a need for + mobilization of its army of workers. The encumbrance of family Lares and + Penates cannot be tolerated. Only a small per cent of young men are to-day + sure of remaining in the city in which they begin business. What folly to + encumber themselves with real estate which, sold at a sacrifice, brings + barely half its price! Moral exhorters have not carefully considered this + side of the question in their arguments for house-owning and + family-rearing as anchors to the young man. +</p> +<p> + The fact noted earlier is a case in point. After the wedding-cards were + out the bridegroom was transferred to the charge of the company's office + in another city. +</p> +<p> + The expenses necessitated by these frequent removals make an + unaccounted-for item in many incomes. +</p> +<p> + If the young couple have saved or inherited between them, say, $3000, + shall they build a home with it? Decidedly not. Because the house will + cost $5000 before they are done. Not only because of the unexpected in + strikes and change in prices of materials, but because, as the plans take + shape, the wife or the husband or both will see so many little points + which they will ask for, the paper plan not having conveyed a definite + idea to either. An excellent plan was carried out by a college woman. She + made a model to scale in pasteboard, of such a size that every essential + detail was shown in its relation to other portions of the structure. +</p> +<p> + Even if these young people do not yield at the moment of building, they + will probably wish they had yielded when they come to live in the house. + There will be nothing for it but to mortgage the place to make it + satisfactory. One cannot take up a newspaper without finding notice after + notice, reading, "Must be sold to pay the mortgage." +</p> +<p> + Exorbitant rent is of course social waste, and society must protect its + ablest young people from their own folly; but when they understand the + rules of the financial game better they will lend themselves more readily + to some cooperative plan of relief. +</p> +<p> + It is, as I well know, rank heresy, but I firmly believe that building and + owning of houses can be afforded only by those having the higher limit of + income, $3000 to $5000 a year, <i>unless</i> the person has a permanent + position or a business of great security, and in these days who can be + <i>sure</i> of anything? +</p> +<p> + When the land-scheme promoter advertises homes on the instalment plan, + beware of the trap! +</p> +<p> + Let no one buy in the suburbs from a sense of duty and then hate the life. +</p> +<p> + Comfort in living is far more in the brains than in the back. +</p> +<p> + It is so easy for a man or woman with one set of ideals to do that which + another would consider impossible drudgery. +</p> +<p> + My final advice is that the sensible young couple both of whom agree about + essentials, and who are willing and glad to work together for a common + end, and who love nature and gardening and believe in family life so + strongly as not to miss the crowd and theatres, may safely start a home in + the country with a garden, and pets for the children, if they have a + reasonable prospect of ten years in one spot. Let them make the place + attractive for some family, even if they have to leave it. +</p> +<p> + The women of this group will, I believe, have the qualities Mr. Wells + predicts: not only intelligence and education, but a reasonableness and + reliability not always found to-day. +</p> +<p> + Unless a reasonable prospect of ten years' occupancy is assured, then + begin life in a rented house, not necessarily in a flat. Begin with a few + things of your own some which have been yours for years, some which you + have bought together and which have a meaning for one of you and are not + irritating to the other. +</p> +<p> + Devote a part of your leisure to a critical study of the house you would + like, draw plans, make sketches in color, study color effects, learn about + fabrics, collect them for the future. You will find an amusing and + instructive occupation. +</p> +<p> + The essential point is to begin this life on two thirds of what you have + reason to expect as the year's income; keep the rest invested or in the + bank. There are to-day many temptations to spend for things attractive in + themselves but not necessary to the effective life. If friends are so + silly as to rally you on living in an unfashionable quarter, ask them in + to see your sketches and plans, and talk them into enthusiasm over the + idea. Do missionary work with them rather than be ridiculed out of your + convictions. It sometimes seems as if young people had no convictions, as + if they drifted with the wind of newspaper suggestion. So do not allow + your friends to drive you to greater expense than you have determined + upon, lest the end of the first two years of life find you in debt with no + fair start for the baby, whose life should begin in an atmosphere of quiet + assurance that all is well. It is not impossible that the nervous + irritability and recklessness of many are due to the atmosphere of + childhood. Then remember that <i>the welfare and security of the child is + the watchword of the future</i>. +</p> +<a name="CH9"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + A FEW BOOKS +</h3> +<p> + <strong>Anticipations.</strong> H.G. Wells. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Mankind in the Making.</strong> H.G. Wells. Scribners. +</p> +<p> + <strong>A Modern Utopia.</strong> H.G. Wells. Scribners. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Twentieth-century Inventions: a Forecast.</strong> Geo. + Sutherland. Longmans, Green, & Co. +</p> +<p> + <strong>The Level of Social Motion.</strong> Michael Lane. Macmillan. +</p> +<p> + <strong>The Theory of the Leisure Class.</strong> Thorstein Veblen. + Macmillan. +</p> +<p> + <strong>The Woman who Spends.</strong> Whitcomb and Barrows. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Physical Deterioration: Its Causes and their Cure.</strong> A. Watt + Smyth. E.P. Dutton. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Shelter.</strong> Syllabus 94, Home Education Dept, Univ. of + N.Y. State Library, Albany. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Report of the Tenement-house Commission.</strong> +</p> +<a name="CHIND"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + INDEX +</h3> + <b>A</b> +<p> +Adaptation<br> + lack of<br> +"Anticipations"<br> +Advisers, home<br> +Age, spirit of the<br> +Air<br> +Altruria<br> +Albert's, Prince, advice<br> +Apartment houses<br> +Architects<br> +Architecture, domestic<br> +Arts, constructive<br> +</p> + <b>B</b> +<p> +Bachelor<br> + apartment<br> +Back, bending the<br> + strength of<br> +Badges of toil<br> +Boarding houses<br> + origin of<br> +Breakfast<br> +Building<br> + laws<br> + loan associations<br> +Building trades<br> +Bureau of Labor, U.S.<br> +</p> + <b>C</b> +<p> +Capital<br> +Care of rooms<br> + human body<br> +Carpentry in high school<br> +Centrifugal force<br> +Children<br> + deterioration of manners of<br> +Choice<br> +City<br> + houses<br> +Civilization<br> +Class to work for<br> +Cleaning machine<br> +Cleanliness<br> +Clothing<br> +Colonial houses<br> + period, housebuilding of<br> + Southern type of, houses<br> +Commuter, trials of<br> +Companionship<br> +Compromise<br> +Concrete<br> +Consciousness, social<br> +Construction<br> +Consumption, destructive<br> +Conveniences<br> +Cooperation<br> +Cost<br> + increasing<br> + of housing and total income<br> + per person and per family<br> +Country<br> +Crowding<br> +</p> + <b>D</b> +<p> +Dayton scheme<br> +Debt<br> +Demand<br> + business<br> +Democracy<br> +Deterioration of houses<br> +Dirt<br> +Discomforts<br> +Discontent<br> +Dishonesty in standards<br> +Dole, Charles<br> +Domestic comfort<br> + machine<br> + progress, retarded<br> + unrest<br> +Drainage<br> +Drudgery<br> +Dust<br> +</p> + <b>E</b> +<p> +Economics, home, exhibit<br> + household<br> + social<br> +Economist<br> +Economy<br> +Effective life<br> + workers<br> +Effectiveness<br> +Efficiency<br> + loss of<br> +Energy<br> +Engineering, definition of<br> +Engle's law<br> +Environment<br> +Euthenics<br> +Evolution<br> +Expense<br> +Expenses<br> + operating<br> +Experience in doing<br> + lack of<br> +Experts, house<br> +Extravagance<br> +</p> + <b>F</b> +<p> +Family<br> + table<br> +Farm life<br> +Flat<br> +Flats<br> +Floors, hard-wood<br> + lignolith<br> +Food<br> +Force<br> + for regeneration<br> +Foreigner<br> +Friction due to house<br> +</p> + <b>G</b> +<p> +Garden<br> +Gardening<br> +Gas-stoves<br> +Group system<br> +</p> + <b>H</b> +<p> +Habit, perils of<br> +Habits<br> +Hands<br> +Heating<br> +Home<br> + abandonment of<br> + advisers<br> + Anglo-Saxon meaning of<br> + building of<br> +Home economics<br> + feeling<br> + life<br> + love of<br> + makers<br> + means privacy<br> + ties loosened<br> +Homeless<br> +Homestead<br> +Hospitality<br> +Hot water<br> +House<br> + building<br> + Colonial<br> + evidence of social standing<br> + -keepers<br> + -keeping, twentieth-century<br> + -maids, physical inefficiency of<br> + planning in High School<br> + plans<br> + suburban<br> +Houses<br> + city<br> + colonial, of New England<br> + four classes of<br> + modern<br> +Housing<br> +</p> + <b>I</b> +<p> +Ideal<br> +Ideas<br> +Improvements<br> +Income<br> +Individual<br> +Industries, disappearance of<br> +Installment plan<br> +Invasion of residential districts<br> +Invention<br> +Investment<br> +</p> + <b>K</b> +<p> +Kitchen<br> + accompaniments<br> + remodelled, in Providence<br> +Kitchenette<br> +</p> + <b>L</b> +<p> +Labor, Bureau of<br> + -saving devices<br> +Lack of<br> + adaptation<br> + business training<br> + experience<br> + faithful service<br> + harmony<br> + study<br> +Land<br> +Landlord<br> +Land-scheme promoter<br> +Lane, Mr. Michael<br> +Leaven of progress<br> +Legacy<br> +"Level of Social Motion"<br> +Life<br> + effective<br> + frontier<br> + fuller<br> + home<br> + open air<br> + private, shabby<br> + restrained<br> +Light<br> +Living, decent<br> + sane<br> + cost of<br> +Location<br> +Lodge, Sir Oliver<br> +</p> + <b>M</b> +<p> +Machinery<br> +Maid's rooms<br> +Making of things<br> +Man, early<br> + primitive<br> +Manners<br> +Marriage, responsibility of<br> +Meals<br> +Mechanical<br> + progress<br> +Menial<br> +Middle, leaven of progress in<br> +Model Tenement Association, New York<br> +Money<br> + basis<br> + measure of success<br> + spender<br> + value<br> +Morison, Geo. S<br> +Morris Building Co<br> +Mulock, Miss<br> +</p> + <b>N</b> +<p> +Nasmyth, James<br> +Natural selection<br> +Nature<br> + love of<br> + return to<br> +Neill, Chas. P., extracts from address by<br> +New Epoch, The<br> +</p> + <b>O</b> +<p> +Opinion, public<br> +Owen, Robert<br> +Own or rent<br> +Ownership<br> +</p> + <b>P</b> +<p> +Parks<br> +Parsons, Wm. Barclay<br> +Patronage of the arts<br> +Permanence in homestead, lack of<br> +Pettingill, Miss [Transcriber's Note: Pettengill in text.]<br> +Philanthropist<br> +Philanthropy<br> +Physical ill-being in<br> + domestics<br> + school children<br> + wage-earners<br> +Place of the house<br> +Plans<br> +Plumbing<br> +Possibilities in sight<br> +Preeminence, social<br> +Primitive man<br> +Principle, fixed<br> + race<br> +Privacy<br> +Private life shabby<br> +Productive work<br> +Progress<br> + leaven of<br> + race<br> +Protection<br> +</p> + <b>Q</b> +<p> +Question, a difficult<br> +</p> + <b>R</b> +<p> +Race principle<br> +Readjustment<br> +Real estate<br> +Refuge<br> +Regeneration, force for<br> +Rent<br> + or own<br> + -payers<br> +Residential districts, invasion of<br> +Responsibility of marriage<br> +Restaurant<br> +Restrained life<br> +Return to nature<br> +Rights to property, etc.<br> +Roosevelt, President<br> +</p> + <b>S</b> +<p> +Sanitarian<br> +Sanitary<br> + English, Inspectors Association, President of<br> +Sanitation<br> +Saving<br> +Schools, public<br> +Science<br> +Scrubbing<br> +Selection, natural<br> +Self-interest<br> + -preservation<br> +Service<br> + faithful, lack of<br> +Sewer connection, houses without<br> +Shelter<br> +Shelter, marrying for<br> +Sheltering the children<br> +Simplicity<br> +Social advance<br> + aspiration<br> + betterment<br> + conditions<br> +Social conscience<br> + consciousness<br> + convention<br> + economics<br> + ostracism<br> + pleasure<br> + preĆ«minence<br> + science<br> + significance<br> + standing<br> + welfare<br> +Society<br> +Sociologist<br> +Sociology<br> +Somerville<br> +Space<br> + diminishing<br> +Spender<br> +Spirit of the age<br> +Standards<br> +Stone, Mary Lowell, Home Economics Exhibit<br> +Structure<br> +Stuckert, Mrs<br> +Study, lack of<br> +Suburban<br> + houses<br> + living<br> + square<br> +Suburbs<br> +Sun-parlors<br> +Sunlight Park, England<br> +</p> + <b>T</b> +<p> +Table, family<br> +Tax<br> +Temporary home<br> +Tenant<br> +Tenement<br> + N.Y. Model, Association<br> +Tennyson<br> +Tenure,<br> + permanence of<br> + shortness of<br> + uncertain<br> +Transition period<br> +Tuberculosis<br> +</p> + <b>U</b> +<p> +U.S. Bureau of Labor<br> +Unrest, domestic<br> +Unsanitary<br> +Utopian<br> +</p> + <b>V</b> +<p> +Veblen<br> +Ventilation<br> +Village houses<br> + influx from<br> +</p> + <b>W</b> +<p> +Wage-earners<br> +Waste, conspicuous<br> +Watchword of the future<br> +Water, hot<br> +Wedding presents<br> +Well-being of community threatened<br> +Wells, H.G.<br> +White plague<br> +Wife<br> +Window<br> +Woman<br> +Women, corporation of<br> +Women's work<br> +Work,<br> + menial<br> + productive<br> + women's<br> +Workers, effective<br> +Working men<br> +</p> + <b>Y</b> +<p> +Young people<br> +Youth, American<br> +</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12366 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/12366-h/images/031.jpg b/12366-h/images/031.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7b20d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/images/031.jpg diff --git a/12366-h/images/032.jpg b/12366-h/images/032.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1efed7 --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/images/032.jpg diff --git a/12366-h/images/033.jpg b/12366-h/images/033.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2af6d83 --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/images/033.jpg diff --git a/12366-h/images/fig10.jpg b/12366-h/images/fig10.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dca14f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/images/fig10.jpg diff --git a/12366-h/images/fig6.jpg b/12366-h/images/fig6.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ac0aeb --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/images/fig6.jpg diff --git a/12366-h/images/fig7.jpg b/12366-h/images/fig7.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a69c64 --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/images/fig7.jpg diff --git a/12366-h/images/fig8.jpg b/12366-h/images/fig8.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0401f92 --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/images/fig8.jpg diff --git a/12366-h/images/illus0144.jpg b/12366-h/images/illus0144.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cad6874 --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/images/illus0144.jpg diff --git a/12366-h/images/illus0146.jpg b/12366-h/images/illus0146.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..921fd28 --- /dev/null +++ b/12366-h/images/illus0146.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcb4cdd --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12366 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12366) diff --git a/old/12366-8.txt b/old/12366-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c29e25 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12366-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3576 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cost of Shelter, by Ellen H. Richards + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cost of Shelter + +Author: Ellen H. Richards + +Release Date: May 16, 2004 [EBook #12366] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COST OF SHELTER *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + +THE +COST OF SHELTER. + + +By +ELLEN H. RICHARDS + + +Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry, +Massachusetts Institute of Technology. + + +1905. + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLD EXISTS FOR ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS: + + +Two or more persons form an alliance + +(a) for protection against the outside world; + +(b) for protection against the outside world and for the rearing of + children; + +(c) for the greater gain in convenience which the common life can give + over that of single effort; + +(d) for companionship; + +(e) for the greater independence it gives to the group; + +(f) for the greater ease in satisfying one's prejudices or whims. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE. TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTRES OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY + +CHAPTER II. + + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING + +CHAPTER III. + + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, ILL ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS, CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION + +CHAPTER IV. + + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY + +CHAPTER V. + + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE + +CHAPTER VI. + + COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY FOR VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER + +CHAPTER VII. + + RELATION BETWEEN COST OF SHELTER AND TOTAL INCOME TO BE EXPENDED + +CHAPTER VIII. + + TO RENT OR TO OWN: A DIFFICULT QUESTION + + + + +THE COST OF SHELTER. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE; TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTERS OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY. + + "There is no noble life without a noble aim."--CHARLES DOLE. + +The word Home to the Anglo-Saxon race calls to mind some definite house as +the family abiding-place. Around it cluster the memories of childhood, the +aspirations of youth, the sorrows of middle life. + +The most potent spell the nineteenth century cast on its youth was the +yearning for a home of their own, not a piece of their father's. The +spirit of the age working in the minds of men led them ever westward to +conquer for themselves a homestead, forced them to go, leaving the aged +behind, and the graves of the weak on the way. + +There must be a strong race principle behind a movement of such +magnitude, with such momentous consequences. Elbow room, space, and +isolation to give free play to individual preference, characterized +pioneer days. The cord that bound the whole was love of home,--one's own +home,--even if tinged with impatience of the restraints it imposed, for +home and house do imply a certain restraint in individual wishes. And +here, perhaps, is the greatest significance of the family house. It cannot +perfectly suit _all_ members in its details, but in its great office, that +of shelter and privacy--ownership--the house of the nineteenth century +stands supreme. No other age ever provided so many houses for single +families. It stands between the community houses of primitive times and +the hives of the modern city tenements. + +As sociologically defined, the family means a common house--common, that +is, to the family, but excluding all else. This exclusiveness is +foreshadowed in the habits of the majority of animals, each pair +preempting a particular log or burrow or tree in which to rear its young, +to which it retreats for safety from enemies. Primitive man first borrowed +the skins of animals and their burrowing habits. The space under fallen +trees covered with moss and twigs grew into the hut covered with bark or +sod. The skins permitted the portable tent. + +It is indeed a far cry from these rude defences against wind and weather +to the dwelling-houses of the well-to-do family in any country to-day, but +the need of the race is just the same: protection, safety from danger, a +shield for the young child, a place where it can grow normally in peaceful +quiet. It behooves the community to inquire whether the houses of to-day +are fulfilling the primary purposes of the race in the midst of the +various other uses to which modern man is putting them. + +As already shown, shelter in its first derivation, as well as in its +common use, signifies protection from the weather. Bodily warmth saves +food, therefore is an economy in living. From the first it also implied +protection from enemies, a safe retreat from attack and a refuge when +wounded. But above all else it has, through the ages, stood for a safe and +retired place for the bringing up of the young of the species. + +The colonial houses of New England with large living-room, dominated by +the huge fireplace with its outfit of cooking utensils, with groups of +buildings for different uses clustered about them, giving protection to +the varied industries of the homestead, illustrate the most perfect type +of family life. Each member had a share in the day's work, therefore to +each it was home. To the old homestead many a successful business man +returns to show his grandchildren the attic with its disused loom and +spinning-wheel; the shop where farm-implements were made, in the days of +long winter storms, to the accompaniment of legend and gossip; the dairy, +no longer redolent of cream. These are reminders of a time past and gone, +before the greed of gain had robbed even these houses of their peace. The +backward glance of this generation is too apt to stop at the transition +period, when the factory had taken the interesting manufactures out of the +hands of the housewife and left the homestead bereft of its best, when the +struggle to make it a modern money-making plant, for which it was never +designed, drove the young people away to less arduous days and more +exciting evenings. + +This stage of farm life was altogether unlovely, not wholly of necessity, +but because the adjustment was most painful to the feelings and most +difficult to the muscles of the elders. + +Because the family ideal was the ruling motive, the house-building of the +colonial period shows a more perfect adaptation to family life than any +other age has developed. + +Where is the boasted adaptability of the American? He should be ready to +see the effect of the inevitable mechanical changes and modify his ideas +to suit. For it cannot be too often reiterated that it is a case of +_ideas_, not of wood and stone and law. + +This homestead has passed into history as completely as has the Southern +colonial type, differing only in arrangement. Climate, as well as domestic +conditions, demanded a more complete separation of the manufacturing +processes, including cooking, laundry, etc., otherwise the ideal was the +same. "The house" meant a family life, a gracious hospitality, a busy hive +of industry, a refuge indeed from social as well as physical storms. Work +and play, sorrow and pleasure, all were connected with its outward +presentment as with the thought. For its preservation men fought and women +toiled, but, alas! machinery has swept away the last vestige of this life +and, try as the philanthropist may to bring it back, it will never return. +The very essence of that life was the _making of things_, the preparation +for winter while it was yet summer, the furnishing of the bridal chest +years before marriage. Fancy a bride to-day wearing or using in the house +anything five years old! + +There are no more pioneer and colonial communities on this continent. +Railroads and steamboats and electric power have made this rural life a +thing of the past. Let us not waste tears on its vanishing, but address +ourselves to the future. + +There are two directions in which great change in household conditions has +occurred quite outside the volition of the housekeeper. They are the +disappearance of industries, and lack of permanence in the homestead. +Those who are busily occupied in productive work of their own are +contented and usually happy. The results of their efforts, stored for +future use--barns filled with hay or grain, shelves of linen and +preserves--yield satisfaction. + +Destructive consumption may be pleasurable for the moment, but does not +satisfy. The child pulls the stuffing from the doll with pleasure, but +asks for another in half an hour. The delicious meal daintily served is a +joy for an hour. A room put in perfect order, clean, tastefully decorated, +is a delight to the eye for three hours and then it must be again cleaned +and rearranged. Is this productive work? Is there any reason why we should +be satisfied with it or happy in it? + +In an earlier time, that from which we derive so many of our cherished +ideals, the house built by or for the young people was used as a homestead +by their children and their children's children. Customs grew up slowly, +and for some reason. Furniture, collected as wanted, found its place; all +the routine went as by clockwork. Saturday's baking of bread and pies went +each on to its own shelf, as the cows went each to her own stall. If the +duties were physically hard, the routine saved worrying. + +To-day how few of us live in the house we began life with! How few in that +we occupied even ten years ago! And this number is growing smaller and +smaller. The housewife has not time to form habits of her own; she engages +a maid and expects her to fall at once into the family ways, when the +family has no ways. + +In the sociological sense, shelter may mean protection from noise, from +too close contact with other human beings, enemies only in the sense of +depriving us of valuable nerve-force. It should mean sheltering the +children from contact with degrading influences. + +Charles P. Neill, United States Commissioner of Labor, in his address at +the New York School of Philanthropy, July 16, 1905, said: "In my own +estimation home, above all things, means privacy. It means the possibility +of keeping your family off from other families. There must be a separate +house, and as far as possible separate rooms, so that at an early period +of life the idea of rights to property, the right to things, to privacy, +may be instilled." + +There may be such a thing as too much shelter. To cover too closely breeds +decay. Are we in danger of covering ourselves and our children too closely +from sun and wind and rain, making them weak and less resistant than they +should be? The prevalence of tuberculosis and its cure by fresh air seems +to indicate this. The attempt to gain privacy under prevailing conditions +tends this way. + +Hitherto students of social economics have usually considered the most +pressing problem in the life of the wage-earner to be that of sufficient +and suitable food. But in any large city and in most smaller communities +there are found those who have refined instincts, aspirations for a life +of physical and moral cleanness, who by force of circumstances are obliged +to come in contact with filth and squalor and careless disorder in order +to find shelter. If they can be kept from degenerating, their rise when +it comes will lift those below them, but it is a Herculean task to lift +them by lifting all below as well. The burden which presses most heavily +on this valuable material for social betterment is that of shelter rather +than of food. + +The thought underlying this whole series on Cost is that the place to put +the leaven of progress is in the middle. The class to work for is the +great mass of intelligent, industrious, and ambitious young people turned +out by our public schools with certain ideals for self-betterment, but in +grave danger of losing heart in the crush due to the pressure of society +around them and above them. They fear to incur the responsibility of +marriage when they see the pecuniary requirements it involves. + +This growing body makes up so large a proportion of the whole in America +that, once aroused, it may become an all-powerful force for regeneration, +thanks to the pervading influence of public-school education when enlisted +on the side of right. Faith in the uprightness of American youth is so +strong that strenuous effort for their enlightenment is justified. Once +they have their attention drawn to the need of action, they will act. +Self-preservation is one of the strongest instincts, and it may be +dangerous to call upon the self-interest of these inexperienced souls; but +for the sake of the results we must risk the lesser evil, if we can +develop a resolution to secure a personal and race efficiency. + +When the young people, with a deep appreciation of the possibilities of +sane and wholesome living, marry and attempt to realize their ideals, the +conditions are all against them. They find little sympathy in their +yearnings for a rational life, and soon give up the effort, deciding that +they are too peculiar. They slip almost insensibly into the routine of +their neighbors. There is great need of a cooperation of like-minded young +married people to form a little community, setting its own standards and +living a fairly independent life. Two or three such groups would do more +than many sermons to awaken attention to the problem before the race +to-day. Shall man yield himself to the tendencies of natural selection and +be modified out of existence by the pressure of his environment, or shall +he turn upon himself some of the knowledge of Nature's forces he has +gained and by "conscious evolution" begin an adaptation of the environment +to the organism? For we no longer hold with Robert Owen and the socialists +that man is necessarily controlled and moulded by his surroundings, that +he is absolutely subject to the laws of animal evolution. A new era will +dawn when man sees his power over his own future. Then, and not till then, +will come again that willingness to sacrifice present ease and pleasure +for the sake of race progress, which alone can make the restrained life a +satisfaction. + +The environment is, more largely than we think, the house and the manner +of life it forces upon us. Therefore the first point of attack is the +shelter under which the family life of the newly married pair establishes +itself. If it is too large for their income, it leads to extravagance and +debt before the first two years have passed; if it is too small, it cramps +the generous and hospitable impulses. If unsuited to this need, it +irritates and deforms character, as a plaster cast compresses a limb +encased in it. + +Imagine the young people beginning life in the average city flat, at a +rent of twenty to thirty dollars a month, with its shams, its makeshifts, +its depressing, unsanitary, morally unsafe quarters for the maid, its +friction with janitor and landlord--the whole sordid round necessitated by +the mere manner of building, and by that only. + +A few strong souls flee to the country. Counting the cost and finding that +all the earnings go to mere living, they decide to get that living in +company with nature under free skies--their own employers. Such may live +in Altruria with the happy zest of the authors of that charming sketch. + +It is not given to many of earth's children to be so well mated and so +heavenly-wise. The young man has been brought up to consider the house the +young wife's prerogative, and she--well, she has been trained to believe +that housewifely wisdom will come to her as unsought as measles. + +Two thirds the friction in the early years of married life is caused by +the house and its defects, resulting in dissatisfaction, disenchantment, +and the flight to a hotel or non-housekeeping apartment. + +If some of the problems to be faced and the difficulties in solving them +could be presented to the young people to be studied and discussed before +the actual encounter came, they would be more prepared. + +In discussing this part of the subject, as in the consideration of the +Cost of Living in general and the Cost of Food, we shall deal in +particular with incomes of from $1000 to $5000 a year for families of +five, recognizing that under present-day conditions the annual sum of +$1500 to $3000 means the greatest struggle between desires and power of +gratifying them. + +On the surface it appears that the things which go to make up delicate +cleanly living cost more and more each year, with no limit in sight. It is +not only the poet who moves from one boarding-house to another; the young +clerk and struggling business man go into smaller and smaller quarters +until the traditional limit of room to swing a cat is reached. + +The constantly diminishing space occupied by a family seems to prove that +the 40% increase in the cost of living within a few years is not caused +by an advance in the necessary cost of food; it is certainly not due to +the increased cost of necessary clothes. It is more than probable that the +increasing cost of shelter and all that it implies--increased +water-supply, service, repairs, etc.--is the main factor in the +undoubtedly increased expense. This will be considered in some detail in +Chapter VIII. + +While the socialist may take the ground that salaries must be raised to +keep pace with the rise in living expenses, the student of social +ethics--Euthenics, or the science of _better_ living--may well ask a +consideration of the topic from another standpoint. Is this increased cost +resulting in higher efficiency? Are the people growing more healthy, +well-favored, well-proportioned, stronger, happier? If not, then is there +not a fallacy in the common idea that more money spent means a fuller +life? + +Recent examination of school children in various cities in England and +America has revealed a state of physical ill-being most deplorable in the +present, and horrifying to contemplate for its future results. One has +only to keep one's eyes open in passing the streets to become aware of the +physical deterioration of thousands of the wage-earners. One has only to +listen to the housewife's complaints of inefficiency, lack of strength +among the housemaids, to realize that the world's work is not being well +done in so far as it depends upon human hands. + +This loss of efficiency is usually attributed to insufficient food and +long hours, but it is at least an open question if housing conditions are +not the more potent factor not only in the case of the very poor, but even +in the case of the family having an income of $2000 a year. Life in a +boarding-house adapted from the use by one family to that of five or six +without increase of bathing and ventilating conveniences, with old-style +plumbing, cannot be mentally or bodily invigorating. + +The house cannot be said to be a place of safety so long as the "great +white plague" lurks in every dark corner--tuberculosis, colds, influenza, +etc., fasten themselves upon its occupants. Explorers exposed to extremes +of weather do not thus suffer. The dark, damp house incubates the germs. + +But homes there must be: places of safety for children, of refuge for +elders. Men will marry and women may keep house. How shall it be managed +so as to be in harmony with present-day demands? Certainly not by ignoring +the difficulties. Progress in any direction does not come through wringing +of hands and deploring the decadence of the present generation. President +Roosevelt's advice is to bring up boys and girls to overcome obstacles, +not to ignore them. Let the educated, intelligent young people join in +devising a way to surmount this obstacle as the engineers of 1890 invented +new ways of crossing impassable gorges and "impossible" mountain ranges. + +The writer has no ready-prepared panacea to offer. Patent medicine is not +the remedy. This kind cometh out only by fasting and prayer. A long course +of diet is needed to cure a chronic disease. + +This little volume is intended merely as a spur to the imagination of the +indolent student, to arouse him to the mental effort required to deal with +the readjustment of ideas to conditions before it is too late. + +It is no exaggeration to say that the social well-being of the community +is threatened. The habits of years are broken up; sad to say, the +middle-aged will suffer unrelieved, but the young can be incited to +grapple with the situation and hew out for themselves a way through. + +Certain elements in the problem will be touched upon in the following +pages as a result of much going to and fro in the "most favored land on +earth." Certain questions will be raised as to what constitutes a home and +a shelter for the family in the twentieth-century sense of both family and +shelter. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING. + + It is not what we lack, but what we see others have, + that makes us discontented. + +There has been noted in every age a tendency to measure social preėminence +by the size and magnificence of the family abode. Mediaeval castles, +Venetian palaces, colonial mansions, all represented a form of social +importance, what Veblen has called conspicuous waste. This was largely +shown in maintaining a large retinue and in giving lavish entertainments. +The so-called patronage of the arts--furnishings, fabrics, pictures, +statues, valued to this day--came under the same head of rivalry in +expenditure. + +In America a similar aspiration results in immense establishments far +beyond the needs of the immediate family. But, unlike society in the +middle ages, social aspiration does not stop short at a well-defined line. +In the modern state each level reaches up toward the next higher and, +failing to balance itself, drops into the abyss which never fills. + +There is no contented layer of humanity to equalize the pressure; heads +and hands are thrust up through from below at every point. Democracy has +taken possession of the age and must be reckoned with on all sides. + +At first sight sumptuous housing might seem to be the least objectionable +form of conspicuous waste. Safer than rich food, less wasteful than +gorgeous clothing, but, as Veblen truly says, "through discrimination in +favor of visible consumption it has come about that the domestic life of +most classes is relatively shabby. As a consequence people habitually +screen their private life from observation." This is from a different +motive than the instinct of privacy, of personal withdrawal for rest and +quiet. This shabby private life is why true hospitality is disappearing. +The chance guest is no longer welcome to the family table; we are ashamed +of our daily routine, or we have an idea that our fare is not worthy of +being shared. Whatever it is, unconscious as it often is, it is a canker +in the family life of to-day. It leads to selfishness, to a laxness in +home manners very demoralizing. It is doubtless one of the great factors +in the distinct deterioration of children's public manners. + +Because the house is held to be the visible evidence of social standing, +because its location, style of architecture, fittings and furniture may be +made to proclaim the pretensions of its inhabitants, it is often dishonest +and one of the sources of the prevalent untruth in other things, since +dishonesty in housing has been not infrequently one of the first signs of +dishonesty in business. To move to a less fashionable quarter is to +confess financial stress at once. + +It is because the concomitant expenses of an establishment may be +curtailed without attracting public notice that a moral danger exists. The +outside shell is not the whole nor even the chief outlay. The operating +expenses run away with more money than the house itself, and it is in +these that the family, conscious of impending ruin, curtail, and thus +become dishonest in their own souls. + +The moral of it all is to live just a little below the probable limit, +whatever that may be, rather than to assume a greater income than is quite +certain. Granted that in the quickly changing conditions of to-day this is +difficult, it is not often impossible. + +It is only needed to set some other standard of social position than +shelter and to use the house for its legitimate purposes only, that of an +abode of the family in health and joyful cooperation. The class for which +this series is written should seek a shelter sufficient for these normal +uses, and make it so home-like that friends will gladly share it when +permitted. + +Let good manners, keen intelligence, bright and entertaining conversation +take the place of the showy but frequently uncomfortable houses and +wholesale entertainments of to-day. + +It is time that a beginning was made of that form of social pleasure and +mental recreation which the century must develop, or fail of its promise. + +What is the value, of present-day knowledge if not to stimulate the +conscious group, through the individual perhaps, but the group finally, to +better use of its powers and opportunities toward a higher form of social +life? + +We have been told that the house should be as much an expression of +individuality as clothes. Since clothes are constantly and easily changed, +and a family home built to order is comparatively permanent, such +expression in wood or stone should be carefully thought out; but how +rarely do we gain a pleasant impression from the houses built for the +purpose of setting forth social standards! The owner and the architect +have neither of them the highest ideals, and a sort of ready-made, +composite, often irritating, always displeasing result follows. The +pretence shows through more often than the occupant realizes. + +Society has the power to regulate its own conventions. Once convinced that +it is dangerous to put the strain of living on to mere superficial +pretence, mere location, ornament, new standards will be set up; as, +indeed, they are under other conditions. In frontier life, for instance, +where shortness of tenure is recognized, dress and the table take the +place of the house as indications. In a mining town, one is astonished at +the costumes seen on persons issuing from insignificant houses, and at the +excellent bill of fare in a restaurant with the barest necessities of +furnishing. Cursory observation often reads the signs of civilization +wrongly. The eastern traveller, accustomed to the outward glitter and the +finish of settled communities, fails to interpret the real efficiency of a +more flexible society. West of the Mississippi, that new empire we are +just beginning to appreciate, good food is recognized as of prime +importance, dress gives an opportunity for showing conspicuous waste, and +buildings are made for show only when permanence of residence is assured. + +Let society once thoroughly understand that safe shelter is essential to +its very life, that this safety is threatened, if not lost, by present +habits, and, by quick money-making schemes in house-building, it will +establish standards of living which shall not only be for the material +welfare, but for the mental, moral, and spiritual progress of the race. + +This progress can be secured by applying centrifugal force to congested +districts, by interesting capitalists to consider housing at the same time +with manufacturing plants, not only providing safe, economical houses, but +by making it socially possible to live in them on moderate incomes. + +The rising half, we must remember, is more affected by social conventions +than the submerged tenth. + +The well-to-do should consider more conscientiously those who recruit +their ranks, who, if started right without danger of debt, will have +freedom to advance. The present muddle has come about in part because no +one has taken the trouble to investigate the reasons. The young family +with $3000 a year has ideals for the manners and morals of the children +which are not satisfied with those of the inexpensive tenement quarter. +Prevention they consider better than cure, hence they pay higher rent than +the income warrants to secure elevating examples and morally wholesome +surroundings. + +[Illustration: The Morris Company's Block of Single Houses, with Central +Heating Plant (*remainder cut off).] + +[Illustration: The Morris Building Company's Block of Single Houses, with +Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +A single family cannot control a whole street, although cooperation can +accomplish a great deal in the way of congenial neighborhoods. But the +risk involved, the liability to error of judgment, as well as the large +outlay of capital, at once prevents the adoption of this means of +satisfactory housing for the business and professional class to any great +extent, at least in the city. The acumen needed to discover the profitable +in real estate, the skill to acquire large contiguous tracts of land, both +belong to the capitalist. Only when he is a philanthropist besides, is the +housing question safe in his hands. Such an example we find in the Morris +houses, Willoughby Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. This set of family dwellings was +put up to meet this very need. Congenial neighborhood, safe +playgrounds for the children, labor-saving devices for the housekeeper. +When first built they were in advance of anything in an eastern city of +their class. To-day Mr. Pratt has even more advanced ideas which will take +form in the future. + +[Illustration: Aerial-view Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +These attractive and comfortable houses, so near the working places of +the teachers and professional and business men who occupy them, were +possible only because of the comparative cheapness of the land, which had +been held undesirable for high-class single houses, not for sanitary +reasons, but solely on account of social conditions. This cluster of forty +houses makes its own atmosphere. This is the lesson to be learned. Let +groups of like-minded families make their own surroundings. The capitalist +will soon learn where his interest lies. + +[Illustration: Floor-plan Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +[Illustration: Floor-plan Drawing The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +Very probably it will be necessary to enlarge the scope and, perhaps, to +build two stories higher, so that the elders and perhaps bachelors of +both sexes, who do not care for the garden, may help to bear the expense +of the children's playground. Whatever form the advance may take, this is +a sign-post in the right direction. + +In the nature of things, however, the first experiments will be costly and +must be combined with business of a sure kind. In this instance the +heating and hot-water supply was made possible by a combination with +factory plant. But if a larger group of, say, one hundred houses were run +by a central establishment, the Morris Building Company estimates the cost +at about fifty dollars per year. + +These houses will be referred to again under Chapter VI, but the especial +value of this experiment was its social significance. How much better to +keep desirable land for residential purposes by such means than to permit +families to move away and give up satisfactory dwellings solely because +the lower end of the street has a few foreigners! Our older cities abound +in instances of this quick abandonment of most desirable streets without +any concerted effort to retain their character. + +The dangerous sanitary degeneration of these abandoned houses is one of +the worst features of the situation and a prolific cause of the +overcrowding of cities. + +The more thoughtful students of progressive tendencies are grouping +themselves in "parks" where houses are put up with the aid of the +capitalist under such restrictions as to price as is supposed to insure a +congenial neighborhood, and under such regulations as to land as to +prevent manufacturing establishments. When these plans are not purely +speculative, designed to entrap the young people by their best hopes of a +permanent home, much satisfaction may come from the plan. But even in this +country or suburban life the shadow of fashion falls sooner or later, and +the savings vanish with the years. Some deeper principle must come into +play, some stronger force than mere whim of society leaders, before our +young people can be released from the bondage of living on the right side +of a street under penalty of social ostracism. + +There are gratifying indications of an awakening. The following statement +appeared in a newspaper of a recent date: + +"A corporation of women has been formed in Indianapolis, Ind., for the +purpose of building small but artistic houses for people of moderate +means. All of the directors are business women; one of the vice-presidents +is Miss Elizabeth Browning, the city librarian, and another is the +principal of one of the public schools. The secretary has for some time +been in charge of the office of a savings and loan association and is the +only woman member of the Indianapolis fire insurance inspection board. Six +houses are to be erected at once in various parts of the city." + +No better use of money or effort can be made at the present time than in +similar endeavors to meet the needs of the time. The study of conditions +will prove an education in itself and a stimulus to invention. + +When the social conscience is once awakened the bride with $2000 a year +will not be expected to begin where her mother left off. + +The young people will be provided with just as comfortable and just as +sanitary homes, but they will not be expected to entertain lavishly in +order to show the wedding presents before they are broken. They will be +visited, even if they live in an unfashionable quarter on a side street. +Is it not more honest? + +If society would put its stamp on the manner of life adapted to the +welfare of the young people, it would not be unfashionable to live within +one's income. + +The tyranny of things is very real and most distressing in connection with +this problem of shelter and all that it involves. + +There is only needed a social awakening to result in an adjustment of +men's views as to what is good and right. New social habits adapted to the +age we live in will be accepted by the next generation as good form. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOT ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION. + + "A large part of the evils of which we complain socially to-day + are due to the kind of houses we live in and the exactions they + make upon us."--H.G. WELLS. + +Four classes of houses have come down to us: + +(1) The family homestead in the country set low on the ground with damp +walls and dark cellar, one of a cluster of rambling buildings; with a +well, the only water supply, in close proximity to various sources of +pollution. These houses are for the most part now abandoned to the +foreigner, who uses them for the primitive purposes of shelter without the +ennobling intellectual life they once harbored. Now and then a grandson +rescues the old place, brings water from a spring or brook, digs a drain, +lets light into the cellar, and builds on a kitchen and dining-room. + +The expense is often greater than to build anew, but the effect is usually +very good when the changes are made under sanitary supervision. + +(2) The village or suburban house set in its own grounds, too near the +street usually, but with garden and fruit-trees in the rear, and possibly +a stable for horse and cow. This was the compromise made by the generation +just from the free life of the farm-house, who, consciously or +unconsciously, clung to the green of grass and trees, and the blue of the +sky. So long as habit or love of caring for the things lasted all went +well. The father found his recreation in planting the garden before +breakfast, as in his boyhood. The mother cared for flower and +vegetable-garden, as she recalled her mother's life; she picked her own +beans and corn, even if she did not cook the dinner. + +But the _children_ had to hurry off to school, and it was a pity to call +them early: they had lessons to learn in the afternoon. To them the garden +was work, not play as it should have been; so they failed to gain that +contact with mother earth which gives inspiration as well as health; they +failed to acquire a love of nature, became infected with the germ of +gregariousness, preferred the glare of lights, the rush of hurrying +crowds, and lost the relish for fresh air and quiet. This second +generation came to the city boarding-house and flat as soon as they were +free, leaving their parents' houses to go the same way as the +grandfather's farmhouse, into the hands of the foreigner not yet +Americanized to high standards of cleanliness and orderliness. + +These houses, too, are settling down into unkempt grounds with +dilapidated porches and blinds. Such eyesores as one finds on the +trolley-lines in any direction! They may have town-water supply, or they +may depend on wells, but they are frequently without sewer-connection. + +It is costly to be neat and clean, and only those whose minds require such +surroundings in order to be comfortable will pay the cost in time, +trouble, and money. + +(3) Some families made a compromise and built what is called a modern +house with bath-room and furnace (after the air-tight-stove craze passed), +with jigsaw ornamentation outside and in, pretentious-looking dwellings +with no proper kitchen accompaniments, and an unsavory garbage-barrel in +the small back yard, under the next neighbor's windows. These houses are +so close together that sounds and smells mingle; there is so little land +that there is no satisfaction in caring for it. Houses of this sort are +altogether too frequently found, occupying good locations and jarring on +the nerves of the better-trained young people of to-day. What is to be +done with them? They are too expensive to pull down, and hence are the +last resort of those who find they must retrench. They are mere temporary +shelters, not loved homes. + +The plumbing is usually of a cheap order, and the drains are not +infrequently broken, so that sanitarily these dwellings are often more +suspicious than the abandoned farmhouse. + +(4) The influx from village and country made demand for city housing of +an inexpensive sort, and there came into being all over the land the type +of the family house squeezed by the price of land to four stories high, 16 +to 20 feet wide, built in long rows and blocks. The "ugly sixties" bred +not only distressful village "villas," but unpleasant city houses of this +type, which are to-day a real menace to wholesome living. Many such blocks +may be found in any of our older cities, casting a depressing influence +upon all who come in sight of them, and deteriorating the manners and +morals of all who live in them. For these have gone the way of the other +classes mentioned and become perverted from the uses they were designed +for. In the seventies there were still motherly women who had come to town +to make a home for the children no longer content out of it. They were +willing and capable of mothering a few other children and lonely teachers +and clerks, so the boarding-house began as a real family home for the +homeless. There were not enough of these women to go around, and soon +boarding-houses began to be run for profit only. Home privileges were +fewer and fewer, the common parlor was rented, the one-family kitchen was +made to do duty for twenty persons. The house became pervaded with burned +fat and tobacco-smoke--a most villainous combination, gossip flourished, +and the limit of discomfort was reached. What wonder that a good Samaritan +built the first flat where the wearied nerves could find peace in the +thicker walls, and could escape the eternal "fry" by going out to meals! +It is a perfectly natural evolution from the impossible conditions which +the eighties and nineties developed. + +The early attempts, built on the old lines after the old ideas, before the +new life was accepted, are not satisfactory and, being built of brick or +stone, they are even more difficult to get rid of than the preceding. So +each type goes down in the scale of decent living. A given roof is made to +cover more people crowding closer and closer, causing home in the sense of +privacy and comfort to recede farther and farther away, until the lover of +his kind stands aghast at the magnitude of the problem before society when +it awakens to the task confronting it. Fortunately these rows of houses +are disappearing under the demand of business. The invasion of the +residential district is a real blessing, in that it pulls down these +houses which in twenty years have outlived their usefulness and can serve +a good purpose no longer. + +Let us hope that either the demands of business or the common sense of +society will also sweep away the fifth class: (5) City flats put up by the +conscienceless money-maker with only that idea of giving the public what +the public wants (because it knows no better) which gives the newspaper +its pernicious influences. At first it was supposed the flat-dwellers +would keep house, and arrangements of a sort were made. This compressed +the work of the house into such small quarters that the maid was given a +room down in the basement along with the furnace, or in the top story +adjoining ten or more other rooms--a dormitory arrangement without +supervision and without the quiet needed for rest. The difficulty of +securing good service under these conditions, together with the thousand +and one annoyances of living at too close quarters, noisy children and +pianos, grumpy janitors, smelly garbage, have led to the latest phase: +non-housekeeping flats with daily care of a sort supplied by the janitor +if desired, a kitchenette where eggs and coffee for breakfast and dishes +for invalids may be prepared, and restaurants galore for other meals. Thus +the women of the family are set free to roam the streets in search of +bargains and to join others like unto themselves for matinées and +promenades. + +This sort of shelter is increasing more rapidly than any other in all the +cities investigated. An estimate has been made that 80 or 90 per cent of +the recent building has been of this sort. Six rooms in an unfashionable +locality rent for about $25 or $30 a month; in a fashionable quarter, for +$200 to $250 per month, with a floor-space one half larger. These latter +cost about 50 cents per week per room for daily care, whereas the former, +if cared for from outside, are served only at intervals of two weeks or a +month. The inmates do most of the daily care themselves. While the +building is new and fresh this means little work; but as time goes on the +poor construction shows, the surface varnish wears off, cracks come, and a +general shabbiness appears, so that the tenant prefers to move into a new +building. The owner, or more probably the agent, puts on a little shining +varnish, and rents again without real repair, and these buildings also go +from bad to worse. Many of them are known to change tenants two or three +times a year. There is always a demand for the newest house. + +A study of social conditions reveals the fact that for the larger part of +the wage-earners the house has come to be the place where money is spent, +not earned or even saved. It has gone back to its primitive use--shelter +from weather and a sleeping-place, a temporary one at that. A real-estate +authority has made the assertion that three fifths of the rent-payers in +large cities are made up of non-householders and one half of these are +confined to one room--mostly women. This indicates a change in +requirements for the housing of the individual as distinguished from the +family. And it is this element which has complicated city living to a +great extent, and to which attention has been drawn by the accusation that +home life is shirked by it. + +To the bachelor man and maid are added the commercial traveller who leaves +wife and possibly child behind four fifths of the time. For him, as for +several other classes of young business men, the locality which he can +choose for headquarters changes with the requirements of business. He is +under orders and must go at a moment's notice across the continent, +perhaps. It is not his fault but the exigency of business that destroys +the desire for a permanent abiding-place. The numbers of such homeless +young people are far greater than any one but the real-estate agent +realizes. Then this loosening of the home tie renders easy the shifting +from city to country and seashore. A considerable proportion of the $2000 +to $5000 class shut up the flat or leave the boarding-house several times +in the year. There is usually one place where the furniture and +bric-a-brac and the other season's clothing are kept, but it is only a +storehouse or a temporary retreat that holds their property, growing less +and less as they move, until they may practically live in their trunks. + +The legacy which outranks all the others in disastrous consequences is the +notion that the young people must begin where their parents left off; that +the house must be, if anything, a little more elaborate. Therefore in +starting life the rent is allowed to consume one third the income in +sight, without considering the cost of maintaining such an establishment. +With a probable income of $2000 a year the young man does not hesitate to +pay $500 for a house, not realizing that at least half as much more should +be spent on wages for the care of the nineteenth-century house, and as +much more on incidentals, car-fares, and unexpected demands. What wonder +that the young people find themselves in debt by the second year? + +The parents are quite as much, if not more, to blame for encouraging this +extravagance. The father and mother are entitled to their ease and to the +use of their income for it, but the newly married pair have, in this age, +no right to assume the same attitude. They have their way to make, their +work to do in the years ahead of them. They should not mortgage the future +for the sake of the present luxury; and because of the uncertainties of +occupation and of health it is wise to take out of the expected income one +fourth or one third for a reserve fund and divide the remainder for +expenses. For instance, from $2000 a year subtract $500, then divide the +$1500 into $300 for rent, $300 for food, $300 for operating expenses, $200 +for clothing, $200 for travel, leaving $200 for the other expenses. If +unlooked-for expenses must be incurred, there is the $500 to draw upon; +but do not court the extra outlay: save the nest-egg if possible. + +The ideals of the home are said to rule the world. The young business man +who does not take the sane view of his own expenses will not rightly +consider his employer's interests. It is more than probable that the +much-deplored laxness, to call it by no harsher name, in business circles +is directly traceable to this falseness and dishonesty in standards of +home life. This moral effect is what makes the housing problem so serious. +It leads to an outward show not balanced by an ability to maintain an +inner life in harmony. It leads to an attempt to carry on a four-servant +house with two servants, or a three servant establishment with one. + +Lack of study and experience leads the family living in the suburbs, in +one of the worst legacies of the past, to attempt the same style as +friends maintain in a lately built apartment house, without in the least +understanding wherein the difference lies. + +From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to Texas, comes the same dull +and sullen roar of domestic unrest. Lack of faithful service is causing +the abandonment of the family home, and the fear of the obstacles in the +way of establishing new ones threatens the whole social fabric. + +The housewife is inclined to connect this state of things almost entirely +with food preparation, and is prone to fancy that if eating could be +abolished peace would return. + +The trouble goes much deeper, however, even to the foundations. The +nineteenth-century house is not suited to twentieth-century needs. In +other words, lack of adaptation to present conditions of the houses we +live in is a large factor in the prevailing domestic discontent. The next +largest has been referred to as attempting a style of living beyond one's +income. + +In all other walks of life, in transportation, in manufacturing, machinery +has come in to replace the heavier and more mechanical portions of labor. +The steam-shovel, the hoisting-engine, an infinite combination of +mechanical principles have been applied to the doing of things to save +human muscle. To stand by the machine which turns out the familiar +grape-basket, ready to fill with the fruit, and then to watch the +housemaid bending over some piece of work, is to realize the difference. +In few, very few operations is it necessary to-day that men should bend +their backs, but in how many household processes is the worker expected to +get down on all fours? The free-born American rebels. Perchance it is the +unconscious protest over a four-footed ancestry, or it may be that disuse +has really weakened the spinal column. Whatever the cause, the fact +remains. It is not the idea of work, of service, but of bending the back +to work that is so repugnant; likewise the effect on the hands of hot +water and scrubbing. Close observation has convinced me that care of the +hands has become an indication of freedom from manual labor quite +unthought of fifteen or twenty years ago. The increase of +manicuring-rooms, like the increase of restaurants, is a clear sign of the +trend of the times. Not only the class who likes to waste conspicuously, +but many a teacher, many a young man in State or Government employ with +an income of one, two, or three thousand a year patronizes these rooms. + +This daintiness reflects downward, and the girl whose acquaintances in her +high-school days are in a position to keep well manicured, if not +"lily-white," hands does not like to have hers show the effect of +housework, when that means scrubbing the floor and cleaning the stove. +Gloves? Ah, well, James Nasmyth once wrote: "Kid-gloves are great +non-conductors of knowledge." I believe that gloves of any kind are a +makeshift in real cleaning of dirty corners; but _there should not be +corners to catch dirt_. + +The unnecessary nastiness of the scrub-water with its fine soot which +works into every pore is a great objection to the girl who must work for +her living. If she goes to visit her friends, her hands betray her. She +can remove the other badges of her toil, her cap and apron; she may go out +on the street as brave as her mistress; but the moment her gloves are +removed her hands tell the tale. With the means at hand this need not be. +It is one of the legacies which have come down to us, and which we have +connected with the servant problem. The work in the most modern apartments +does not require the soiling of the hands in a serious way. With hard wood +floors, bright gas-stoves, porcelain lined dishes, no pots and kettles, +all the stairs, halls, etc., cared for by the janitor, the work is of a +far less smutting kind than in the suburban house, where there is still +need for much cleaning up of a roughening sort which cannot be escaped. +This has more to do than we are apt to think with the distaste for the +country, unless several servants are kept, some for this work only. In the +old type of city house the travel up-and down-stairs to answer bell and +telephone has demanded strength of back not possessed by the modern maid. +The house is not yet adapted to the new demands of the workers, and they +shun it. The mistress herself finds it beyond her strength, even if the +traces of rough work were not quite so distasteful to her. + +Miss Pettengill in her story of domestic service brings out the great part +played by sooty dust, sifting in even through closed windows, in the +burden of the waitress who is expected to keep the dining-room immaculate. + +This is only one instance where the blame really belongs on the actual +material house rather than on the mistress, except that she does not +discover a remedy, does not even know where to look for the cause. I have +great faith in the business woman, who does see much that is better done +and who will bring it back into the home. + +Fashions in philanthropy do not yet tend in the direction of house +betterment. + +"A busy man cannot stop his life-work to teach architects what they ought +to know," says Wells; but on the other hand "we cannot be expected to +teach men and their wives, as well as draw plans for them," says the +architect who has tried it. + +The centrifugal forces that our social prophets are so fond of invoking, +holding that the words "town" and "city" may become as obsolete as +"mail-coach," will have to reckon with these features of country life. + +It is assumed that the work of women is "housekeeping." I should like to +put the question suddenly to a thousand men. What is twentieth-century +housekeeping? I venture the guess that less than a hundred would take into +account the utter difference in their wives' duties from their mothers', +as they remember them; and yet the house, even the flat, is built more or +less along the old lines. The women do not know enough to assert +themselves, and have not the skill to show the builder what is wrong. The +architects could tell tales if they would. The utter ignorance of what a +house means, of the steps necessary to make a successful livable place, is +appalling. The young man who has $3000 as a legacy feels he can build. His +wife chooses the location near her friends whose houses she likes, and the +architect is called in. Do you wish back stairs? Are you to keep three +servants or none? Do you wish the rooms separate or connecting? All such +questions find a blank stare. "What difference does that make in the style +and price?" the would-be owner says. The architect is not always able to +show him that these little things are the whole problem in building a +_home_. The house as a home is merely outer clothing, which should fit as +an overcoat should, without wrinkles and creases that show their +ready-made character. The woman, born housekeeper as she considers +herself, is rigid in her ideas of what she thinks she wants, but when the +builder has followed her plans she is far from satisfied with the result. +She is used to material which puckers and stretches in her clothing; she +cannot understand the inflexibility of wood and stone. The remedy is for +high-school girls, probably even grammar-school pupils as well, to have +along with their drawing some problems in house-planning and some lessons +in carpentry. + +It will be seen from the foregoing glance at the rapid change and steady +deterioration of houses that the care of such living-places must involve +special discomforts in most cases. + +The time required to keep clean old splintered floors, to carry pails of +water up and down stairs, to dry out the cloths--the base boards with +their grimy streaks tell the story of carelessness--is not counted in the +wage schedule. + +Why is there so much dirt brought into the house? Because shoes and +streets are muddy. Why is there so much lint? Because we have too many +things in a room--too much wear and tear. + +And unnecessary dirt is found even in the newer apartment-houses with the +ever-changing population and ever-lessening space for maids' quarters, +together with the sham character of construction due to the fact that most +of these houses have been put up by speculators at the lowest cost of the +cheapest materials which will show wear in a few months. Flimsy +construction is a direct result of the notorious lack of care taken by the +tenant, so that quick returns must be the rule; also of the probability +that the neighborhood will deteriorate and that a class which will bear +crowding and be less critical will replace the first tenants. + +Conveniences for doing work in the houses built to rent, that is to bring +in the greatest returns in the shortest time, will not be put in (for the +first cost is great) unless the house will rent for more. The sharpest +Hebrew or Irish landlord will allow his architect to add bathtubs if he +believes the flat will rent for a few dollars more, where he will not do +it for the sake of cleanliness. The supply of hot water, together with the +gas stove, has done much to reconcile the housewife who does her own work +to the cramped quarters of the flat, and also has done more than anything +else to render the maids discontented with that legacy from the nineteenth +century which requires the building of a coal fire before hot water can be +had. The coal fire makes necessary rising an hour earlier and this, after +the late hours the seven-o'clock dinner enforces, causes friction all +along the line. + +The acceptance by young women without a study of cause and effect of +whatever presents itself makes them bad housekeepers, in the sense of +ignorant ones unable to cope with present conditions, because lack of +experience is not supplemented by a spirit of investigation and a +resolution to work out the problem. They seem to think that housekeeping +is to go on in the same old way no matter whatever else may change, +whereas it is most sensitive to the general direction of progress if they +but knew it. The wage-earner is more fully aware of the currents of the +irresistible river modern life has become (the slow-moving car of +Juggernaut is no longer an adequate symbol) than is the money spender. + +Indeed is any part of the house, as we now most frequently find it, +adapted to the uses of the twentieth century? + +The careless capitalist who makes possible the "cockroach landlord," he +who sublets and crowds and skimps the tenants for his own gain, is greatly +to blame for the distressing conditions of the lower income limit of the +wage-earner, but I fear he is not altogether blameless for the sort of +house the $1500 man has to look for in the city. Decent living with light +and air within half an hour of work is growing so rare that society must +take a hand in the matter. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY. + + "We have entered upon the period of conscious evolution, have + begun the adaptation of the environment to the organism."--Sir + OLIVER LODGE. + + +The hopeless pessimism of the past, that saw in the unmerciful progress of +organic evolution no escape for the human animal from the grip of fate, is +about to give way to the enthusiasm of conscious directing and controlling +power. + +This is the beneficent result of the age of the machine. Man has +discovered that he can not only change his environment, but that by this +change he can modify himself. The hope of the future lies in the moulding +of man's surroundings to his needs. In physiological terms, "the +adaptation of structure to function." + +The day is long past when shelter implied chiefly a tight roof and a dry +floor. The housing of the twentieth-century family means location, central +and fashionable. It means in cost far more than what the roof covers and +the floor supports. It means plumbing and interior finish; it also means +a finish on the outside, smoothly shaven lawns and immaculate sidewalks. + +Sigh as we may for the colonial house, we confess that the standards of +the time did not include the comfort of hot baths, polished floors, +plate-glass windows, elevators, ice-closets, and lawn-mowers. These are +necessary adjuncts to what is held as merely decent living; _how_ can the +$2000 man have them, not why _will_ he not? + +What then is the house and the life in it to become for the great majority +of families and individuals with an income of $3000 a year and necessarily +nomadic habits. I say necessarily, because these families are at the mercy +of business and social conditions quite beyond their control and +impossible to foretell. + +So far as prophetic vision sees through the mists of time, the aim of the +twentieth century is to live the _effective life_. + +The simple life has been preached, the strenuous life has been lauded, +but, as William Barclay Parsons recently stated it:[1] "We need force, we +need a vigorous force; we need that direction and avoidance of the +unnecessary which is simplicity, but with either one alone there is +something lacking. Instead of latent force and great energy without +control, instead of quiet gentleness, of power of control without vigor +to be controlled, what we need is force and energy applied where necessary +and always under control, always working to a definite purpose, and at the +same time avoiding complications and unnecessary friction. + +[Footnote 1: William Barclay Parsons, N.E.A., Asbury Park, 1905. _Eng. +Record_, Aug. 12, 1905.] + +"That is to have a life whose great underlying motive is effectiveness. +Instead of speaking of the strenuous life or the simple life, let us have +as a doctrine 'the effective life.' + +"What we need is not merely a man who acts, but one who _does_; that is, +one who will do what he has to do regardless of intervening obstacles. +Efficiency and effectiveness are the key-notes of success in actual life. +They are also the lessons taught by every parable in the New Testament, +even if that work is regarded as a code of ethics, and they form the +spirit of that stirring definition of engineering[1] which is based on the +direction of the vital forces of nature and the doing of things for +mankind." + +[Footnote 1: "Ability to do and the _doing_, efficiency, and the use of it +all for mankind."--Tredgold's definition of Engineering.] + +Manufacturing concerns have found it pays them to provide decent tenements +for their workers, but society has not yet awakened to the fact that the +rank and file of the great army of salaried employees is left to fend for +itself in a world only too prone to take advantage of its necessities. +There is danger in this neglect of wholesome living surroundings, because +from this stratum develops normally the intelligence of the future, and +how can mentally active children grow up under the prevailing unsightly +and unsanitary conditions? + +Of course with the passing of pioneer conditions will pass in a measure +the courage and adaptability which braced itself to meet and overcome +obstacles. The salaried position in a great combine, instead of work for +one's self in an independent business, tends to magnify the value of mere +money-income gained through smartness rather than by ability. If life is +made too easy, men will settle into indolent sterility, just as animals +and plants degenerate with too much food. + +The future will surely bring greater mechanical perfection and thus leave +it possible for the individual, for each member of the family group, to do +for himself many little things which are not comfortable to do now. But +will he be willing to do them? Not unless he feels it to be a duty or a +pleasure. Not unless there is an undercurrent of principle which carries +him along. Without this principle strong enough to give an impetus over +hard places in the early stages of life, the individual and the family +will surely drift into the hotel and boarding-house, where everything is +done on a money basis and nothing for love of one's kind; where a tip +salves the hurt of menial work. These habits once gained are hard to break +up; therefore it is much better for young people to begin life doing some +things for themselves in a house where machinery responds to their call +without a tip, where they may economize without loss of self-respect. We +need to revive some of the pagan ideals of the beauty and value of the +human body and human life which consists in the care and use of this body. +There is no menial work in the daily living rightly carried out; that +which the last century wrongly permitted is made needless by the machinery +of to-day. + +The point of view is most important. + +The first steps toward social betterment will come through a cooperation +of three forces: (1) a recognition of the need; (2) an awakening of social +conscience to the duty of supplying the need; and (3) the movement of +moneyed philanthropy to fulfil the requirement quickly. + +As was natural, sympathy flowed first to the class which had the most +visible need, not necessarily the greater need. + +The New York Model Tenement Association has shown the world how easy it +is, when there is a will, to find a way. That association has already +taken the first step in advanced housing, and reduced the cost of safe and +rentable city shelter to its lowest terms. Fireproof, sanitary, and +convenient so far as rooms go (it is quite a climb for the mother with a +baby in her arms to the sixth story), with neighbors carefully sorted, +repairs well looked after, a sympathetic woman as agent always in the +office; _but_ only a minimum of light and air and sun; bedrooms 7x8, +living-rooms 10x13; the smallest spaces the law allows; no grass, no +flowers outside, no pets, nothing of one's own that cannot be put in a +cart; common stairways where only partial privacy is gained; clothes-yards +on the roof, and laundry in the basement, to be used in turn by twenty +tenants. Because this is better than the slums for the emerging class, and +because they like the gregariousness, is no argument for continuing the +type up into the range of the $2000 group. But this is just what most of +the small apartments do--those built to make all the money that they will +bear. Hardly any better facilities are given. It will be easy for more +roomy living-places to be built on similar plans, with elevators and +labor-saving devices, and yet within the limit of moderate incomes, such +blocks to be always under competent sanitary supervision. + +From these model tenements it will not be difficult to advance to the +suburban square with sufficient variety in house plans to content those +who are willing to yield small personal whims. Hitherto the erratic fancy +of would-be tenants, the dissatisfaction with the arrangements provided, +has made building _en masse_ difficult. As long as the builder was called +upon to suit those who had lived in houses of their own for many years his +task was difficult, but now he will have to do with the young people who +know no other life and who will more readily fall in with the standards +set by the house itself. + +For this very reason those who have social welfare at heart must come to +the rescue, and devise and put up samples, of the best that modern science +can offer, to rent for $300 to $500 a year. Let any one who loves his +kind, if he have a talent this way, not wrap it in a napkin, but give it +to the builder and the philanthropist to materialize. Now is the time to +set standards for the next thirty years. The electric car is opening new +country as never before. Who will make the practical advance? + +These new houses will be roomy and yet, I think, will not fail of +sun-parlors or enclosed piazzas which will serve as extensions of the +house when occasion demands. I am sure they will not contain the +forbidding "front room" set apart for weddings and funerals and rare +family gatherings. More open-air life will be fashionable and practicable +as soon as we have learned that a wind-break and not a tightly-enclosed +space is what we need. In northern latitudes especially it is the wind +which makes the climate seem so inclement. The amount of accessible +sunshine may be doubled with great advantage in most of the +semi-country-houses. Shelter should not suggest a prison. + +The education of the child demands that housing shall include land for +pets, for vegetables and flowers; not merely to increase beauty and +selfish pleasure, but for the ethical value of contact with things +dependent on care and forethought. The thoughtful sociologist recognizes +as one of the greatest needs for the children of to-day a closer +companionship with fathers--is urging that even money-making should be +secondary to the time given to moulding the character of the little ones, +instead of leaving them to nurses and coachmen or to the school of the +streets. Companionship in the garden-work will secure this opportunity in +a natural way. + +It is only by going into the country that sufficient land for a simple +house with yard in front and garden in the rear--the ideal English +home--can be had. There will be a sacrifice of some of the things the city +gives, but a compromise is the only possible outcome of many claims. + +Those who are feeling the return to Nature, who find pleasure in gardening +and in all the soothing effects of country life, or who can bring +themselves to it with moderate pleasure for the sake of the children who +must be encouraged to delight in it, should go out at least ten miles from +the city. In a well-regulated household the early breakfast will be a +natural thing, and the meal will be no more hurried than any other. It is +the class which tries to be both city and country that fills the columns +of the magazines with the trials of the commuter. The father need not see +less of his children, and the common occupation and interest will furnish +opportunities for wise counsel. Much nonsense is written about the perils +of habit and the dangers of routine. It all depends upon what those habits +are. All animal functions are better performed as a matter of habit, +without thought; it saves energy for more intellectual pursuits, which, I +grant, are better kept under volitional control. The animal act of +breakfasting at a given hour, of taking a given train, can be accomplished +as unconsciously as breathing. Early rising should be the rule, because +the children are then available as they are not at night. + +We shall assume that the sane man will hold the little home in the country +with all outdoors to breathe in as worth the half-hour journey and the +early breakfast, and that the woman will have time set free by the +labor-saving devices sure to come as fast as she will use them wisely. +This free time she will give to the aesthetic side of life and will make +of her home a more attractive place than the club. + +_But_ once a week let them both go into town either to the club or to some +other place for dinner and an entertainment afterward. This will be +sufficient to keep them out of an intellectual rut, will brighten the +appetite with needed variety, and make the next quiet evening more +delightful. + +Once a week is sufficient to break the monotony of diet and routine, and +not often enough to create that insatiable appetite for the glare of +lights and the rush of people which makes all family life "deadly dull," +as one café-haunting woman confessed. + +While this country life is the only thing for a family of young children +and for those who really enjoy the country, there is a larger number +needing rational housing which will be left behind, let us hope with more +room because of the flitting of these others. + +Much as I deprecate the evils of the present apartment system, I do +believe that an idealized modification will be needed for many years, +especially for the elderly, for the commercial traveler, for the bachelor +men and maids temporarily or permanently living single, for the newly +married as yet unsettled in business or profession, for the man who does +not know his own mind or whose employers do not know theirs. An instance +has come to the writer's knowledge of a young man who, after his wedding +cards were out, was ordered to take charge of an office in another city. + +Marrying for shelter is and should be no longer necessary; and as for the +fear that this habit of bachelor quarters will be hard to break up and +tend to delay marriage, it will all depend upon whether it comes from the +merely animal layer of the brain or from the intellectual. + +This housing of the individual instead of the family has introduced an +entirely new problem into house-building. + +Formerly when a widow or widower, a maiden aunt, a homeless uncle or +cousin made his home with relatives, it was "as one of the family"; only +the minister was recognized as having need for a separate sitting-room. +The trials of this forced companionship have been told in many a witty +story; and pathetic instances that never came to print are matters of +common knowledge. + +Will any one dare question the fact that the sum of human happiness has +been increased by the freedom given to these prisoned souls by the small +independent apartment? + +I have been reminded that here is no provision for the different +generations to live together under the same roof; that the nineteenth +century held it to be of great social value to have the children grow up +with the elders. I am sorry for the twentieth-century grandparents if they +are obliged to live in a flat with the twentieth-century child; some +readjustment of manners and ideals must be made before such living will be +comfortable, and it seems as if they are better apart until the new order +is accepted or modified. The comfort of those whose work is done and who +have leisure to enjoy life was never so easily secured as to-day. To turn +the key and take the train at an hour's notice, leaving no cares to +follow, tends to a serene old age. + +Moralists may squabble over the discipline of living with one's +mother-in-law, and of the loss to the children of grandmother's petting, +but at least physical content and mental satisfaction have increased. Has +selfishness also? Who shall say? And anyway it is a part of the progress +of the age, and what are we to do about it? + +For one group of single persons the change has been only beneficial. It +was a strict code of the early nineteenth century that a single woman +should find shelter under the roof of some family house, however +independent, financially, her condition. Latch-key privileges were denied +her. Result, the boarding-house of the later half of the century, +nominally a family home, actually a hotbed of faultfinding and gossip, +most wearing to the teacher and fledgling professional woman, however +acceptable to the milliner and seamstress. Privacy could not be maintained +in a house built for a family of five made to do duty for twelve, with one +bath-room, thin-walled bedrooms with connecting doors through which the +light streamed when one wished to sleep, and words frequently came not +intended for outsiders. Who that has experienced the two could ever think +the bachelor apartment with its neat bath-room and double-doored entrance +an objectionable feature in modern intellectual life? Ah! here is the key. +We are to-day living a life of the intellect far more than ever before, +and for that a certain amount of withdrawal from our fellow man is +needed, at least a withdrawal from that portion which finds its interest +in the affairs of others. + +But if we eliminate the house itself, and the heavy furniture from the +"home" possessions, what have we left? The little girl was right: "My home +is where my dishes is." My _possessions_, whatever they are--the things I +can call my own under all circumstances make my home. These circumstances +change from time to time, but the ideal is there. As a concrete instance: +let us have books, not a lot of books, but books that are friends with +whom one may spend a comforting hour anywhere; books that have power to +charm away the gloom of discontent, books to lend gayety to festal days. + +Rugs and draperies a few, those you find satisfying to your sense of +color, of design, and with which you feel at home. Ugly tables, chairs, +and "sofas" disappear under an Indian shawl. A Persian or a Navajo blanket +covers a multitude of aesthetic sins. Only let these harmonize with each +other, let them be chosen once for all to go in company; then if they are +distributed, it will not matter; but in any case avoid the "museum" look +given by mere collecting. Alas! these are expensive articles, and the +young people may not be able to get all at once. Let society then turn +over a new leaf in the wedding-present line, and cease this senseless +giving of cut-glass and silver to those who may go to a mining-camp in the +Rockies or to Mexico, or even into a ten-by-twelve New York apartment. +Let there be a committee--we are so fond of committees--to receive +contributions in a money-bank or in sealed envelopes, and then when all is +collected, let this committee scour the shops for articles of value, and +when found consult the bridal pair as to their preferences. The choice may +be made of one or more, as the money permits. The particular gift will +still be a surprise and yet of permanent value. Lace and embroideries are +always good, but let the waste of money on the "latest" in orange-knives, +oyster-plates, go up higher, that is, to the class with money for +conspicuous waste, if it must still exist, but let sensible people be +sensible, and not require the young folks to live up to their hopes for +future advancement. Wedding gifts are meant to be kindly help to a young +housewife, not a burden which drags her down to the level of a drudge. But +if the house is surely their own, and in the country, there will be +shelves to fill and walls to cover; _then_ is the opportunity for +individual gifts of china, glass, and pictures. + +To make the best of the increasing tendency to a semi-country living, +there is need for students of domestic architecture, women with a trained +taste added to an experience in doing things, not merely seeing them +already done. Let these evolve beautiful exteriors, with interiors so +finely proportioned that they will be a delight to all beholders, so +adapted to their purposes that no one will wish to change them. There is a +right dimension, in relation to other dimensions, which is always +satisfying and independent of furniture or decoration. + +The ugly houses, ill adapted to any useful purpose, which line the +roadside bear witness to the ignorance of the women of to-day. The effort +for mere decoration, for pretentious show, is so evident that one wishes +for an earthquake to swallow them all. + +Another cause for rise in rent demanded for a given space is the heavy tax +borne by real estate for public improvement, for good lighting, clean +streets, plentiful water, sufficient sewerage, free baths, parks, and +schools. Again, this falls heaviest on our three- to five-thousand dollar +class, who pay more than their share, especially when the millionaire +shirks his duty by paying his taxes elsewhere. What can the man with +limited income do but avoid the responsibility of a family? Has he a moral +right to bring unhappiness to his wife and two children? Having been +caught in the trap, why give him all the blame if he tries to increase his +income by speculation? + +The more one studies this question of shelter for the salaried group, the +more is one convinced that it lies at the root of our social discontent +and is a large factor in our moral as well as physical deterioration. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE. + + "We are far from the noon of man: + There is time for the race to grow."--TENNYSON. + + "There appears no limit to the invasion of life by the machine." + H.G. WELLS. + +The house as a centre of manufacturing industry has passed (for even if +village industries do spring up, the work-rooms will be separate from the +living-rooms); the house as a sign of pecuniary standing is passing: what +next? Why, of course, the house as the promoter of "the effective life." +Rebel as the artistic individual may at this word, it expresses the spirit +of the twentieth century as nothing else can. Social advance must be made +along the line of efficiency, even if it lead to something different and +not at first sight better. The appeal to self-interest is soonest +answered. The man or woman with any ambition will keep clean, will buy +better milk for the baby, will pay more for rent if he or she is convinced +that it will bring in or save money in the end, because money has been the +measure of success in the nineteenth century. But as the full significance +of this "machine-made" age is grasped it will be seen that it has set free +the human laborer, if only he will qualify himself to use the power at +his hand. The house will become the first lesson in the use of mechanical +appliances, in control of the harnessed forces of nature, and of that +spirit of cooperation which alone can bring the benefits of modern science +to the doors of all. One family cannot as a rule put up in a city or in +the suburbs--and half the world lives in cities--its own idea of a house +without undue expenditure; but ten families may combine and secure a +building which fairly suits them all. I say fairly, because all +cooperation means some sacrifice of whim or special liking. The +well-balanced individual will, however, choose the plan yielding on the +whole the greater efficiency, thus following a law of natural selection +which, so far, the human race has ignored--a neglect which has been +carrying him toward destruction as surely as there is law in nature. Is +this neglect to go on, or is man to turn before it is too late to a +cultivation of the effective life? In everything else he has advanced, but +in his intimate personal relations with nature and natural force he has +acted as if he believed himself not only lord of the beasts of the field, +but of the very laws of nature without understanding them. Mechanical +progress has come from an humble attitude toward the powers of wind and +water. Home efficiency will arrive just as soon as the home-keeper will +put herself in a receptive frame of mind and be prepared to learn her +limitations and the extent of her control of material things. When she +will stop saying "I do not believe" and set herself to learn patiently the +facts in the case, then will housekeeping take on a new phase and the +house become the nursery of effective workers who will at the same time +enjoy life. To manage this machine-driven house will require delicate +handling; but let women once overcome their fear of machinery and they +will use it with skill. + +The undue influence of sentiment retards all domestic progress. Because +our grandfather's idea of perfect happiness was to sit before the fire of +logs, we are satisfied with the semblance in the form of the +asbestos-covered gas-log. "It is not for the iconoclastic inventor or +architect to improve the hearth out of existence." Sentiment is a useful +emotion, but when it held open funerals of diphtheria victims, society +stepped in and forbade. With a certain advance in social consciousness +public opinion will step in and regulate sentiment in regard to many +things depending on individual whim. + +Heating might now be accomplished without dust and ashes, without the +destructive effects of steam, if enough houses would take electricity to +enable a company to supply it in the form of a sort of dado carrying wires +safely embedded in a non-conducting substance, or in the form of a carpet +threaded with conducting wire. Both heating and cooling apparatus could be +installed in the shape of a motor to replace the punkah man and the +present buzz-wheel fan, and to give fresh air without the opening of +windows which leads to half our housekeeping miseries. O woman, how can +you resist the thought of a clean, cool house, sans dust, sans flies and +mosquitoes, sans the intolerable street-noise, with abundance of fresh +filtered air at the desired temperature! It is all ready at your hand. A +windmill on the roof can store power, or a solar motor can save the sun's +rays, or capsules of compressed air may be had to run the machine, if only +you were not so afraid of the very word machine that no man dares propose +it to you. Of what use is all the invention of the time if it cannot save +the lives of the children, half of whom fall victims to house diseases, if +it cannot sweep away consumption and influenza and all the kindred +diseases arising from over-shelter and under-cleanliness of that shelter +(lack of air). Both men and women are sentimental and non-progressive, but +education is assumed to make wiser human beings. Women are said to be +monopolizing the education; is it making them more amenable to +reasonableness and less under the control of unprogressive conservatism? + +It does require quick adaptation to keep up with the possibilities of +invention, but should we not aim at that which will advance our race on a +par with its opportunities? Every other department is getting ahead of us. +We should hang our heads in shame that we have neglected so long the means +for saner living. + +[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Old Kitchen Remodelled. (Stone, Carpenter & +Wilson, Architects, Providence, R.I.) Looking toward the range. Servants' +sitting-room beyond; porcelain sink at left; boiler (*remainder cut off).] + +[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Old Kitchen Remodelled. Showing glass shelves +and labelled glass jars for all stores. Glass mixing table at left +(*remainder cut off).] + +It has been said that the highest modern civilization is shown not so +much by costly monuments and works of art as by the perfection of house +conveniences. Where then do we stand? And in what direction are we to look +for the coming advance? We have had some sixty years of public sanitation; +we have secured a supply of sanitary experts to whom all questions +affecting the physical welfare of masses of people may be referred. We +have a few architects who know the requirements of a _livable_ house, not +merely one which shows off well as first built. + +We _need_ sixty years of private-house sanitation. We need to educate +house experts, home advisers, those who know how to examine a house not +only while it is empty but while it is throbbing with the life of the +family. This adviser must be, for many years at least, able to suggest +practical methods of overcoming structural defects (more difficult than +fresh construction), as well as of modifying personal prejudices. + +These house experts will, I think, be women of the broadest education, +scientific and social. They will have not only a certain amount of medical +knowledge, but also the tact and enthusiasm of the missionary which will +bring them as friends and benefactors to the despairing mother and the +discouraged householder. + +That there is a beginning of this demand, I can testify; that it will +grow, I believe. As soon as a group of trained women are ready, they will +find occupation if the advance in housing conditions which I foresee is to +become a reality. + +Within the last two or three years the author has received requests from +all over the country for suggestions as to kitchen design and +construction. + +The two illustrations here given show one little step in the right +direction. The cuts represent a remodelled kitchen in Providence, R.I. + +The floor is of lignolith laid down in one sheet and carried up as a +wainscoting so that no crevice exists for entrance of insects or dust. +Such floors are yet in their infancy and need suitable preparation for +laying, just as macadamized streets fail if the foundation is faulty. The +idea is all that we are here concerned with. One of the features to be +especially noted is the use of glass for shelves. Why should the hospital +monopolize the materials for antiseptic work? When it is understood how +much hospital work is caused because of dirt in the preparation and +keeping of food, the kitchen will receive its share of attention. + +To-day the cost of shelter is about one third for the house and two thirds +for the expense of running it, largely due to dirt and its consequences. +Mr. Wells wisely says: "Most dusting and sweeping would be quite avoidable +if houses were wiselier done." + +When the real twentieth-century house is put up our young engineer and +college instructor will be willing to pay $400 to $500 rent, because wages +and running expenses will be $100 less and the company owning the houses +will not expect more than 4%, largely because repairs will be less and +permanence of tenure more assured. The old type of wooden house used by +the old type of tenant could not be expected to last more than a few +years, which justified a higher rate of interest. For the tenement tenant +of the better class twenty years has been the estimate, so that the cost +of building could not be distributed over fifty years as it should be. + +The house will be made of reinforced concrete or its successor; certainly +not of wood. Whether a single house or one of two or more "compartments," +each family will have a side, that is, the entrance doors will not be side +by side. Such have been built in Somerville, Mass., by a railroad company +for its employees. Those who wish to have a garden may; but no one will be +obliged, for there will be regulations about the general appearance of the +whole park, and every man his own lawn-mower will not be true. The +cultivation of taste will have so far advanced that the grouping advised +by the landscape architect will appeal to the occupant more than his own +fancied arrangement. + +Since the heating will be supplied from outside, there will be a hothouse +and cold-frames for those who wish to have a share in the garden, just as +now there are bins in the basement. The care of these may replace the +exercise now gained in scrubbing the front steps. The windows of the house +will be dust-proof, fly-, mosquito-, and moth-proof; the air supplied will +be strained by galleries of screens, if indeed social advance has not +eliminated soot from chimneys and grit from the streets. Most certainly +dirt will not be permitted to come in on shoes and long dresses. Warmed or +cooled, moistened or dried air will be circulated as needed. In such a +house rugs may stay undisturbed for a month or more, books for years, and +the dust-cloth be rarely in evidence; the redding will consist of putting +back in place the things used; but as each member of the family will do +this as soon as he is old enough, there will be but a few minutes' work. + +The breakfast will be of uncooked or simply heated food, parched grains +and cream, fruit fresh or dried, and nuts. If coffee or cocoa is desired, +the electric heater serves it to the requisite degree of heat. Each adult +member of the family will probably take this in his own room or at his own +convenience, without the formality of a meal. The few glasses and other +dishes may be plunged into a tank of water and left for future cleaning. +Luncheon will depend altogether on the habits of the family, but dinner, +at whatever hour that may be, will be the family symposium. Dressed in its +honor, with a sprightly addition to the conversation of experience or +information or conjecture, there will be form and ceremony of a simple, +refined kind, such that once again the family may welcome a guest without +anxiety. Good conversation and fresh interests will thus come into the +children's lives. How much they have missed in these days of the barring +out all hospitality! Is it perchance one reason, if not the chief, why +manners have degenerated? + +This meal will not have more than four courses of food carefully selected +and perfectly cooked, whether in the house or out matters not so it is +served fresh and of just the right temperature. No kind of cooking will be +permitted which "meets the guest in the hall and stays with him in the +street"; therefore the dishes may be washed by neatly dressed maids or by +the children, who thus learn to care for the fitness of things; plenty of +towels and hot water, with all hands doing a little, leaves everything +snug and no one too tired. We will let Mr. H.G. Wells describe the bedroom +of the future house:[1] + +[Footnote 1: A Modern Utopia, p. 103.] + +"The room is, of course, very clear and clean and simple: not by any means +cheaply equipped, but designed to economize the labor of redding and +repair just as much as possible. + +"It is beautifully proportioned and rather lower than most rooms I know on +earth. There is no fireplace, and I am perplexed by that until I find a +thermometer beside six switches on the wall. Above this switchboard is a +brief instruction: one switch warms the floor, which is not carpeted, but +covered by a substance like soft oilcloth; one warms the mattress (which +is of metal with resistance coils threaded to and fro in it); and the +others warm the wall in various degrees, each directing current through a +separate system of resistances. The casement does not open, but above, +flush with the ceiling, a noiseless rapid fan pumps air out of the room. +The air enters by a Tobin shaft. + +"There is a recess dressing-room, equipped with a bath and all that is +necessary to one's toilet; and the water, one remarks, is warmed, if one +desires it warm, by passing it through an electrically-heated spiral of +tubing. A cake of soap drops out of a store-machine on the turn of a +handle, and when you have done with it, you drop that and your soiled +towels, etc., which are also given you by machines, into a little box, +through the bottom of which they drop at once and sail down a smooth +shaft. [Better stay in the box and not infect the shaft.--Author.] + +"A little notice tells you the price of the room, and you gather the +price is doubled if you do not leave the toilet as you find it. Beside +the bed, and to be lit at night by a handy switch over the pillow, is a +little clock, its face flush with the wall [no dust-catcher]. + +"The room has no corners to gather dirt, wall meets floor with a +gentle curve, and the apartment could be swept out effectually by a +few strokes of a mechanical sweeper [sucked out by the now-used +cleaning-machine.--Author]. The door-frames and window-frames are of +metal, rounded and impervious to draft. You are politely requested to +turn a handle at the foot of your bed before leaving the room, and +forthwith the frame turns up into a vertical position, and the bedclothes +hang airing. You stand in the doorway and realize that there remains not +a minute's work for any one to do. Memories of the fetid disorder of many +an earthly bedroom after a night's use float across your mind. + +[In America the use of the sleeping-room as a sitting-room is more common +than in England, and the fetid disorder is far greater.] + +"And you must not imagine this dustless, spotless, sweet apartment as +anything but beautiful. Its appearance is a little unfamiliar, of course, +but all the muddle of dust-collecting hangings and witless ornament that +cover the earthly bedroom, the valances, the curtains to check the draft +from the ill-fitting windows, the worthless irrelevant pictures, usually a +little askew, the dusty carpets, and all the paraphernalia about the dirty +black-leaded fireplace are gone. The faintly tinted walls are framed with +just one clear colored line, as finely placed as the member of a Greek +capital; the door-handles and the lines of the panels of the door, the two +chairs, the framework of the bed, the writing-table, have all that +exquisite finish of contour that is begotten of sustained artistic effort. +The graciously shaped windows each frame a picture--since they are +draughtless the window-seats are no mere mockeries as are the window-seats +of earth--and on the sill the sole thing to need attention in the room is +one little bowl of blue Alpine flowers." + +The true office of the house is not only to be useful, but to be +aesthetically a background for the dwellers therein, subordinate to them, +not obtrusive. In most of our modern building and furnishing the people +are relegated to the background as insignificant figures. This is largely +why the home feeling is absent, why children do not form an affection for +the rooms they live in. + +Let there be nothing in the room because some other person has it; this +shows poverty of ideas. Let there be nothing in the room which does not +satisfy some need, spiritual or physical, of some member of the family. +How bare our rooms would become! Let the skeptical reader try an +experiment. Take everything out of a given room, then bring back one by +one the things one feels essential not merely because it fills space but +for the presence of which some one can give a good and sufficient reason. +It will mean a trial of a few days, because it is not easy to separate +habit from need. A table _has stood_ in a certain spot: that is no reason +in itself why it should continue to stand there unless it supplies a need. + +If a fetish stands in the way of social progress, do away with it. If the +idea of home as the shell is standing in the way of developing the idea of +home as a state of mind, then let us cast loose the load of things that +are sinking us in the sea of care beyond rescue. + +It is quite possible that we may return to that state of mind in which +there was a pleasure in caring for beautiful objects. The housewife of +colonial days did not disdain the washing of her cups of precious china or +doing up the heirlooms of lace and embroidery. When our possessions +acquire an intrinsic value, when all the work of the house which cannot be +done by machinery is that of handling beautiful things and has a meaning +in the life of the individual and the family, service will not be required +in the vast majority of homes: then we may approach to the Utopian ideal +of the nobility of labor. + +"The plain message that physical science has for the world at large is +this, that were our political and social and moral devices only as well +contrived to their ends as a linotype machine, an antiseptic +operating-plant, or an electric tram-car, there need now, at the present +moment, be no appreciable toil in the world, and only the smallest +fraction of the pain, the fear, and the anxiety that now make human life +so doubtful in its value. There is more than enough for every one alive. +Science stands as a too competent servant behind her wrangling, underbred +masters, holding out resources, devices, and remedies they are too stupid +to use."[1] + +[Footnote 1: H.G. Wells.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + THE COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY OF VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER. + + "The strongest needs conquer." + +An outlay of $1500 to $2500 will secure a cottage in the country, or a +tenement with five or six rooms in the suburbs, for a wage-earner's +family. The rent for this should be from $125 to $200 per year, but, as in +the case of the model tenements in New York, a minimum of sanitary +appliances and of labor-saving devices is found in such dwellings. They +are adapted to a family life of mutual helpfulness and forbearance. + +The lack of this kind of housing has been a disgrace to our so-called +civilization. Public attention has, however, been directed to the need, +and it is gratifying to find in the report of the U.S. Bureau of Labor, +Bulletin 54, Sept. 1904, a full account, with photographs and plans, of +the work of sixteen large manufacturing establishments in housing their +employees. + +Euthenics, the art of better living, is being recognized as of money value +in the case of the wage-earning class, but the wave of social betterment +has not yet lifted the salaried class to the point of cooperation for +their own elevation. They are obliged to put up with the better grade of +workmen's dwellings, or to pay beyond their means for a poor quality of +the house designed for the leisure class. In either case, the weight bears +hardest on the woman's shoulders, and it is to her awakening that we must +look for an impetus toward an understanding of the problems confronting +us. + +The college-educated women of the country believe so fully that the +twentieth century will develop a civilization in which brain-power and +good taste will outrank mere lavish display, that they have sent out a +call to their associations to devise methods of sane and wholesome living +which shall leave time and energy free for intellectual pleasure--some, at +least, of that time now absorbed by the house and its demands as insignia +of social rank. + +Trained and thoughtful women are convinced that the first step in social +redemption is adequate and adaptable shelter for the family. Just so long +as tradition and thoughtlessness bind the wife and mother to that form of +housekeeping which taxes all the forces of man to supply money and of +women to spend it, so long will the most intelligent women decline to +sacrifice themselves for so little return. + +The constructive arts dealing with wood, stone, and metal have been +conceded to be man's province. He has used new materials and labor-saving +devices in railway stations and place of amusements, not selfishly, but +because of the appreciation of the travelling public. It is the fashion to +decry labor-saving devices in the house, because they do away with that +sign of pecuniary ability, the capped and aproned maid. The obvious saving +of steps by the speaking-tube and telephone-call is frowned upon for the +same reason. It is this attitude of society which stands in the way of the +adoption of those mechanical helps which might do away with nearly all the +drudgery and dirty heavy work of the house. + +The new epoch[1] "is more and more replacing muscle-power fed on wheat at +eighty cents a bushel, by machine-power fed on coal at five cents a +bushel," thus liberating man from hard and deadening toil. As his mental +activity increases his needs in the way of the comforts and decencies of +refined living increase. More sanitary appliances are demanded, more +expense for fundamental cleanliness is incurred, and for that tidiness and +trimness of aspect inside and outside the house which adds both to the +labor and to the cost of living, especially in old-style houses. + +[Footnote 1: The New Epoch. Geo. S. Morison.] + +While we can but applaud this desire, we must confess that the new +building laws, the increased cost of land, and the higher wages of workmen +have raised the cost of shelter for human efficiency to double or treble +that of the so-called workman's cottage. A fair rule is that each room +costs $1000 to $2000 to build. + +This means that our lowest limit of income, $1000 a year with $200 for +rent, can have only two or at most three rooms and bath, and those without +elevators and janitor service. It is only when the income reaches $2000 to +$3000 a year that the family may have the advantage of good building in a +good locality, and even then it means some sacrifice in other directions. +It is clear that the common theory that a young man must have a salary of +$3000 a year before he dares to marry has some foundation when $600 to +$800 is demanded for rent. + +The increased sanitary requirements have doubled the cost of a given +enclosed space, the finish and fittings now found in the best houses have +doubled this again, so that it is quite within bounds to say that a house +which might have been put up to meet the needs of the day in 1850 for, +say, $5000 will now cost $20,000. + +Much of the increase is for real comfort and advance in decent living, and +so far it is to be commended. Such part of the increase as is for +ostentation, for show and sham, is to be frowned upon, for this high cost +of shelter is to-day the greatest menace to the social welfare of the +community. When the average young man finds it impossible to support a +family, when the professional man finds it necessary to supplement his +chosen work by pot-boiling, by public lectures and any outside work which +will bring in money, what wonder that scholarship is not thriving in +America? Pitiful tales of such stifling of effort have come to my ears, +and have in large part led me to make a plea for a scientific study of the +living conditions of this class, and for a readjustment of ideals to the +absolute facts of the situation. + +We may give sympathy to those Italians who pay only $2 a month for the +shelter of the whole family, but we must give help to the harder case of a +family with refined tastes and high ideals who can pay only $200 a year. + +In the real country, at a distance from the railroad, air, water, and soil +are cheap. Here a house may be put up with its own windmill or gas-engine +to pump water, with its own drainage system, giving all the sanitary +comforts of the city house, for about $5000. The same inside comforts in +one quarter the space, minus the isolation and garden, may be had in a +suburban block for one half that sum. This is probably the least expensive +shelter to-day for the family whose duties require one or more members of +it to be in the city daily, for, as the centre of the city is approached, +land rent increases, so that dwelling space must be again curtailed one +half or rent doubled. The majority take half a house or go into the city +and put up with one quarter the space. + +The curtailment of space in which families live is going on at an alarming +rate, although not yet seriously taken into account by the sociologist +for the group we are studying. + +[Illustration: Figs. 8 and 9.--House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in temperate +America, to cost $5000, if it must not more (*remainder cut off).] + +[Illustration: Figs. 10 and 11.--House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in +temperate America, to cost only $3000, if possible. (Josselyn & Taylor +Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa).] + +This crowding is causing the refinements of life to be disregarded, is +depriving the children of their rights, and doing them almost more harm +than comes to the tenement dwellers, for they have the parks to play in +and are not kept within doors. + +Mr. Michael Lane in his "Level of Social Motion" claims that present +tendencies are leading to a level of $2000 a year and a family of two +children as an average. Mr. Wells claims as a tendency in living +conditions the practically automatic and servantless household. In +connection with the Mary Lowell Stone Home Economics Exhibit a design of +an approach to this kind of a dwelling was asked for in sketch. The +accompanying plans were made by a firm who have had not only experience in +this kind of domestic building, but who have sympathy with and personal +knowledge of similar conditions in widely separated parts of the country. + +These sketches are not of an _ideal_ house and not for a given plot of +land, but only a hint of what Mrs. Michael Lane "must expect if she +attempts to build in the country or suburbs." + +Since these were drawn many changes have come about in costs and in +materials available. The architects expressly disclaim the word "model" in +relation to them. Mrs. Lane and her two children will do their own work, +and therefore steps and stairs must be few, and yet they wish light and +air and cleanliness. + +The author hopes that her readers will make a study of house-plans, not +the cheap ones, but those that will bear the test of time and living in. + +The increased cost of shelter should mean both more comfort and greater +beauty. If it does not, something is wrong with society. + +It appears from all that has been gathered that single houses for a family +of five will cost about $5000 to $10,000 for some years to come; that +these houses should be so constructed and cared for as to rent for $300 to +$400 if the occupant is to keep the grounds in order, to use the house +with care, and furnish heat and light. + +The question of return on capital invested and of care of exteriors and +grounds must be studied most carefully in the light of the new conditions, +and a new set of conventions devised by society to meet the various +circumstances arising out of them. + +This suburban living is the vital point to be attacked, because in cities +the matter is already pretty well settled; there is in sight nothing that +will greatly change the rule already given, a cost of $1000 per room of +about 1200 cubic feet, with the finish and sanitary appliances demanded. + +Our family of five must pay for rent $500 to $800 for the smallest +quarters they can compress themselves into. Subtracting the cost of heat +and light and the car-fares, this may be no more expensive than the +suburban house at $300 or $400, _but_ the difference comes in light and +air. The upper floors of an isolated skyscraper give more than a country +house, but at the expense of other houses in the darkened street. + +In the city the question is then not so much one of cost of construction +as of a fair arrangement of streets and parks, so as to avoid the loss of +light and air for living-places. The single individual may find shelter of +a safe and refined sort in all respects except air for $200 to $300 a year +in the newer apartment-houses, and two friends to share it may halve this +sum. A great need is for as good rooms to be furnished in the suburbs +where more light and air may be had. + +The content of the country house costing $5000 to $10,000 will be +approximately 50,000 to 70,000 cubic feet, or 10,000 for a person. The +suburban block will furnish about 12,000 to 20,000 for the family, while +the city apartment of six so-called rooms renting for from $400 to $500 a +year shrinks to 6000 to 8000 cubic feet, giving only one tenth the +air-space the country house affords, as well as far less outside air and +sunshine. The best city tenements cost $1 a week for 600 cubic feet +air-space. What wonder that the sanitarian is aghast at the prospect! + +According to the President of the English Sanitary Inspectors' Association +it seems probable that if the nineteenth-century city continues to drain +the country of its potentially intellectual class and to squeeze them into +smaller and smaller quarters, it will dry up the reservoirs of strength in +the population (address, Aug. 18, 1905). + +The houses of the Morris Building Co., illustrated in Chapter II, show +what may be done. These houses rent for $35 to $45 a month with constant +heat and hot water, so that the heavy work is reduced to a minimum; but +the exigencies of family life are illustrated in the fact of the almost +universal demand of the tenants for continuous heat and hot water night as +well as day. The ordinary childless apartment house banks its fires at +night. A supplementary apparatus would mean work by the tenants, however. +This is a good example of the balance which must be struck in all new +plans until they are tested. + +The change in what one gains under the name of shelter, what one pays rent +for, must be kept clearly in mind. Two or three decades since it was a +tight roof, thinly plastered walls, and a chimney with "thimble-holes for +stoves," possibly a furnace with small tin flues, a well or cistern, or +perhaps one faucet delivering a small stream of water. To-day even in the +suburbs there is furnished light, heat, abundant water, care of halls and +sidewalks. The elevator-boy takes the place of "buttons," the engineer and +janitor relieve the man of the house of care, so that it may not be so +extravagant as it sounds to give one third the $3000 income for rent, +since it stops that leaky sieve, that bottomless bag of "operating +expenses." The income may be pretty definitely estimated in this case, +especially if meals are taken in the café. If the family dine as it +happens, the cost mounts up. Here are a few estimates for verification and +criticism: + +Rent of an apartment............$ 600.00 to $ 700.00 +Meals........................... 1200.00 " 1000.00 +Clothing........................ 400.00 " 600.00 +Incidentals, amusements, etc.... 200.00 " 300.00 +Savings, _nil_. + --------- -------- +Total income................... $2400.00 to $2600.00 + +If the wife can manage the "kitchenette" and part of the clothing, about +$600 may be saved, but in that case it represents her earnings, and should +be at her disposal. If it should be possible for safe shelter to be had +for $400, then with the wife's help $700 should be the sum in the "region +of choice." I hold that, unless the income can be managed so as to secure +_choice_, all the daily toil is embittered. Even if some is spent +foolishly, it is safer than the burden "just not enough." + +The more common cost of decent living in our Eastern cities is: + +Rent...............................$1000 to $1500 +Meals.............................. 1200 " 1400 +Clothing........................... 500 " 700 +Incidentals........................ 300 " 600 +Savings, _nil_. + ----- ----- +Total..............................$3000 to $4000 + +This goes far toward justifying the saying that a young man cannot afford +to marry on less than $3000 a year. + +With these figures in mind, what can our $2000 family with two children +do? The rent that they can pay will not cover service or heat. There must +be a maid to fill the lamps, see to the furnace, help with the cooking, +and the wife must stay by the house pretty closely and probably decline +most invitations. For the five persons, ten dollars a week for raw-food +materials and five for its preparation is the lowest limit likely to be +cheerfully submitted to. + +Rent, heat, light, etc..................... $400 +Food....................................... 800 +Clothing hardly less than.................. 400 +Children's education, even with free + schools, and their illnesses will use up. 100 +Car-fares, church, etc..................... 100 +Wages and sundries......................... 200 + ------ +Total..................................... $2000 + +In the bank nothing. + +But what shelter can this refined, intelligent family find to-day for +$400? Certainly nothing with modern conveniences. The lack of these is +_made up by women's work_--hard, rough work. And that is the crux of the +servant problem to-day. It is the reason why more families do not go into +the country to live. The work required in an old house to bring living up +to modern standards is too appalling to be undertaken lightly. + +In England the Sunlight Park and other plans, in America the Dayton and +Cincinnati schemes, are samples of what is being done for the $500 to $800 +family, but where are the examples (outside the Morris houses) for the +salaried class for whom we are pleading? The great army of would-be +home-makers are forced into a nomadic life by the exigencies resulting +from the great combines--a shifting of offices, a closing of factories, a +breaking up of hundreds of homes. I believe this to be the _chief factor_ +in the decline of the American home--a hundred-fold more potent than the +college education of women. + +The unthinking comment on this rise in the cost of shelter is usually +condemnation of greedy landlords and soulless capitalists; but is that the +whole story? + +In the present order of things it seems to be inevitable that the gain of +one class in the community is loss to another. Probably the law has always +existed, and only the very rapid and sudden changes bring it into +prominence, because of the swift readjustment needed, an operation which +torpid human nature resents when consciously pressed. + +For instance, the efforts of the philanthropist and working man together +have succeeded in shortening hours of labor and increasing wages--without, +alas! increasing the speed or quality of the work done, especially in the +trades which have to do with materials of construction, so that +house-building has about doubled in cost within twenty-five years, largely +due to cost of labor. This increased cost has fallen heavily on the very +group of people least able to bear it, the skilled artisan, the teacher, +and the young salaried man. Again I call attention to the need of a +philanthropist who shall raise his eyes to that group, the hope of our +democracy, those whom he has held to be able to help themselves--and given +time would do so; but time is the very thing denied them in this motor +age. Help to make quick adjustment must come to the rescue of those to +whom time more than equals money. + +One used to wait patiently for seed-sown lawns to become velvety turf. +Money can bring sod from afar and in a season give the results of years. +So the housing of the $2000 family can be accomplished just as soon as it +seems sufficiently desirable. It needs a research just as truly as the +cancer problem or desert botany, and affects thousands more. + +One other cause of increased cost in construction and operation which +does, if wisely carried out, increase health and efficiency is the +sanitary provision of our recent building laws. + +The instalment of these sanitary appliances becomes increasingly costly +because of the rise in wages of the workmen, plumbers, masons, etc. The +careful statistics of the Bureau of Labor show conclusively that all +building trades have decreased hours of labor and increased wages per +hour, so that cost of construction has doubled, and the sanitary +requirements have again doubled the cost, so that it is easy to see why +the family with a stationary income has quartered its dwelling-space. + +The end is not yet: the new devices mentioned in previous chapters will at +first increase cost of construction. + +From lack of business training the public is at fault in estimating +relative costs. A well-built "automatic house" costs too much, they say. +Yes, but what does it save? Cost looms large, saving seems small. +Moreover, the value of mental serenity, of that peace of mind consequent +on the smooth running of the domestic machine, is undervalued. The +American child such as he is is largely the product of the American house +and its ill adapted construction. I must reiterate my belief that the +modification of the house itself to the life the twentieth century is +calling for is the first step in social reform. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + THE RELATION BETWEEN COST OF HOUSING AND TOTAL INCOME. + + "It must be made possible to live within one's income." + +The thrifty French rule is one fifth for rent. In towns where land is +cheap and wood abundant, or in college communities exempt from taxes, +comfortable housing is found in this country for as little as fifteen or +eighteen per cent of the total income. In some mining towns where all +prospects are uncertain and the house has no particular social +significance the rent may be even lower, although it is often very high. +It depends on the demand, on competition rather than quality. In our older +and more settled communities it is most common for rent to use up one +fourth the salary of all town dwellers with incomes within our limits. +This was true in Boston fifty years ago, and it is true to-day in dozens +of cities and towns personally investigated. It is not unknown that a +teacher or business man should exceed this in the hope of a rise in +salary by the second year. Adding the expenses of operating the house, of +repairs and additions and improvements if the house is owned, nearly half +the money available must go for the mere housing of the family. + +If it is true, as I believe it is, that for each fraction over one fifth +spent for rent a saving must be made in some other direction--in the daily +expense, less service, less costly food, or less expensive clothing, or, +last to be cut down, less of the real pleasure of life,--it will be seen +what a far-reaching question this is, how it touches the vital point, to +have or not to have other good things in life. + +A large part of the increase is due, as we have said, to increased demand +for sanitary conveniences, but far more potent is the pressure resulting +from the price of land. + +This pressure has led to the building of smaller and smaller apartments, +so that four and six rooms are made out of floor-space sufficient for two. +It sounds better to say we have a six-room flat, even though there is no +more privacy than in two rooms, for the rooms are mere cells unless the +doors are always open. It is not uncommon in such suites renting for $50 +to $60 per month for six rooms, to find three of them with only one window +on one side, with no chance for cross-ventilation unless the doors of the +whole suite are open. + +This style of building prevails even in the suburbs where air and +sunshine should be free. The would-be renter looking at such suites with +all the doors open and the rooms innocent of fried fish and bacon does not +think of the place as it _will be_ under living conditions when privacy +can be had only by smothering. + +The model tenements in New York rent for one dollar per week per room; the +better houses for double, or two dollars for 450 cubic feet. Many of those +I have examined renting for forty to sixty dollars per month give no more +space for the money, only a little better finish--marble and tile in the +bath-room, for instance. + +The three-room tenement does, however, shelter as many persons as the +six-room flat, hence there is more real overcrowding. In all these grades +of shelter it is fresh air that is wanting. What wonder the white plague +is always with us? What remedy so long as millions sleep in closets with +no air-currents passing through? + +Accepting the French rule, the artisan who rents the model tenement at +$3.50 per week should earn $3 a day wage for six days. If he earn only $2, +then more than one quarter must go for housing. There are hundreds of +Italian families in New York who pay only $2 _per month_ for such shelter +as they have, but it is only providing for the primitive idea of mere +shelter, not for the comforts of a true home life. After the fashion of +early man, these people spend their lives in the open air, eat wherever +they may be, and use this makeshift shelter as protection from the weather +and as a place of deposit for such articles as they do not carry about +with them and for such weaklings as cannot travel. + +As man rises in the scale of wants he pays more, in attention and in +money, for housing, because he leaves wife and children to its comforts +while he goes forth to his daily tasks. As ideals rise, the proportion +rises until even one third of his earnings goes for mere shelter. But this +limits his desires in other directions, so that it becomes a pertinent +question, when is it right to give as much as one third of the moderate +income for housing? As every heart knows its own bitterness, so every man +knows his own business and what proportion of his income he is _willing_ +to spend for a house, for the comforts of life pertain largely to bed and +board. It must be acknowledged, however, that comfort and discomfort are +so largely matters of habit and personal point of view that education as +to ideals is an important duty of society in its own defence. + +If two people without children prefer to spend more on shelter than on any +other one thing, then with $3000 a year, $1000 may be given for rent if +that covers heat, light, and general outside care. But the _family_ with +children to consider must not think of allowing one third for rent under +our very highest limit of $5000 a year, and it is unwise even then. In +fact the ratio must be governed by circumstances. It is true, however, +that the conditions must be interpreted by a fixed principle in living and +not by any mere fashion or prejudice of the moment. + +The one question every person asks when these suggested improvements are +discussed is, but how much will it cost? Thus confessing that cost, not +effectiveness, is the measure; that old ideals as to money value still +rule the world. It costs too much to have a furnace large enough to warm a +sufficient volume of air, it costs too much to put in safe plumbing, it +costs too much to keep the house clean, and so on through the list. We +have been too busy getting and spending money to study the cost of neglect +of cardinal principles of right living. The farmer knows the cost of his +young animals, but the father cares little and knows less of what it ought +to cost to bring up his children--of the economy of spending wisely on a +safe shelter for them. + +A new estimate of what necessary things must cost has to be made before +the present generation will live comfortably in presence of the +account-book. + +Here again a readjustment is coming; some expenses in house construction +common now will be lessened or done away with; for example, fancy shapes, +grooved and carved wood, projecting windows and door-frames. + +It is usual, when the various new methods are brought up, to estimate the +cost as additional to all that has gone before, rather than to see in it a +substitute for much that may go. + +Our family with $1500 income may safely pay $300 for rent, if that covers +enough comfort and does not mean too much car-fare. + +The house may cost $3000 if built on the old lines, and if the land it is +placed on is not too expensive. + +A fire-proof house such as is described in the July number of the +_Brickbuilder and Architect_, 85 Water St., Boston, and probably also a +house of reinforced concrete, will cost at present some $10,000 besides +the land. Because of freedom from repairs it should be possible to rent +such houses for $500, which will bring them within the reach of our $3000 +a year family, but not within the means of the $2000. What is to be done? + +It will be remarked by some that little attention has been given in these +pages to the various so-called cooperative plans, like Mrs. Stuckert's +oval of fifty houses connected by a tramway at each level, with a central +kitchen from which all meals come and to which all used dishes return, +with a central office from which service is sent, etc. + +Frankly, to my mind this is not enough better than the apartment hotel, as +we now know it, to pay for the effort to establish it. As now evolved by +demand, the establishments renting from one to fifteen thousand a year are +on progressive lines. According to Mr. Wells, this shareholding class is +on the way to extinction in any case, fortunately he also thinks, and the +student of social economics need not concern himself with its future, only +so far as its example influences the real bone and sinew of the republic, +the working men and women who make the world the place it is. + +Within the ten-mile radius it has been usual to include a front yard, if +not a garden, in the house-lot. The cost of keeping this in the trim +fashion decreed as essential, of planting and pruning of shrubs, of +maintaining in immaculate condition the sidewalks and front steps, like +most of the items in cost of living, is due to changed standards, just as +the cost of table-board has advanced from $3 to $6 without a corresponding +betterment in quality. + +Engle's law, "The lodging, warming, and lighting have an invariable +proportion whatever the income," does not hold under modern conditions for +the group we are considering, for our wise ones need the best, and not a +few of them are unwilling to buy their family sanctity at the price of a +closet in the basement for the faithful maid. + +Plans may look well on paper, the completed house may seem attractive, but +when the family _live_ in the house its deficiencies become apparent. +Cheap materials, flimsy construction, damp location, any one of a dozen +possibilities may make the family uncomfortable, may cost in heating and +doctor's bills, may compel a moving before the year is out. Cheap houses +in this decade are suspicious; the more need for a knowledge on the part +of young people of what may be expected. + +For this reason it is a part of sound education to give a certain amount +of attention to living conditions in the high-school curriculum. It is as +important as book-keeping; for of what avail are money and business, if +the home life is perilled? Besides, some of the pupils may have attention +called to deficiencies which they may show talent in overcoming. + +Courses in Home Economics and Household Administration in colleges and +universities should be directed to careful study of this branch of +sociology. + +There is a great opportunity before women's clubs and civic-improvement +associations to arouse an interest in the provision of suitable shelter +for the young families in their several neighborhoods. Concerted movement +by the Federation could revolutionize public opinion within a decade. + +The student of social science may well say that the first effort should be +directed to a rise in the pay of these educated young men; that no family +should be expected to live on the sums here considered; that it is not +right even to consider a way out on the present basis. Possibly so. Much +agitation is abroad in relation to the pay of teachers, clerks, and +skilled workmen, but that is another question which cannot be considered +here. + +The salaried class has so enormously increased of late years because of +the great consolidation of business interests that the final adjustment +has not been made. The one fact of uncertain tenure of position and +uncertain promotion has profoundly affected living conditions, ownership +of the family abode, and, incidentally, marriage. + +There are prizes enough, however, to keep the young people on the alert +for advancement, and they feel it more likely to come if they establish +themselves as if it had arrived. + +There is no denying that in the estimation of a large number of the groups +we are considering, the question of neat and orderly service, the capped +and aproned maid, the liveried bell-boy and butler, express--like the +smoothly shaven lawn--a certain social convention; and because it means +expense, the house in working order means more than shelter: it sets forth +pecuniary standing in the community. So long as this means social standing +also, so long will the professional and business family on $2000 a year be +shut out, because these adjuncts to a luxurious living are impossible. Can +society afford to shut out the intellectual and mentally progressive +element, or must it accept as normal these salaries and make it +respectable to begin on them? It is the strain which unessential social +conventions give to the young families that leads the business father to +speculate in order to get into the $10,000-a-year class, and that leads +the young scientific and literary man to take extra work outside of his +normal duties. This sort of thing cannot go on without serious danger to +the Republic. Cleanliness and good manners should be insisted upon, but +they may be secured on $3000 a year if too much else is not required. How +to secure them on $1500 is a problem to be solved, for cleanliness costs +more each decade. + +After all is said, if the young people have an earnest _purpose_ in life +it is easy to plan a method of living and to carry it out. The sacrifices +one must make in the house superficially, in the consideration of a +certain class, are cheerfully borne and soon forgotten. + +Little discomforts which affect only one's feelings and not one's health +make rather good stories after they are over. What is worth while? Are we +become too sensitive to little things? Do we imagine we show our higher +civilization by discerning with the little princess the pea under +twenty-four feather beds? + +Let our shelter be first of all healthful, physically and morally. If to +gain these qualities we must take a house in an unfashionable +neighborhood, it should not cause distress. Why is this particular region +unfashionable? Is it not merely because certain would-be leaders choose +to live beyond their means in company with those who are able to spend +more? + +Why not be honest and happy? Live within your income and make it cover the +truest kind of living. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + TO OWN OR TO RENT: A DIFFICULT QUESTION. + + "Half the sting of poverty is gone when one keeps house for + one's own comfort and not for the comment of one's neighbors." + --Miss MULOCK. + +When the ideals of an older generation are forced upon a younger, already +struggling under new and strange environment, the effect is often opposite +to that intended. The elders in their pride of knowledge, and the +real-estate promoters in their greed for gain, have been urging the young +man to own his house on penalty of shirking his plain duty. They say he +must have a home to offer his bride, as the bird has a nest. Building-loan +associations, homes on the instalment plan, appeal to the sentiments they +think the young man ought to heed. + +The young man is often modest, almost always sensitive, and he prefers to +bear dispraise rather than to tell the real reason he hesitates. His ear +is closer to the ground, he feels even if he cannot express the doubt of +the disinterestedness of the land-scheme promoter, of the wisdom of his +father. He knows better than his elders the uncertainties of salaried men, +young men with a way to make in the unstable conditions of to-day. + +The effect of this well-meant advice is not to hasten his marriage, but to +put it off because he is not allowed to take the course he feels safest. +Or if he is willing, the parents of his prospective bride are not, and so +young people do not marry on $1000 a year, for fear of the elder +generation and their supposed wisdom. + +The young people are not justified by present-day conditions in owning a +house on an income of $2000 a year _unless_ + +(1) They have money to put into it which it will not cripple them for life +to lose; + +(2) They care so much for the idea of ownership that they are willing to +take the risk of losing one half the investment should they be compelled +to move; + +(3) They possess the fortitude to give it up at the call of duty after all +they have lavished on it; + +(4) They care enough for the real education and the real fun they will get +out of it to save in other ways what the running and repairs will cost +_over and above the amount estimated_. This saving will be largely by +doing many things with their own hands. + +To be bound hand and foot either by unsalable real estate or by sentiment +is an uncomfortable condition for the young family who may find itself in +uncongenial surroundings, in an unhealthful situation, or who may need to +retrench temporarily. + +Another serious objection to building and owning a house in the first +years of married life is the chance that the house will be too large or +too small, or the railroad station will be moved, or the trolley line will +be run under the garden window, or a smoking chimney will fill the library +with soot (although the latter will not be permitted in the real +twentieth-century town). + +A new element has come into the question of ownership by the family of +limited means which did not meet the elder generation of house-owners. In +the past the repairs were confined to a coat of paint now and then, new +shingles, an added hen-house, or a bay window. The well might have to be +deepened, but little expense was put into or onto the house for fifty +years. The married son or daughter might add a wing, but the main house +once built was never disturbed. In the modern plastic condition of both +ideals and materials this is all changed. In any city well known to my +readers how many streets bear the same aspect as five years ago? In any +suburban village made familiar by the trolley how many houses are the same +as five years ago? Even if their outward aspect is not changed, that worst +of all havocs, new plumbing, has been put in. The installation of neither +furnace nor plumbing is accomplished once for all; at the end of ten years +at most repairs or replacement must be made on penalty of loss of health. +As the community grows in wisdom and in knowledge it makes sanitary +regulations more stringent notwithstanding the fact that the increase in +expense bears most heavily on the small householder with a family whose +need is out of proportion to the income. Many a parent who grieves the +loss of his child would gladly have paid a reasonable sum for repairs, but +would have been in the poor debtors' court if he had allowed the plumbers +to enter his house. The new laws made since he bought his house require +diametrically opposite things, and the old fittings must all be torn out +as well as four times as costly put in. + +It is a sad fact that the advantages of all modern sanitation are so often +denied to those who need and who would appreciate them. The renter has +here an advantage over the owner. He can call for an examination by the +city or town inspector before he takes a lease; the capitalist owner must +then put matters right. But as yet a man has a right to live with leaky +sewer- or gas-pipes in his own house without being disturbed by an +inspector. How far into the century this will be allowed is uncertain; in +time there will be an inspection of the premises of the small owner. + +The only remedy in sight is for an investment of capital in up-to-date +houses of various grades in city, suburbs, and country; such investment to +bring 4 per cent, not 40, or even 15, unless by rise of land values. No +better use of idle money could be made at the present time. In +"Anticipations" Mr. Wells writes: "The erection of a series of +experimental labor-saving houses by some philanthropic person for +exhibition and discussion would certainly bring about an extraordinary +advance in domestic comfort; but it will probably be many years before the +cautious enterprise of advertising firms approximates to the economies +that are theoretically possible to-day." This is truer now than when Mr. +Wells was writing. + +The great difficulty in the way is the first outlay. So many things will +have to be designed, patterns made and machinery built to make them; for +this advance in construction will not be by hand-made things. There will +be more head-work put into the various articles, but the mass of +constructive material must be machine-made, at least for the family of +limited income. And these articles need not be ugly. There must be many of +the same kind in the world, to be sure; but if the design fits the +purpose, this may not be an evil. No one objects to a beautiful elm-tree +in his field because in hundreds of fields there are similar elm-trees. +Slight variations in finish, color, etc., can give individuality to the +simplest chair. + +Therefore the first outlay for the new order will be beyond the purse of +any single family of this group. If we had learned to cooperate sanely, a +group might undertake it, but the most probable method will be for some +far-sighted men to agree to sink a certain amount of money in experiment, +just as they now sink money in prospecting a mine with all the uncertainty +it brings. Ability to _risk_ in an experiment must go hand in hand with +capital to use. + +The objection commonly made is that all individuality will be taken away, +that each one must live like every one else in the neighborhood. This is +not an essential consequence, but will it be so impossible to have a +certain similarity in the dwellings of like-minded people? In +"Anticipations" it is declared that "Unless some great catastrophe in +Nature breaks down all that man has built, these great kindred groups of +capable men and educated adequate women must be under the forces we have +considered so far, the element finally emergent amid the vast confusions +of the coming time."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Anticipations, pp. 153-4.] + +The practical people, the engineering and medical and scientific people, +will become more and more _homogeneous_ in their fundamental culture. + +The decreasing of the space one can call one's own within urban limits has +so steadily increased, and the need for freer air has become so fully +recognized, that the case of the single householder in the suburbs and +even in the country is bound to press harder and harder. The group system +elsewhere referred to, with central heating plant and workers of all +grades at telephone-call, will make possible at a reasonable rent within +easy reach of the city the single household of one, two, or three, as the +case may be, and if without children of their own, to such shelter may +come some of those homeless little ones we have with us always, to share +in the sun and wind and garden. In the real country, with acres instead of +feet of land, much of the same kind of elaborate simplicity will be found. +Certainly the same kind of fire-proof house of only one story with more +light, "roofs of steel and glass on the louver principle," will obviate so +frequent a change of air as a shut-in house requires, and give more +equable temperature. + +In the city? Since physicians will surely be more insistent on light, as +well as fresh air, roof-gardens and balconies and glazed walls, so to +speak, will be arranged by the architect so as not to offend the eye and +yet to accomplish the results. He will cease from trying to put the new +ideas of the twentieth century into the old houses of the eighteenth or +fifteenth even, and that beauty, which is fitness, will come forth from +the tangle of ugliness everywhere. If, as the economist tells us, "cost +measures lack of adjustment," then the perfectly adjusted house will not +be costly in reality, it will be adapted to the production and protection +of effective human beings. + +The cellar has for some years been changing to a storage for trunks +instead of vegetables. The old-fashioned housewife exclaims at the lack of +storage in the house of to-day, and we are eliminating it still more. A +twentieth-century axiom is, "Throw or give away everything you have not +immediate or prospective use for." It is as true of household furniture as +of books; only the very best is of any value second-hand. Our young people +may have heirlooms, but they will buy very little in the way of sideboards +or first editions. The moral of modern tendencies is, buy only what you +are sure you will need or what you care for so intensely that you will +keep it come what may. Housing of possible treasures is far too +costly. + +At the foundation of the ethical side of ownership is the primitive +impulse of possession, that ownership which led to wife-capture, to feudal +castles, to accumulation of things, and to-day is expressed by the man who +prefers to have his steak cooked in his own kitchen even if it is burned. + +It is notorious that most of us put up with discomfort if it is caused by +_our own_. A family of eight will use one bath-room without murmur if the +house is theirs, but will complain loudly if the landlord will not add two +without increasing the rent. + +At the foundation of what seem exorbitant rents is this demand for modern +improvements in old houses, and the atrocious carelessness of tenants of +property. It is not their own, and they do not obey the golden rule in the +use of it. + +Every five years or so plumbing laws are changed, and if an old house is +touched the fixtures and pipes must be all renewed. Tenants have learned +to fear the sanitation of old houses, and yet abuse the appliances they +should care for. + +Public ownership or corporate ownership or an increased lawlessness are +accountable for a disregard of others' rights and of property which is +unnecessarily increasing the cost of living. + +I have said elsewhere that it is not because the landlord does not want +children in the house but because he does not want such ill-bred children, +vandals, who have no respect for anything. He charges high rent because +his investment is good for only ten years. + +The shibboleth of duty to own a home has so strong a hold on the moral +sense of the people that it is made use of by the promoter who may in some +cases think himself the philanthropist he intends others to call him. I +mean that the duty of owning and the heinousness of paying rent are so +ingrained that buying on the instalment plan has seemed a righteous thing, +even with the examples of broken lives in plain sight. As an incentive to +save, if there were anything to save, it might have been justified in the +days of feudalism. But for an independent American to confess that he +cannot put money in the bank, and that he must bind himself and his family +to slavery, for the sake of owning a bit of property which they will +probably wish to sell before they have it paid for, is disgraceful. +Intelligent men should see that here is the profit in the transaction; +that enough go to the wall to pay for the trouble of the rest, just as in +life insurance enough die before the expected time to put money in the +pockets of the riskers. + +A drunken father may need to be held, but the young professor, the lawyer, +the engineer, should have sufficient self-respect and firmness to save +that which in his judgment is necessary, without being tied by "the +instalment plan." This method is a very viper in the finances of to-day. +The wise business man never ventures more than he can afford to lose in a +risk, but the man who takes bread and milk from his children to invest in +"a sure thing" takes a risk with what is not his to give. + +To buy land for investment is another supposed virtue, an inheritance from +the time when slow growth, once started in a given direction, kept on, so +that great acumen was not needed to buy; but that is all changed to-day. +Only those "in the ring" can tell where the "boom" will go next. + +In these days of unparalelled rapidity of change in industrial and social +conditions it is most undesirable for a man to be hampered by a shell +which is too large to carry about with him and too valuable to be left +behind. To each reader will occur instances of the refusal of an +advantageous offer because the family home could not be realized upon at +once, the location once so favorable had become undesirable, and the +values put into it could not be recovered because of social conditions +following industrial changes. + +The keen observer hesitates in view of all these conditions to advise any +young man to invest in real estate for a home beyond a sum which he can +afford to lose if need arises to move. These changes carry a need for +mobilization of its army of workers. The encumbrance of family Lares and +Penates cannot be tolerated. Only a small per cent of young men are to-day +sure of remaining in the city in which they begin business. What folly to +encumber themselves with real estate which, sold at a sacrifice, brings +barely half its price! Moral exhorters have not carefully considered this +side of the question in their arguments for house-owning and +family-rearing as anchors to the young man. + +The fact noted earlier is a case in point. After the wedding-cards were +out the bridegroom was transferred to the charge of the company's office +in another city. + +The expenses necessitated by these frequent removals make an +unaccounted-for item in many incomes. + +If the young couple have saved or inherited between them, say, $3000, +shall they build a home with it? Decidedly not. Because the house will +cost $5000 before they are done. Not only because of the unexpected in +strikes and change in prices of materials, but because, as the plans take +shape, the wife or the husband or both will see so many little points +which they will ask for, the paper plan not having conveyed a definite +idea to either. An excellent plan was carried out by a college woman. She +made a model to scale in pasteboard, of such a size that every essential +detail was shown in its relation to other portions of the structure. + +Even if these young people do not yield at the moment of building, they +will probably wish they had yielded when they come to live in the house. +There will be nothing for it but to mortgage the place to make it +satisfactory. One cannot take up a newspaper without finding notice after +notice, reading, "Must be sold to pay the mortgage." + +Exorbitant rent is of course social waste, and society must protect its +ablest young people from their own folly; but when they understand the +rules of the financial game better they will lend themselves more readily +to some cooperative plan of relief. + +It is, as I well know, rank heresy, but I firmly believe that building and +owning of houses can be afforded only by those having the higher limit of +income, $3000 to $5000 a year, _unless_ the person has a permanent +position or a business of great security, and in these days who can be +_sure_ of anything? + +When the land-scheme promoter advertises homes on the instalment plan, +beware of the trap! + +Let no one buy in the suburbs from a sense of duty and then hate the life. + +Comfort in living is far more in the brains than in the back. + +It is so easy for a man or woman with one set of ideals to do that which +another would consider impossible drudgery. + +My final advice is that the sensible young couple both of whom agree about +essentials, and who are willing and glad to work together for a common +end, and who love nature and gardening and believe in family life so +strongly as not to miss the crowd and theatres, may safely start a home in +the country with a garden, and pets for the children, if they have a +reasonable prospect of ten years in one spot. Let them make the place +attractive for some family, even if they have to leave it. + +The women of this group will, I believe, have the qualities Mr. Wells +predicts: not only intelligence and education, but a reasonableness and +reliability not always found to-day. + +Unless a reasonable prospect of ten years' occupancy is assured, then +begin life in a rented house, not necessarily in a flat. Begin with a few +things of your own some which have been yours for years, some which you +have bought together and which have a meaning for one of you and are not +irritating to the other. + +Devote a part of your leisure to a critical study of the house you would +like, draw plans, make sketches in color, study color effects, learn about +fabrics, collect them for the future. You will find an amusing and +instructive occupation. + +The essential point is to begin this life on two thirds of what you have +reason to expect as the year's income; keep the rest invested or in the +bank. There are to-day many temptations to spend for things attractive in +themselves but not necessary to the effective life. If friends are so +silly as to rally you on living in an unfashionable quarter, ask them in +to see your sketches and plans, and talk them into enthusiasm over the +idea. Do missionary work with them rather than be ridiculed out of your +convictions. It sometimes seems as if young people had no convictions, as +if they drifted with the wind of newspaper suggestion. So do not allow +your friends to drive you to greater expense than you have determined +upon, lest the end of the first two years of life find you in debt with no +fair start for the baby, whose life should begin in an atmosphere of quiet +assurance that all is well. It is not impossible that the nervous +irritability and recklessness of many are due to the atmosphere of +childhood. Then remember that _the welfare and security of the child is +the watchword of the future_. + + + + +A FEW BOOKS. + +Anticipations. H.G. Wells. + +Mankind in the Making. H.G. Wells. Scribners. + +A Modern Utopia. H.G. Wells. Scribners. + +Twentieth-century Inventions: a Forecast. Geo. Sutherland. + Longmans, Green, & Co. + +The Level of Social Motion. Michael Lane. Macmillan. + +The Theory of the Leisure Class. Thorstein Veblen. Macmillan. + +The Woman who Spends. Whitcomb and Barrows. + +Physical Deterioration: Its Causes and their Cure. A. Watt Smyth. + E.P. Dutton. + +Shelter. Syllabus 94, Home Education Dept, Univ. of N.Y. + State Library, Albany. + +Report of the Tenement-house Commission. + + + + +INDEX. + +A + +Adaptation + lack of +"Anticipations" +Advisers, home +Age, spirit of the +Air +Altruria +Albert's, Prince, advice +Apartment houses +Architects +Architecture, domestic +Arts, constructive + +B + +Bachelor + apartment +Back, bending the + strength of +Badges of toil +Boarding houses + origin of +Breakfast +Building + laws + loan associations +Building trades +Bureau of Labor, U.S. + +C + +Capital +Care of rooms + human body +Carpentry in high school +Centrifugal force +Children + deterioration of manners of +Choice +City + houses +Civilization +Class to work for +Cleaning machine +Cleanliness +Clothing +Colonial houses + period, housebuilding of + Southern type of, houses +Commuter, trials of +Companionship +Compromise +Concrete +Consciousness, social +Construction +Consumption, destructive +Conveniences +Cooperation +Cost + increasing + of housing and total income + per person and per family +Country +Crowding + +D + +Dayton scheme +Debt +Demand + business +Democracy +Deterioration of houses +Dirt +Discomforts +Discontent +Dishonesty in standards +Dole, Charles +Domestic comfort + machine + progress, retarded + unrest +Drainage +Drudgery +Dust + +E + +Economics, home, exhibit + household + social +Economist +Economy +Effective life + workers +Effectiveness +Efficiency + loss of +Energy +Engineering, definition of +Engle's law +Environment +Euthenics +Evolution +Expense +Expenses + operating +Experience in doing + lack of +Experts, house +Extravagance + +F + +Family + table +Farm life +Flat +Flats +Floors, hard-wood + lignolith +Food +Force + for regeneration +Foreigner +Friction due to house + +G + +Garden +Gardening +Gas-stoves +Group system + +H + +Habit, perils of +Habits +Hands +Heating +Home + abandonment of + advisers + Anglo-Saxon meaning of + building of +Home economics + feeling + life + love of + makers + means privacy + ties loosened +Homeless +Homestead +Hospitality +Hot water +House + building + Colonial + evidence of social standing + -keepers + -keeping, twentieth-century + -maids, physical inefficiency of + planning in High School + plans + suburban +Houses + city + Colonial, of New England + four classes of + modern +Housing + +I + +Ideal +Ideas +Improvements +Income +Individual +Industries, disappearance of +Installment plan +Invasion of residential districts +Invention +Investment + +K + +Kitchen + accompaniments + remodelled, in Providence +Kitchenette + +L + +Labor, Bureau of + -saving devices +Lack of + adaptation + business training + experience + faithful service + harmony + study +Land +Landlord +Land-scheme promoter +Lane, Mr. Michael +Leaven of progress +Legacy +"Level of Social Motion" +Life + effective + frontier + fuller + home + open air + private, shabby + restrained +Light +Living, decent + sane + cost of +Location +Lodge, Sir Oliver + +M + +Machinery +Maid's rooms +Making of things +Man, early + primitive +Manners +Marriage, responsibility of +Meals +Mechanical + progress +Menial +Middle, leaven of progress in +Model Tenement Association, New York +Money + basis + measure of success + spender + value +Morison, Geo. S +Morris Building Co +Mulock, Miss + +N + +Nasmyth, James +Natural selection +Nature + love of + return to +Neill, Chas. P., extracts from address by +New Epoch, The + +O + +Opinion, public +Owen, Robert +Own or rent +Ownership + +P + +Parks +Parsons, Wm. Barclay +Patronage of the arts +Permanence in homestead, lack of +Pettingill, Miss [Transcriber's Note: Pettengill in text.] +Philanthropist +Philanthropy +Physical ill-being in + domestics + school children + wage-earners +Place of the house +Plans +Plumbing +Possibilities in sight +Preeminence, social +Primitive man +Principle, fixed + race +Privacy +Private life shabby +Productive work +Progress + leaven of + race +Protection + +Q + +Question, a difficult + +R + +Race principle +Readjustment +Real estate +Refuge +Regeneration, force for +Rent + or own + -payers +Residential districts, invasion of +Responsibility of marriage +Restaurant +Restrained life +Return to nature +Rights to property, etc. +Roosevelt, President + +S + +Sanitarian +Sanitary + English, Inspectors Association, President of +Sanitation +Saving +Schools, public +Science +Scrubbing +Selection, natural +Self-interest + -preservation +Service + faithful, lack of +Sewer connection, houses without +Shelter +Shelter, marrying for +Sheltering the children +Simplicity +Social advance + aspiration + betterment + conditions +Social conscience + consciousness + convention + economics + ostracism + pleasure + preėminence + science + significance + standing + welfare +Society +Sociologist +Sociology +Somerville +Space + diminishing +Spender +Spirit of the age +Standards +Stone, Mary Lowell, Home Economics Exhibit +Structure +Stuckert, Mrs +Study, lack of +Suburban + houses + living + square +Suburbs +Sun-parlors +Sunlight Park, England + +T + +Table, family +Tax +Temporary home +Tenant +Tenement + N.Y. Model, Association +Tennyson +Tenure, + permanence of + shortness of + uncertain +Transition period +Tuberculosis + +U + +U.S. Bureau of Labor +Unrest, domestic +Unsanitary +Utopian + +V + +Veblen +Ventilation +Village houses + influx from + +W + +Wage-earners +Waste, conspicuous +Watchword of the future +Water, hot +Wedding presents +Well-being of community threatened +Wells, H.G. +White plague +Wife +Window +Woman +Women, corporation of +Women's work +Work, + menial + productive + women's +Workers, effective +Working men + +Y + +Young people +Youth, American + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Cost of Shelter, by Ellen H. 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Richards. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; background-color: white} + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + .ind4{margin-left: 4%; } + .olalpha {list-style-type:lower-alpha} + .ctr { text-align: center; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cost of Shelter, by Ellen H. Richards + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cost of Shelter + +Author: Ellen H. Richards + +Release Date: May 16, 2004 [EBook #12366] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COST OF SHELTER *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<center> +<h1> + THE COST OF SHELTER +</h1> + +<h2> + By<br> + ELLEN H. RICHARDS +</h2> +<p> </p> + +<h3> + Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry,<br> + Massachusetts Institute of Technology. +</h3> +<h3> + 1905 +</h3> +</center> + +<a name="CHPRE"></a> +<p> </p> + +<hr> +<p> + THE HOUSEHOLD EXISTS FOR ONE OR MORE + OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS: +</p> +<p> + Two or more persons form an alliance +</p> +<ol class="olalpha"> + <li>for protection against the outside world;</li> + <li>for protection against the outside world + and for the rearing of children;</li> + <li>for the greater gain in convenience which the common life can give + over that of single effort;</li> + <li>for companionship;</li> + <li>for the greater independence it gives to the group;</li> + <li>for the greater ease in satisfying one's prejudices or whims.</li> + </ol> +<hr> + +<p> </p> +<h2> + TABLE OF CONTENTS +</h2> +<a href="#CH1">CHAPTER I</a> +<p> + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE. TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTRES OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY +</p> +<a href="#CH2">CHAPTER II</a> +<p> + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING +</p> +<a href="#CH3">CHAPTER III</a> +<p> + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, ILL ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS, CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION +</p> +<a href="#CH4">CHAPTER IV</a> +<p> + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY +</p> +<a href="#CH5">CHAPTER V</a> +<p> + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE +</p> +<a href="#CH6">CHAPTER VI</a> +<p> + COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY FOR VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER +</p> +<a href="#CH7">CHAPTER VII</a> +<p> + RELATION BETWEEN COST OF SHELTER AND TOTAL INCOME TO BE EXPENDED +</p> +<a href="#CH8">CHAPTER VIII</a> +<p> + TO RENT OR TO OWN: A DIFFICULT QUESTION +</p> + +<p><a href="#CH9">A FEW BOOKS</a></p> + +<p><a href="#CHIND">INDEX</a></p> + +<hr> +<p> </p> +<h2> + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +</h2> +<p><a href="#image-1"> +The Morris Company's Block of Single Houses, with Central +Heating Plant. </a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-2"> +The Morris Building Company's Block of Single Houses, with +Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-3"> +Aerial-view Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-4"> +Floor-plan Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-5"> +Floor-plan Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-6"> +Fig. 6.—Old Kitchen Remodelled. (Stone, Carpenter & +Wilson, Architects, Providence, R.I.) Looking toward the range. Servants' +sitting-room beyond; porcelain sink at left; boiler.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-7"> +Fig. 7.—Old Kitchen Remodelled. Showing glass shelves +and labelled glass jars for all stores. Glass mixing table at left.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-8"> +Figs. 8 and 9.—House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in temperate +America, to cost $5000, if it must not more. </a></p> + +<p><a href="#image-9"> +Figs. 10 and 11.—House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in +temperate America, to cost only $3000, <i>if possible</i>. +(Josselyn & Taylor Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa).</a></p> + + +<hr> +<p> </p> +<h2> + THE COST OF SHELTER. +</h2> +<a name="CH1"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER I. +</h3> +<p> + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE; TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTERS OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "There is no noble life without a noble aim."<br> + —CHARLES DOLE. +</p> +<p> + The word Home to the Anglo-Saxon race calls to mind some definite house as + the family abiding-place. Around it cluster the memories of childhood, the + aspirations of youth, the sorrows of middle life. +</p> +<p> + The most potent spell the nineteenth century cast on its youth was the + yearning for a home of their own, not a piece of their father's. The + spirit of the age working in the minds of men led them ever westward to + conquer for themselves a homestead, forced them to go, leaving the aged + behind, and the graves of the weak on the way. +</p> +<p> + There must be a strong race principle behind a movement of such + magnitude, with such momentous consequences. Elbow room, space, and + isolation to give free play to individual preference, characterized + pioneer days. The cord that bound the whole was love of home,—one's + own home,—even if tinged with impatience of the restraints it + imposed, for home and house do imply a certain restraint in individual + wishes. And here, perhaps, is the greatest significance of the family + house. It cannot perfectly suit <i>all</i> members in its details, but in + its great office, that of shelter and privacy—ownership—the + house of the nineteenth century stands supreme. No other age ever provided + so many houses for single families. It stands between the community houses + of primitive times and the hives of the modern city tenements. +</p> +<p> + As sociologically defined, the family means a common house—common, + that is, to the family, but excluding all else. This exclusiveness is + foreshadowed in the habits of the majority of animals, each pair + preempting a particular log or burrow or tree in which to rear its young, + to which it retreats for safety from enemies. Primitive man first borrowed + the skins of animals and their burrowing habits. The space under fallen + trees covered with moss and twigs grew into the hut covered with bark or + sod. The skins permitted the portable tent. +</p> +<p> + It is indeed a far cry from these rude defences against wind and weather + to the dwelling-houses of the well-to-do family in any country to-day, but + the need of the race is just the same: protection, safety from danger, a + shield for the young child, a place where it can grow normally in peaceful + quiet. It behooves the community to inquire whether the houses of to-day + are fulfilling the primary purposes of the race in the midst of the + various other uses to which modern man is putting them. +</p> +<p> + As already shown, shelter in its first derivation, as well as in its + common use, signifies protection from the weather. Bodily warmth saves + food, therefore is an economy in living. From the first it also implied + protection from enemies, a safe retreat from attack and a refuge when + wounded. But above all else it has, through the ages, stood for a safe and + retired place for the bringing up of the young of the species. +</p> +<p> + The colonial houses of New England with large living-room, dominated by + the huge fireplace with its outfit of cooking utensils, with groups of + buildings for different uses clustered about them, giving protection to + the varied industries of the homestead, illustrate the most perfect type + of family life. Each member had a share in the day's work, therefore to + each it was home. To the old homestead many a successful business man + returns to show his grandchildren the attic with its disused loom and + spinning-wheel; the shop where farm-implements were made, in the days of + long winter storms, to the accompaniment of legend and gossip; the dairy, + no longer redolent of cream. These are reminders of a time past and gone, + before the greed of gain had robbed even these houses of their peace. The + backward glance of this generation is too apt to stop at the transition + period, when the factory had taken the interesting manufactures out of the + hands of the housewife and left the homestead bereft of its best, when the + struggle to make it a modern money-making plant, for which it was never + designed, drove the young people away to less arduous days and more + exciting evenings. +</p> +<p> + This stage of farm life was altogether unlovely, not wholly of necessity, + but because the adjustment was most painful to the feelings and most + difficult to the muscles of the elders. +</p> +<p> + Because the family ideal was the ruling motive, the house-building of the + colonial period shows a more perfect adaptation to family life than any + other age has developed. +</p> +<p> + Where is the boasted adaptability of the American? He should be ready to + see the effect of the inevitable mechanical changes and modify his ideas + to suit. For it cannot be too often reiterated that it is a case of + <i>ideas</i>, not of wood and stone and law. +</p> +<p> + This homestead has passed into history as completely as has the Southern + colonial type, differing only in arrangement. Climate, as well as domestic + conditions, demanded a more complete separation of the manufacturing + processes, including cooking, laundry, etc., otherwise the ideal was the + same. "The house" meant a family life, a gracious hospitality, a busy hive + of industry, a refuge indeed from social as well as physical storms. Work + and play, sorrow and pleasure, all were connected with its outward + presentment as with the thought. For its preservation men fought and women + toiled, but, alas! machinery has swept away the last vestige of this life + and, try as the philanthropist may to bring it back, it will never return. + The very essence of that life was the <i>making of things</i>, the + preparation for winter while it was yet summer, the furnishing of the + bridal chest years before marriage. Fancy a bride to-day wearing or using + in the house anything five years old! +</p> +<p> + There are no more pioneer and colonial communities on this continent. + Railroads and steamboats and electric power have made this rural life a + thing of the past. Let us not waste tears on its vanishing, but address + ourselves to the future. +</p> +<p> + There are two directions in which great change in household conditions has + occurred quite outside the volition of the housekeeper. They are the + disappearance of industries, and lack of permanence in the homestead. + Those who are busily occupied in productive work of their own are + contented and usually happy. The results of their efforts, stored for + future use—barns filled with hay or grain, shelves of linen and + preserves—yield satisfaction. +</p> +<p> + Destructive consumption may be pleasurable for the moment, but does not + satisfy. The child pulls the stuffing from the doll with pleasure, but + asks for another in half an hour. The delicious meal daintily served is a + joy for an hour. A room put in perfect order, clean, tastefully decorated, + is a delight to the eye for three hours and then it must be again cleaned + and rearranged. Is this productive work? Is there any reason why we should + be satisfied with it or happy in it? +</p> +<p> + In an earlier time, that from which we derive so many of our cherished + ideals, the house built by or for the young people was used as a homestead + by their children and their children's children. Customs grew up slowly, + and for some reason. Furniture, collected as wanted, found its place; all + the routine went as by clockwork. Saturday's baking of bread and pies went + each on to its own shelf, as the cows went each to her own stall. If the + duties were physically hard, the routine saved worrying. +</p> +<p> + To-day how few of us live in the house we began life with! How few in that + we occupied even ten years ago! And this number is growing smaller and + smaller. The housewife has not time to form habits of her own; she engages + a maid and expects her to fall at once into the family ways, when the + family has no ways. +</p> +<p> + In the sociological sense, shelter may mean protection from noise, from + too close contact with other human beings, enemies only in the sense of + depriving us of valuable nerve-force. It should mean sheltering the + children from contact with degrading influences. +</p> +<p> + Charles P. Neill, United States Commissioner of Labor, in his address at + the New York School of Philanthropy, July 16, 1905, said: "In my own + estimation home, above all things, means privacy. It means the possibility + of keeping your family off from other families. There must be a separate + house, and as far as possible separate rooms, so that at an early period + of life the idea of rights to property, the right to things, to privacy, + may be instilled." +</p> +<p> + There may be such a thing as too much shelter. To cover too closely breeds + decay. Are we in danger of covering ourselves and our children too closely + from sun and wind and rain, making them weak and less resistant than they + should be? The prevalence of tuberculosis and its cure by fresh air seems + to indicate this. The attempt to gain privacy under prevailing conditions + tends this way. +</p> +<p> + Hitherto students of social economics have usually considered the most + pressing problem in the life of the wage-earner to be that of sufficient + and suitable food. But in any large city and in most smaller communities + there are found those who have refined instincts, aspirations for a life + of physical and moral cleanness, who by force of circumstances are obliged + to come in contact with filth and squalor and careless disorder in order + to find shelter. If they can be kept from degenerating, their rise when + it comes will lift those below them, but it is a Herculean task to lift + them by lifting all below as well. The burden which presses most heavily + on this valuable material for social betterment is that of shelter rather + than of food. +</p> +<p> + The thought underlying this whole series on Cost is that the place to put + the leaven of progress is in the middle. The class to work for is the + great mass of intelligent, industrious, and ambitious young people turned + out by our public schools with certain ideals for self-betterment, but in + grave danger of losing heart in the crush due to the pressure of society + around them and above them. They fear to incur the responsibility of + marriage when they see the pecuniary requirements it involves. +</p> +<p> + This growing body makes up so large a proportion of the whole in America + that, once aroused, it may become an all-powerful force for regeneration, + thanks to the pervading influence of public-school education when enlisted + on the side of right. Faith in the uprightness of American youth is so + strong that strenuous effort for their enlightenment is justified. Once + they have their attention drawn to the need of action, they will act. + Self-preservation is one of the strongest instincts, and it may be + dangerous to call upon the self-interest of these inexperienced souls; but + for the sake of the results we must risk the lesser evil, if we can + develop a resolution to secure a personal and race efficiency. +</p> +<p> + When the young people, with a deep appreciation of the possibilities of + sane and wholesome living, marry and attempt to realize their ideals, the + conditions are all against them. They find little sympathy in their + yearnings for a rational life, and soon give up the effort, deciding that + they are too peculiar. They slip almost insensibly into the routine of + their neighbors. There is great need of a cooperation of like-minded young + married people to form a little community, setting its own standards and + living a fairly independent life. Two or three such groups would do more + than many sermons to awaken attention to the problem before the race + to-day. Shall man yield himself to the tendencies of natural selection and + be modified out of existence by the pressure of his environment, or shall + he turn upon himself some of the knowledge of Nature's forces he has + gained and by "conscious evolution" begin an adaptation of the environment + to the organism? For we no longer hold with Robert Owen and the socialists + that man is necessarily controlled and moulded by his surroundings, that + he is absolutely subject to the laws of animal evolution. A new era will + dawn when man sees his power over his own future. Then, and not till then, + will come again that willingness to sacrifice present ease and pleasure + for the sake of race progress, which alone can make the restrained life a + satisfaction. +</p> +<p> + The environment is, more largely than we think, the house and the manner + of life it forces upon us. Therefore the first point of attack is the + shelter under which the family life of the newly married pair establishes + itself. If it is too large for their income, it leads to extravagance and + debt before the first two years have passed; if it is too small, it cramps + the generous and hospitable impulses. If unsuited to this need, it + irritates and deforms character, as a plaster cast compresses a limb + encased in it. +</p> +<p> + Imagine the young people beginning life in the average city flat, at a + rent of twenty to thirty dollars a month, with its shams, its makeshifts, + its depressing, unsanitary, morally unsafe quarters for the maid, its + friction with janitor and landlord—the whole sordid round + necessitated by the mere manner of building, and by that only. +</p> +<p> + A few strong souls flee to the country. Counting the cost and finding that + all the earnings go to mere living, they decide to get that living in + company with nature under free skies—their own employers. Such may + live in Altruria with the happy zest of the authors of that charming sketch. +</p> +<p> + It is not given to many of earth's children to be so well mated and so + heavenly-wise. The young man has been brought up to consider the house the + young wife's prerogative, and she—well, she has been trained to + believe that housewifely wisdom will come to her as unsought as measles. +</p> +<p> + Two thirds the friction in the early years of married life is caused by + the house and its defects, resulting in dissatisfaction, disenchantment, + and the flight to a hotel or non-housekeeping apartment. +</p> +<p> + If some of the problems to be faced and the difficulties in solving them + could be presented to the young people to be studied and discussed before + the actual encounter came, they would be more prepared. +</p> +<p> + In discussing this part of the subject, as in the consideration of the + Cost of Living in general and the Cost of Food, we shall deal in + particular with incomes of from $1000 to $5000 a year for families of + five, recognizing that under present-day conditions the annual sum of + $1500 to $3000 means the greatest struggle between desires and power of + gratifying them. +</p> +<p> + On the surface it appears that the things which go to make up delicate + cleanly living cost more and more each year, with no limit in sight. It is + not only the poet who moves from one boarding-house to another; the young + clerk and struggling business man go into smaller and smaller quarters + until the traditional limit of room to swing a cat is reached. +</p> +<p> + The constantly diminishing space occupied by a family seems to prove that + the 40% increase in the cost of living within a few years is not caused + by an advance in the necessary cost of food; it is certainly not due to + the increased cost of necessary clothes. It is more than probable that the + increasing cost of shelter and all that it implies—increased + water-supply, service, repairs, etc.—is the main factor in the + undoubtedly increased expense. This will be considered in some detail in + Chapter VIII. +</p> +<p> + While the socialist may take the ground that salaries must be raised to + keep pace with the rise in living expenses, the student of social + ethics—Euthenics, or the science of <i>better</i> living—may + well ask a consideration of the topic from another standpoint. Is this + increased cost resulting in higher efficiency? Are the people growing more + healthy, well-favored, well-proportioned, stronger, happier? If not, then + is there not a fallacy in the common idea that more money spent means a + fuller life? +</p> +<p> + Recent examination of school children in various cities in England and + America has revealed a state of physical ill-being most deplorable in the + present, and horrifying to contemplate for its future results. One has + only to keep one's eyes open in passing the streets to become aware of the + physical deterioration of thousands of the wage-earners. One has only to + listen to the housewife's complaints of inefficiency, lack of strength + among the housemaids, to realize that the world's work is not being well + done in so far as it depends upon human hands. +</p> +<p> + This loss of efficiency is usually attributed to insufficient food and + long hours, but it is at least an open question if housing conditions are + not the more potent factor not only in the case of the very poor, but even + in the case of the family having an income of $2000 a year. Life in a + boarding-house adapted from the use by one family to that of five or six + without increase of bathing and ventilating conveniences, with old-style + plumbing, cannot be mentally or bodily invigorating. +</p> +<p> + The house cannot be said to be a place of safety so long as the "great + white plague" lurks in every dark corner—tuberculosis, colds, + influenza, etc., fasten themselves upon its occupants. Explorers exposed + to extremes of weather do not thus suffer. The dark, damp house incubates + the germs. +</p> +<p> + But homes there must be: places of safety for children, of refuge for + elders. Men will marry and women may keep house. How shall it be managed + so as to be in harmony with present-day demands? Certainly not by ignoring + the difficulties. Progress in any direction does not come through wringing + of hands and deploring the decadence of the present generation. President + Roosevelt's advice is to bring up boys and girls to overcome obstacles, + not to ignore them. Let the educated, intelligent young people join in + devising a way to surmount this obstacle as the engineers of 1890 invented + new ways of crossing impassable gorges and "impossible" mountain ranges. +</p> +<p> + The writer has no ready-prepared panacea to offer. Patent medicine is not + the remedy. This kind cometh out only by fasting and prayer. A long course + of diet is needed to cure a chronic disease. +</p> +<p> + This little volume is intended merely as a spur to the imagination of the + indolent student, to arouse him to the mental effort required to deal with + the readjustment of ideas to conditions before it is too late. +</p> +<p> + It is no exaggeration to say that the social well-being of the community + is threatened. The habits of years are broken up; sad to say, the + middle-aged will suffer unrelieved, but the young can be incited to + grapple with the situation and hew out for themselves a way through. +</p> +<p> + Certain elements in the problem will be touched upon in the following + pages as a result of much going to and fro in the "most favored land on + earth." Certain questions will be raised as to what constitutes a home and + a shelter for the family in the twentieth-century sense of both family and + shelter. +</p> +<a name="CH2"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER II. +</h3> +<p> + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + It is not what we lack, but what we see others have,<br> + that makes us discontented. +</p> +<p> + There has been noted in every age a tendency to measure social preėminence + by the size and magnificence of the family abode. Mediaeval castles, + Venetian palaces, colonial mansions, all represented a form of social + importance, what Veblen has called conspicuous waste. This was largely + shown in maintaining a large retinue and in giving lavish entertainments. + The so-called patronage of the arts—furnishings, fabrics, pictures, + statues, valued to this day—came under the same head of rivalry in + expenditure. +</p> +<p> + In America a similar aspiration results in immense establishments far + beyond the needs of the immediate family. But, unlike society in the + middle ages, social aspiration does not stop short at a well-defined line. + In the modern state each level reaches up toward the next higher and, + failing to balance itself, drops into the abyss which never fills. +</p> +<p> + There is no contented layer of humanity to equalize the pressure; heads + and hands are thrust up through from below at every point. Democracy has + taken possession of the age and must be reckoned with on all sides. +</p> +<p> + At first sight sumptuous housing might seem to be the least objectionable + form of conspicuous waste. Safer than rich food, less wasteful than + gorgeous clothing, but, as Veblen truly says, "through discrimination in + favor of visible consumption it has come about that the domestic life of + most classes is relatively shabby. As a consequence people habitually + screen their private life from observation." This is from a different + motive than the instinct of privacy, of personal withdrawal for rest and + quiet. This shabby private life is why true hospitality is disappearing. + The chance guest is no longer welcome to the family table; we are ashamed + of our daily routine, or we have an idea that our fare is not worthy of + being shared. Whatever it is, unconscious as it often is, it is a canker + in the family life of to-day. It leads to selfishness, to a laxness in + home manners very demoralizing. It is doubtless one of the great factors + in the distinct deterioration of children's public manners. +</p> +<p> + Because the house is held to be the visible evidence of social standing, + because its location, style of architecture, fittings and furniture may be + made to proclaim the pretensions of its inhabitants, it is often dishonest + and one of the sources of the prevalent untruth in other things, since + dishonesty in housing has been not infrequently one of the first signs of + dishonesty in business. To move to a less fashionable quarter is to + confess financial stress at once. +</p> +<p> + It is because the concomitant expenses of an establishment may be + curtailed without attracting public notice that a moral danger exists. The + outside shell is not the whole nor even the chief outlay. The operating + expenses run away with more money than the house itself, and it is in + these that the family, conscious of impending ruin, curtail, and thus + become dishonest in their own souls. +</p> +<p> + The moral of it all is to live just a little below the probable limit, + whatever that may be, rather than to assume a greater income than is quite + certain. Granted that in the quickly changing conditions of to-day this is + difficult, it is not often impossible. +</p> +<p> + It is only needed to set some other standard of social position than + shelter and to use the house for its legitimate purposes only, that of an + abode of the family in health and joyful cooperation. The class for which + this series is written should seek a shelter sufficient for these normal + uses, and make it so home-like that friends will gladly share it when + permitted. +</p> +<p> + Let good manners, keen intelligence, bright and entertaining conversation + take the place of the showy but frequently uncomfortable houses and + wholesale entertainments of to-day. +</p> +<p> + It is time that a beginning was made of that form of social pleasure and + mental recreation which the century must develop, or fail of its promise. +</p> +<p> + What is the value, of present-day knowledge if not to stimulate the + conscious group, through the individual perhaps, but the group finally, to + better use of its powers and opportunities toward a higher form of social + life? +</p> +<p> + We have been told that the house should be as much an expression of + individuality as clothes. Since clothes are constantly and easily changed, + and a family home built to order is comparatively permanent, such + expression in wood or stone should be carefully thought out; but how + rarely do we gain a pleasant impression from the houses built for the + purpose of setting forth social standards! The owner and the architect + have neither of them the highest ideals, and a sort of ready-made, + composite, often irritating, always displeasing result follows. The + pretence shows through more often than the occupant realizes. +</p> +<p> + Society has the power to regulate its own conventions. Once convinced that + it is dangerous to put the strain of living on to mere superficial + pretence, mere location, ornament, new standards will be set up; as, + indeed, they are under other conditions. In frontier life, for instance, + where shortness of tenure is recognized, dress and the table take the + place of the house as indications. In a mining town, one is astonished at + the costumes seen on persons issuing from insignificant houses, and at the + excellent bill of fare in a restaurant with the barest necessities of + furnishing. Cursory observation often reads the signs of civilization + wrongly. The eastern traveller, accustomed to the outward glitter and the + finish of settled communities, fails to interpret the real efficiency of a + more flexible society. West of the Mississippi, that new empire we are + just beginning to appreciate, good food is recognized as of prime + importance, dress gives an opportunity for showing conspicuous waste, and + buildings are made for show only when permanence of residence is assured. +</p> +<p> + Let society once thoroughly understand that safe shelter is essential to + its very life, that this safety is threatened, if not lost, by present + habits, and, by quick money-making schemes in house-building, it will + establish standards of living which shall not only be for the material + welfare, but for the mental, moral, and spiritual progress of the race. +</p> +<p> + This progress can be secured by applying centrifugal force to congested + districts, by interesting capitalists to consider housing at the same time + with manufacturing plants, not only providing safe, economical houses, but + by making it socially possible to live in them on moderate incomes. +</p> +<p> + The rising half, we must remember, is more affected by social conventions + than the submerged tenth. +</p> +<p> + The well-to-do should consider more conscientiously those who recruit + their ranks, who, if started right without danger of debt, will have + freedom to advance. The present muddle has come about in part because no + one has taken the trouble to investigate the reasons. The young family + with $3000 a year has ideals for the manners and morals of the children + which are not satisfied with those of the inexpensive tenement quarter. + Prevention they consider better than cure, hence they pay higher rent than + the income warrants to secure elevating examples and morally wholesome + surroundings. +</p> +<a name="image-1"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/illus0144.jpg" width="269" height="219" +alt="The Morris Company's Block of Single Houses, +with Central Heating Plant (*remainder cut off)."> +</p> +<a name="image-2"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/illus0146.jpg" width="258" height="229" +alt="The Morris Building Company's Block of Single Houses, +with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York."> +</p> +<p> + A single family cannot control a whole street, although cooperation can + accomplish a great deal in the way of congenial neighborhoods. But the + risk involved, the liability to error of judgment, as well as the large + outlay of capital, at once prevents the adoption of this means of + satisfactory housing for the business and professional class to any great + extent, at least in the city. The acumen needed to discover the profitable + in real estate, the skill to acquire large contiguous tracts of land, both + belong to the capitalist. Only when he is a philanthropist besides, is the + housing question safe in his hands. Such an example we find in the Morris + houses, Willoughby Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. This set of family dwellings was + put up to meet this very need. Congenial neighborhood, safe + playgrounds for the children, labor-saving devices for the housekeeper. + When first built they were in advance of anything in an eastern city of + their class. To-day Mr. Pratt has even more advanced ideas which will take + form in the future. +</p> +<a name="image-3"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/031.jpg" width="212" height="274" +alt="Aerial-view Drawing: +The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, +Brooklyn, New York."> +</p> +<p> + These attractive and comfortable houses, so near the working places of + the teachers and professional and business men who occupy them, were + possible only because of the comparative cheapness of the land, which had + been held undesirable for high-class single houses, not for sanitary + reasons, but solely on account of social conditions. This cluster of forty + houses makes its own atmosphere. This is the lesson to be learned. Let + groups of like-minded families make their own surroundings. The capitalist + will soon learn where his interest lies. +</p> +<a name="image-4"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/032.jpg" width="175" height="286" +alt="Floor-plan Drawing: +The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, +Brooklyn, New York."> +</p> +<a name="image-5"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/033.jpg" width="175" height="232" +alt="Floor-plan Drawing: +The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, +Brooklyn, New York."> +</p> +<p> + Very probably it will be necessary to enlarge the scope and, perhaps, to + build two stories higher, so that the elders and perhaps bachelors of + both sexes, who do not care for the garden, may help to bear the expense + of the children's playground. Whatever form the advance may take, this is + a sign-post in the right direction. +</p> +<p> + In the nature of things, however, the first experiments will be costly and + must be combined with business of a sure kind. In this instance the + heating and hot-water supply was made possible by a combination with + factory plant. But if a larger group of, say, one hundred houses were run + by a central establishment, the Morris Building Company estimates the cost + at about fifty dollars per year. +</p> +<p> + These houses will be referred to again under Chapter VI, but the especial + value of this experiment was its social significance. How much better to + keep desirable land for residential purposes by such means than to permit + families to move away and give up satisfactory dwellings solely because + the lower end of the street has a few foreigners! Our older cities abound + in instances of this quick abandonment of most desirable streets without + any concerted effort to retain their character. +</p> +<p> + The dangerous sanitary degeneration of these abandoned houses is one of + the worst features of the situation and a prolific cause of the + overcrowding of cities. +</p> +<p> + The more thoughtful students of progressive tendencies are grouping + themselves in "parks" where houses are put up with the aid of the + capitalist under such restrictions as to price as is supposed to insure a + congenial neighborhood, and under such regulations as to land as to + prevent manufacturing establishments. When these plans are not purely + speculative, designed to entrap the young people by their best hopes of a + permanent home, much satisfaction may come from the plan. But even in this + country or suburban life the shadow of fashion falls sooner or later, and + the savings vanish with the years. Some deeper principle must come into + play, some stronger force than mere whim of society leaders, before our + young people can be released from the bondage of living on the right side + of a street under penalty of social ostracism. +</p> +<p> + There are gratifying indications of an awakening. The following statement + appeared in a newspaper of a recent date: +</p> +<p> + "A corporation of women has been formed in Indianapolis, Ind., for the + purpose of building small but artistic houses for people of moderate + means. All of the directors are business women; one of the vice-presidents + is Miss Elizabeth Browning, the city librarian, and another is the + principal of one of the public schools. The secretary has for some time + been in charge of the office of a savings and loan association and is the + only woman member of the Indianapolis fire insurance inspection board. Six + houses are to be erected at once in various parts of the city." +</p> +<p> + No better use of money or effort can be made at the present time than in + similar endeavors to meet the needs of the time. The study of conditions + will prove an education in itself and a stimulus to invention. +</p> +<p> + When the social conscience is once awakened the bride with $2000 a year + will not be expected to begin where her mother left off. +</p> +<p> + The young people will be provided with just as comfortable and just as + sanitary homes, but they will not be expected to entertain lavishly in + order to show the wedding presents before they are broken. They will be + visited, even if they live in an unfashionable quarter on a side street. + Is it not more honest? +</p> +<p> + If society would put its stamp on the manner of life adapted to the + welfare of the young people, it would not be unfashionable to live within + one's income. +</p> +<p> + The tyranny of things is very real and most distressing in connection with + this problem of shelter and all that it involves. +</p> +<p> + There is only needed a social awakening to result in an adjustment of + men's views as to what is good and right. New social habits adapted to the + age we live in will be accepted by the next generation as good form. +</p> +<a name="CH3"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER III. +</h3> +<p> + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOT ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "A large part of the evils of which we complain socially to-day<br> + are due to the kind of houses we live in and the exactions they<br> + make upon us."<br> + —H.G. WELLS. +</p> +<p> + Four classes of houses have come down to us: +</p> +<ol> + <li><p><!--1--> + The family homestead in the country set low on the ground with damp + walls and dark cellar, one of a cluster of rambling buildings; with a + well, the only water supply, in close proximity to various sources of + pollution. These houses are for the most part now abandoned to the + foreigner, who uses them for the primitive purposes of shelter without the + ennobling intellectual life they once harbored. Now and then a grandson + rescues the old place, brings water from a spring or brook, digs a drain, + lets light into the cellar, and builds on a kitchen and dining-room. +</p> +<p> + The expense is often greater than to build anew, but the effect is usually + very good when the changes are made under sanitary supervision. +</p> +</li> +<li><p><!--2--> + The village or suburban house set in its own grounds, too near the + street usually, but with garden and fruit-trees in the rear, and possibly + a stable for horse and cow. This was the compromise made by the generation + just from the free life of the farm-house, who, consciously or + unconsciously, clung to the green of grass and trees, and the blue of the + sky. So long as habit or love of caring for the things lasted all went + well. The father found his recreation in planting the garden before + breakfast, as in his boyhood. The mother cared for flower and + vegetable-garden, as she recalled her mother's life; she picked her own + beans and corn, even if she did not cook the dinner. +</p> +<p> + But the <i>children</i> had to hurry off to school, and it was a pity to call + them early: they had lessons to learn in the afternoon. To them the garden + was work, not play as it should have been; so they failed to gain that + contact with mother earth which gives inspiration as well as health; they + failed to acquire a love of nature, became infected with the germ of + gregariousness, preferred the glare of lights, the rush of hurrying + crowds, and lost the relish for fresh air and quiet. This second + generation came to the city boarding-house and flat as soon as they were + free, leaving their parents' houses to go the same way as the + grandfather's farmhouse, into the hands of the foreigner not yet + Americanized to high standards of cleanliness and orderliness. +</p> +<p> + These houses, too, are settling down into unkempt grounds with + dilapidated porches and blinds. Such eyesores as one finds on the + trolley-lines in any direction! They may have town-water supply, or they + may depend on wells, but they are frequently without sewer-connection. +</p> +<p> + It is costly to be neat and clean, and only those whose minds require such + surroundings in order to be comfortable will pay the cost in time, + trouble, and money. +</p> +</li> +<li><p><!--3--> + Some families made a compromise and built what is called a modern + house with bath-room and furnace (after the air-tight-stove craze passed), + with jigsaw ornamentation outside and in, pretentious-looking dwellings + with no proper kitchen accompaniments, and an unsavory garbage-barrel in + the small back yard, under the next neighbor's windows. These houses are + so close together that sounds and smells mingle; there is so little land + that there is no satisfaction in caring for it. Houses of this sort are + altogether too frequently found, occupying good locations and jarring on + the nerves of the better-trained young people of to-day. What is to be + done with them? They are too expensive to pull down, and hence are the + last resort of those who find they must retrench. They are mere temporary + shelters, not loved homes. +</p> +<p> + The plumbing is usually of a cheap order, and the drains are not + infrequently broken, so that sanitarily these dwellings are often more + suspicious than the abandoned farmhouse. +</p> +</li> +<li><p><!--4--> + The influx from village and country made demand for city housing of + an inexpensive sort, and there came into being all over the land the type + of the family house squeezed by the price of land to four stories high, 16 + to 20 feet wide, built in long rows and blocks. The "ugly sixties" bred + not only distressful village "villas," but unpleasant city houses of this + type, which are to-day a real menace to wholesome living. Many such blocks + may be found in any of our older cities, casting a depressing influence + upon all who come in sight of them, and deteriorating the manners and + morals of all who live in them. For these have gone the way of the other + classes mentioned and become perverted from the uses they were designed + for. In the seventies there were still motherly women who had come to town + to make a home for the children no longer content out of it. They were + willing and capable of mothering a few other children and lonely teachers + and clerks, so the boarding-house began as a real family home for the + homeless. There were not enough of these women to go around, and soon + boarding-houses began to be run for profit only. Home privileges were + fewer and fewer, the common parlor was rented, the one-family kitchen was + made to do duty for twenty persons. The house became pervaded with burned + fat and tobacco-smoke—a most villainous combination, gossip flourished, + and the limit of discomfort was reached. What wonder that a good Samaritan + built the first flat where the wearied nerves could find peace in the + thicker walls, and could escape the eternal "fry" by going out to meals! + It is a perfectly natural evolution from the impossible conditions which + the eighties and nineties developed. +</p> +<p> + The early attempts, built on the old lines after the old ideas, before the + new life was accepted, are not satisfactory and, being built of brick or + stone, they are even more difficult to get rid of than the preceding. So + each type goes down in the scale of decent living. A given roof is made to + cover more people crowding closer and closer, causing home in the sense of + privacy and comfort to recede farther and farther away, until the lover of + his kind stands aghast at the magnitude of the problem before society when + it awakens to the task confronting it. Fortunately these rows of houses + are disappearing under the demand of business. The invasion of the + residential district is a real blessing, in that it pulls down these + houses which in twenty years have outlived their usefulness and can serve + a good purpose no longer. +</p> +<p> + Let us hope that either the demands of business or the common sense of + society will also sweep away the fifth class: +</p> +</li> +<li><p><!--5--> + City flats put up by the + conscienceless money-maker with only that idea of giving the public what + the public wants (because it knows no better) which gives the newspaper + its pernicious influences. At first it was supposed the flat-dwellers + would keep house, and arrangements of a sort were made. This compressed + the work of the house into such small quarters that the maid was given a + room down in the basement along with the furnace, or in the top story + adjoining ten or more other rooms—a dormitory arrangement without + supervision and without the quiet needed for rest. The difficulty of + securing good service under these conditions, together with the thousand + and one annoyances of living at too close quarters, noisy children and + pianos, grumpy janitors, smelly garbage, have led to the latest phase: + non-housekeeping flats with daily care of a sort supplied by the janitor + if desired, a kitchenette where eggs and coffee for breakfast and dishes + for invalids may be prepared, and restaurants galore for other meals. Thus + the women of the family are set free to roam the streets in search of + bargains and to join others like unto themselves for matinées and + promenades. +</p> +<p> + This sort of shelter is increasing more rapidly than any other in all the + cities investigated. An estimate has been made that 80 or 90 per cent of + the recent building has been of this sort. Six rooms in an unfashionable + locality rent for about $25 or $30 a month; in a fashionable quarter, for + $200 to $250 per month, with a floor-space one half larger. These latter + cost about 50 cents per week per room for daily care, whereas the former, + if cared for from outside, are served only at intervals of two weeks or a + month. The inmates do most of the daily care themselves. While the + building is new and fresh this means little work; but as time goes on the + poor construction shows, the surface varnish wears off, cracks come, and a + general shabbiness appears, so that the tenant prefers to move into a new + building. The owner, or more probably the agent, puts on a little shining + varnish, and rents again without real repair, and these buildings also go + from bad to worse. Many of them are known to change tenants two or three + times a year. There is always a demand for the newest house. +</p> +</li> +</ol> + +<p> + A study of social conditions reveals the fact that for the larger part of + the wage-earners the house has come to be the place where money is spent, + not earned or even saved. It has gone back to its primitive use— + shelter from weather and a sleeping-place, a temporary one at that. A + real-estate authority has made the assertion that three fifths of the + rent-payers in large cities are made up of non-householders and one half of + these are confined to one room—mostly women. This indicates a change + in requirements for the housing of the individual as distinguished from the + family. And it is this element which has complicated city living to a + great extent, and to which attention has been drawn by the accusation that + home life is shirked by it. +</p> +<p> + To the bachelor man and maid are added the commercial traveller who leaves + wife and possibly child behind four fifths of the time. For him, as for + several other classes of young business men, the locality which he can + choose for headquarters changes with the requirements of business. He is + under orders and must go at a moment's notice across the continent, + perhaps. It is not his fault but the exigency of business that destroys + the desire for a permanent abiding-place. The numbers of such homeless + young people are far greater than any one but the real-estate agent + realizes. Then this loosening of the home tie renders easy the shifting + from city to country and seashore. A considerable proportion of the $2000 + to $5000 class shut up the flat or leave the boarding-house several times + in the year. There is usually one place where the furniture and + bric-a-brac and the other season's clothing are kept, but it is only a + storehouse or a temporary retreat that holds their property, growing less + and less as they move, until they may practically live in their trunks. +</p> +<p> + The legacy which outranks all the others in disastrous consequences is the + notion that the young people must begin where their parents left off; that + the house must be, if anything, a little more elaborate. Therefore in + starting life the rent is allowed to consume one third the income in + sight, without considering the cost of maintaining such an establishment. + With a probable income of $2000 a year the young man does not hesitate to + pay $500 for a house, not realizing that at least half as much more should + be spent on wages for the care of the nineteenth-century house, and as + much more on incidentals, car-fares, and unexpected demands. What wonder + that the young people find themselves in debt by the second year? +</p> +<p> + The parents are quite as much, if not more, to blame for encouraging this + extravagance. The father and mother are entitled to their ease and to the + use of their income for it, but the newly married pair have, in this age, + no right to assume the same attitude. They have their way to make, their + work to do in the years ahead of them. They should not mortgage the future + for the sake of the present luxury; and because of the uncertainties of + occupation and of health it is wise to take out of the expected income one + fourth or one third for a reserve fund and divide the remainder for + expenses. For instance, from $2000 a year subtract $500, then divide the + $1500 into $300 for rent, $300 for food, $300 for operating expenses, $200 + for clothing, $200 for travel, leaving $200 for the other expenses. If + unlooked-for expenses must be incurred, there is the $500 to draw upon; + but do not court the extra outlay: save the nest-egg if possible. +</p> +<p> + The ideals of the home are said to rule the world. The young business man + who does not take the sane view of his own expenses will not rightly + consider his employer's interests. It is more than probable that the + much-deplored laxness, to call it by no harsher name, in business circles + is directly traceable to this falseness and dishonesty in standards of + home life. This moral effect is what makes the housing problem so serious. + It leads to an outward show not balanced by an ability to maintain an + inner life in harmony. It leads to an attempt to carry on a four-servant + house with two servants, or a three servant establishment with one. +</p> +<p> + Lack of study and experience leads the family living in the suburbs, in + one of the worst legacies of the past, to attempt the same style as + friends maintain in a lately built apartment house, without in the least + understanding wherein the difference lies. +</p> +<p> + From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to Texas, comes the same dull + and sullen roar of domestic unrest. Lack of faithful service is causing + the abandonment of the family home, and the fear of the obstacles in the + way of establishing new ones threatens the whole social fabric. +</p> +<p> + The housewife is inclined to connect this state of things almost entirely + with food preparation, and is prone to fancy that if eating could be + abolished peace would return. +</p> +<p> + The trouble goes much deeper, however, even to the foundations. The + nineteenth-century house is not suited to twentieth-century needs. In + other words, lack of adaptation to present conditions of the houses we + live in is a large factor in the prevailing domestic discontent. The next + largest has been referred to as attempting a style of living beyond one's + income. +</p> +<p> + In all other walks of life, in transportation, in manufacturing, machinery + has come in to replace the heavier and more mechanical portions of labor. + The steam-shovel, the hoisting-engine, an infinite combination of + mechanical principles have been applied to the doing of things to save + human muscle. To stand by the machine which turns out the familiar + grape-basket, ready to fill with the fruit, and then to watch the + housemaid bending over some piece of work, is to realize the difference. + In few, very few operations is it necessary to-day that men should bend + their backs, but in how many household processes is the worker expected to + get down on all fours? The free-born American rebels. Perchance it is the + unconscious protest over a four-footed ancestry, or it may be that disuse + has really weakened the spinal column. Whatever the cause, the fact + remains. It is not the idea of work, of service, but of bending the back + to work that is so repugnant; likewise the effect on the hands of hot + water and scrubbing. Close observation has convinced me that care of the + hands has become an indication of freedom from manual labor quite + unthought of fifteen or twenty years ago. The increase of + manicuring-rooms, like the increase of restaurants, is a clear sign of the + trend of the times. Not only the class who likes to waste conspicuously, + but many a teacher, many a young man in State or Government employ with + an income of one, two, or three thousand a year patronizes these rooms. +</p> +<p> + This daintiness reflects downward, and the girl whose acquaintances in her + high-school days are in a position to keep well manicured, if not + "lily-white," hands does not like to have hers show the effect of + housework, when that means scrubbing the floor and cleaning the stove. + Gloves? Ah, well, James Nasmyth once wrote: "Kid-gloves are great + non-conductors of knowledge." I believe that gloves of any kind are a + makeshift in real cleaning of dirty corners; but <i>there should not be + corners to catch dirt</i>. +</p> +<p> + The unnecessary nastiness of the scrub-water with its fine soot which + works into every pore is a great objection to the girl who must work for + her living. If she goes to visit her friends, her hands betray her. She + can remove the other badges of her toil, her cap and apron; she may go out + on the street as brave as her mistress; but the moment her gloves are + removed her hands tell the tale. With the means at hand this need not be. + It is one of the legacies which have come down to us, and which we have + connected with the servant problem. The work in the most modern apartments + does not require the soiling of the hands in a serious way. With hard wood + floors, bright gas-stoves, porcelain lined dishes, no pots and kettles, + all the stairs, halls, etc., cared for by the janitor, the work is of a + far less smutting kind than in the suburban house, where there is still + need for much cleaning up of a roughening sort which cannot be escaped. + This has more to do than we are apt to think with the distaste for the + country, unless several servants are kept, some for this work only. In the + old type of city house the travel up-and down-stairs to answer bell and + telephone has demanded strength of back not possessed by the modern maid. + The house is not yet adapted to the new demands of the workers, and they + shun it. The mistress herself finds it beyond her strength, even if the + traces of rough work were not quite so distasteful to her. +</p> +<p> + Miss Pettengill in her story of domestic service brings out the great part + played by sooty dust, sifting in even through closed windows, in the + burden of the waitress who is expected to keep the dining-room immaculate. +</p> +<p> + This is only one instance where the blame really belongs on the actual + material house rather than on the mistress, except that she does not + discover a remedy, does not even know where to look for the cause. I have + great faith in the business woman, who does see much that is better done + and who will bring it back into the home. +</p> +<p> + Fashions in philanthropy do not yet tend in the direction of house + betterment. +</p> +<p> + "A busy man cannot stop his life-work to teach architects what they ought + to know," says Wells; but on the other hand "we cannot be expected to + teach men and their wives, as well as draw plans for them," says the + architect who has tried it. +</p> +<p> + The centrifugal forces that our social prophets are so fond of invoking, + holding that the words "town" and "city" may become as obsolete as + "mail-coach," will have to reckon with these features of country life. +</p> +<p> + It is assumed that the work of women is "housekeeping." I should like to + put the question suddenly to a thousand men. What is twentieth-century + housekeeping? I venture the guess that less than a hundred would take into + account the utter difference in their wives' duties from their mothers', + as they remember them; and yet the house, even the flat, is built more or + less along the old lines. The women do not know enough to assert + themselves, and have not the skill to show the builder what is wrong. The + architects could tell tales if they would. The utter ignorance of what a + house means, of the steps necessary to make a successful livable place, is + appalling. The young man who has $3000 as a legacy feels he can build. His + wife chooses the location near her friends whose houses she likes, and the + architect is called in. Do you wish back stairs? Are you to keep three + servants or none? Do you wish the rooms separate or connecting? All such + questions find a blank stare. "What difference does that make in the style + and price?" the would-be owner says. The architect is not always able to + show him that these little things are the whole problem in building a + <i>home</i>. The house as a home is merely outer clothing, which should fit + as an overcoat should, without wrinkles and creases that show their + ready-made character. The woman, born housekeeper as she considers + herself, is rigid in her ideas of what she thinks she wants, but when the + builder has followed her plans she is far from satisfied with the result. + She is used to material which puckers and stretches in her clothing; she + cannot understand the inflexibility of wood and stone. The remedy is for + high-school girls, probably even grammar-school pupils as well, to have + along with their drawing some problems in house-planning and some lessons + in carpentry. +</p> +<p> + It will be seen from the foregoing glance at the rapid change and steady + deterioration of houses that the care of such living-places must involve + special discomforts in most cases. +</p> +<p> + The time required to keep clean old splintered floors, to carry pails of + water up and down stairs, to dry out the cloths—the base boards with + their grimy streaks tell the story of carelessness—is not counted in + the wage schedule. +</p> +<p> + Why is there so much dirt brought into the house? Because shoes and + streets are muddy. Why is there so much lint? Because we have too many + things in a room—too much wear and tear. +</p> +<p> + And unnecessary dirt is found even in the newer apartment-houses with the + ever-changing population and ever-lessening space for maids' quarters, + together with the sham character of construction due to the fact that most + of these houses have been put up by speculators at the lowest cost of the + cheapest materials which will show wear in a few months. Flimsy + construction is a direct result of the notorious lack of care taken by the + tenant, so that quick returns must be the rule; also of the probability + that the neighborhood will deteriorate and that a class which will bear + crowding and be less critical will replace the first tenants. +</p> +<p> + Conveniences for doing work in the houses built to rent, that is to bring + in the greatest returns in the shortest time, will not be put in (for the + first cost is great) unless the house will rent for more. The sharpest + Hebrew or Irish landlord will allow his architect to add bathtubs if he + believes the flat will rent for a few dollars more, where he will not do + it for the sake of cleanliness. The supply of hot water, together with the + gas stove, has done much to reconcile the housewife who does her own work + to the cramped quarters of the flat, and also has done more than anything + else to render the maids discontented with that legacy from the nineteenth + century which requires the building of a coal fire before hot water can be + had. The coal fire makes necessary rising an hour earlier and this, after + the late hours the seven-o'clock dinner enforces, causes friction all + along the line. +</p> +<p> + The acceptance by young women without a study of cause and effect of + whatever presents itself makes them bad housekeepers, in the sense of + ignorant ones unable to cope with present conditions, because lack of + experience is not supplemented by a spirit of investigation and a + resolution to work out the problem. They seem to think that housekeeping + is to go on in the same old way no matter whatever else may change, + whereas it is most sensitive to the general direction of progress if they + but knew it. The wage-earner is more fully aware of the currents of the + irresistible river modern life has become (the slow-moving car of + Juggernaut is no longer an adequate symbol) than is the money spender. +</p> +<p> + Indeed is any part of the house, as we now most frequently find it, + adapted to the uses of the twentieth century? +</p> +<p> + The careless capitalist who makes possible the "cockroach landlord," he + who sublets and crowds and skimps the tenants for his own gain, is greatly + to blame for the distressing conditions of the lower income limit of the + wage-earner, but I fear he is not altogether blameless for the sort of + house the $1500 man has to look for in the city. Decent living with light + and air within half an hour of work is growing so rare that society must + take a hand in the matter. +</p> +<a name="CH4"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER IV. +</h3> +<p> + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "We have entered upon the period of conscious evolution, have<br> + begun the adaptation of the environment to the organism."<br> + —Sir OLIVER LODGE. +</p> +<p> + The hopeless pessimism of the past, that saw in the unmerciful progress of + organic evolution no escape for the human animal from the grip of fate, is + about to give way to the enthusiasm of conscious directing and controlling + power. +</p> +<p> + This is the beneficent result of the age of the machine. Man has + discovered that he can not only change his environment, but that by this + change he can modify himself. The hope of the future lies in the moulding + of man's surroundings to his needs. In physiological terms, "the + adaptation of structure to function." +</p> +<p> + The day is long past when shelter implied chiefly a tight roof and a dry + floor. The housing of the twentieth-century family means location, central + and fashionable. It means in cost far more than what the roof covers and + the floor supports. It means plumbing and interior finish; it also means + a finish on the outside, smoothly shaven lawns and immaculate sidewalks. +</p> +<p> + Sigh as we may for the colonial house, we confess that the standards of + the time did not include the comfort of hot baths, polished floors, + plate-glass windows, elevators, ice-closets, and lawn-mowers. These are + necessary adjuncts to what is held as merely decent living; <i>how</i> can + the $2000 man have them, not why <i>will</i> he not? +</p> +<p> + What then is the house and the life in it to become for the great majority + of families and individuals with an income of $3000 a year and necessarily + nomadic habits. I say necessarily, because these families are at the mercy + of business and social conditions quite beyond their control and + impossible to foretell. +</p> +<p> + So far as prophetic vision sees through the mists of time, the aim of the + twentieth century is to live the <i>effective life</i>. +</p> +<p> + The simple life has been preached, the strenuous life has been lauded, + but, as William Barclay Parsons recently stated + it:<a href="#note-1"><small><sup>1</sup></small></a> "We need force, we + need a vigorous force; we need that direction and avoidance of the + unnecessary which is simplicity, but with either one alone there is + something lacking. Instead of latent force and great energy without + control, instead of quiet gentleness, of power of control without vigor + to be controlled, what we need is force and energy applied where necessary + and always under control, always working to a definite purpose, and at the + same time avoiding complications and unnecessary friction. +</p> +<a name="note-1"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>1</u></sup> [William Barclay Parsons, N.E.A., Asbury Park, 1905. +<i>Eng. Record</i>, Aug. 12, 1905.] +</p> +<p> + "That is to have a life whose great underlying motive is effectiveness. + Instead of speaking of the strenuous life or the simple life, let us have + as a doctrine 'the effective life.' +</p> +<p> + "What we need is not merely a man who acts, but one who <i>does</i>; that + is, one who will do what he has to do regardless of intervening obstacles. + Efficiency and effectiveness are the key-notes of success in actual life. + They are also the lessons taught by every parable in the New Testament, + even if that work is regarded as a code of ethics, and they form the + spirit of that stirring definition of + engineering<a href="#note-2"><small><sup>2</sup></small></a> which is + based on the direction of the vital forces of nature and the doing of + things for mankind." +</p> +<a name="note-2"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>2</u></sup> ["Ability to do and the <i>doing</i>, efficiency, and +the use of it all for mankind."—Tredgold's definition of Engineering.] +</p> +<p> + Manufacturing concerns have found it pays them to provide decent tenements + for their workers, but society has not yet awakened to the fact that the + rank and file of the great army of salaried employees is left to fend for + itself in a world only too prone to take advantage of its necessities. + There is danger in this neglect of wholesome living surroundings, because + from this stratum develops normally the intelligence of the future, and + how can mentally active children grow up under the prevailing unsightly + and unsanitary conditions? +</p> +<p> + Of course with the passing of pioneer conditions will pass in a measure + the courage and adaptability which braced itself to meet and overcome + obstacles. The salaried position in a great combine, instead of work for + one's self in an independent business, tends to magnify the value of mere + money-income gained through smartness rather than by ability. If life is + made too easy, men will settle into indolent sterility, just as animals + and plants degenerate with too much food. +</p> +<p> + The future will surely bring greater mechanical perfection and thus leave + it possible for the individual, for each member of the family group, to do + for himself many little things which are not comfortable to do now. But + will he be willing to do them? Not unless he feels it to be a duty or a + pleasure. Not unless there is an undercurrent of principle which carries + him along. Without this principle strong enough to give an impetus over + hard places in the early stages of life, the individual and the family + will surely drift into the hotel and boarding-house, where everything is + done on a money basis and nothing for love of one's kind; where a tip + salves the hurt of menial work. These habits once gained are hard to break + up; therefore it is much better for young people to begin life doing some + things for themselves in a house where machinery responds to their call + without a tip, where they may economize without loss of self-respect. We + need to revive some of the pagan ideals of the beauty and value of the + human body and human life which consists in the care and use of this body. + There is no menial work in the daily living rightly carried out; that + which the last century wrongly permitted is made needless by the machinery + of to-day. +</p> +<p> + The point of view is most important. +</p> +<p> + The first steps toward social betterment will come through a cooperation + of three forces: (1) a recognition of the need; (2) an awakening of social + conscience to the duty of supplying the need; and (3) the movement of + moneyed philanthropy to fulfil the requirement quickly. +</p> +<p> + As was natural, sympathy flowed first to the class which had the most + visible need, not necessarily the greater need. +</p> +<p> + The New York Model Tenement Association has shown the world how easy it + is, when there is a will, to find a way. That association has already + taken the first step in advanced housing, and reduced the cost of safe and + rentable city shelter to its lowest terms. Fireproof, sanitary, and + convenient so far as rooms go (it is quite a climb for the mother with a + baby in her arms to the sixth story), with neighbors carefully sorted, + repairs well looked after, a sympathetic woman as agent always in the + office; <i>but</i> only a minimum of light and air and sun; bedrooms 7x8, + living-rooms 10x13; the smallest spaces the law allows; no grass, no + flowers outside, no pets, nothing of one's own that cannot be put in a + cart; common stairways where only partial privacy is gained; clothes-yards + on the roof, and laundry in the basement, to be used in turn by twenty + tenants. Because this is better than the slums for the emerging class, and + because they like the gregariousness, is no argument for continuing the + type up into the range of the $2000 group. But this is just what most of + the small apartments do—those built to make all the money that + they will bear. Hardly any better facilities are given. It will be easy for + more roomy living-places to be built on similar plans, with elevators and + labor-saving devices, and yet within the limit of moderate incomes, such + blocks to be always under competent sanitary supervision. +</p> +<p> + From these model tenements it will not be difficult to advance to the + suburban square with sufficient variety in house plans to content those + who are willing to yield small personal whims. Hitherto the erratic fancy + of would-be tenants, the dissatisfaction with the arrangements provided, + has made building <i>en masse</i> difficult. As long as the builder was + called upon to suit those who had lived in houses of their own for many + years his task was difficult, but now he will have to do with the young + people who know no other life and who will more readily fall in with the + standards set by the house itself. +</p> +<p> + For this very reason those who have social welfare at heart must come to + the rescue, and devise and put up samples, of the best that modern science + can offer, to rent for $300 to $500 a year. Let any one who loves his + kind, if he have a talent this way, not wrap it in a napkin, but give it + to the builder and the philanthropist to materialize. Now is the time to + set standards for the next thirty years. The electric car is opening new + country as never before. Who will make the practical advance? +</p> +<p> + These new houses will be roomy and yet, I think, will not fail of + sun-parlors or enclosed piazzas which will serve as extensions of the + house when occasion demands. I am sure they will not contain the + forbidding "front room" set apart for weddings and funerals and rare + family gatherings. More open-air life will be fashionable and practicable + as soon as we have learned that a wind-break and not a tightly-enclosed + space is what we need. In northern latitudes especially it is the wind + which makes the climate seem so inclement. The amount of accessible + sunshine may be doubled with great advantage in most of the + semi-country-houses. Shelter should not suggest a prison. +</p> +<p> + The education of the child demands that housing shall include land for + pets, for vegetables and flowers; not merely to increase beauty and + selfish pleasure, but for the ethical value of contact with things + dependent on care and forethought. The thoughtful sociologist recognizes + as one of the greatest needs for the children of to-day a closer + companionship with fathers—is urging that even money-making should + be secondary to the time given to moulding the character of the little ones, + instead of leaving them to nurses and coachmen or to the school of the + streets. Companionship in the garden-work will secure this opportunity in + a natural way. +</p> +<p> + It is only by going into the country that sufficient land for a simple + house with yard in front and garden in the rear—the ideal English + home—can be had. There will be a sacrifice of some of the things the + city gives, but a compromise is the only possible outcome of many claims. +</p> +<p> + Those who are feeling the return to Nature, who find pleasure in gardening + and in all the soothing effects of country life, or who can bring + themselves to it with moderate pleasure for the sake of the children who + must be encouraged to delight in it, should go out at least ten miles from + the city. In a well-regulated household the early breakfast will be a + natural thing, and the meal will be no more hurried than any other. It is + the class which tries to be both city and country that fills the columns + of the magazines with the trials of the commuter. The father need not see + less of his children, and the common occupation and interest will furnish + opportunities for wise counsel. Much nonsense is written about the perils + of habit and the dangers of routine. It all depends upon what those habits + are. All animal functions are better performed as a matter of habit, + without thought; it saves energy for more intellectual pursuits, which, I + grant, are better kept under volitional control. The animal act of + breakfasting at a given hour, of taking a given train, can be accomplished + as unconsciously as breathing. Early rising should be the rule, because + the children are then available as they are not at night. +</p> +<p> + We shall assume that the sane man will hold the little home in the country + with all outdoors to breathe in as worth the half-hour journey and the + early breakfast, and that the woman will have time set free by the + labor-saving devices sure to come as fast as she will use them wisely. + This free time she will give to the aesthetic side of life and will make + of her home a more attractive place than the club. +</p> +<p> + <i>But</i> once a week let them both go into town either to the club or to + some other place for dinner and an entertainment afterward. This will be + sufficient to keep them out of an intellectual rut, will brighten the + appetite with needed variety, and make the next quiet evening more + delightful. +</p> +<p> + Once a week is sufficient to break the monotony of diet and routine, and + not often enough to create that insatiable appetite for the glare of + lights and the rush of people which makes all family life "deadly dull," + as one café-haunting woman confessed. +</p> +<p> + While this country life is the only thing for a family of young children + and for those who really enjoy the country, there is a larger number + needing rational housing which will be left behind, let us hope with more + room because of the flitting of these others. +</p> +<p> + Much as I deprecate the evils of the present apartment system, I do + believe that an idealized modification will be needed for many years, + especially for the elderly, for the commercial traveler, for the bachelor + men and maids temporarily or permanently living single, for the newly + married as yet unsettled in business or profession, for the man who does + not know his own mind or whose employers do not know theirs. An instance + has come to the writer's knowledge of a young man who, after his wedding + cards were out, was ordered to take charge of an office in another city. +</p> +<p> + Marrying for shelter is and should be no longer necessary; and as for the + fear that this habit of bachelor quarters will be hard to break up and + tend to delay marriage, it will all depend upon whether it comes from the + merely animal layer of the brain or from the intellectual. +</p> +<p> + This housing of the individual instead of the family has introduced an + entirely new problem into house-building. +</p> +<p> + Formerly when a widow or widower, a maiden aunt, a homeless uncle or + cousin made his home with relatives, it was "as one of the family"; only + the minister was recognized as having need for a separate sitting-room. + The trials of this forced companionship have been told in many a witty + story; and pathetic instances that never came to print are matters of + common knowledge. +</p> +<p> + Will any one dare question the fact that the sum of human happiness has + been increased by the freedom given to these prisoned souls by the small + independent apartment? +</p> +<p> + I have been reminded that here is no provision for the different + generations to live together under the same roof; that the nineteenth + century held it to be of great social value to have the children grow up + with the elders. I am sorry for the twentieth-century grandparents if they + are obliged to live in a flat with the twentieth-century child; some + readjustment of manners and ideals must be made before such living will be + comfortable, and it seems as if they are better apart until the new order + is accepted or modified. The comfort of those whose work is done and who + have leisure to enjoy life was never so easily secured as to-day. To turn + the key and take the train at an hour's notice, leaving no cares to + follow, tends to a serene old age. +</p> +<p> + Moralists may squabble over the discipline of living with one's + mother-in-law, and of the loss to the children of grandmother's petting, + but at least physical content and mental satisfaction have increased. Has + selfishness also? Who shall say? And anyway it is a part of the progress + of the age, and what are we to do about it? +</p> +<p> + For one group of single persons the change has been only beneficial. It + was a strict code of the early nineteenth century that a single woman + should find shelter under the roof of some family house, however + independent, financially, her condition. Latch-key privileges were denied + her. Result, the boarding-house of the later half of the century, + nominally a family home, actually a hotbed of faultfinding and gossip, + most wearing to the teacher and fledgling professional woman, however + acceptable to the milliner and seamstress. Privacy could not be maintained + in a house built for a family of five made to do duty for twelve, with one + bath-room, thin-walled bedrooms with connecting doors through which the + light streamed when one wished to sleep, and words frequently came not + intended for outsiders. Who that has experienced the two could ever think + the bachelor apartment with its neat bath-room and double-doored entrance + an objectionable feature in modern intellectual life? Ah! here is the key. + We are to-day living a life of the intellect far more than ever before, + and for that a certain amount of withdrawal from our fellow man is + needed, at least a withdrawal from that portion which finds its interest + in the affairs of others. +</p> +<p> + But if we eliminate the house itself, and the heavy furniture from the + "home" possessions, what have we left? The little girl was right: "My home + is where my dishes is." My <i>possessions</i>, whatever they are—the + things I can call my own under all circumstances make my home. These + circumstances change from time to time, but the ideal is there. As a + concrete instance: let us have books, not a lot of books, but books that + are friends with whom one may spend a comforting hour anywhere; books that + have power to charm away the gloom of discontent, books to lend gayety to + festal days. +</p> +<p> + Rugs and draperies a few, those you find satisfying to your sense of + color, of design, and with which you feel at home. Ugly tables, chairs, + and "sofas" disappear under an Indian shawl. A Persian or a Navajo blanket + covers a multitude of aesthetic sins. Only let these harmonize with each + other, let them be chosen once for all to go in company; then if they are + distributed, it will not matter; but in any case avoid the "museum" look + given by mere collecting. Alas! these are expensive articles, and the + young people may not be able to get all at once. Let society then turn + over a new leaf in the wedding-present line, and cease this senseless + giving of cut-glass and silver to those who may go to a mining-camp in the + Rockies or to Mexico, or even into a ten-by-twelve New York apartment. + Let there be a committee—we are so fond of committees—to + receive contributions in a money-bank or in sealed envelopes, and then when + all is collected, let this committee scour the shops for articles of value, + and when found consult the bridal pair as to their preferences. The choice + may be made of one or more, as the money permits. The particular gift will + still be a surprise and yet of permanent value. Lace and embroideries are + always good, but let the waste of money on the "latest" in orange-knives, + oyster-plates, go up higher, that is, to the class with money for + conspicuous waste, if it must still exist, but let sensible people be + sensible, and not require the young folks to live up to their hopes for + future advancement. Wedding gifts are meant to be kindly help to a young + housewife, not a burden which drags her down to the level of a drudge. But + if the house is surely their own, and in the country, there will be + shelves to fill and walls to cover; <i>then</i> is the opportunity for + individual gifts of china, glass, and pictures. +</p> +<p> + To make the best of the increasing tendency to a semi-country living, + there is need for students of domestic architecture, women with a trained + taste added to an experience in doing things, not merely seeing them + already done. Let these evolve beautiful exteriors, with interiors so + finely proportioned that they will be a delight to all beholders, so + adapted to their purposes that no one will wish to change them. There is a + right dimension, in relation to other dimensions, which is always + satisfying and independent of furniture or decoration. +</p> +<p> + The ugly houses, ill adapted to any useful purpose, which line the + roadside bear witness to the ignorance of the women of to-day. The effort + for mere decoration, for pretentious show, is so evident that one wishes + for an earthquake to swallow them all. +</p> +<p> + Another cause for rise in rent demanded for a given space is the heavy tax + borne by real estate for public improvement, for good lighting, clean + streets, plentiful water, sufficient sewerage, free baths, parks, and + schools. Again, this falls heaviest on our three- to five-thousand dollar + class, who pay more than their share, especially when the millionaire + shirks his duty by paying his taxes elsewhere. What can the man with + limited income do but avoid the responsibility of a family? Has he a moral + right to bring unhappiness to his wife and two children? Having been + caught in the trap, why give him all the blame if he tries to increase his + income by speculation? +</p> +<p> + The more one studies this question of shelter for the salaried group, the + more is one convinced that it lies at the root of our social discontent + and is a large factor in our moral as well as physical deterioration. +</p> +<a name="CH5"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER V. +</h3> +<p> + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "We are far from the noon of man:<br> + There is time for the race to grow."<br> + —TENNYSON. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "There appears no limit to the invasion of life by the machine."<br> + H.G. WELLS. +</p> +<p> + The house as a centre of manufacturing industry has passed (for even if + village industries do spring up, the work-rooms will be separate from the + living-rooms); the house as a sign of pecuniary standing is passing: what + next? Why, of course, the house as the promoter of "the effective life." + Rebel as the artistic individual may at this word, it expresses the spirit + of the twentieth century as nothing else can. Social advance must be made + along the line of efficiency, even if it lead to something different and + not at first sight better. The appeal to self-interest is soonest + answered. The man or woman with any ambition will keep clean, will buy + better milk for the baby, will pay more for rent if he or she is convinced + that it will bring in or save money in the end, because money has been the + measure of success in the nineteenth century. But as the full significance + of this "machine-made" age is grasped it will be seen that it has set free + the human laborer, if only he will qualify himself to use the power at + his hand. The house will become the first lesson in the use of mechanical + appliances, in control of the harnessed forces of nature, and of that + spirit of cooperation which alone can bring the benefits of modern science + to the doors of all. One family cannot as a rule put up in a city or in + the suburbs—and half the world lives in cities—its own idea of + a house without undue expenditure; but ten families may combine and secure + a building which fairly suits them all. I say fairly, because all + cooperation means some sacrifice of whim or special liking. The + well-balanced individual will, however, choose the plan yielding on the + whole the greater efficiency, thus following a law of natural selection + which, so far, the human race has ignored—a neglect which has been + carrying him toward destruction as surely as there is law in nature. Is + this neglect to go on, or is man to turn before it is too late to a + cultivation of the effective life? In everything else he has advanced, but + in his intimate personal relations with nature and natural force he has + acted as if he believed himself not only lord of the beasts of the field, + but of the very laws of nature without understanding them. Mechanical + progress has come from an humble attitude toward the powers of wind and + water. Home efficiency will arrive just as soon as the home-keeper will + put herself in a receptive frame of mind and be prepared to learn her + limitations and the extent of her control of material things. When she + will stop saying "I do not believe" and set herself to learn patiently the + facts in the case, then will housekeeping take on a new phase and the + house become the nursery of effective workers who will at the same time + enjoy life. To manage this machine-driven house will require delicate + handling; but let women once overcome their fear of machinery and they + will use it with skill. +</p> +<p> + The undue influence of sentiment retards all domestic progress. Because + our grandfather's idea of perfect happiness was to sit before the fire of + logs, we are satisfied with the semblance in the form of the + asbestos-covered gas-log. "It is not for the iconoclastic inventor or + architect to improve the hearth out of existence." Sentiment is a useful + emotion, but when it held open funerals of diphtheria victims, society + stepped in and forbade. With a certain advance in social consciousness + public opinion will step in and regulate sentiment in regard to many + things depending on individual whim. +</p> +<p> + Heating might now be accomplished without dust and ashes, without the + destructive effects of steam, if enough houses would take electricity to + enable a company to supply it in the form of a sort of dado carrying wires + safely embedded in a non-conducting substance, or in the form of a carpet + threaded with conducting wire. Both heating and cooling apparatus could be + installed in the shape of a motor to replace the punkah man and the + present buzz-wheel fan, and to give fresh air without the opening of + windows which leads to half our housekeeping miseries. O woman, how can + you resist the thought of a clean, cool house, sans dust, sans flies and + mosquitoes, sans the intolerable street-noise, with abundance of fresh + filtered air at the desired temperature! It is all ready at your hand. A + windmill on the roof can store power, or a solar motor can save the sun's + rays, or capsules of compressed air may be had to run the machine, if only + you were not so afraid of the very word machine that no man dares propose + it to you. Of what use is all the invention of the time if it cannot save + the lives of the children, half of whom fall victims to house diseases, if + it cannot sweep away consumption and influenza and all the kindred + diseases arising from over-shelter and under-cleanliness of that shelter + (lack of air). Both men and women are sentimental and non-progressive, but + education is assumed to make wiser human beings. Women are said to be + monopolizing the education; is it making them more amenable to + reasonableness and less under the control of unprogressive conservatism? +</p> +<p> + It does require quick adaptation to keep up with the possibilities of + invention, but should we not aim at that which will advance our race on a + par with its opportunities? Every other department is getting ahead of us. + We should hang our heads in shame that we have neglected so long the means + for saner living. +</p> +<a name="image-6"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/fig6.jpg" width="278" height="238" +alt="Fig. 6.—Old Kitchen Remodelled. +(Stone, Carpenter & Wilson, Architects, Providence, R.I.) +Looking toward the range. Servants' sitting-room beyond; +porcelain sink at left; boiler(*remainder cut off)."> +</p> +<a name="image-7"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/fig7.jpg" width="281" height="237" +alt="Fig. 7.—Old Kitchen Remodelled. +Showing glass shelves and labelled glass jars for all stores. +Glass mixing table at left (*remainder cut off)."> +</p> +<p> + It has been said that the highest modern civilization is shown not so + much by costly monuments and works of art as by the perfection of house + conveniences. Where then do we stand? And in what direction are we to look + for the coming advance? We have had some sixty years of public sanitation; + we have secured a supply of sanitary experts to whom all questions + affecting the physical welfare of masses of people may be referred. We + have a few architects who know the requirements of a <i>livable</i> house, + not merely one which shows off well as first built. +</p> +<p> + We <i>need</i> sixty years of private-house sanitation. We need to educate + house experts, home advisers, those who know how to examine a house not + only while it is empty but while it is throbbing with the life of the + family. This adviser must be, for many years at least, able to suggest + practical methods of overcoming structural defects (more difficult than + fresh construction), as well as of modifying personal prejudices. +</p> +<p> + These house experts will, I think, be women of the broadest education, + scientific and social. They will have not only a certain amount of medical + knowledge, but also the tact and enthusiasm of the missionary which will + bring them as friends and benefactors to the despairing mother and the + discouraged householder. +</p> +<p> + That there is a beginning of this demand, I can testify; that it will + grow, I believe. As soon as a group of trained women are ready, they will + find occupation if the advance in housing conditions which I foresee is to + become a reality. +</p> +<p> + Within the last two or three years the author has received requests from + all over the country for suggestions as to kitchen design and + construction. +</p> +<p> + The two illustrations here given show one little step in the right + direction. The cuts represent a remodelled kitchen in Providence, R.I. +</p> +<p> + The floor is of lignolith laid down in one sheet and carried up as a + wainscoting so that no crevice exists for entrance of insects or dust. + Such floors are yet in their infancy and need suitable preparation for + laying, just as macadamized streets fail if the foundation is faulty. The + idea is all that we are here concerned with. One of the features to be + especially noted is the use of glass for shelves. Why should the hospital + monopolize the materials for antiseptic work? When it is understood how + much hospital work is caused because of dirt in the preparation and + keeping of food, the kitchen will receive its share of attention. +</p> +<p> + To-day the cost of shelter is about one third for the house and two thirds + for the expense of running it, largely due to dirt and its consequences. + Mr. Wells wisely says: "Most dusting and sweeping would be quite avoidable + if houses were wiselier done." +</p> +<p> + When the real twentieth-century house is put up our young engineer and + college instructor will be willing to pay $400 to $500 rent, because wages + and running expenses will be $100 less and the company owning the houses + will not expect more than 4%, largely because repairs will be less and + permanence of tenure more assured. The old type of wooden house used by + the old type of tenant could not be expected to last more than a few + years, which justified a higher rate of interest. For the tenement tenant + of the better class twenty years has been the estimate, so that the cost + of building could not be distributed over fifty years as it should be. +</p> +<p> + The house will be made of reinforced concrete or its successor; certainly + not of wood. Whether a single house or one of two or more "compartments," + each family will have a side, that is, the entrance doors will not be side + by side. Such have been built in Somerville, Mass., by a railroad company + for its employees. Those who wish to have a garden may; but no one will be + obliged, for there will be regulations about the general appearance of the + whole park, and every man his own lawn-mower will not be true. The + cultivation of taste will have so far advanced that the grouping advised + by the landscape architect will appeal to the occupant more than his own + fancied arrangement. +</p> +<p> + Since the heating will be supplied from outside, there will be a hothouse + and cold-frames for those who wish to have a share in the garden, just as + now there are bins in the basement. The care of these may replace the + exercise now gained in scrubbing the front steps. The windows of the house + will be dust-proof, fly-, mosquito-, and moth-proof; the air supplied will + be strained by galleries of screens, if indeed social advance has not + eliminated soot from chimneys and grit from the streets. Most certainly + dirt will not be permitted to come in on shoes and long dresses. Warmed or + cooled, moistened or dried air will be circulated as needed. In such a + house rugs may stay undisturbed for a month or more, books for years, and + the dust-cloth be rarely in evidence; the redding will consist of putting + back in place the things used; but as each member of the family will do + this as soon as he is old enough, there will be but a few minutes' work. +</p> +<p> + The breakfast will be of uncooked or simply heated food, parched grains + and cream, fruit fresh or dried, and nuts. If coffee or cocoa is desired, + the electric heater serves it to the requisite degree of heat. Each adult + member of the family will probably take this in his own room or at his own + convenience, without the formality of a meal. The few glasses and other + dishes may be plunged into a tank of water and left for future cleaning. + Luncheon will depend altogether on the habits of the family, but dinner, + at whatever hour that may be, will be the family symposium. Dressed in its + honor, with a sprightly addition to the conversation of experience or + information or conjecture, there will be form and ceremony of a simple, + refined kind, such that once again the family may welcome a guest without + anxiety. Good conversation and fresh interests will thus come into the + children's lives. How much they have missed in these days of the barring + out all hospitality! Is it perchance one reason, if not the chief, why + manners have degenerated? +</p> +<p> + This meal will not have more than four courses of food carefully selected + and perfectly cooked, whether in the house or out matters not so it is + served fresh and of just the right temperature. No kind of cooking will be + permitted which "meets the guest in the hall and stays with him in the + street"; therefore the dishes may be washed by neatly dressed maids or by + the children, who thus learn to care for the fitness of things; plenty of + towels and hot water, with all hands doing a little, leaves everything + snug and no one too tired. We will let Mr. H.G. Wells describe the bedroom + of the future house:<a href="#note-3"><small><sup>3</sup></small></a> +</p> +<a name="note-3"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>3</u></sup> [A Modern Utopia, p. 103.] +</p> +<p> + "The room is, of course, very clear and clean and simple: not by any means + cheaply equipped, but designed to economize the labor of redding and + repair just as much as possible. +</p> +<p> + "It is beautifully proportioned and rather lower than most rooms I know on + earth. There is no fireplace, and I am perplexed by that until I find a + thermometer beside six switches on the wall. Above this switchboard is a + brief instruction: one switch warms the floor, which is not carpeted, but + covered by a substance like soft oilcloth; one warms the mattress (which + is of metal with resistance coils threaded to and fro in it); and the + others warm the wall in various degrees, each directing current through a + separate system of resistances. The casement does not open, but above, + flush with the ceiling, a noiseless rapid fan pumps air out of the room. + The air enters by a Tobin shaft. +</p> +<p> + "There is a recess dressing-room, equipped with a bath and all that is + necessary to one's toilet; and the water, one remarks, is warmed, if one + desires it warm, by passing it through an electrically-heated spiral of + tubing. A cake of soap drops out of a store-machine on the turn of a + handle, and when you have done with it, you drop that and your soiled + towels, etc., which are also given you by machines, into a little box, + through the bottom of which they drop at once and sail down a smooth + shaft. [Better stay in the box and not infect the shaft.—Author.] +</p> +<p> + "A little notice tells you the price of the room, and you gather the price + is doubled if you do not leave the toilet as you find it. Beside the bed, + and to be lit at night by a handy switch over the pillow, is a little + clock, its face flush with the wall [no dust-catcher]. +</p> +<p> + "The room has no corners to gather dirt, wall meets floor with a gentle + curve, and the apartment could be swept out effectually by a few strokes + of a mechanical sweeper [sucked out by the now-used + cleaning-machine.—Author]. The door-frames and window-frames are + of metal, rounded and impervious to draft. You are politely requested to + turn a handle at the foot of your bed before leaving the room, and + forthwith the frame turns up into a vertical position, and the bedclothes + hang airing. You stand in the doorway and realize that there remains not + a minute's work for any one to do. Memories of the fetid disorder of many + an earthly bedroom after a night's use float across your mind. +</p> +<p> + [In America the use of the sleeping-room as a sitting-room is more common + than in England, and the fetid disorder is far greater.] +</p> +<p> + "And you must not imagine this dustless, spotless, sweet apartment as + anything but beautiful. Its appearance is a little unfamiliar, of course, + but all the muddle of dust-collecting hangings and witless ornament that + cover the earthly bedroom, the valances, the curtains to check the draft + from the ill-fitting windows, the worthless irrelevant pictures, usually a + little askew, the dusty carpets, and all the paraphernalia about the dirty + black-leaded fireplace are gone. The faintly tinted walls are framed with + just one clear colored line, as finely placed as the member of a Greek + capital; the door-handles and the lines of the panels of the door, the two + chairs, the framework of the bed, the writing-table, have all that + exquisite finish of contour that is begotten of sustained artistic effort. + The graciously shaped windows each frame a picture—since they are + draughtless the window-seats are no mere mockeries as are the window-seats + of earth—and on the sill the sole thing to need attention in the room + is one little bowl of blue Alpine flowers." +</p> +<p> + The true office of the house is not only to be useful, but to be + aesthetically a background for the dwellers therein, subordinate to them, + not obtrusive. In most of our modern building and furnishing the people + are relegated to the background as insignificant figures. This is largely + why the home feeling is absent, why children do not form an affection for + the rooms they live in. +</p> +<p> + Let there be nothing in the room because some other person has it; this + shows poverty of ideas. Let there be nothing in the room which does not + satisfy some need, spiritual or physical, of some member of the family. + How bare our rooms would become! Let the skeptical reader try an + experiment. Take everything out of a given room, then bring back one by + one the things one feels essential not merely because it fills space but + for the presence of which some one can give a good and sufficient reason. + It will mean a trial of a few days, because it is not easy to separate + habit from need. A table <i>has stood</i> in a certain spot: that is no + reason in itself why it should continue to stand there unless it supplies + a need. +</p> +<p> + If a fetish stands in the way of social progress, do away with it. If the + idea of home as the shell is standing in the way of developing the idea of + home as a state of mind, then let us cast loose the load of things that + are sinking us in the sea of care beyond rescue. +</p> +<p> + It is quite possible that we may return to that state of mind in which + there was a pleasure in caring for beautiful objects. The housewife of + colonial days did not disdain the washing of her cups of precious china or + doing up the heirlooms of lace and embroidery. When our possessions + acquire an intrinsic value, when all the work of the house which cannot be + done by machinery is that of handling beautiful things and has a meaning + in the life of the individual and the family, service will not be required + in the vast majority of homes: then we may approach to the Utopian ideal + of the nobility of labor. +</p> +<p> + "The plain message that physical science has for the world at large is + this, that were our political and social and moral devices only as well + contrived to their ends as a linotype machine, an antiseptic + operating-plant, or an electric tram-car, there need now, at the present + moment, be no appreciable toil in the world, and only the smallest + fraction of the pain, the fear, and the anxiety that now make human life + so doubtful in its value. There is more than enough for every one alive. + Science stands as a too competent servant behind her wrangling, underbred + masters, holding out resources, devices, and remedies they are too stupid + to use."<a href="#note-4"><small><sup>4</sup></small></a> +</p> +<a name="note-4"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>4</u></sup> [H.G. Wells.] +</p> +<a name="CH6"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER VI. +</h3> +<p> + THE COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY OF VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "The strongest needs conquer." +</p> +<p> + An outlay of $1500 to $2500 will secure a cottage in the country, or a + tenement with five or six rooms in the suburbs, for a wage-earner's + family. The rent for this should be from $125 to $200 per year, but, as in + the case of the model tenements in New York, a minimum of sanitary + appliances and of labor-saving devices is found in such dwellings. They + are adapted to a family life of mutual helpfulness and forbearance. +</p> +<p> + The lack of this kind of housing has been a disgrace to our so-called + civilization. Public attention has, however, been directed to the need, + and it is gratifying to find in the report of the U.S. Bureau of Labor, + Bulletin 54, Sept. 1904, a full account, with photographs and plans, of + the work of sixteen large manufacturing establishments in housing their + employees. +</p> +<p> + Euthenics, the art of better living, is being recognized as of money value + in the case of the wage-earning class, but the wave of social betterment + has not yet lifted the salaried class to the point of cooperation for + their own elevation. They are obliged to put up with the better grade of + workmen's dwellings, or to pay beyond their means for a poor quality of + the house designed for the leisure class. In either case, the weight bears + hardest on the woman's shoulders, and it is to her awakening that we must + look for an impetus toward an understanding of the problems confronting + us. +</p> +<p> + The college-educated women of the country believe so fully that the + twentieth century will develop a civilization in which brain-power and + good taste will outrank mere lavish display, that they have sent out a + call to their associations to devise methods of sane and wholesome living + which shall leave time and energy free for intellectual pleasure—some, at + least, of that time now absorbed by the house and its demands as insignia + of social rank. +</p> +<p> + Trained and thoughtful women are convinced that the first step in social + redemption is adequate and adaptable shelter for the family. Just so long + as tradition and thoughtlessness bind the wife and mother to that form of + housekeeping which taxes all the forces of man to supply money and of + women to spend it, so long will the most intelligent women decline to + sacrifice themselves for so little return. +</p> +<p> + The constructive arts dealing with wood, stone, and metal have been + conceded to be man's province. He has used new materials and labor-saving + devices in railway stations and place of amusements, not selfishly, but + because of the appreciation of the travelling public. It is the fashion to + decry labor-saving devices in the house, because they do away with that + sign of pecuniary ability, the capped and aproned maid. The obvious saving + of steps by the speaking-tube and telephone-call is frowned upon for the + same reason. It is this attitude of society which stands in the way of the + adoption of those mechanical helps which might do away with nearly all the + drudgery and dirty heavy work of the house. +</p> +<p> + The new epoch<a href="#note-5"><small><sup>5</sup></small></a> "is + more and more replacing muscle-power fed on wheat at + eighty cents a bushel, by machine-power fed on coal at five cents a + bushel," thus liberating man from hard and deadening toil. As his mental + activity increases his needs in the way of the comforts and decencies of + refined living increase. More sanitary appliances are demanded, more + expense for fundamental cleanliness is incurred, and for that tidiness and + trimness of aspect inside and outside the house which adds both to the + labor and to the cost of living, especially in old-style houses. +</p> +<a name="note-5"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>5</u></sup> [The New Epoch. Geo. S. Morison.] +</p> +<p> + While we can but applaud this desire, we must confess that the new + building laws, the increased cost of land, and the higher wages of workmen + have raised the cost of shelter for human efficiency to double or treble + that of the so-called workman's cottage. A fair rule is that each room + costs $1000 to $2000 to build. +</p> +<p> + This means that our lowest limit of income, $1000 a year with $200 for + rent, can have only two or at most three rooms and bath, and those without + elevators and janitor service. It is only when the income reaches $2000 to + $3000 a year that the family may have the advantage of good building in a + good locality, and even then it means some sacrifice in other directions. + It is clear that the common theory that a young man must have a salary of + $3000 a year before he dares to marry has some foundation when $600 to + $800 is demanded for rent. +</p> +<p> + The increased sanitary requirements have doubled the cost of a given + enclosed space, the finish and fittings now found in the best houses have + doubled this again, so that it is quite within bounds to say that a house + which might have been put up to meet the needs of the day in 1850 for, + say, $5000 will now cost $20,000. +</p> +<p> + Much of the increase is for real comfort and advance in decent living, and + so far it is to be commended. Such part of the increase as is for + ostentation, for show and sham, is to be frowned upon, for this high cost + of shelter is to-day the greatest menace to the social welfare of the + community. When the average young man finds it impossible to support a + family, when the professional man finds it necessary to supplement his + chosen work by pot-boiling, by public lectures and any outside work which + will bring in money, what wonder that scholarship is not thriving in + America? Pitiful tales of such stifling of effort have come to my ears, + and have in large part led me to make a plea for a scientific study of the + living conditions of this class, and for a readjustment of ideals to the + absolute facts of the situation. +</p> +<p> + We may give sympathy to those Italians who pay only $2 a month for the + shelter of the whole family, but we must give help to the harder case of a + family with refined tastes and high ideals who can pay only $200 a year. +</p> +<p> + In the real country, at a distance from the railroad, air, water, and soil + are cheap. Here a house may be put up with its own windmill or gas-engine + to pump water, with its own drainage system, giving all the sanitary + comforts of the city house, for about $5000. The same inside comforts in + one quarter the space, minus the isolation and garden, may be had in a + suburban block for one half that sum. This is probably the least expensive + shelter to-day for the family whose duties require one or more members of + it to be in the city daily, for, as the centre of the city is approached, + land rent increases, so that dwelling space must be again curtailed one + half or rent doubled. The majority take half a house or go into the city + and put up with one quarter the space. +</p> +<p> + The curtailment of space in which families live is going on at an alarming + rate, although not yet seriously taken into account by the sociologist + for the group we are studying. +</p> +<a name="image-8"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/fig8.jpg" width="246" height="152" +alt="Figs. 8 and 9.—House for 'Mrs. L.,' anywhere in +temperate America, to cost $5000, if it must not more +(*remainder cut off)."> +</p> +<a name="image-9"></a> +<p class="ctr"> +<img src="images/fig10.jpg" width="269" height="219" +alt="Figs. 10 and 11.—House for 'Mrs. L.,' anywhere in +temperate America, to cost only $3000 if possible. +(Josselyn & Taylor Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa)."> +</p> +<p> + This crowding is causing the refinements of life to be disregarded, is + depriving the children of their rights, and doing them almost more harm + than comes to the tenement dwellers, for they have the parks to play in + and are not kept within doors. +</p> +<p> + Mr. Michael Lane in his "Level of Social Motion" claims that present + tendencies are leading to a level of $2000 a year and a family of two + children as an average. Mr. Wells claims as a tendency in living + conditions the practically automatic and servantless household. In + connection with the Mary Lowell Stone Home Economics Exhibit a design of + an approach to this kind of a dwelling was asked for in sketch. The + accompanying plans were made by a firm who have had not only experience in + this kind of domestic building, but who have sympathy with and personal + knowledge of similar conditions in widely separated parts of the country. +</p> +<p> + These sketches are not of an <i>ideal</i> house and not for a given plot of + land, but only a hint of what Mrs. Michael Lane "must expect if she + attempts to build in the country or suburbs." +</p> +<p> + Since these were drawn many changes have come about in costs and in + materials available. The architects expressly disclaim the word "model" in + relation to them. Mrs. Lane and her two children will do their own work, + and therefore steps and stairs must be few, and yet they wish light and + air and cleanliness. +</p> +<p> + The author hopes that her readers will make a study of house-plans, not + the cheap ones, but those that will bear the test of time and living in. +</p> +<p> + The increased cost of shelter should mean both more comfort and greater + beauty. If it does not, something is wrong with society. +</p> +<p> + It appears from all that has been gathered that single houses for a family + of five will cost about $5000 to $10,000 for some years to come; that + these houses should be so constructed and cared for as to rent for $300 to + $400 if the occupant is to keep the grounds in order, to use the house + with care, and furnish heat and light. +</p> +<p> + The question of return on capital invested and of care of exteriors and + grounds must be studied most carefully in the light of the new conditions, + and a new set of conventions devised by society to meet the various + circumstances arising out of them. +</p> +<p> + This suburban living is the vital point to be attacked, because in cities + the matter is already pretty well settled; there is in sight nothing that + will greatly change the rule already given, a cost of $1000 per room of + about 1200 cubic feet, with the finish and sanitary appliances demanded. +</p> +<p> + Our family of five must pay for rent $500 to $800 for the smallest + quarters they can compress themselves into. Subtracting the cost of heat + and light and the car-fares, this may be no more expensive than the + suburban house at $300 or $400, <i>but</i> the difference comes in light and + air. The upper floors of an isolated skyscraper give more than a country + house, but at the expense of other houses in the darkened street. +</p> +<p> + In the city the question is then not so much one of cost of construction + as of a fair arrangement of streets and parks, so as to avoid the loss of + light and air for living-places. The single individual may find shelter of + a safe and refined sort in all respects except air for $200 to $300 a year + in the newer apartment-houses, and two friends to share it may halve this + sum. A great need is for as good rooms to be furnished in the suburbs + where more light and air may be had. +</p> +<p> + The content of the country house costing $5000 to $10,000 will be + approximately 50,000 to 70,000 cubic feet, or 10,000 for a person. The + suburban block will furnish about 12,000 to 20,000 for the family, while + the city apartment of six so-called rooms renting for from $400 to $500 a + year shrinks to 6000 to 8000 cubic feet, giving only one tenth the + air-space the country house affords, as well as far less outside air and + sunshine. The best city tenements cost $1 a week for 600 cubic feet + air-space. What wonder that the sanitarian is aghast at the prospect! +</p> +<p> + According to the President of the English Sanitary Inspectors' Association + it seems probable that if the nineteenth-century city continues to drain + the country of its potentially intellectual class and to squeeze them into + smaller and smaller quarters, it will dry up the reservoirs of strength in + the population (address, Aug. 18, 1905). +</p> +<p> + The houses of the Morris Building Co., illustrated in Chapter II, show + what may be done. These houses rent for $35 to $45 a month with constant + heat and hot water, so that the heavy work is reduced to a minimum; but + the exigencies of family life are illustrated in the fact of the almost + universal demand of the tenants for continuous heat and hot water night as + well as day. The ordinary childless apartment house banks its fires at + night. A supplementary apparatus would mean work by the tenants, however. + This is a good example of the balance which must be struck in all new + plans until they are tested. +</p> +<p> + The change in what one gains under the name of shelter, what one pays rent + for, must be kept clearly in mind. Two or three decades since it was a + tight roof, thinly plastered walls, and a chimney with "thimble-holes for + stoves," possibly a furnace with small tin flues, a well or cistern, or + perhaps one faucet delivering a small stream of water. To-day even in the + suburbs there is furnished light, heat, abundant water, care of halls and + sidewalks. The elevator-boy takes the place of "buttons," the engineer and + janitor relieve the man of the house of care, so that it may not be so + extravagant as it sounds to give one third the $3000 income for rent, + since it stops that leaky sieve, that bottomless bag of "operating + expenses." The income may be pretty definitely estimated in this case, + especially if meals are taken in the café. If the family dine as it + happens, the cost mounts up. Here are a few estimates for verification and + criticism: +</p> +<table border="0" summary="This table estimates basic costs of living in Eastern cities."> + <tr> + <td>Rent of an apartment</td> + <td>$ 600.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td>$ 700.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Meals</td> + <td> 1200.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 1000.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Clothing</td> + <td> 400.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 600.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Incidentals, amusements, etc.</td> + <td> 200.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 300.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Savings, <i>nil</i>.</td> + <td>________</td> + <td> </td> + <td>________</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Total income</td> + <td>$2400.00</td> + <td>to</td> + <td>$2600.00</td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> + If the wife can manage the "kitchenette" and part of the clothing, about + $600 may be saved, but in that case it represents her earnings, and should + be at her disposal. If it should be possible for safe shelter to be had + for $400, then with the wife's help $700 should be the sum in the "region + of choice." I hold that, unless the income can be managed so as to secure + <i>choice</i>, all the daily toil is embittered. Even if some is spent + foolishly, it is safer than the burden "just not enough." +</p> +<p> + The more common cost of decent living in our Eastern cities is: +</p> +<table border="0" summary="This table estimates more common (higher) costs of +living in Eastern cities."> + <tr> + <td>Rent</td> + <td> 1000</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 1500</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Meals</td> + <td> 1200</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 1400</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Clothing</td> + <td> 500</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 700</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Incidentals</td> + <td> 300</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> 600</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Savings, <i>nil</i>. </td> + <td>_____</td> + <td> </td> + <td>_____</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Total</td> + <td> $3000</td> + <td>to</td> + <td> $4000</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p> + This goes far toward justifying the saying that a young man cannot afford + to marry on less than $3000 a year. +</p> +<p> + With these figures in mind, what can our $2000 family with two children + do? The rent that they can pay will not cover service or heat. There must + be a maid to fill the lamps, see to the furnace, help with the cooking, + and the wife must stay by the house pretty closely and probably decline + most invitations. For the five persons, ten dollars a week for raw-food + materials and five for its preparation is the lowest limit likely to be + cheerfully submitted to. +</p> + +<table border="0" summary="This table estimates lowest possible living costs." > + <tr> + <td>Rent, heat, light, etc.</td> + <td> $ 400</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Food</td> + <td> 800</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Clothing hardly less than</td> + <td> 400</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Children's education, even with free<br> + schools, and their illnesses will<br> + use up</td> + <td> 100</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Car-fares, church, etc.</td> + <td> 100</td> + <tr> + <td>Wages and sundries</td> + <td> 200</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>_____</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Total</td> + <td>$2000</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p> + In the bank nothing. +</p> +<p> + But what shelter can this refined, intelligent family find to-day for + $400? Certainly nothing with modern conveniences. The lack of these is + <i>made up by women's work</i>—hard, rough work. And that is the crux of the + servant problem to-day. It is the reason why more families do not go into + the country to live. The work required in an old house to bring living up + to modern standards is too appalling to be undertaken lightly. +</p> +<p> + In England the Sunlight Park and other plans, in America the Dayton and + Cincinnati schemes, are samples of what is being done for the $500 to $800 + family, but where are the examples (outside the Morris houses) for the + salaried class for whom we are pleading? The great army of would-be + home-makers are forced into a nomadic life by the exigencies resulting + from the great combines—a shifting of offices, a closing of factories, a + breaking up of hundreds of homes. I believe this to be the <i>chief + factor</i> in the decline of the American home—a hundred-fold more + potent than the college education of women. +</p> +<p> + The unthinking comment on this rise in the cost of shelter is usually + condemnation of greedy landlords and soulless capitalists; but is that the + whole story? +</p> +<p> + In the present order of things it seems to be inevitable that the gain of + one class in the community is loss to another. Probably the law has always + existed, and only the very rapid and sudden changes bring it into + prominence, because of the swift readjustment needed, an operation which + torpid human nature resents when consciously pressed. +</p> +<p> + For instance, the efforts of the philanthropist and working man together + have succeeded in shortening hours of labor and increasing + wages—without, alas! increasing the speed or quality of the work + done, especially in the trades which have to do with materials of + construction, so that house-building has about doubled in cost within + twenty-five years, largely due to cost of labor. This increased cost has + fallen heavily on the very group of people least able to bear it, the + skilled artisan, the teacher, and the young salaried man. Again I call + attention to the need of a philanthropist who shall raise his eyes to that + group, the hope of our democracy, those whom he has held to be able to + help themselves—and given time would do so; but time is the very + thing denied them in this motor age. Help to make quick adjustment must + come to the rescue of those to whom time more than equals money. +</p> +<p> + One used to wait patiently for seed-sown lawns to become velvety turf. + Money can bring sod from afar and in a season give the results of years. + So the housing of the $2000 family can be accomplished just as soon as it + seems sufficiently desirable. It needs a research just as truly as the + cancer problem or desert botany, and affects thousands more. +</p> +<p> + One other cause of increased cost in construction and operation which + does, if wisely carried out, increase health and efficiency is the + sanitary provision of our recent building laws. +</p> +<p> + The instalment of these sanitary appliances becomes increasingly costly + because of the rise in wages of the workmen, plumbers, masons, etc. The + careful statistics of the Bureau of Labor show conclusively that all + building trades have decreased hours of labor and increased wages per + hour, so that cost of construction has doubled, and the sanitary + requirements have again doubled the cost, so that it is easy to see why + the family with a stationary income has quartered its dwelling-space. +</p> +<p> + The end is not yet: the new devices mentioned in previous chapters will at + first increase cost of construction. +</p> +<p> + From lack of business training the public is at fault in estimating + relative costs. A well-built "automatic house" costs too much, they say. + Yes, but what does it save? Cost looms large, saving seems small. + Moreover, the value of mental serenity, of that peace of mind consequent + on the smooth running of the domestic machine, is undervalued. The + American child such as he is is largely the product of the American house + and its ill adapted construction. I must reiterate my belief that the + modification of the house itself to the life the twentieth century is + calling for is the first step in social reform. +</p> +<a name="CH7"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER VII. +</h3> +<p> + THE RELATION BETWEEN COST OF HOUSING AND TOTAL INCOME. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "It must be made possible to live within one's income." +</p> +<p> + The thrifty French rule is one fifth for rent. In towns where land is + cheap and wood abundant, or in college communities exempt from taxes, + comfortable housing is found in this country for as little as fifteen or + eighteen per cent of the total income. In some mining towns where all + prospects are uncertain and the house has no particular social + significance the rent may be even lower, although it is often very high. + It depends on the demand, on competition rather than quality. In our older + and more settled communities it is most common for rent to use up one + fourth the salary of all town dwellers with incomes within our limits. + This was true in Boston fifty years ago, and it is true to-day in dozens + of cities and towns personally investigated. It is not unknown that a + teacher or business man should exceed this in the hope of a rise in + salary by the second year. Adding the expenses of operating the house, of + repairs and additions and improvements if the house is owned, nearly half + the money available must go for the mere housing of the family. +</p> +<p> + If it is true, as I believe it is, that for each fraction over one fifth + spent for rent a saving must be made in some other direction—in the daily + expense, less service, less costly food, or less expensive clothing, or, + last to be cut down, less of the real pleasure of life,—it will be seen + what a far-reaching question this is, how it touches the vital point, to + have or not to have other good things in life. +</p> +<p> + A large part of the increase is due, as we have said, to increased demand + for sanitary conveniences, but far more potent is the pressure resulting + from the price of land. +</p> +<p> + This pressure has led to the building of smaller and smaller apartments, + so that four and six rooms are made out of floor-space sufficient for two. + It sounds better to say we have a six-room flat, even though there is no + more privacy than in two rooms, for the rooms are mere cells unless the + doors are always open. It is not uncommon in such suites renting for $50 + to $60 per month for six rooms, to find three of them with only one window + on one side, with no chance for cross-ventilation unless the doors of the + whole suite are open. +</p> +<p> + This style of building prevails even in the suburbs where air and + sunshine should be free. The would-be renter looking at such suites with + all the doors open and the rooms innocent of fried fish and bacon does not + think of the place as it <i>will be</i> under living conditions when privacy + can be had only by smothering. +</p> +<p> + The model tenements in New York rent for one dollar per week per room; the + better houses for double, or two dollars for 450 cubic feet. Many of those + I have examined renting for forty to sixty dollars per month give no more + space for the money, only a little better finish—marble and tile in + the bath-room, for instance. +</p> +<p> + The three-room tenement does, however, shelter as many persons as the + six-room flat, hence there is more real overcrowding. In all these grades + of shelter it is fresh air that is wanting. What wonder the white plague + is always with us? What remedy so long as millions sleep in closets with + no air-currents passing through? +</p> +<p> + Accepting the French rule, the artisan who rents the model tenement at + $3.50 per week should earn $3 a day wage for six days. If he earn only $2, + then more than one quarter must go for housing. There are hundreds of + Italian families in New York who pay only $2 <i>per month</i> for such shelter + as they have, but it is only providing for the primitive idea of mere + shelter, not for the comforts of a true home life. After the fashion of + early man, these people spend their lives in the open air, eat wherever + they may be, and use this makeshift shelter as protection from the weather + and as a place of deposit for such articles as they do not carry about + with them and for such weaklings as cannot travel. +</p> +<p> + As man rises in the scale of wants he pays more, in attention and in + money, for housing, because he leaves wife and children to its comforts + while he goes forth to his daily tasks. As ideals rise, the proportion + rises until even one third of his earnings goes for mere shelter. But this + limits his desires in other directions, so that it becomes a pertinent + question, when is it right to give as much as one third of the moderate + income for housing? As every heart knows its own bitterness, so every man + knows his own business and what proportion of his income he is + <i>willing</i> to spend for a house, for the comforts of life pertain + largely to bed and board. It must be acknowledged, however, that comfort + and discomfort are so largely matters of habit and personal point of view + that education as to ideals is an important duty of society in its own + defence. +</p> +<p> + If two people without children prefer to spend more on shelter than on any + other one thing, then with $3000 a year, $1000 may be given for rent if + that covers heat, light, and general outside care. But the <i>family</i> + with children to consider must not think of allowing one third for rent + under our very highest limit of $5000 a year, and it is unwise even then. + In fact the ratio must be governed by circumstances. It is true, however, + that the conditions must be interpreted by a fixed principle in living and + not by any mere fashion or prejudice of the moment. +</p> +<p> + The one question every person asks when these suggested improvements are + discussed is, but how much will it cost? Thus confessing that cost, not + effectiveness, is the measure; that old ideals as to money value still + rule the world. It costs too much to have a furnace large enough to warm a + sufficient volume of air, it costs too much to put in safe plumbing, it + costs too much to keep the house clean, and so on through the list. We + have been too busy getting and spending money to study the cost of neglect + of cardinal principles of right living. The farmer knows the cost of his + young animals, but the father cares little and knows less of what it ought + to cost to bring up his children—of the economy of spending wisely + on a safe shelter for them. +</p> +<p> + A new estimate of what necessary things must cost has to be made before + the present generation will live comfortably in presence of the + account-book. +</p> +<p> + Here again a readjustment is coming; some expenses in house construction + common now will be lessened or done away with; for example, fancy shapes, + grooved and carved wood, projecting windows and door-frames. +</p> +<p> + It is usual, when the various new methods are brought up, to estimate the + cost as additional to all that has gone before, rather than to see in it a + substitute for much that may go. +</p> +<p> + Our family with $1500 income may safely pay $300 for rent, if that covers + enough comfort and does not mean too much car-fare. +</p> +<p> + The house may cost $3000 if built on the old lines, and if the land it is + placed on is not too expensive. +</p> +<p> + A fire-proof house such as is described in the July number of the + <i>Brickbuilder and Architect</i>, 85 Water St., Boston, and probably also + a house of reinforced concrete, will cost at present some $10,000 besides + the land. Because of freedom from repairs it should be possible to rent + such houses for $500, which will bring them within the reach of our $3000 + a year family, but not within the means of the $2000. What is to be done? +</p> +<p> + It will be remarked by some that little attention has been given in these + pages to the various so-called cooperative plans, like Mrs. Stuckert's + oval of fifty houses connected by a tramway at each level, with a central + kitchen from which all meals come and to which all used dishes return, + with a central office from which service is sent, etc. +</p> +<p> + Frankly, to my mind this is not enough better than the apartment hotel, as + we now know it, to pay for the effort to establish it. As now evolved by + demand, the establishments renting from one to fifteen thousand a year are + on progressive lines. According to Mr. Wells, this shareholding class is + on the way to extinction in any case, fortunately he also thinks, and the + student of social economics need not concern himself with its future, only + so far as its example influences the real bone and sinew of the republic, + the working men and women who make the world the place it is. +</p> +<p> + Within the ten-mile radius it has been usual to include a front yard, if + not a garden, in the house-lot. The cost of keeping this in the trim + fashion decreed as essential, of planting and pruning of shrubs, of + maintaining in immaculate condition the sidewalks and front steps, like + most of the items in cost of living, is due to changed standards, just as + the cost of table-board has advanced from $3 to $6 without a corresponding + betterment in quality. +</p> +<p> + Engle's law, "The lodging, warming, and lighting have an invariable + proportion whatever the income," does not hold under modern conditions for + the group we are considering, for our wise ones need the best, and not a + few of them are unwilling to buy their family sanctity at the price of a + closet in the basement for the faithful maid. +</p> +<p> + Plans may look well on paper, the completed house may seem attractive, but + when the family <i>live</i> in the house its deficiencies become apparent. + Cheap materials, flimsy construction, damp location, any one of a dozen + possibilities may make the family uncomfortable, may cost in heating and + doctor's bills, may compel a moving before the year is out. Cheap houses + in this decade are suspicious; the more need for a knowledge on the part + of young people of what may be expected. +</p> +<p> + For this reason it is a part of sound education to give a certain amount + of attention to living conditions in the high-school curriculum. It is as + important as book-keeping; for of what avail are money and business, if + the home life is perilled? Besides, some of the pupils may have attention + called to deficiencies which they may show talent in overcoming. +</p> +<p> + Courses in Home Economics and Household Administration in colleges and + universities should be directed to careful study of this branch of + sociology. +</p> +<p> + There is a great opportunity before women's clubs and civic-improvement + associations to arouse an interest in the provision of suitable shelter + for the young families in their several neighborhoods. Concerted movement + by the Federation could revolutionize public opinion within a decade. +</p> +<p> + The student of social science may well say that the first effort should be + directed to a rise in the pay of these educated young men; that no family + should be expected to live on the sums here considered; that it is not + right even to consider a way out on the present basis. Possibly so. Much + agitation is abroad in relation to the pay of teachers, clerks, and + skilled workmen, but that is another question which cannot be considered + here. +</p> +<p> + The salaried class has so enormously increased of late years because of + the great consolidation of business interests that the final adjustment + has not been made. The one fact of uncertain tenure of position and + uncertain promotion has profoundly affected living conditions, ownership + of the family abode, and, incidentally, marriage. +</p> +<p> + There are prizes enough, however, to keep the young people on the alert + for advancement, and they feel it more likely to come if they establish + themselves as if it had arrived. +</p> +<p> + There is no denying that in the estimation of a large number of the groups + we are considering, the question of neat and orderly service, the capped + and aproned maid, the liveried bell-boy and butler, express—like the + smoothly shaven lawn—a certain social convention; and because it + means expense, the house in working order means more than shelter: it sets + forth pecuniary standing in the community. So long as this means social + standing also, so long will the professional and business family on $2000 + a year be shut out, because these adjuncts to a luxurious living are + impossible. Can society afford to shut out the intellectual and mentally + progressive element, or must it accept as normal these salaries and make it + respectable to begin on them? It is the strain which unessential social + conventions give to the young families that leads the business father to + speculate in order to get into the $10,000-a-year class, and that leads + the young scientific and literary man to take extra work outside of his + normal duties. This sort of thing cannot go on without serious danger to + the Republic. Cleanliness and good manners should be insisted upon, but + they may be secured on $3000 a year if too much else is not required. How + to secure them on $1500 is a problem to be solved, for cleanliness costs + more each decade. +</p> +<p> + After all is said, if the young people have an earnest <i>purpose</i> in + life it is easy to plan a method of living and to carry it out. The + sacrifices one must make in the house superficially, in the consideration + of a certain class, are cheerfully borne and soon forgotten. +</p> +<p> + Little discomforts which affect only one's feelings and not one's health + make rather good stories after they are over. What is worth while? Are we + become too sensitive to little things? Do we imagine we show our higher + civilization by discerning with the little princess the pea under + twenty-four feather beds? +</p> +<p> + Let our shelter be first of all healthful, physically and morally. If to + gain these qualities we must take a house in an unfashionable + neighborhood, it should not cause distress. Why is this particular region + unfashionable? Is it not merely because certain would-be leaders choose + to live beyond their means in company with those who are able to spend + more? +</p> +<p> + Why not be honest and happy? Live within your income and make it cover the + truest kind of living. +</p> +<a name="CH8"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + CHAPTER VIII. +</h3> +<p> + TO OWN OR TO RENT: A DIFFICULT QUESTION. +</p> +<p class="ind4"> + "Half the sting of poverty is gone when one keeps house for<br> + one's own comfort and not for the comment of one's neighbors."<br> + —Miss MULOCK. +</p> +<p> + When the ideals of an older generation are forced upon a younger, already + struggling under new and strange environment, the effect is often opposite + to that intended. The elders in their pride of knowledge, and the + real-estate promoters in their greed for gain, have been urging the young + man to own his house on penalty of shirking his plain duty. They say he + must have a home to offer his bride, as the bird has a nest. Building-loan + associations, homes on the instalment plan, appeal to the sentiments they + think the young man ought to heed. +</p> +<p> + The young man is often modest, almost always sensitive, and he prefers to + bear dispraise rather than to tell the real reason he hesitates. His ear + is closer to the ground, he feels even if he cannot express the doubt of + the disinterestedness of the land-scheme promoter, of the wisdom of his + father. He knows better than his elders the uncertainties of salaried men, + young men with a way to make in the unstable conditions of to-day. +</p> +<p> + The effect of this well-meant advice is not to hasten his marriage, but to + put it off because he is not allowed to take the course he feels safest. + Or if he is willing, the parents of his prospective bride are not, and so + young people do not marry on $1000 a year, for fear of the elder + generation and their supposed wisdom. +</p> +<p> + The young people are not justified by present-day conditions in owning a + house on an income of $2000 a year <i>unless</i> +</p> +<ol> + <li><p> + They have money to put into it which it will not cripple them for life + to lose; +</p> +<li><p> + They care so much for the idea of ownership that they are willing to + take the risk of losing one half the investment should they be compelled + to move; +</p> +<li><p> + They possess the fortitude to give it up at the call of duty after all + they have lavished on it; +</p> +<li><p> + They care enough for the real education and the real fun they will get + out of it to save in other ways what the running and repairs will cost + <i>over and above the amount estimated</i>. This saving will be largely by + doing many things with their own hands. +</p> +</ol> + +<p> + To be bound hand and foot either by unsalable real estate or by sentiment + is an uncomfortable condition for the young family who may find itself in + uncongenial surroundings, in an unhealthful situation, or who may need to + retrench temporarily. +</p> +<p> + Another serious objection to building and owning a house in the first + years of married life is the chance that the house will be too large or + too small, or the railroad station will be moved, or the trolley line will + be run under the garden window, or a smoking chimney will fill the library + with soot (although the latter will not be permitted in the real + twentieth-century town). +</p> +<p> + A new element has come into the question of ownership by the family of + limited means which did not meet the elder generation of house-owners. In + the past the repairs were confined to a coat of paint now and then, new + shingles, an added hen-house, or a bay window. The well might have to be + deepened, but little expense was put into or onto the house for fifty + years. The married son or daughter might add a wing, but the main house + once built was never disturbed. In the modern plastic condition of both + ideals and materials this is all changed. In any city well known to my + readers how many streets bear the same aspect as five years ago? In any + suburban village made familiar by the trolley how many houses are the same + as five years ago? Even if their outward aspect is not changed, that worst + of all havocs, new plumbing, has been put in. The installation of neither + furnace nor plumbing is accomplished once for all; at the end of ten years + at most repairs or replacement must be made on penalty of loss of health. + As the community grows in wisdom and in knowledge it makes sanitary + regulations more stringent notwithstanding the fact that the increase in + expense bears most heavily on the small householder with a family whose + need is out of proportion to the income. Many a parent who grieves the + loss of his child would gladly have paid a reasonable sum for repairs, but + would have been in the poor debtors' court if he had allowed the plumbers + to enter his house. The new laws made since he bought his house require + diametrically opposite things, and the old fittings must all be torn out + as well as four times as costly put in. +</p> +<p> + It is a sad fact that the advantages of all modern sanitation are so often + denied to those who need and who would appreciate them. The renter has + here an advantage over the owner. He can call for an examination by the + city or town inspector before he takes a lease; the capitalist owner must + then put matters right. But as yet a man has a right to live with leaky + sewer- or gas-pipes in his own house without being disturbed by an + inspector. How far into the century this will be allowed is uncertain; in + time there will be an inspection of the premises of the small owner. +</p> +<p> + The only remedy in sight is for an investment of capital in up-to-date + houses of various grades in city, suburbs, and country; such investment to + bring 4 per cent, not 40, or even 15, unless by rise of land values. No + better use of idle money could be made at the present time. In + "Anticipations" Mr. Wells writes: "The erection of a series of + experimental labor-saving houses by some philanthropic person for + exhibition and discussion would certainly bring about an extraordinary + advance in domestic comfort; but it will probably be many years before the + cautious enterprise of advertising firms approximates to the economies + that are theoretically possible to-day." This is truer now than when Mr. + Wells was writing. +</p> +<p> + The great difficulty in the way is the first outlay. So many things will + have to be designed, patterns made and machinery built to make them; for + this advance in construction will not be by hand-made things. There will + be more head-work put into the various articles, but the mass of + constructive material must be machine-made, at least for the family of + limited income. And these articles need not be ugly. There must be many of + the same kind in the world, to be sure; but if the design fits the + purpose, this may not be an evil. No one objects to a beautiful elm-tree + in his field because in hundreds of fields there are similar elm-trees. + Slight variations in finish, color, etc., can give individuality to the + simplest chair. +</p> +<p> + Therefore the first outlay for the new order will be beyond the purse of + any single family of this group. If we had learned to cooperate sanely, a + group might undertake it, but the most probable method will be for some + far-sighted men to agree to sink a certain amount of money in experiment, + just as they now sink money in prospecting a mine with all the uncertainty + it brings. Ability to <i>risk</i> in an experiment must go hand in hand with + capital to use. +</p> +<p> + The objection commonly made is that all individuality will be taken away, + that each one must live like every one else in the neighborhood. This is + not an essential consequence, but will it be so impossible to have a + certain similarity in the dwellings of like-minded people? In + "Anticipations" it is declared that "Unless some great catastrophe in + Nature breaks down all that man has built, these great kindred groups of + capable men and educated adequate women must be under the forces we have + considered so far, the element finally emergent amid the vast confusions + of the coming time."<a href="#note-6"><small><sup>6</sup></small></a> +</p> +<a name="note-6"></a> +<p> +<sup><u>6</u></sup> [Anticipations, pp. 153-4.] +</p> +<p> + The practical people, the engineering and medical and scientific people, + will become more and more <i>homogeneous</i> in their fundamental culture. +</p> +<p> + The decreasing of the space one can call one's own within urban limits has + so steadily increased, and the need for freer air has become so fully + recognized, that the case of the single householder in the suburbs and + even in the country is bound to press harder and harder. The group system + elsewhere referred to, with central heating plant and workers of all + grades at telephone-call, will make possible at a reasonable rent within + easy reach of the city the single household of one, two, or three, as the + case may be, and if without children of their own, to such shelter may + come some of those homeless little ones we have with us always, to share + in the sun and wind and garden. In the real country, with acres instead of + feet of land, much of the same kind of elaborate simplicity will be found. + Certainly the same kind of fire-proof house of only one story with more + light, "roofs of steel and glass on the louver principle," will obviate so + frequent a change of air as a shut-in house requires, and give more + equable temperature. +</p> +<p> + In the city? Since physicians will surely be more insistent on light, as + well as fresh air, roof-gardens and balconies and glazed walls, so to + speak, will be arranged by the architect so as not to offend the eye and + yet to accomplish the results. He will cease from trying to put the new + ideas of the twentieth century into the old houses of the eighteenth or + fifteenth even, and that beauty, which is fitness, will come forth from + the tangle of ugliness everywhere. If, as the economist tells us, "cost + measures lack of adjustment," then the perfectly adjusted house will not + be costly in reality, it will be adapted to the production and protection + of effective human beings. +</p> +<p> + The cellar has for some years been changing to a storage for trunks + instead of vegetables. The old-fashioned housewife exclaims at the lack of + storage in the house of to-day, and we are eliminating it still more. A + twentieth-century axiom is, "Throw or give away everything you have not + immediate or prospective use for." It is as true of household furniture as + of books; only the very best is of any value second-hand. Our young people + may have heirlooms, but they will buy very little in the way of sideboards + or first editions. The moral of modern tendencies is, buy only what you + are sure you will need or what you care for so intensely that you will + keep it come what may. Housing of possible treasures is far too + costly. +</p> +<p> + At the foundation of the ethical side of ownership is the primitive + impulse of possession, that ownership which led to wife-capture, to feudal + castles, to accumulation of things, and to-day is expressed by the man who + prefers to have his steak cooked in his own kitchen even if it is burned. +</p> +<p> + It is notorious that most of us put up with discomfort if it is caused by + <i>our own</i>. A family of eight will use one bath-room without murmur if the + house is theirs, but will complain loudly if the landlord will not add two + without increasing the rent. +</p> +<p> + At the foundation of what seem exorbitant rents is this demand for modern + improvements in old houses, and the atrocious carelessness of tenants of + property. It is not their own, and they do not obey the golden rule in the + use of it. +</p> +<p> + Every five years or so plumbing laws are changed, and if an old house is + touched the fixtures and pipes must be all renewed. Tenants have learned + to fear the sanitation of old houses, and yet abuse the appliances they + should care for. +</p> +<p> + Public ownership or corporate ownership or an increased lawlessness are + accountable for a disregard of others' rights and of property which is + unnecessarily increasing the cost of living. +</p> +<p> + I have said elsewhere that it is not because the landlord does not want + children in the house but because he does not want such ill-bred children, + vandals, who have no respect for anything. He charges high rent because + his investment is good for only ten years. +</p> +<p> + The shibboleth of duty to own a home has so strong a hold on the moral + sense of the people that it is made use of by the promoter who may in some + cases think himself the philanthropist he intends others to call him. I + mean that the duty of owning and the heinousness of paying rent are so + ingrained that buying on the instalment plan has seemed a righteous thing, + even with the examples of broken lives in plain sight. As an incentive to + save, if there were anything to save, it might have been justified in the + days of feudalism. But for an independent American to confess that he + cannot put money in the bank, and that he must bind himself and his family + to slavery, for the sake of owning a bit of property which they will + probably wish to sell before they have it paid for, is disgraceful. + Intelligent men should see that here is the profit in the transaction; + that enough go to the wall to pay for the trouble of the rest, just as in + life insurance enough die before the expected time to put money in the + pockets of the riskers. +</p> +<p> + A drunken father may need to be held, but the young professor, the lawyer, + the engineer, should have sufficient self-respect and firmness to save + that which in his judgment is necessary, without being tied by "the + instalment plan." This method is a very viper in the finances of to-day. + The wise business man never ventures more than he can afford to lose in a + risk, but the man who takes bread and milk from his children to invest in + "a sure thing" takes a risk with what is not his to give. +</p> +<p> + To buy land for investment is another supposed virtue, an inheritance from + the time when slow growth, once started in a given direction, kept on, so + that great acumen was not needed to buy; but that is all changed to-day. + Only those "in the ring" can tell where the "boom" will go next. +</p> +<p> + In these days of unparalelled rapidity of change in industrial and social + conditions it is most undesirable for a man to be hampered by a shell + which is too large to carry about with him and too valuable to be left + behind. To each reader will occur instances of the refusal of an + advantageous offer because the family home could not be realized upon at + once, the location once so favorable had become undesirable, and the + values put into it could not be recovered because of social conditions + following industrial changes. +</p> +<p> + The keen observer hesitates in view of all these conditions to advise any + young man to invest in real estate for a home beyond a sum which he can + afford to lose if need arises to move. These changes carry a need for + mobilization of its army of workers. The encumbrance of family Lares and + Penates cannot be tolerated. Only a small per cent of young men are to-day + sure of remaining in the city in which they begin business. What folly to + encumber themselves with real estate which, sold at a sacrifice, brings + barely half its price! Moral exhorters have not carefully considered this + side of the question in their arguments for house-owning and + family-rearing as anchors to the young man. +</p> +<p> + The fact noted earlier is a case in point. After the wedding-cards were + out the bridegroom was transferred to the charge of the company's office + in another city. +</p> +<p> + The expenses necessitated by these frequent removals make an + unaccounted-for item in many incomes. +</p> +<p> + If the young couple have saved or inherited between them, say, $3000, + shall they build a home with it? Decidedly not. Because the house will + cost $5000 before they are done. Not only because of the unexpected in + strikes and change in prices of materials, but because, as the plans take + shape, the wife or the husband or both will see so many little points + which they will ask for, the paper plan not having conveyed a definite + idea to either. An excellent plan was carried out by a college woman. She + made a model to scale in pasteboard, of such a size that every essential + detail was shown in its relation to other portions of the structure. +</p> +<p> + Even if these young people do not yield at the moment of building, they + will probably wish they had yielded when they come to live in the house. + There will be nothing for it but to mortgage the place to make it + satisfactory. One cannot take up a newspaper without finding notice after + notice, reading, "Must be sold to pay the mortgage." +</p> +<p> + Exorbitant rent is of course social waste, and society must protect its + ablest young people from their own folly; but when they understand the + rules of the financial game better they will lend themselves more readily + to some cooperative plan of relief. +</p> +<p> + It is, as I well know, rank heresy, but I firmly believe that building and + owning of houses can be afforded only by those having the higher limit of + income, $3000 to $5000 a year, <i>unless</i> the person has a permanent + position or a business of great security, and in these days who can be + <i>sure</i> of anything? +</p> +<p> + When the land-scheme promoter advertises homes on the instalment plan, + beware of the trap! +</p> +<p> + Let no one buy in the suburbs from a sense of duty and then hate the life. +</p> +<p> + Comfort in living is far more in the brains than in the back. +</p> +<p> + It is so easy for a man or woman with one set of ideals to do that which + another would consider impossible drudgery. +</p> +<p> + My final advice is that the sensible young couple both of whom agree about + essentials, and who are willing and glad to work together for a common + end, and who love nature and gardening and believe in family life so + strongly as not to miss the crowd and theatres, may safely start a home in + the country with a garden, and pets for the children, if they have a + reasonable prospect of ten years in one spot. Let them make the place + attractive for some family, even if they have to leave it. +</p> +<p> + The women of this group will, I believe, have the qualities Mr. Wells + predicts: not only intelligence and education, but a reasonableness and + reliability not always found to-day. +</p> +<p> + Unless a reasonable prospect of ten years' occupancy is assured, then + begin life in a rented house, not necessarily in a flat. Begin with a few + things of your own some which have been yours for years, some which you + have bought together and which have a meaning for one of you and are not + irritating to the other. +</p> +<p> + Devote a part of your leisure to a critical study of the house you would + like, draw plans, make sketches in color, study color effects, learn about + fabrics, collect them for the future. You will find an amusing and + instructive occupation. +</p> +<p> + The essential point is to begin this life on two thirds of what you have + reason to expect as the year's income; keep the rest invested or in the + bank. There are to-day many temptations to spend for things attractive in + themselves but not necessary to the effective life. If friends are so + silly as to rally you on living in an unfashionable quarter, ask them in + to see your sketches and plans, and talk them into enthusiasm over the + idea. Do missionary work with them rather than be ridiculed out of your + convictions. It sometimes seems as if young people had no convictions, as + if they drifted with the wind of newspaper suggestion. So do not allow + your friends to drive you to greater expense than you have determined + upon, lest the end of the first two years of life find you in debt with no + fair start for the baby, whose life should begin in an atmosphere of quiet + assurance that all is well. It is not impossible that the nervous + irritability and recklessness of many are due to the atmosphere of + childhood. Then remember that <i>the welfare and security of the child is + the watchword of the future</i>. +</p> +<a name="CH9"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + A FEW BOOKS +</h3> +<p> + <strong>Anticipations.</strong> H.G. Wells. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Mankind in the Making.</strong> H.G. Wells. Scribners. +</p> +<p> + <strong>A Modern Utopia.</strong> H.G. Wells. Scribners. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Twentieth-century Inventions: a Forecast.</strong> Geo. + Sutherland. Longmans, Green, & Co. +</p> +<p> + <strong>The Level of Social Motion.</strong> Michael Lane. Macmillan. +</p> +<p> + <strong>The Theory of the Leisure Class.</strong> Thorstein Veblen. + Macmillan. +</p> +<p> + <strong>The Woman who Spends.</strong> Whitcomb and Barrows. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Physical Deterioration: Its Causes and their Cure.</strong> A. Watt + Smyth. E.P. Dutton. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Shelter.</strong> Syllabus 94, Home Education Dept, Univ. of + N.Y. State Library, Albany. +</p> +<p> + <strong>Report of the Tenement-house Commission.</strong> +</p> +<a name="CHIND"></a> +<p> </p> +<h3> + INDEX +</h3> + <b>A</b> +<p> +Adaptation<br> + lack of<br> +"Anticipations"<br> +Advisers, home<br> +Age, spirit of the<br> +Air<br> +Altruria<br> +Albert's, Prince, advice<br> +Apartment houses<br> +Architects<br> +Architecture, domestic<br> +Arts, constructive<br> +</p> + <b>B</b> +<p> +Bachelor<br> + apartment<br> +Back, bending the<br> + strength of<br> +Badges of toil<br> +Boarding houses<br> + origin of<br> +Breakfast<br> +Building<br> + laws<br> + loan associations<br> +Building trades<br> +Bureau of Labor, U.S.<br> +</p> + <b>C</b> +<p> +Capital<br> +Care of rooms<br> + human body<br> +Carpentry in high school<br> +Centrifugal force<br> +Children<br> + deterioration of manners of<br> +Choice<br> +City<br> + houses<br> +Civilization<br> +Class to work for<br> +Cleaning machine<br> +Cleanliness<br> +Clothing<br> +Colonial houses<br> + period, housebuilding of<br> + Southern type of, houses<br> +Commuter, trials of<br> +Companionship<br> +Compromise<br> +Concrete<br> +Consciousness, social<br> +Construction<br> +Consumption, destructive<br> +Conveniences<br> +Cooperation<br> +Cost<br> + increasing<br> + of housing and total income<br> + per person and per family<br> +Country<br> +Crowding<br> +</p> + <b>D</b> +<p> +Dayton scheme<br> +Debt<br> +Demand<br> + business<br> +Democracy<br> +Deterioration of houses<br> +Dirt<br> +Discomforts<br> +Discontent<br> +Dishonesty in standards<br> +Dole, Charles<br> +Domestic comfort<br> + machine<br> + progress, retarded<br> + unrest<br> +Drainage<br> +Drudgery<br> +Dust<br> +</p> + <b>E</b> +<p> +Economics, home, exhibit<br> + household<br> + social<br> +Economist<br> +Economy<br> +Effective life<br> + workers<br> +Effectiveness<br> +Efficiency<br> + loss of<br> +Energy<br> +Engineering, definition of<br> +Engle's law<br> +Environment<br> +Euthenics<br> +Evolution<br> +Expense<br> +Expenses<br> + operating<br> +Experience in doing<br> + lack of<br> +Experts, house<br> +Extravagance<br> +</p> + <b>F</b> +<p> +Family<br> + table<br> +Farm life<br> +Flat<br> +Flats<br> +Floors, hard-wood<br> + lignolith<br> +Food<br> +Force<br> + for regeneration<br> +Foreigner<br> +Friction due to house<br> +</p> + <b>G</b> +<p> +Garden<br> +Gardening<br> +Gas-stoves<br> +Group system<br> +</p> + <b>H</b> +<p> +Habit, perils of<br> +Habits<br> +Hands<br> +Heating<br> +Home<br> + abandonment of<br> + advisers<br> + Anglo-Saxon meaning of<br> + building of<br> +Home economics<br> + feeling<br> + life<br> + love of<br> + makers<br> + means privacy<br> + ties loosened<br> +Homeless<br> +Homestead<br> +Hospitality<br> +Hot water<br> +House<br> + building<br> + Colonial<br> + evidence of social standing<br> + -keepers<br> + -keeping, twentieth-century<br> + -maids, physical inefficiency of<br> + planning in High School<br> + plans<br> + suburban<br> +Houses<br> + city<br> + colonial, of New England<br> + four classes of<br> + modern<br> +Housing<br> +</p> + <b>I</b> +<p> +Ideal<br> +Ideas<br> +Improvements<br> +Income<br> +Individual<br> +Industries, disappearance of<br> +Installment plan<br> +Invasion of residential districts<br> +Invention<br> +Investment<br> +</p> + <b>K</b> +<p> +Kitchen<br> + accompaniments<br> + remodelled, in Providence<br> +Kitchenette<br> +</p> + <b>L</b> +<p> +Labor, Bureau of<br> + -saving devices<br> +Lack of<br> + adaptation<br> + business training<br> + experience<br> + faithful service<br> + harmony<br> + study<br> +Land<br> +Landlord<br> +Land-scheme promoter<br> +Lane, Mr. Michael<br> +Leaven of progress<br> +Legacy<br> +"Level of Social Motion"<br> +Life<br> + effective<br> + frontier<br> + fuller<br> + home<br> + open air<br> + private, shabby<br> + restrained<br> +Light<br> +Living, decent<br> + sane<br> + cost of<br> +Location<br> +Lodge, Sir Oliver<br> +</p> + <b>M</b> +<p> +Machinery<br> +Maid's rooms<br> +Making of things<br> +Man, early<br> + primitive<br> +Manners<br> +Marriage, responsibility of<br> +Meals<br> +Mechanical<br> + progress<br> +Menial<br> +Middle, leaven of progress in<br> +Model Tenement Association, New York<br> +Money<br> + basis<br> + measure of success<br> + spender<br> + value<br> +Morison, Geo. S<br> +Morris Building Co<br> +Mulock, Miss<br> +</p> + <b>N</b> +<p> +Nasmyth, James<br> +Natural selection<br> +Nature<br> + love of<br> + return to<br> +Neill, Chas. P., extracts from address by<br> +New Epoch, The<br> +</p> + <b>O</b> +<p> +Opinion, public<br> +Owen, Robert<br> +Own or rent<br> +Ownership<br> +</p> + <b>P</b> +<p> +Parks<br> +Parsons, Wm. Barclay<br> +Patronage of the arts<br> +Permanence in homestead, lack of<br> +Pettingill, Miss [Transcriber's Note: Pettengill in text.]<br> +Philanthropist<br> +Philanthropy<br> +Physical ill-being in<br> + domestics<br> + school children<br> + wage-earners<br> +Place of the house<br> +Plans<br> +Plumbing<br> +Possibilities in sight<br> +Preeminence, social<br> +Primitive man<br> +Principle, fixed<br> + race<br> +Privacy<br> +Private life shabby<br> +Productive work<br> +Progress<br> + leaven of<br> + race<br> +Protection<br> +</p> + <b>Q</b> +<p> +Question, a difficult<br> +</p> + <b>R</b> +<p> +Race principle<br> +Readjustment<br> +Real estate<br> +Refuge<br> +Regeneration, force for<br> +Rent<br> + or own<br> + -payers<br> +Residential districts, invasion of<br> +Responsibility of marriage<br> +Restaurant<br> +Restrained life<br> +Return to nature<br> +Rights to property, etc.<br> +Roosevelt, President<br> +</p> + <b>S</b> +<p> +Sanitarian<br> +Sanitary<br> + English, Inspectors Association, President of<br> +Sanitation<br> +Saving<br> +Schools, public<br> +Science<br> +Scrubbing<br> +Selection, natural<br> +Self-interest<br> + -preservation<br> +Service<br> + faithful, lack of<br> +Sewer connection, houses without<br> +Shelter<br> +Shelter, marrying for<br> +Sheltering the children<br> +Simplicity<br> +Social advance<br> + aspiration<br> + betterment<br> + conditions<br> +Social conscience<br> + consciousness<br> + convention<br> + economics<br> + ostracism<br> + pleasure<br> + preėminence<br> + science<br> + significance<br> + standing<br> + welfare<br> +Society<br> +Sociologist<br> +Sociology<br> +Somerville<br> +Space<br> + diminishing<br> +Spender<br> +Spirit of the age<br> +Standards<br> +Stone, Mary Lowell, Home Economics Exhibit<br> +Structure<br> +Stuckert, Mrs<br> +Study, lack of<br> +Suburban<br> + houses<br> + living<br> + square<br> +Suburbs<br> +Sun-parlors<br> +Sunlight Park, England<br> +</p> + <b>T</b> +<p> +Table, family<br> +Tax<br> +Temporary home<br> +Tenant<br> +Tenement<br> + N.Y. Model, Association<br> +Tennyson<br> +Tenure,<br> + permanence of<br> + shortness of<br> + uncertain<br> +Transition period<br> +Tuberculosis<br> +</p> + <b>U</b> +<p> +U.S. Bureau of Labor<br> +Unrest, domestic<br> +Unsanitary<br> +Utopian<br> +</p> + <b>V</b> +<p> +Veblen<br> +Ventilation<br> +Village houses<br> + influx from<br> +</p> + <b>W</b> +<p> +Wage-earners<br> +Waste, conspicuous<br> +Watchword of the future<br> +Water, hot<br> +Wedding presents<br> +Well-being of community threatened<br> +Wells, H.G.<br> +White plague<br> +Wife<br> +Window<br> +Woman<br> +Women, corporation of<br> +Women's work<br> +Work,<br> + menial<br> + productive<br> + women's<br> +Workers, effective<br> +Working men<br> +</p> + <b>Y</b> +<p> +Young people<br> +Youth, American<br> +</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Cost of Shelter, by Ellen H. 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Richards + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cost of Shelter + +Author: Ellen H. Richards + +Release Date: May 16, 2004 [EBook #12366] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COST OF SHELTER *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + +THE +COST OF SHELTER. + + +By +ELLEN H. RICHARDS + + +Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry, +Massachusetts Institute of Technology. + + +1905. + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLD EXISTS FOR ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS: + + +Two or more persons form an alliance + +(a) for protection against the outside world; + +(b) for protection against the outside world and for the rearing of + children; + +(c) for the greater gain in convenience which the common life can give + over that of single effort; + +(d) for companionship; + +(e) for the greater independence it gives to the group; + +(f) for the greater ease in satisfying one's prejudices or whims. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE. TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTRES OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY + +CHAPTER II. + + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING + +CHAPTER III. + + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, ILL ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS, CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION + +CHAPTER IV. + + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY + +CHAPTER V. + + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE + +CHAPTER VI. + + COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY FOR VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER + +CHAPTER VII. + + RELATION BETWEEN COST OF SHELTER AND TOTAL INCOME TO BE EXPENDED + +CHAPTER VIII. + + TO RENT OR TO OWN: A DIFFICULT QUESTION + + + + +THE COST OF SHELTER. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE; TYPIFIED IN + PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTERS OF INDUSTRY AND + HOSPITALITY. + + "There is no noble life without a noble aim."--CHARLES DOLE. + +The word Home to the Anglo-Saxon race calls to mind some definite house as +the family abiding-place. Around it cluster the memories of childhood, the +aspirations of youth, the sorrows of middle life. + +The most potent spell the nineteenth century cast on its youth was the +yearning for a home of their own, not a piece of their father's. The +spirit of the age working in the minds of men led them ever westward to +conquer for themselves a homestead, forced them to go, leaving the aged +behind, and the graves of the weak on the way. + +There must be a strong race principle behind a movement of such +magnitude, with such momentous consequences. Elbow room, space, and +isolation to give free play to individual preference, characterized +pioneer days. The cord that bound the whole was love of home,--one's own +home,--even if tinged with impatience of the restraints it imposed, for +home and house do imply a certain restraint in individual wishes. And +here, perhaps, is the greatest significance of the family house. It cannot +perfectly suit _all_ members in its details, but in its great office, that +of shelter and privacy--ownership--the house of the nineteenth century +stands supreme. No other age ever provided so many houses for single +families. It stands between the community houses of primitive times and +the hives of the modern city tenements. + +As sociologically defined, the family means a common house--common, that +is, to the family, but excluding all else. This exclusiveness is +foreshadowed in the habits of the majority of animals, each pair +preempting a particular log or burrow or tree in which to rear its young, +to which it retreats for safety from enemies. Primitive man first borrowed +the skins of animals and their burrowing habits. The space under fallen +trees covered with moss and twigs grew into the hut covered with bark or +sod. The skins permitted the portable tent. + +It is indeed a far cry from these rude defences against wind and weather +to the dwelling-houses of the well-to-do family in any country to-day, but +the need of the race is just the same: protection, safety from danger, a +shield for the young child, a place where it can grow normally in peaceful +quiet. It behooves the community to inquire whether the houses of to-day +are fulfilling the primary purposes of the race in the midst of the +various other uses to which modern man is putting them. + +As already shown, shelter in its first derivation, as well as in its +common use, signifies protection from the weather. Bodily warmth saves +food, therefore is an economy in living. From the first it also implied +protection from enemies, a safe retreat from attack and a refuge when +wounded. But above all else it has, through the ages, stood for a safe and +retired place for the bringing up of the young of the species. + +The colonial houses of New England with large living-room, dominated by +the huge fireplace with its outfit of cooking utensils, with groups of +buildings for different uses clustered about them, giving protection to +the varied industries of the homestead, illustrate the most perfect type +of family life. Each member had a share in the day's work, therefore to +each it was home. To the old homestead many a successful business man +returns to show his grandchildren the attic with its disused loom and +spinning-wheel; the shop where farm-implements were made, in the days of +long winter storms, to the accompaniment of legend and gossip; the dairy, +no longer redolent of cream. These are reminders of a time past and gone, +before the greed of gain had robbed even these houses of their peace. The +backward glance of this generation is too apt to stop at the transition +period, when the factory had taken the interesting manufactures out of the +hands of the housewife and left the homestead bereft of its best, when the +struggle to make it a modern money-making plant, for which it was never +designed, drove the young people away to less arduous days and more +exciting evenings. + +This stage of farm life was altogether unlovely, not wholly of necessity, +but because the adjustment was most painful to the feelings and most +difficult to the muscles of the elders. + +Because the family ideal was the ruling motive, the house-building of the +colonial period shows a more perfect adaptation to family life than any +other age has developed. + +Where is the boasted adaptability of the American? He should be ready to +see the effect of the inevitable mechanical changes and modify his ideas +to suit. For it cannot be too often reiterated that it is a case of +_ideas_, not of wood and stone and law. + +This homestead has passed into history as completely as has the Southern +colonial type, differing only in arrangement. Climate, as well as domestic +conditions, demanded a more complete separation of the manufacturing +processes, including cooking, laundry, etc., otherwise the ideal was the +same. "The house" meant a family life, a gracious hospitality, a busy hive +of industry, a refuge indeed from social as well as physical storms. Work +and play, sorrow and pleasure, all were connected with its outward +presentment as with the thought. For its preservation men fought and women +toiled, but, alas! machinery has swept away the last vestige of this life +and, try as the philanthropist may to bring it back, it will never return. +The very essence of that life was the _making of things_, the preparation +for winter while it was yet summer, the furnishing of the bridal chest +years before marriage. Fancy a bride to-day wearing or using in the house +anything five years old! + +There are no more pioneer and colonial communities on this continent. +Railroads and steamboats and electric power have made this rural life a +thing of the past. Let us not waste tears on its vanishing, but address +ourselves to the future. + +There are two directions in which great change in household conditions has +occurred quite outside the volition of the housekeeper. They are the +disappearance of industries, and lack of permanence in the homestead. +Those who are busily occupied in productive work of their own are +contented and usually happy. The results of their efforts, stored for +future use--barns filled with hay or grain, shelves of linen and +preserves--yield satisfaction. + +Destructive consumption may be pleasurable for the moment, but does not +satisfy. The child pulls the stuffing from the doll with pleasure, but +asks for another in half an hour. The delicious meal daintily served is a +joy for an hour. A room put in perfect order, clean, tastefully decorated, +is a delight to the eye for three hours and then it must be again cleaned +and rearranged. Is this productive work? Is there any reason why we should +be satisfied with it or happy in it? + +In an earlier time, that from which we derive so many of our cherished +ideals, the house built by or for the young people was used as a homestead +by their children and their children's children. Customs grew up slowly, +and for some reason. Furniture, collected as wanted, found its place; all +the routine went as by clockwork. Saturday's baking of bread and pies went +each on to its own shelf, as the cows went each to her own stall. If the +duties were physically hard, the routine saved worrying. + +To-day how few of us live in the house we began life with! How few in that +we occupied even ten years ago! And this number is growing smaller and +smaller. The housewife has not time to form habits of her own; she engages +a maid and expects her to fall at once into the family ways, when the +family has no ways. + +In the sociological sense, shelter may mean protection from noise, from +too close contact with other human beings, enemies only in the sense of +depriving us of valuable nerve-force. It should mean sheltering the +children from contact with degrading influences. + +Charles P. Neill, United States Commissioner of Labor, in his address at +the New York School of Philanthropy, July 16, 1905, said: "In my own +estimation home, above all things, means privacy. It means the possibility +of keeping your family off from other families. There must be a separate +house, and as far as possible separate rooms, so that at an early period +of life the idea of rights to property, the right to things, to privacy, +may be instilled." + +There may be such a thing as too much shelter. To cover too closely breeds +decay. Are we in danger of covering ourselves and our children too closely +from sun and wind and rain, making them weak and less resistant than they +should be? The prevalence of tuberculosis and its cure by fresh air seems +to indicate this. The attempt to gain privacy under prevailing conditions +tends this way. + +Hitherto students of social economics have usually considered the most +pressing problem in the life of the wage-earner to be that of sufficient +and suitable food. But in any large city and in most smaller communities +there are found those who have refined instincts, aspirations for a life +of physical and moral cleanness, who by force of circumstances are obliged +to come in contact with filth and squalor and careless disorder in order +to find shelter. If they can be kept from degenerating, their rise when +it comes will lift those below them, but it is a Herculean task to lift +them by lifting all below as well. The burden which presses most heavily +on this valuable material for social betterment is that of shelter rather +than of food. + +The thought underlying this whole series on Cost is that the place to put +the leaven of progress is in the middle. The class to work for is the +great mass of intelligent, industrious, and ambitious young people turned +out by our public schools with certain ideals for self-betterment, but in +grave danger of losing heart in the crush due to the pressure of society +around them and above them. They fear to incur the responsibility of +marriage when they see the pecuniary requirements it involves. + +This growing body makes up so large a proportion of the whole in America +that, once aroused, it may become an all-powerful force for regeneration, +thanks to the pervading influence of public-school education when enlisted +on the side of right. Faith in the uprightness of American youth is so +strong that strenuous effort for their enlightenment is justified. Once +they have their attention drawn to the need of action, they will act. +Self-preservation is one of the strongest instincts, and it may be +dangerous to call upon the self-interest of these inexperienced souls; but +for the sake of the results we must risk the lesser evil, if we can +develop a resolution to secure a personal and race efficiency. + +When the young people, with a deep appreciation of the possibilities of +sane and wholesome living, marry and attempt to realize their ideals, the +conditions are all against them. They find little sympathy in their +yearnings for a rational life, and soon give up the effort, deciding that +they are too peculiar. They slip almost insensibly into the routine of +their neighbors. There is great need of a cooperation of like-minded young +married people to form a little community, setting its own standards and +living a fairly independent life. Two or three such groups would do more +than many sermons to awaken attention to the problem before the race +to-day. Shall man yield himself to the tendencies of natural selection and +be modified out of existence by the pressure of his environment, or shall +he turn upon himself some of the knowledge of Nature's forces he has +gained and by "conscious evolution" begin an adaptation of the environment +to the organism? For we no longer hold with Robert Owen and the socialists +that man is necessarily controlled and moulded by his surroundings, that +he is absolutely subject to the laws of animal evolution. A new era will +dawn when man sees his power over his own future. Then, and not till then, +will come again that willingness to sacrifice present ease and pleasure +for the sake of race progress, which alone can make the restrained life a +satisfaction. + +The environment is, more largely than we think, the house and the manner +of life it forces upon us. Therefore the first point of attack is the +shelter under which the family life of the newly married pair establishes +itself. If it is too large for their income, it leads to extravagance and +debt before the first two years have passed; if it is too small, it cramps +the generous and hospitable impulses. If unsuited to this need, it +irritates and deforms character, as a plaster cast compresses a limb +encased in it. + +Imagine the young people beginning life in the average city flat, at a +rent of twenty to thirty dollars a month, with its shams, its makeshifts, +its depressing, unsanitary, morally unsafe quarters for the maid, its +friction with janitor and landlord--the whole sordid round necessitated by +the mere manner of building, and by that only. + +A few strong souls flee to the country. Counting the cost and finding that +all the earnings go to mere living, they decide to get that living in +company with nature under free skies--their own employers. Such may live +in Altruria with the happy zest of the authors of that charming sketch. + +It is not given to many of earth's children to be so well mated and so +heavenly-wise. The young man has been brought up to consider the house the +young wife's prerogative, and she--well, she has been trained to believe +that housewifely wisdom will come to her as unsought as measles. + +Two thirds the friction in the early years of married life is caused by +the house and its defects, resulting in dissatisfaction, disenchantment, +and the flight to a hotel or non-housekeeping apartment. + +If some of the problems to be faced and the difficulties in solving them +could be presented to the young people to be studied and discussed before +the actual encounter came, they would be more prepared. + +In discussing this part of the subject, as in the consideration of the +Cost of Living in general and the Cost of Food, we shall deal in +particular with incomes of from $1000 to $5000 a year for families of +five, recognizing that under present-day conditions the annual sum of +$1500 to $3000 means the greatest struggle between desires and power of +gratifying them. + +On the surface it appears that the things which go to make up delicate +cleanly living cost more and more each year, with no limit in sight. It is +not only the poet who moves from one boarding-house to another; the young +clerk and struggling business man go into smaller and smaller quarters +until the traditional limit of room to swing a cat is reached. + +The constantly diminishing space occupied by a family seems to prove that +the 40% increase in the cost of living within a few years is not caused +by an advance in the necessary cost of food; it is certainly not due to +the increased cost of necessary clothes. It is more than probable that the +increasing cost of shelter and all that it implies--increased +water-supply, service, repairs, etc.--is the main factor in the +undoubtedly increased expense. This will be considered in some detail in +Chapter VIII. + +While the socialist may take the ground that salaries must be raised to +keep pace with the rise in living expenses, the student of social +ethics--Euthenics, or the science of _better_ living--may well ask a +consideration of the topic from another standpoint. Is this increased cost +resulting in higher efficiency? Are the people growing more healthy, +well-favored, well-proportioned, stronger, happier? If not, then is there +not a fallacy in the common idea that more money spent means a fuller +life? + +Recent examination of school children in various cities in England and +America has revealed a state of physical ill-being most deplorable in the +present, and horrifying to contemplate for its future results. One has +only to keep one's eyes open in passing the streets to become aware of the +physical deterioration of thousands of the wage-earners. One has only to +listen to the housewife's complaints of inefficiency, lack of strength +among the housemaids, to realize that the world's work is not being well +done in so far as it depends upon human hands. + +This loss of efficiency is usually attributed to insufficient food and +long hours, but it is at least an open question if housing conditions are +not the more potent factor not only in the case of the very poor, but even +in the case of the family having an income of $2000 a year. Life in a +boarding-house adapted from the use by one family to that of five or six +without increase of bathing and ventilating conveniences, with old-style +plumbing, cannot be mentally or bodily invigorating. + +The house cannot be said to be a place of safety so long as the "great +white plague" lurks in every dark corner--tuberculosis, colds, influenza, +etc., fasten themselves upon its occupants. Explorers exposed to extremes +of weather do not thus suffer. The dark, damp house incubates the germs. + +But homes there must be: places of safety for children, of refuge for +elders. Men will marry and women may keep house. How shall it be managed +so as to be in harmony with present-day demands? Certainly not by ignoring +the difficulties. Progress in any direction does not come through wringing +of hands and deploring the decadence of the present generation. President +Roosevelt's advice is to bring up boys and girls to overcome obstacles, +not to ignore them. Let the educated, intelligent young people join in +devising a way to surmount this obstacle as the engineers of 1890 invented +new ways of crossing impassable gorges and "impossible" mountain ranges. + +The writer has no ready-prepared panacea to offer. Patent medicine is not +the remedy. This kind cometh out only by fasting and prayer. A long course +of diet is needed to cure a chronic disease. + +This little volume is intended merely as a spur to the imagination of the +indolent student, to arouse him to the mental effort required to deal with +the readjustment of ideas to conditions before it is too late. + +It is no exaggeration to say that the social well-being of the community +is threatened. The habits of years are broken up; sad to say, the +middle-aged will suffer unrelieved, but the young can be incited to +grapple with the situation and hew out for themselves a way through. + +Certain elements in the problem will be touched upon in the following +pages as a result of much going to and fro in the "most favored land on +earth." Certain questions will be raised as to what constitutes a home and +a shelter for the family in the twentieth-century sense of both family and +shelter. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING. + + It is not what we lack, but what we see others have, + that makes us discontented. + +There has been noted in every age a tendency to measure social preeminence +by the size and magnificence of the family abode. Mediaeval castles, +Venetian palaces, colonial mansions, all represented a form of social +importance, what Veblen has called conspicuous waste. This was largely +shown in maintaining a large retinue and in giving lavish entertainments. +The so-called patronage of the arts--furnishings, fabrics, pictures, +statues, valued to this day--came under the same head of rivalry in +expenditure. + +In America a similar aspiration results in immense establishments far +beyond the needs of the immediate family. But, unlike society in the +middle ages, social aspiration does not stop short at a well-defined line. +In the modern state each level reaches up toward the next higher and, +failing to balance itself, drops into the abyss which never fills. + +There is no contented layer of humanity to equalize the pressure; heads +and hands are thrust up through from below at every point. Democracy has +taken possession of the age and must be reckoned with on all sides. + +At first sight sumptuous housing might seem to be the least objectionable +form of conspicuous waste. Safer than rich food, less wasteful than +gorgeous clothing, but, as Veblen truly says, "through discrimination in +favor of visible consumption it has come about that the domestic life of +most classes is relatively shabby. As a consequence people habitually +screen their private life from observation." This is from a different +motive than the instinct of privacy, of personal withdrawal for rest and +quiet. This shabby private life is why true hospitality is disappearing. +The chance guest is no longer welcome to the family table; we are ashamed +of our daily routine, or we have an idea that our fare is not worthy of +being shared. Whatever it is, unconscious as it often is, it is a canker +in the family life of to-day. It leads to selfishness, to a laxness in +home manners very demoralizing. It is doubtless one of the great factors +in the distinct deterioration of children's public manners. + +Because the house is held to be the visible evidence of social standing, +because its location, style of architecture, fittings and furniture may be +made to proclaim the pretensions of its inhabitants, it is often dishonest +and one of the sources of the prevalent untruth in other things, since +dishonesty in housing has been not infrequently one of the first signs of +dishonesty in business. To move to a less fashionable quarter is to +confess financial stress at once. + +It is because the concomitant expenses of an establishment may be +curtailed without attracting public notice that a moral danger exists. The +outside shell is not the whole nor even the chief outlay. The operating +expenses run away with more money than the house itself, and it is in +these that the family, conscious of impending ruin, curtail, and thus +become dishonest in their own souls. + +The moral of it all is to live just a little below the probable limit, +whatever that may be, rather than to assume a greater income than is quite +certain. Granted that in the quickly changing conditions of to-day this is +difficult, it is not often impossible. + +It is only needed to set some other standard of social position than +shelter and to use the house for its legitimate purposes only, that of an +abode of the family in health and joyful cooperation. The class for which +this series is written should seek a shelter sufficient for these normal +uses, and make it so home-like that friends will gladly share it when +permitted. + +Let good manners, keen intelligence, bright and entertaining conversation +take the place of the showy but frequently uncomfortable houses and +wholesale entertainments of to-day. + +It is time that a beginning was made of that form of social pleasure and +mental recreation which the century must develop, or fail of its promise. + +What is the value, of present-day knowledge if not to stimulate the +conscious group, through the individual perhaps, but the group finally, to +better use of its powers and opportunities toward a higher form of social +life? + +We have been told that the house should be as much an expression of +individuality as clothes. Since clothes are constantly and easily changed, +and a family home built to order is comparatively permanent, such +expression in wood or stone should be carefully thought out; but how +rarely do we gain a pleasant impression from the houses built for the +purpose of setting forth social standards! The owner and the architect +have neither of them the highest ideals, and a sort of ready-made, +composite, often irritating, always displeasing result follows. The +pretence shows through more often than the occupant realizes. + +Society has the power to regulate its own conventions. Once convinced that +it is dangerous to put the strain of living on to mere superficial +pretence, mere location, ornament, new standards will be set up; as, +indeed, they are under other conditions. In frontier life, for instance, +where shortness of tenure is recognized, dress and the table take the +place of the house as indications. In a mining town, one is astonished at +the costumes seen on persons issuing from insignificant houses, and at the +excellent bill of fare in a restaurant with the barest necessities of +furnishing. Cursory observation often reads the signs of civilization +wrongly. The eastern traveller, accustomed to the outward glitter and the +finish of settled communities, fails to interpret the real efficiency of a +more flexible society. West of the Mississippi, that new empire we are +just beginning to appreciate, good food is recognized as of prime +importance, dress gives an opportunity for showing conspicuous waste, and +buildings are made for show only when permanence of residence is assured. + +Let society once thoroughly understand that safe shelter is essential to +its very life, that this safety is threatened, if not lost, by present +habits, and, by quick money-making schemes in house-building, it will +establish standards of living which shall not only be for the material +welfare, but for the mental, moral, and spiritual progress of the race. + +This progress can be secured by applying centrifugal force to congested +districts, by interesting capitalists to consider housing at the same time +with manufacturing plants, not only providing safe, economical houses, but +by making it socially possible to live in them on moderate incomes. + +The rising half, we must remember, is more affected by social conventions +than the submerged tenth. + +The well-to-do should consider more conscientiously those who recruit +their ranks, who, if started right without danger of debt, will have +freedom to advance. The present muddle has come about in part because no +one has taken the trouble to investigate the reasons. The young family +with $3000 a year has ideals for the manners and morals of the children +which are not satisfied with those of the inexpensive tenement quarter. +Prevention they consider better than cure, hence they pay higher rent than +the income warrants to secure elevating examples and morally wholesome +surroundings. + +[Illustration: The Morris Company's Block of Single Houses, with Central +Heating Plant (*remainder cut off).] + +[Illustration: The Morris Building Company's Block of Single Houses, with +Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +A single family cannot control a whole street, although cooperation can +accomplish a great deal in the way of congenial neighborhoods. But the +risk involved, the liability to error of judgment, as well as the large +outlay of capital, at once prevents the adoption of this means of +satisfactory housing for the business and professional class to any great +extent, at least in the city. The acumen needed to discover the profitable +in real estate, the skill to acquire large contiguous tracts of land, both +belong to the capitalist. Only when he is a philanthropist besides, is the +housing question safe in his hands. Such an example we find in the Morris +houses, Willoughby Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. This set of family dwellings was +put up to meet this very need. Congenial neighborhood, safe +playgrounds for the children, labor-saving devices for the housekeeper. +When first built they were in advance of anything in an eastern city of +their class. To-day Mr. Pratt has even more advanced ideas which will take +form in the future. + +[Illustration: Aerial-view Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +These attractive and comfortable houses, so near the working places of +the teachers and professional and business men who occupy them, were +possible only because of the comparative cheapness of the land, which had +been held undesirable for high-class single houses, not for sanitary +reasons, but solely on account of social conditions. This cluster of forty +houses makes its own atmosphere. This is the lesson to be learned. Let +groups of like-minded families make their own surroundings. The capitalist +will soon learn where his interest lies. + +[Illustration: Floor-plan Drawing: The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +[Illustration: Floor-plan Drawing The Morris Building Company's Block of +Single Houses, with Central Heating Plant, Brooklyn, New York.] + +Very probably it will be necessary to enlarge the scope and, perhaps, to +build two stories higher, so that the elders and perhaps bachelors of +both sexes, who do not care for the garden, may help to bear the expense +of the children's playground. Whatever form the advance may take, this is +a sign-post in the right direction. + +In the nature of things, however, the first experiments will be costly and +must be combined with business of a sure kind. In this instance the +heating and hot-water supply was made possible by a combination with +factory plant. But if a larger group of, say, one hundred houses were run +by a central establishment, the Morris Building Company estimates the cost +at about fifty dollars per year. + +These houses will be referred to again under Chapter VI, but the especial +value of this experiment was its social significance. How much better to +keep desirable land for residential purposes by such means than to permit +families to move away and give up satisfactory dwellings solely because +the lower end of the street has a few foreigners! Our older cities abound +in instances of this quick abandonment of most desirable streets without +any concerted effort to retain their character. + +The dangerous sanitary degeneration of these abandoned houses is one of +the worst features of the situation and a prolific cause of the +overcrowding of cities. + +The more thoughtful students of progressive tendencies are grouping +themselves in "parks" where houses are put up with the aid of the +capitalist under such restrictions as to price as is supposed to insure a +congenial neighborhood, and under such regulations as to land as to +prevent manufacturing establishments. When these plans are not purely +speculative, designed to entrap the young people by their best hopes of a +permanent home, much satisfaction may come from the plan. But even in this +country or suburban life the shadow of fashion falls sooner or later, and +the savings vanish with the years. Some deeper principle must come into +play, some stronger force than mere whim of society leaders, before our +young people can be released from the bondage of living on the right side +of a street under penalty of social ostracism. + +There are gratifying indications of an awakening. The following statement +appeared in a newspaper of a recent date: + +"A corporation of women has been formed in Indianapolis, Ind., for the +purpose of building small but artistic houses for people of moderate +means. All of the directors are business women; one of the vice-presidents +is Miss Elizabeth Browning, the city librarian, and another is the +principal of one of the public schools. The secretary has for some time +been in charge of the office of a savings and loan association and is the +only woman member of the Indianapolis fire insurance inspection board. Six +houses are to be erected at once in various parts of the city." + +No better use of money or effort can be made at the present time than in +similar endeavors to meet the needs of the time. The study of conditions +will prove an education in itself and a stimulus to invention. + +When the social conscience is once awakened the bride with $2000 a year +will not be expected to begin where her mother left off. + +The young people will be provided with just as comfortable and just as +sanitary homes, but they will not be expected to entertain lavishly in +order to show the wedding presents before they are broken. They will be +visited, even if they live in an unfashionable quarter on a side street. +Is it not more honest? + +If society would put its stamp on the manner of life adapted to the +welfare of the young people, it would not be unfashionable to live within +one's income. + +The tyranny of things is very real and most distressing in connection with +this problem of shelter and all that it involves. + +There is only needed a social awakening to result in an adjustment of +men's views as to what is good and right. New social habits adapted to the +age we live in will be accepted by the next generation as good form. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOT ADAPTED TO CHANGED + CONDITIONS CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION. + + "A large part of the evils of which we complain socially to-day + are due to the kind of houses we live in and the exactions they + make upon us."--H.G. WELLS. + +Four classes of houses have come down to us: + +(1) The family homestead in the country set low on the ground with damp +walls and dark cellar, one of a cluster of rambling buildings; with a +well, the only water supply, in close proximity to various sources of +pollution. These houses are for the most part now abandoned to the +foreigner, who uses them for the primitive purposes of shelter without the +ennobling intellectual life they once harbored. Now and then a grandson +rescues the old place, brings water from a spring or brook, digs a drain, +lets light into the cellar, and builds on a kitchen and dining-room. + +The expense is often greater than to build anew, but the effect is usually +very good when the changes are made under sanitary supervision. + +(2) The village or suburban house set in its own grounds, too near the +street usually, but with garden and fruit-trees in the rear, and possibly +a stable for horse and cow. This was the compromise made by the generation +just from the free life of the farm-house, who, consciously or +unconsciously, clung to the green of grass and trees, and the blue of the +sky. So long as habit or love of caring for the things lasted all went +well. The father found his recreation in planting the garden before +breakfast, as in his boyhood. The mother cared for flower and +vegetable-garden, as she recalled her mother's life; she picked her own +beans and corn, even if she did not cook the dinner. + +But the _children_ had to hurry off to school, and it was a pity to call +them early: they had lessons to learn in the afternoon. To them the garden +was work, not play as it should have been; so they failed to gain that +contact with mother earth which gives inspiration as well as health; they +failed to acquire a love of nature, became infected with the germ of +gregariousness, preferred the glare of lights, the rush of hurrying +crowds, and lost the relish for fresh air and quiet. This second +generation came to the city boarding-house and flat as soon as they were +free, leaving their parents' houses to go the same way as the +grandfather's farmhouse, into the hands of the foreigner not yet +Americanized to high standards of cleanliness and orderliness. + +These houses, too, are settling down into unkempt grounds with +dilapidated porches and blinds. Such eyesores as one finds on the +trolley-lines in any direction! They may have town-water supply, or they +may depend on wells, but they are frequently without sewer-connection. + +It is costly to be neat and clean, and only those whose minds require such +surroundings in order to be comfortable will pay the cost in time, +trouble, and money. + +(3) Some families made a compromise and built what is called a modern +house with bath-room and furnace (after the air-tight-stove craze passed), +with jigsaw ornamentation outside and in, pretentious-looking dwellings +with no proper kitchen accompaniments, and an unsavory garbage-barrel in +the small back yard, under the next neighbor's windows. These houses are +so close together that sounds and smells mingle; there is so little land +that there is no satisfaction in caring for it. Houses of this sort are +altogether too frequently found, occupying good locations and jarring on +the nerves of the better-trained young people of to-day. What is to be +done with them? They are too expensive to pull down, and hence are the +last resort of those who find they must retrench. They are mere temporary +shelters, not loved homes. + +The plumbing is usually of a cheap order, and the drains are not +infrequently broken, so that sanitarily these dwellings are often more +suspicious than the abandoned farmhouse. + +(4) The influx from village and country made demand for city housing of +an inexpensive sort, and there came into being all over the land the type +of the family house squeezed by the price of land to four stories high, 16 +to 20 feet wide, built in long rows and blocks. The "ugly sixties" bred +not only distressful village "villas," but unpleasant city houses of this +type, which are to-day a real menace to wholesome living. Many such blocks +may be found in any of our older cities, casting a depressing influence +upon all who come in sight of them, and deteriorating the manners and +morals of all who live in them. For these have gone the way of the other +classes mentioned and become perverted from the uses they were designed +for. In the seventies there were still motherly women who had come to town +to make a home for the children no longer content out of it. They were +willing and capable of mothering a few other children and lonely teachers +and clerks, so the boarding-house began as a real family home for the +homeless. There were not enough of these women to go around, and soon +boarding-houses began to be run for profit only. Home privileges were +fewer and fewer, the common parlor was rented, the one-family kitchen was +made to do duty for twenty persons. The house became pervaded with burned +fat and tobacco-smoke--a most villainous combination, gossip flourished, +and the limit of discomfort was reached. What wonder that a good Samaritan +built the first flat where the wearied nerves could find peace in the +thicker walls, and could escape the eternal "fry" by going out to meals! +It is a perfectly natural evolution from the impossible conditions which +the eighties and nineties developed. + +The early attempts, built on the old lines after the old ideas, before the +new life was accepted, are not satisfactory and, being built of brick or +stone, they are even more difficult to get rid of than the preceding. So +each type goes down in the scale of decent living. A given roof is made to +cover more people crowding closer and closer, causing home in the sense of +privacy and comfort to recede farther and farther away, until the lover of +his kind stands aghast at the magnitude of the problem before society when +it awakens to the task confronting it. Fortunately these rows of houses +are disappearing under the demand of business. The invasion of the +residential district is a real blessing, in that it pulls down these +houses which in twenty years have outlived their usefulness and can serve +a good purpose no longer. + +Let us hope that either the demands of business or the common sense of +society will also sweep away the fifth class: (5) City flats put up by the +conscienceless money-maker with only that idea of giving the public what +the public wants (because it knows no better) which gives the newspaper +its pernicious influences. At first it was supposed the flat-dwellers +would keep house, and arrangements of a sort were made. This compressed +the work of the house into such small quarters that the maid was given a +room down in the basement along with the furnace, or in the top story +adjoining ten or more other rooms--a dormitory arrangement without +supervision and without the quiet needed for rest. The difficulty of +securing good service under these conditions, together with the thousand +and one annoyances of living at too close quarters, noisy children and +pianos, grumpy janitors, smelly garbage, have led to the latest phase: +non-housekeeping flats with daily care of a sort supplied by the janitor +if desired, a kitchenette where eggs and coffee for breakfast and dishes +for invalids may be prepared, and restaurants galore for other meals. Thus +the women of the family are set free to roam the streets in search of +bargains and to join others like unto themselves for matinees and +promenades. + +This sort of shelter is increasing more rapidly than any other in all the +cities investigated. An estimate has been made that 80 or 90 per cent of +the recent building has been of this sort. Six rooms in an unfashionable +locality rent for about $25 or $30 a month; in a fashionable quarter, for +$200 to $250 per month, with a floor-space one half larger. These latter +cost about 50 cents per week per room for daily care, whereas the former, +if cared for from outside, are served only at intervals of two weeks or a +month. The inmates do most of the daily care themselves. While the +building is new and fresh this means little work; but as time goes on the +poor construction shows, the surface varnish wears off, cracks come, and a +general shabbiness appears, so that the tenant prefers to move into a new +building. The owner, or more probably the agent, puts on a little shining +varnish, and rents again without real repair, and these buildings also go +from bad to worse. Many of them are known to change tenants two or three +times a year. There is always a demand for the newest house. + +A study of social conditions reveals the fact that for the larger part of +the wage-earners the house has come to be the place where money is spent, +not earned or even saved. It has gone back to its primitive use--shelter +from weather and a sleeping-place, a temporary one at that. A real-estate +authority has made the assertion that three fifths of the rent-payers in +large cities are made up of non-householders and one half of these are +confined to one room--mostly women. This indicates a change in +requirements for the housing of the individual as distinguished from the +family. And it is this element which has complicated city living to a +great extent, and to which attention has been drawn by the accusation that +home life is shirked by it. + +To the bachelor man and maid are added the commercial traveller who leaves +wife and possibly child behind four fifths of the time. For him, as for +several other classes of young business men, the locality which he can +choose for headquarters changes with the requirements of business. He is +under orders and must go at a moment's notice across the continent, +perhaps. It is not his fault but the exigency of business that destroys +the desire for a permanent abiding-place. The numbers of such homeless +young people are far greater than any one but the real-estate agent +realizes. Then this loosening of the home tie renders easy the shifting +from city to country and seashore. A considerable proportion of the $2000 +to $5000 class shut up the flat or leave the boarding-house several times +in the year. There is usually one place where the furniture and +bric-a-brac and the other season's clothing are kept, but it is only a +storehouse or a temporary retreat that holds their property, growing less +and less as they move, until they may practically live in their trunks. + +The legacy which outranks all the others in disastrous consequences is the +notion that the young people must begin where their parents left off; that +the house must be, if anything, a little more elaborate. Therefore in +starting life the rent is allowed to consume one third the income in +sight, without considering the cost of maintaining such an establishment. +With a probable income of $2000 a year the young man does not hesitate to +pay $500 for a house, not realizing that at least half as much more should +be spent on wages for the care of the nineteenth-century house, and as +much more on incidentals, car-fares, and unexpected demands. What wonder +that the young people find themselves in debt by the second year? + +The parents are quite as much, if not more, to blame for encouraging this +extravagance. The father and mother are entitled to their ease and to the +use of their income for it, but the newly married pair have, in this age, +no right to assume the same attitude. They have their way to make, their +work to do in the years ahead of them. They should not mortgage the future +for the sake of the present luxury; and because of the uncertainties of +occupation and of health it is wise to take out of the expected income one +fourth or one third for a reserve fund and divide the remainder for +expenses. For instance, from $2000 a year subtract $500, then divide the +$1500 into $300 for rent, $300 for food, $300 for operating expenses, $200 +for clothing, $200 for travel, leaving $200 for the other expenses. If +unlooked-for expenses must be incurred, there is the $500 to draw upon; +but do not court the extra outlay: save the nest-egg if possible. + +The ideals of the home are said to rule the world. The young business man +who does not take the sane view of his own expenses will not rightly +consider his employer's interests. It is more than probable that the +much-deplored laxness, to call it by no harsher name, in business circles +is directly traceable to this falseness and dishonesty in standards of +home life. This moral effect is what makes the housing problem so serious. +It leads to an outward show not balanced by an ability to maintain an +inner life in harmony. It leads to an attempt to carry on a four-servant +house with two servants, or a three servant establishment with one. + +Lack of study and experience leads the family living in the suburbs, in +one of the worst legacies of the past, to attempt the same style as +friends maintain in a lately built apartment house, without in the least +understanding wherein the difference lies. + +From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to Texas, comes the same dull +and sullen roar of domestic unrest. Lack of faithful service is causing +the abandonment of the family home, and the fear of the obstacles in the +way of establishing new ones threatens the whole social fabric. + +The housewife is inclined to connect this state of things almost entirely +with food preparation, and is prone to fancy that if eating could be +abolished peace would return. + +The trouble goes much deeper, however, even to the foundations. The +nineteenth-century house is not suited to twentieth-century needs. In +other words, lack of adaptation to present conditions of the houses we +live in is a large factor in the prevailing domestic discontent. The next +largest has been referred to as attempting a style of living beyond one's +income. + +In all other walks of life, in transportation, in manufacturing, machinery +has come in to replace the heavier and more mechanical portions of labor. +The steam-shovel, the hoisting-engine, an infinite combination of +mechanical principles have been applied to the doing of things to save +human muscle. To stand by the machine which turns out the familiar +grape-basket, ready to fill with the fruit, and then to watch the +housemaid bending over some piece of work, is to realize the difference. +In few, very few operations is it necessary to-day that men should bend +their backs, but in how many household processes is the worker expected to +get down on all fours? The free-born American rebels. Perchance it is the +unconscious protest over a four-footed ancestry, or it may be that disuse +has really weakened the spinal column. Whatever the cause, the fact +remains. It is not the idea of work, of service, but of bending the back +to work that is so repugnant; likewise the effect on the hands of hot +water and scrubbing. Close observation has convinced me that care of the +hands has become an indication of freedom from manual labor quite +unthought of fifteen or twenty years ago. The increase of +manicuring-rooms, like the increase of restaurants, is a clear sign of the +trend of the times. Not only the class who likes to waste conspicuously, +but many a teacher, many a young man in State or Government employ with +an income of one, two, or three thousand a year patronizes these rooms. + +This daintiness reflects downward, and the girl whose acquaintances in her +high-school days are in a position to keep well manicured, if not +"lily-white," hands does not like to have hers show the effect of +housework, when that means scrubbing the floor and cleaning the stove. +Gloves? Ah, well, James Nasmyth once wrote: "Kid-gloves are great +non-conductors of knowledge." I believe that gloves of any kind are a +makeshift in real cleaning of dirty corners; but _there should not be +corners to catch dirt_. + +The unnecessary nastiness of the scrub-water with its fine soot which +works into every pore is a great objection to the girl who must work for +her living. If she goes to visit her friends, her hands betray her. She +can remove the other badges of her toil, her cap and apron; she may go out +on the street as brave as her mistress; but the moment her gloves are +removed her hands tell the tale. With the means at hand this need not be. +It is one of the legacies which have come down to us, and which we have +connected with the servant problem. The work in the most modern apartments +does not require the soiling of the hands in a serious way. With hard wood +floors, bright gas-stoves, porcelain lined dishes, no pots and kettles, +all the stairs, halls, etc., cared for by the janitor, the work is of a +far less smutting kind than in the suburban house, where there is still +need for much cleaning up of a roughening sort which cannot be escaped. +This has more to do than we are apt to think with the distaste for the +country, unless several servants are kept, some for this work only. In the +old type of city house the travel up-and down-stairs to answer bell and +telephone has demanded strength of back not possessed by the modern maid. +The house is not yet adapted to the new demands of the workers, and they +shun it. The mistress herself finds it beyond her strength, even if the +traces of rough work were not quite so distasteful to her. + +Miss Pettengill in her story of domestic service brings out the great part +played by sooty dust, sifting in even through closed windows, in the +burden of the waitress who is expected to keep the dining-room immaculate. + +This is only one instance where the blame really belongs on the actual +material house rather than on the mistress, except that she does not +discover a remedy, does not even know where to look for the cause. I have +great faith in the business woman, who does see much that is better done +and who will bring it back into the home. + +Fashions in philanthropy do not yet tend in the direction of house +betterment. + +"A busy man cannot stop his life-work to teach architects what they ought +to know," says Wells; but on the other hand "we cannot be expected to +teach men and their wives, as well as draw plans for them," says the +architect who has tried it. + +The centrifugal forces that our social prophets are so fond of invoking, +holding that the words "town" and "city" may become as obsolete as +"mail-coach," will have to reckon with these features of country life. + +It is assumed that the work of women is "housekeeping." I should like to +put the question suddenly to a thousand men. What is twentieth-century +housekeeping? I venture the guess that less than a hundred would take into +account the utter difference in their wives' duties from their mothers', +as they remember them; and yet the house, even the flat, is built more or +less along the old lines. The women do not know enough to assert +themselves, and have not the skill to show the builder what is wrong. The +architects could tell tales if they would. The utter ignorance of what a +house means, of the steps necessary to make a successful livable place, is +appalling. The young man who has $3000 as a legacy feels he can build. His +wife chooses the location near her friends whose houses she likes, and the +architect is called in. Do you wish back stairs? Are you to keep three +servants or none? Do you wish the rooms separate or connecting? All such +questions find a blank stare. "What difference does that make in the style +and price?" the would-be owner says. The architect is not always able to +show him that these little things are the whole problem in building a +_home_. The house as a home is merely outer clothing, which should fit as +an overcoat should, without wrinkles and creases that show their +ready-made character. The woman, born housekeeper as she considers +herself, is rigid in her ideas of what she thinks she wants, but when the +builder has followed her plans she is far from satisfied with the result. +She is used to material which puckers and stretches in her clothing; she +cannot understand the inflexibility of wood and stone. The remedy is for +high-school girls, probably even grammar-school pupils as well, to have +along with their drawing some problems in house-planning and some lessons +in carpentry. + +It will be seen from the foregoing glance at the rapid change and steady +deterioration of houses that the care of such living-places must involve +special discomforts in most cases. + +The time required to keep clean old splintered floors, to carry pails of +water up and down stairs, to dry out the cloths--the base boards with +their grimy streaks tell the story of carelessness--is not counted in the +wage schedule. + +Why is there so much dirt brought into the house? Because shoes and +streets are muddy. Why is there so much lint? Because we have too many +things in a room--too much wear and tear. + +And unnecessary dirt is found even in the newer apartment-houses with the +ever-changing population and ever-lessening space for maids' quarters, +together with the sham character of construction due to the fact that most +of these houses have been put up by speculators at the lowest cost of the +cheapest materials which will show wear in a few months. Flimsy +construction is a direct result of the notorious lack of care taken by the +tenant, so that quick returns must be the rule; also of the probability +that the neighborhood will deteriorate and that a class which will bear +crowding and be less critical will replace the first tenants. + +Conveniences for doing work in the houses built to rent, that is to bring +in the greatest returns in the shortest time, will not be put in (for the +first cost is great) unless the house will rent for more. The sharpest +Hebrew or Irish landlord will allow his architect to add bathtubs if he +believes the flat will rent for a few dollars more, where he will not do +it for the sake of cleanliness. The supply of hot water, together with the +gas stove, has done much to reconcile the housewife who does her own work +to the cramped quarters of the flat, and also has done more than anything +else to render the maids discontented with that legacy from the nineteenth +century which requires the building of a coal fire before hot water can be +had. The coal fire makes necessary rising an hour earlier and this, after +the late hours the seven-o'clock dinner enforces, causes friction all +along the line. + +The acceptance by young women without a study of cause and effect of +whatever presents itself makes them bad housekeepers, in the sense of +ignorant ones unable to cope with present conditions, because lack of +experience is not supplemented by a spirit of investigation and a +resolution to work out the problem. They seem to think that housekeeping +is to go on in the same old way no matter whatever else may change, +whereas it is most sensitive to the general direction of progress if they +but knew it. The wage-earner is more fully aware of the currents of the +irresistible river modern life has become (the slow-moving car of +Juggernaut is no longer an adequate symbol) than is the money spender. + +Indeed is any part of the house, as we now most frequently find it, +adapted to the uses of the twentieth century? + +The careless capitalist who makes possible the "cockroach landlord," he +who sublets and crowds and skimps the tenants for his own gain, is greatly +to blame for the distressing conditions of the lower income limit of the +wage-earner, but I fear he is not altogether blameless for the sort of +house the $1500 man has to look for in the city. Decent living with light +and air within half an hour of work is growing so rare that society must +take a hand in the matter. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH + CENTURY. + + "We have entered upon the period of conscious evolution, have + begun the adaptation of the environment to the organism."--Sir + OLIVER LODGE. + + +The hopeless pessimism of the past, that saw in the unmerciful progress of +organic evolution no escape for the human animal from the grip of fate, is +about to give way to the enthusiasm of conscious directing and controlling +power. + +This is the beneficent result of the age of the machine. Man has +discovered that he can not only change his environment, but that by this +change he can modify himself. The hope of the future lies in the moulding +of man's surroundings to his needs. In physiological terms, "the +adaptation of structure to function." + +The day is long past when shelter implied chiefly a tight roof and a dry +floor. The housing of the twentieth-century family means location, central +and fashionable. It means in cost far more than what the roof covers and +the floor supports. It means plumbing and interior finish; it also means +a finish on the outside, smoothly shaven lawns and immaculate sidewalks. + +Sigh as we may for the colonial house, we confess that the standards of +the time did not include the comfort of hot baths, polished floors, +plate-glass windows, elevators, ice-closets, and lawn-mowers. These are +necessary adjuncts to what is held as merely decent living; _how_ can the +$2000 man have them, not why _will_ he not? + +What then is the house and the life in it to become for the great majority +of families and individuals with an income of $3000 a year and necessarily +nomadic habits. I say necessarily, because these families are at the mercy +of business and social conditions quite beyond their control and +impossible to foretell. + +So far as prophetic vision sees through the mists of time, the aim of the +twentieth century is to live the _effective life_. + +The simple life has been preached, the strenuous life has been lauded, +but, as William Barclay Parsons recently stated it:[1] "We need force, we +need a vigorous force; we need that direction and avoidance of the +unnecessary which is simplicity, but with either one alone there is +something lacking. Instead of latent force and great energy without +control, instead of quiet gentleness, of power of control without vigor +to be controlled, what we need is force and energy applied where necessary +and always under control, always working to a definite purpose, and at the +same time avoiding complications and unnecessary friction. + +[Footnote 1: William Barclay Parsons, N.E.A., Asbury Park, 1905. _Eng. +Record_, Aug. 12, 1905.] + +"That is to have a life whose great underlying motive is effectiveness. +Instead of speaking of the strenuous life or the simple life, let us have +as a doctrine 'the effective life.' + +"What we need is not merely a man who acts, but one who _does_; that is, +one who will do what he has to do regardless of intervening obstacles. +Efficiency and effectiveness are the key-notes of success in actual life. +They are also the lessons taught by every parable in the New Testament, +even if that work is regarded as a code of ethics, and they form the +spirit of that stirring definition of engineering[1] which is based on the +direction of the vital forces of nature and the doing of things for +mankind." + +[Footnote 1: "Ability to do and the _doing_, efficiency, and the use of it +all for mankind."--Tredgold's definition of Engineering.] + +Manufacturing concerns have found it pays them to provide decent tenements +for their workers, but society has not yet awakened to the fact that the +rank and file of the great army of salaried employees is left to fend for +itself in a world only too prone to take advantage of its necessities. +There is danger in this neglect of wholesome living surroundings, because +from this stratum develops normally the intelligence of the future, and +how can mentally active children grow up under the prevailing unsightly +and unsanitary conditions? + +Of course with the passing of pioneer conditions will pass in a measure +the courage and adaptability which braced itself to meet and overcome +obstacles. The salaried position in a great combine, instead of work for +one's self in an independent business, tends to magnify the value of mere +money-income gained through smartness rather than by ability. If life is +made too easy, men will settle into indolent sterility, just as animals +and plants degenerate with too much food. + +The future will surely bring greater mechanical perfection and thus leave +it possible for the individual, for each member of the family group, to do +for himself many little things which are not comfortable to do now. But +will he be willing to do them? Not unless he feels it to be a duty or a +pleasure. Not unless there is an undercurrent of principle which carries +him along. Without this principle strong enough to give an impetus over +hard places in the early stages of life, the individual and the family +will surely drift into the hotel and boarding-house, where everything is +done on a money basis and nothing for love of one's kind; where a tip +salves the hurt of menial work. These habits once gained are hard to break +up; therefore it is much better for young people to begin life doing some +things for themselves in a house where machinery responds to their call +without a tip, where they may economize without loss of self-respect. We +need to revive some of the pagan ideals of the beauty and value of the +human body and human life which consists in the care and use of this body. +There is no menial work in the daily living rightly carried out; that +which the last century wrongly permitted is made needless by the machinery +of to-day. + +The point of view is most important. + +The first steps toward social betterment will come through a cooperation +of three forces: (1) a recognition of the need; (2) an awakening of social +conscience to the duty of supplying the need; and (3) the movement of +moneyed philanthropy to fulfil the requirement quickly. + +As was natural, sympathy flowed first to the class which had the most +visible need, not necessarily the greater need. + +The New York Model Tenement Association has shown the world how easy it +is, when there is a will, to find a way. That association has already +taken the first step in advanced housing, and reduced the cost of safe and +rentable city shelter to its lowest terms. Fireproof, sanitary, and +convenient so far as rooms go (it is quite a climb for the mother with a +baby in her arms to the sixth story), with neighbors carefully sorted, +repairs well looked after, a sympathetic woman as agent always in the +office; _but_ only a minimum of light and air and sun; bedrooms 7x8, +living-rooms 10x13; the smallest spaces the law allows; no grass, no +flowers outside, no pets, nothing of one's own that cannot be put in a +cart; common stairways where only partial privacy is gained; clothes-yards +on the roof, and laundry in the basement, to be used in turn by twenty +tenants. Because this is better than the slums for the emerging class, and +because they like the gregariousness, is no argument for continuing the +type up into the range of the $2000 group. But this is just what most of +the small apartments do--those built to make all the money that they will +bear. Hardly any better facilities are given. It will be easy for more +roomy living-places to be built on similar plans, with elevators and +labor-saving devices, and yet within the limit of moderate incomes, such +blocks to be always under competent sanitary supervision. + +From these model tenements it will not be difficult to advance to the +suburban square with sufficient variety in house plans to content those +who are willing to yield small personal whims. Hitherto the erratic fancy +of would-be tenants, the dissatisfaction with the arrangements provided, +has made building _en masse_ difficult. As long as the builder was called +upon to suit those who had lived in houses of their own for many years his +task was difficult, but now he will have to do with the young people who +know no other life and who will more readily fall in with the standards +set by the house itself. + +For this very reason those who have social welfare at heart must come to +the rescue, and devise and put up samples, of the best that modern science +can offer, to rent for $300 to $500 a year. Let any one who loves his +kind, if he have a talent this way, not wrap it in a napkin, but give it +to the builder and the philanthropist to materialize. Now is the time to +set standards for the next thirty years. The electric car is opening new +country as never before. Who will make the practical advance? + +These new houses will be roomy and yet, I think, will not fail of +sun-parlors or enclosed piazzas which will serve as extensions of the +house when occasion demands. I am sure they will not contain the +forbidding "front room" set apart for weddings and funerals and rare +family gatherings. More open-air life will be fashionable and practicable +as soon as we have learned that a wind-break and not a tightly-enclosed +space is what we need. In northern latitudes especially it is the wind +which makes the climate seem so inclement. The amount of accessible +sunshine may be doubled with great advantage in most of the +semi-country-houses. Shelter should not suggest a prison. + +The education of the child demands that housing shall include land for +pets, for vegetables and flowers; not merely to increase beauty and +selfish pleasure, but for the ethical value of contact with things +dependent on care and forethought. The thoughtful sociologist recognizes +as one of the greatest needs for the children of to-day a closer +companionship with fathers--is urging that even money-making should be +secondary to the time given to moulding the character of the little ones, +instead of leaving them to nurses and coachmen or to the school of the +streets. Companionship in the garden-work will secure this opportunity in +a natural way. + +It is only by going into the country that sufficient land for a simple +house with yard in front and garden in the rear--the ideal English +home--can be had. There will be a sacrifice of some of the things the city +gives, but a compromise is the only possible outcome of many claims. + +Those who are feeling the return to Nature, who find pleasure in gardening +and in all the soothing effects of country life, or who can bring +themselves to it with moderate pleasure for the sake of the children who +must be encouraged to delight in it, should go out at least ten miles from +the city. In a well-regulated household the early breakfast will be a +natural thing, and the meal will be no more hurried than any other. It is +the class which tries to be both city and country that fills the columns +of the magazines with the trials of the commuter. The father need not see +less of his children, and the common occupation and interest will furnish +opportunities for wise counsel. Much nonsense is written about the perils +of habit and the dangers of routine. It all depends upon what those habits +are. All animal functions are better performed as a matter of habit, +without thought; it saves energy for more intellectual pursuits, which, I +grant, are better kept under volitional control. The animal act of +breakfasting at a given hour, of taking a given train, can be accomplished +as unconsciously as breathing. Early rising should be the rule, because +the children are then available as they are not at night. + +We shall assume that the sane man will hold the little home in the country +with all outdoors to breathe in as worth the half-hour journey and the +early breakfast, and that the woman will have time set free by the +labor-saving devices sure to come as fast as she will use them wisely. +This free time she will give to the aesthetic side of life and will make +of her home a more attractive place than the club. + +_But_ once a week let them both go into town either to the club or to some +other place for dinner and an entertainment afterward. This will be +sufficient to keep them out of an intellectual rut, will brighten the +appetite with needed variety, and make the next quiet evening more +delightful. + +Once a week is sufficient to break the monotony of diet and routine, and +not often enough to create that insatiable appetite for the glare of +lights and the rush of people which makes all family life "deadly dull," +as one cafe-haunting woman confessed. + +While this country life is the only thing for a family of young children +and for those who really enjoy the country, there is a larger number +needing rational housing which will be left behind, let us hope with more +room because of the flitting of these others. + +Much as I deprecate the evils of the present apartment system, I do +believe that an idealized modification will be needed for many years, +especially for the elderly, for the commercial traveler, for the bachelor +men and maids temporarily or permanently living single, for the newly +married as yet unsettled in business or profession, for the man who does +not know his own mind or whose employers do not know theirs. An instance +has come to the writer's knowledge of a young man who, after his wedding +cards were out, was ordered to take charge of an office in another city. + +Marrying for shelter is and should be no longer necessary; and as for the +fear that this habit of bachelor quarters will be hard to break up and +tend to delay marriage, it will all depend upon whether it comes from the +merely animal layer of the brain or from the intellectual. + +This housing of the individual instead of the family has introduced an +entirely new problem into house-building. + +Formerly when a widow or widower, a maiden aunt, a homeless uncle or +cousin made his home with relatives, it was "as one of the family"; only +the minister was recognized as having need for a separate sitting-room. +The trials of this forced companionship have been told in many a witty +story; and pathetic instances that never came to print are matters of +common knowledge. + +Will any one dare question the fact that the sum of human happiness has +been increased by the freedom given to these prisoned souls by the small +independent apartment? + +I have been reminded that here is no provision for the different +generations to live together under the same roof; that the nineteenth +century held it to be of great social value to have the children grow up +with the elders. I am sorry for the twentieth-century grandparents if they +are obliged to live in a flat with the twentieth-century child; some +readjustment of manners and ideals must be made before such living will be +comfortable, and it seems as if they are better apart until the new order +is accepted or modified. The comfort of those whose work is done and who +have leisure to enjoy life was never so easily secured as to-day. To turn +the key and take the train at an hour's notice, leaving no cares to +follow, tends to a serene old age. + +Moralists may squabble over the discipline of living with one's +mother-in-law, and of the loss to the children of grandmother's petting, +but at least physical content and mental satisfaction have increased. Has +selfishness also? Who shall say? And anyway it is a part of the progress +of the age, and what are we to do about it? + +For one group of single persons the change has been only beneficial. It +was a strict code of the early nineteenth century that a single woman +should find shelter under the roof of some family house, however +independent, financially, her condition. Latch-key privileges were denied +her. Result, the boarding-house of the later half of the century, +nominally a family home, actually a hotbed of faultfinding and gossip, +most wearing to the teacher and fledgling professional woman, however +acceptable to the milliner and seamstress. Privacy could not be maintained +in a house built for a family of five made to do duty for twelve, with one +bath-room, thin-walled bedrooms with connecting doors through which the +light streamed when one wished to sleep, and words frequently came not +intended for outsiders. Who that has experienced the two could ever think +the bachelor apartment with its neat bath-room and double-doored entrance +an objectionable feature in modern intellectual life? Ah! here is the key. +We are to-day living a life of the intellect far more than ever before, +and for that a certain amount of withdrawal from our fellow man is +needed, at least a withdrawal from that portion which finds its interest +in the affairs of others. + +But if we eliminate the house itself, and the heavy furniture from the +"home" possessions, what have we left? The little girl was right: "My home +is where my dishes is." My _possessions_, whatever they are--the things I +can call my own under all circumstances make my home. These circumstances +change from time to time, but the ideal is there. As a concrete instance: +let us have books, not a lot of books, but books that are friends with +whom one may spend a comforting hour anywhere; books that have power to +charm away the gloom of discontent, books to lend gayety to festal days. + +Rugs and draperies a few, those you find satisfying to your sense of +color, of design, and with which you feel at home. Ugly tables, chairs, +and "sofas" disappear under an Indian shawl. A Persian or a Navajo blanket +covers a multitude of aesthetic sins. Only let these harmonize with each +other, let them be chosen once for all to go in company; then if they are +distributed, it will not matter; but in any case avoid the "museum" look +given by mere collecting. Alas! these are expensive articles, and the +young people may not be able to get all at once. Let society then turn +over a new leaf in the wedding-present line, and cease this senseless +giving of cut-glass and silver to those who may go to a mining-camp in the +Rockies or to Mexico, or even into a ten-by-twelve New York apartment. +Let there be a committee--we are so fond of committees--to receive +contributions in a money-bank or in sealed envelopes, and then when all is +collected, let this committee scour the shops for articles of value, and +when found consult the bridal pair as to their preferences. The choice may +be made of one or more, as the money permits. The particular gift will +still be a surprise and yet of permanent value. Lace and embroideries are +always good, but let the waste of money on the "latest" in orange-knives, +oyster-plates, go up higher, that is, to the class with money for +conspicuous waste, if it must still exist, but let sensible people be +sensible, and not require the young folks to live up to their hopes for +future advancement. Wedding gifts are meant to be kindly help to a young +housewife, not a burden which drags her down to the level of a drudge. But +if the house is surely their own, and in the country, there will be +shelves to fill and walls to cover; _then_ is the opportunity for +individual gifts of china, glass, and pictures. + +To make the best of the increasing tendency to a semi-country living, +there is need for students of domestic architecture, women with a trained +taste added to an experience in doing things, not merely seeing them +already done. Let these evolve beautiful exteriors, with interiors so +finely proportioned that they will be a delight to all beholders, so +adapted to their purposes that no one will wish to change them. There is a +right dimension, in relation to other dimensions, which is always +satisfying and independent of furniture or decoration. + +The ugly houses, ill adapted to any useful purpose, which line the +roadside bear witness to the ignorance of the women of to-day. The effort +for mere decoration, for pretentious show, is so evident that one wishes +for an earthquake to swallow them all. + +Another cause for rise in rent demanded for a given space is the heavy tax +borne by real estate for public improvement, for good lighting, clean +streets, plentiful water, sufficient sewerage, free baths, parks, and +schools. Again, this falls heaviest on our three- to five-thousand dollar +class, who pay more than their share, especially when the millionaire +shirks his duty by paying his taxes elsewhere. What can the man with +limited income do but avoid the responsibility of a family? Has he a moral +right to bring unhappiness to his wife and two children? Having been +caught in the trap, why give him all the blame if he tries to increase his +income by speculation? + +The more one studies this question of shelter for the salaried group, the +more is one convinced that it lies at the root of our social discontent +and is a large factor in our moral as well as physical deterioration. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE. + + "We are far from the noon of man: + There is time for the race to grow."--TENNYSON. + + "There appears no limit to the invasion of life by the machine." + H.G. WELLS. + +The house as a centre of manufacturing industry has passed (for even if +village industries do spring up, the work-rooms will be separate from the +living-rooms); the house as a sign of pecuniary standing is passing: what +next? Why, of course, the house as the promoter of "the effective life." +Rebel as the artistic individual may at this word, it expresses the spirit +of the twentieth century as nothing else can. Social advance must be made +along the line of efficiency, even if it lead to something different and +not at first sight better. The appeal to self-interest is soonest +answered. The man or woman with any ambition will keep clean, will buy +better milk for the baby, will pay more for rent if he or she is convinced +that it will bring in or save money in the end, because money has been the +measure of success in the nineteenth century. But as the full significance +of this "machine-made" age is grasped it will be seen that it has set free +the human laborer, if only he will qualify himself to use the power at +his hand. The house will become the first lesson in the use of mechanical +appliances, in control of the harnessed forces of nature, and of that +spirit of cooperation which alone can bring the benefits of modern science +to the doors of all. One family cannot as a rule put up in a city or in +the suburbs--and half the world lives in cities--its own idea of a house +without undue expenditure; but ten families may combine and secure a +building which fairly suits them all. I say fairly, because all +cooperation means some sacrifice of whim or special liking. The +well-balanced individual will, however, choose the plan yielding on the +whole the greater efficiency, thus following a law of natural selection +which, so far, the human race has ignored--a neglect which has been +carrying him toward destruction as surely as there is law in nature. Is +this neglect to go on, or is man to turn before it is too late to a +cultivation of the effective life? In everything else he has advanced, but +in his intimate personal relations with nature and natural force he has +acted as if he believed himself not only lord of the beasts of the field, +but of the very laws of nature without understanding them. Mechanical +progress has come from an humble attitude toward the powers of wind and +water. Home efficiency will arrive just as soon as the home-keeper will +put herself in a receptive frame of mind and be prepared to learn her +limitations and the extent of her control of material things. When she +will stop saying "I do not believe" and set herself to learn patiently the +facts in the case, then will housekeeping take on a new phase and the +house become the nursery of effective workers who will at the same time +enjoy life. To manage this machine-driven house will require delicate +handling; but let women once overcome their fear of machinery and they +will use it with skill. + +The undue influence of sentiment retards all domestic progress. Because +our grandfather's idea of perfect happiness was to sit before the fire of +logs, we are satisfied with the semblance in the form of the +asbestos-covered gas-log. "It is not for the iconoclastic inventor or +architect to improve the hearth out of existence." Sentiment is a useful +emotion, but when it held open funerals of diphtheria victims, society +stepped in and forbade. With a certain advance in social consciousness +public opinion will step in and regulate sentiment in regard to many +things depending on individual whim. + +Heating might now be accomplished without dust and ashes, without the +destructive effects of steam, if enough houses would take electricity to +enable a company to supply it in the form of a sort of dado carrying wires +safely embedded in a non-conducting substance, or in the form of a carpet +threaded with conducting wire. Both heating and cooling apparatus could be +installed in the shape of a motor to replace the punkah man and the +present buzz-wheel fan, and to give fresh air without the opening of +windows which leads to half our housekeeping miseries. O woman, how can +you resist the thought of a clean, cool house, sans dust, sans flies and +mosquitoes, sans the intolerable street-noise, with abundance of fresh +filtered air at the desired temperature! It is all ready at your hand. A +windmill on the roof can store power, or a solar motor can save the sun's +rays, or capsules of compressed air may be had to run the machine, if only +you were not so afraid of the very word machine that no man dares propose +it to you. Of what use is all the invention of the time if it cannot save +the lives of the children, half of whom fall victims to house diseases, if +it cannot sweep away consumption and influenza and all the kindred +diseases arising from over-shelter and under-cleanliness of that shelter +(lack of air). Both men and women are sentimental and non-progressive, but +education is assumed to make wiser human beings. Women are said to be +monopolizing the education; is it making them more amenable to +reasonableness and less under the control of unprogressive conservatism? + +It does require quick adaptation to keep up with the possibilities of +invention, but should we not aim at that which will advance our race on a +par with its opportunities? Every other department is getting ahead of us. +We should hang our heads in shame that we have neglected so long the means +for saner living. + +[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Old Kitchen Remodelled. (Stone, Carpenter & +Wilson, Architects, Providence, R.I.) Looking toward the range. Servants' +sitting-room beyond; porcelain sink at left; boiler (*remainder cut off).] + +[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Old Kitchen Remodelled. Showing glass shelves +and labelled glass jars for all stores. Glass mixing table at left +(*remainder cut off).] + +It has been said that the highest modern civilization is shown not so +much by costly monuments and works of art as by the perfection of house +conveniences. Where then do we stand? And in what direction are we to look +for the coming advance? We have had some sixty years of public sanitation; +we have secured a supply of sanitary experts to whom all questions +affecting the physical welfare of masses of people may be referred. We +have a few architects who know the requirements of a _livable_ house, not +merely one which shows off well as first built. + +We _need_ sixty years of private-house sanitation. We need to educate +house experts, home advisers, those who know how to examine a house not +only while it is empty but while it is throbbing with the life of the +family. This adviser must be, for many years at least, able to suggest +practical methods of overcoming structural defects (more difficult than +fresh construction), as well as of modifying personal prejudices. + +These house experts will, I think, be women of the broadest education, +scientific and social. They will have not only a certain amount of medical +knowledge, but also the tact and enthusiasm of the missionary which will +bring them as friends and benefactors to the despairing mother and the +discouraged householder. + +That there is a beginning of this demand, I can testify; that it will +grow, I believe. As soon as a group of trained women are ready, they will +find occupation if the advance in housing conditions which I foresee is to +become a reality. + +Within the last two or three years the author has received requests from +all over the country for suggestions as to kitchen design and +construction. + +The two illustrations here given show one little step in the right +direction. The cuts represent a remodelled kitchen in Providence, R.I. + +The floor is of lignolith laid down in one sheet and carried up as a +wainscoting so that no crevice exists for entrance of insects or dust. +Such floors are yet in their infancy and need suitable preparation for +laying, just as macadamized streets fail if the foundation is faulty. The +idea is all that we are here concerned with. One of the features to be +especially noted is the use of glass for shelves. Why should the hospital +monopolize the materials for antiseptic work? When it is understood how +much hospital work is caused because of dirt in the preparation and +keeping of food, the kitchen will receive its share of attention. + +To-day the cost of shelter is about one third for the house and two thirds +for the expense of running it, largely due to dirt and its consequences. +Mr. Wells wisely says: "Most dusting and sweeping would be quite avoidable +if houses were wiselier done." + +When the real twentieth-century house is put up our young engineer and +college instructor will be willing to pay $400 to $500 rent, because wages +and running expenses will be $100 less and the company owning the houses +will not expect more than 4%, largely because repairs will be less and +permanence of tenure more assured. The old type of wooden house used by +the old type of tenant could not be expected to last more than a few +years, which justified a higher rate of interest. For the tenement tenant +of the better class twenty years has been the estimate, so that the cost +of building could not be distributed over fifty years as it should be. + +The house will be made of reinforced concrete or its successor; certainly +not of wood. Whether a single house or one of two or more "compartments," +each family will have a side, that is, the entrance doors will not be side +by side. Such have been built in Somerville, Mass., by a railroad company +for its employees. Those who wish to have a garden may; but no one will be +obliged, for there will be regulations about the general appearance of the +whole park, and every man his own lawn-mower will not be true. The +cultivation of taste will have so far advanced that the grouping advised +by the landscape architect will appeal to the occupant more than his own +fancied arrangement. + +Since the heating will be supplied from outside, there will be a hothouse +and cold-frames for those who wish to have a share in the garden, just as +now there are bins in the basement. The care of these may replace the +exercise now gained in scrubbing the front steps. The windows of the house +will be dust-proof, fly-, mosquito-, and moth-proof; the air supplied will +be strained by galleries of screens, if indeed social advance has not +eliminated soot from chimneys and grit from the streets. Most certainly +dirt will not be permitted to come in on shoes and long dresses. Warmed or +cooled, moistened or dried air will be circulated as needed. In such a +house rugs may stay undisturbed for a month or more, books for years, and +the dust-cloth be rarely in evidence; the redding will consist of putting +back in place the things used; but as each member of the family will do +this as soon as he is old enough, there will be but a few minutes' work. + +The breakfast will be of uncooked or simply heated food, parched grains +and cream, fruit fresh or dried, and nuts. If coffee or cocoa is desired, +the electric heater serves it to the requisite degree of heat. Each adult +member of the family will probably take this in his own room or at his own +convenience, without the formality of a meal. The few glasses and other +dishes may be plunged into a tank of water and left for future cleaning. +Luncheon will depend altogether on the habits of the family, but dinner, +at whatever hour that may be, will be the family symposium. Dressed in its +honor, with a sprightly addition to the conversation of experience or +information or conjecture, there will be form and ceremony of a simple, +refined kind, such that once again the family may welcome a guest without +anxiety. Good conversation and fresh interests will thus come into the +children's lives. How much they have missed in these days of the barring +out all hospitality! Is it perchance one reason, if not the chief, why +manners have degenerated? + +This meal will not have more than four courses of food carefully selected +and perfectly cooked, whether in the house or out matters not so it is +served fresh and of just the right temperature. No kind of cooking will be +permitted which "meets the guest in the hall and stays with him in the +street"; therefore the dishes may be washed by neatly dressed maids or by +the children, who thus learn to care for the fitness of things; plenty of +towels and hot water, with all hands doing a little, leaves everything +snug and no one too tired. We will let Mr. H.G. Wells describe the bedroom +of the future house:[1] + +[Footnote 1: A Modern Utopia, p. 103.] + +"The room is, of course, very clear and clean and simple: not by any means +cheaply equipped, but designed to economize the labor of redding and +repair just as much as possible. + +"It is beautifully proportioned and rather lower than most rooms I know on +earth. There is no fireplace, and I am perplexed by that until I find a +thermometer beside six switches on the wall. Above this switchboard is a +brief instruction: one switch warms the floor, which is not carpeted, but +covered by a substance like soft oilcloth; one warms the mattress (which +is of metal with resistance coils threaded to and fro in it); and the +others warm the wall in various degrees, each directing current through a +separate system of resistances. The casement does not open, but above, +flush with the ceiling, a noiseless rapid fan pumps air out of the room. +The air enters by a Tobin shaft. + +"There is a recess dressing-room, equipped with a bath and all that is +necessary to one's toilet; and the water, one remarks, is warmed, if one +desires it warm, by passing it through an electrically-heated spiral of +tubing. A cake of soap drops out of a store-machine on the turn of a +handle, and when you have done with it, you drop that and your soiled +towels, etc., which are also given you by machines, into a little box, +through the bottom of which they drop at once and sail down a smooth +shaft. [Better stay in the box and not infect the shaft.--Author.] + +"A little notice tells you the price of the room, and you gather the +price is doubled if you do not leave the toilet as you find it. Beside +the bed, and to be lit at night by a handy switch over the pillow, is a +little clock, its face flush with the wall [no dust-catcher]. + +"The room has no corners to gather dirt, wall meets floor with a +gentle curve, and the apartment could be swept out effectually by a +few strokes of a mechanical sweeper [sucked out by the now-used +cleaning-machine.--Author]. The door-frames and window-frames are of +metal, rounded and impervious to draft. You are politely requested to +turn a handle at the foot of your bed before leaving the room, and +forthwith the frame turns up into a vertical position, and the bedclothes +hang airing. You stand in the doorway and realize that there remains not +a minute's work for any one to do. Memories of the fetid disorder of many +an earthly bedroom after a night's use float across your mind. + +[In America the use of the sleeping-room as a sitting-room is more common +than in England, and the fetid disorder is far greater.] + +"And you must not imagine this dustless, spotless, sweet apartment as +anything but beautiful. Its appearance is a little unfamiliar, of course, +but all the muddle of dust-collecting hangings and witless ornament that +cover the earthly bedroom, the valances, the curtains to check the draft +from the ill-fitting windows, the worthless irrelevant pictures, usually a +little askew, the dusty carpets, and all the paraphernalia about the dirty +black-leaded fireplace are gone. The faintly tinted walls are framed with +just one clear colored line, as finely placed as the member of a Greek +capital; the door-handles and the lines of the panels of the door, the two +chairs, the framework of the bed, the writing-table, have all that +exquisite finish of contour that is begotten of sustained artistic effort. +The graciously shaped windows each frame a picture--since they are +draughtless the window-seats are no mere mockeries as are the window-seats +of earth--and on the sill the sole thing to need attention in the room is +one little bowl of blue Alpine flowers." + +The true office of the house is not only to be useful, but to be +aesthetically a background for the dwellers therein, subordinate to them, +not obtrusive. In most of our modern building and furnishing the people +are relegated to the background as insignificant figures. This is largely +why the home feeling is absent, why children do not form an affection for +the rooms they live in. + +Let there be nothing in the room because some other person has it; this +shows poverty of ideas. Let there be nothing in the room which does not +satisfy some need, spiritual or physical, of some member of the family. +How bare our rooms would become! Let the skeptical reader try an +experiment. Take everything out of a given room, then bring back one by +one the things one feels essential not merely because it fills space but +for the presence of which some one can give a good and sufficient reason. +It will mean a trial of a few days, because it is not easy to separate +habit from need. A table _has stood_ in a certain spot: that is no reason +in itself why it should continue to stand there unless it supplies a need. + +If a fetish stands in the way of social progress, do away with it. If the +idea of home as the shell is standing in the way of developing the idea of +home as a state of mind, then let us cast loose the load of things that +are sinking us in the sea of care beyond rescue. + +It is quite possible that we may return to that state of mind in which +there was a pleasure in caring for beautiful objects. The housewife of +colonial days did not disdain the washing of her cups of precious china or +doing up the heirlooms of lace and embroidery. When our possessions +acquire an intrinsic value, when all the work of the house which cannot be +done by machinery is that of handling beautiful things and has a meaning +in the life of the individual and the family, service will not be required +in the vast majority of homes: then we may approach to the Utopian ideal +of the nobility of labor. + +"The plain message that physical science has for the world at large is +this, that were our political and social and moral devices only as well +contrived to their ends as a linotype machine, an antiseptic +operating-plant, or an electric tram-car, there need now, at the present +moment, be no appreciable toil in the world, and only the smallest +fraction of the pain, the fear, and the anxiety that now make human life +so doubtful in its value. There is more than enough for every one alive. +Science stands as a too competent servant behind her wrangling, underbred +masters, holding out resources, devices, and remedies they are too stupid +to use."[1] + +[Footnote 1: H.G. Wells.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + THE COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY OF VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER. + + "The strongest needs conquer." + +An outlay of $1500 to $2500 will secure a cottage in the country, or a +tenement with five or six rooms in the suburbs, for a wage-earner's +family. The rent for this should be from $125 to $200 per year, but, as in +the case of the model tenements in New York, a minimum of sanitary +appliances and of labor-saving devices is found in such dwellings. They +are adapted to a family life of mutual helpfulness and forbearance. + +The lack of this kind of housing has been a disgrace to our so-called +civilization. Public attention has, however, been directed to the need, +and it is gratifying to find in the report of the U.S. Bureau of Labor, +Bulletin 54, Sept. 1904, a full account, with photographs and plans, of +the work of sixteen large manufacturing establishments in housing their +employees. + +Euthenics, the art of better living, is being recognized as of money value +in the case of the wage-earning class, but the wave of social betterment +has not yet lifted the salaried class to the point of cooperation for +their own elevation. They are obliged to put up with the better grade of +workmen's dwellings, or to pay beyond their means for a poor quality of +the house designed for the leisure class. In either case, the weight bears +hardest on the woman's shoulders, and it is to her awakening that we must +look for an impetus toward an understanding of the problems confronting +us. + +The college-educated women of the country believe so fully that the +twentieth century will develop a civilization in which brain-power and +good taste will outrank mere lavish display, that they have sent out a +call to their associations to devise methods of sane and wholesome living +which shall leave time and energy free for intellectual pleasure--some, at +least, of that time now absorbed by the house and its demands as insignia +of social rank. + +Trained and thoughtful women are convinced that the first step in social +redemption is adequate and adaptable shelter for the family. Just so long +as tradition and thoughtlessness bind the wife and mother to that form of +housekeeping which taxes all the forces of man to supply money and of +women to spend it, so long will the most intelligent women decline to +sacrifice themselves for so little return. + +The constructive arts dealing with wood, stone, and metal have been +conceded to be man's province. He has used new materials and labor-saving +devices in railway stations and place of amusements, not selfishly, but +because of the appreciation of the travelling public. It is the fashion to +decry labor-saving devices in the house, because they do away with that +sign of pecuniary ability, the capped and aproned maid. The obvious saving +of steps by the speaking-tube and telephone-call is frowned upon for the +same reason. It is this attitude of society which stands in the way of the +adoption of those mechanical helps which might do away with nearly all the +drudgery and dirty heavy work of the house. + +The new epoch[1] "is more and more replacing muscle-power fed on wheat at +eighty cents a bushel, by machine-power fed on coal at five cents a +bushel," thus liberating man from hard and deadening toil. As his mental +activity increases his needs in the way of the comforts and decencies of +refined living increase. More sanitary appliances are demanded, more +expense for fundamental cleanliness is incurred, and for that tidiness and +trimness of aspect inside and outside the house which adds both to the +labor and to the cost of living, especially in old-style houses. + +[Footnote 1: The New Epoch. Geo. S. Morison.] + +While we can but applaud this desire, we must confess that the new +building laws, the increased cost of land, and the higher wages of workmen +have raised the cost of shelter for human efficiency to double or treble +that of the so-called workman's cottage. A fair rule is that each room +costs $1000 to $2000 to build. + +This means that our lowest limit of income, $1000 a year with $200 for +rent, can have only two or at most three rooms and bath, and those without +elevators and janitor service. It is only when the income reaches $2000 to +$3000 a year that the family may have the advantage of good building in a +good locality, and even then it means some sacrifice in other directions. +It is clear that the common theory that a young man must have a salary of +$3000 a year before he dares to marry has some foundation when $600 to +$800 is demanded for rent. + +The increased sanitary requirements have doubled the cost of a given +enclosed space, the finish and fittings now found in the best houses have +doubled this again, so that it is quite within bounds to say that a house +which might have been put up to meet the needs of the day in 1850 for, +say, $5000 will now cost $20,000. + +Much of the increase is for real comfort and advance in decent living, and +so far it is to be commended. Such part of the increase as is for +ostentation, for show and sham, is to be frowned upon, for this high cost +of shelter is to-day the greatest menace to the social welfare of the +community. When the average young man finds it impossible to support a +family, when the professional man finds it necessary to supplement his +chosen work by pot-boiling, by public lectures and any outside work which +will bring in money, what wonder that scholarship is not thriving in +America? Pitiful tales of such stifling of effort have come to my ears, +and have in large part led me to make a plea for a scientific study of the +living conditions of this class, and for a readjustment of ideals to the +absolute facts of the situation. + +We may give sympathy to those Italians who pay only $2 a month for the +shelter of the whole family, but we must give help to the harder case of a +family with refined tastes and high ideals who can pay only $200 a year. + +In the real country, at a distance from the railroad, air, water, and soil +are cheap. Here a house may be put up with its own windmill or gas-engine +to pump water, with its own drainage system, giving all the sanitary +comforts of the city house, for about $5000. The same inside comforts in +one quarter the space, minus the isolation and garden, may be had in a +suburban block for one half that sum. This is probably the least expensive +shelter to-day for the family whose duties require one or more members of +it to be in the city daily, for, as the centre of the city is approached, +land rent increases, so that dwelling space must be again curtailed one +half or rent doubled. The majority take half a house or go into the city +and put up with one quarter the space. + +The curtailment of space in which families live is going on at an alarming +rate, although not yet seriously taken into account by the sociologist +for the group we are studying. + +[Illustration: Figs. 8 and 9.--House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in temperate +America, to cost $5000, if it must not more (*remainder cut off).] + +[Illustration: Figs. 10 and 11.--House for "Mrs. L.," Anywhere in +temperate America, to cost only $3000, if possible. (Josselyn & Taylor +Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa).] + +This crowding is causing the refinements of life to be disregarded, is +depriving the children of their rights, and doing them almost more harm +than comes to the tenement dwellers, for they have the parks to play in +and are not kept within doors. + +Mr. Michael Lane in his "Level of Social Motion" claims that present +tendencies are leading to a level of $2000 a year and a family of two +children as an average. Mr. Wells claims as a tendency in living +conditions the practically automatic and servantless household. In +connection with the Mary Lowell Stone Home Economics Exhibit a design of +an approach to this kind of a dwelling was asked for in sketch. The +accompanying plans were made by a firm who have had not only experience in +this kind of domestic building, but who have sympathy with and personal +knowledge of similar conditions in widely separated parts of the country. + +These sketches are not of an _ideal_ house and not for a given plot of +land, but only a hint of what Mrs. Michael Lane "must expect if she +attempts to build in the country or suburbs." + +Since these were drawn many changes have come about in costs and in +materials available. The architects expressly disclaim the word "model" in +relation to them. Mrs. Lane and her two children will do their own work, +and therefore steps and stairs must be few, and yet they wish light and +air and cleanliness. + +The author hopes that her readers will make a study of house-plans, not +the cheap ones, but those that will bear the test of time and living in. + +The increased cost of shelter should mean both more comfort and greater +beauty. If it does not, something is wrong with society. + +It appears from all that has been gathered that single houses for a family +of five will cost about $5000 to $10,000 for some years to come; that +these houses should be so constructed and cared for as to rent for $300 to +$400 if the occupant is to keep the grounds in order, to use the house +with care, and furnish heat and light. + +The question of return on capital invested and of care of exteriors and +grounds must be studied most carefully in the light of the new conditions, +and a new set of conventions devised by society to meet the various +circumstances arising out of them. + +This suburban living is the vital point to be attacked, because in cities +the matter is already pretty well settled; there is in sight nothing that +will greatly change the rule already given, a cost of $1000 per room of +about 1200 cubic feet, with the finish and sanitary appliances demanded. + +Our family of five must pay for rent $500 to $800 for the smallest +quarters they can compress themselves into. Subtracting the cost of heat +and light and the car-fares, this may be no more expensive than the +suburban house at $300 or $400, _but_ the difference comes in light and +air. The upper floors of an isolated skyscraper give more than a country +house, but at the expense of other houses in the darkened street. + +In the city the question is then not so much one of cost of construction +as of a fair arrangement of streets and parks, so as to avoid the loss of +light and air for living-places. The single individual may find shelter of +a safe and refined sort in all respects except air for $200 to $300 a year +in the newer apartment-houses, and two friends to share it may halve this +sum. A great need is for as good rooms to be furnished in the suburbs +where more light and air may be had. + +The content of the country house costing $5000 to $10,000 will be +approximately 50,000 to 70,000 cubic feet, or 10,000 for a person. The +suburban block will furnish about 12,000 to 20,000 for the family, while +the city apartment of six so-called rooms renting for from $400 to $500 a +year shrinks to 6000 to 8000 cubic feet, giving only one tenth the +air-space the country house affords, as well as far less outside air and +sunshine. The best city tenements cost $1 a week for 600 cubic feet +air-space. What wonder that the sanitarian is aghast at the prospect! + +According to the President of the English Sanitary Inspectors' Association +it seems probable that if the nineteenth-century city continues to drain +the country of its potentially intellectual class and to squeeze them into +smaller and smaller quarters, it will dry up the reservoirs of strength in +the population (address, Aug. 18, 1905). + +The houses of the Morris Building Co., illustrated in Chapter II, show +what may be done. These houses rent for $35 to $45 a month with constant +heat and hot water, so that the heavy work is reduced to a minimum; but +the exigencies of family life are illustrated in the fact of the almost +universal demand of the tenants for continuous heat and hot water night as +well as day. The ordinary childless apartment house banks its fires at +night. A supplementary apparatus would mean work by the tenants, however. +This is a good example of the balance which must be struck in all new +plans until they are tested. + +The change in what one gains under the name of shelter, what one pays rent +for, must be kept clearly in mind. Two or three decades since it was a +tight roof, thinly plastered walls, and a chimney with "thimble-holes for +stoves," possibly a furnace with small tin flues, a well or cistern, or +perhaps one faucet delivering a small stream of water. To-day even in the +suburbs there is furnished light, heat, abundant water, care of halls and +sidewalks. The elevator-boy takes the place of "buttons," the engineer and +janitor relieve the man of the house of care, so that it may not be so +extravagant as it sounds to give one third the $3000 income for rent, +since it stops that leaky sieve, that bottomless bag of "operating +expenses." The income may be pretty definitely estimated in this case, +especially if meals are taken in the cafe. If the family dine as it +happens, the cost mounts up. Here are a few estimates for verification and +criticism: + +Rent of an apartment............$ 600.00 to $ 700.00 +Meals........................... 1200.00 " 1000.00 +Clothing........................ 400.00 " 600.00 +Incidentals, amusements, etc.... 200.00 " 300.00 +Savings, _nil_. + --------- -------- +Total income................... $2400.00 to $2600.00 + +If the wife can manage the "kitchenette" and part of the clothing, about +$600 may be saved, but in that case it represents her earnings, and should +be at her disposal. If it should be possible for safe shelter to be had +for $400, then with the wife's help $700 should be the sum in the "region +of choice." I hold that, unless the income can be managed so as to secure +_choice_, all the daily toil is embittered. Even if some is spent +foolishly, it is safer than the burden "just not enough." + +The more common cost of decent living in our Eastern cities is: + +Rent...............................$1000 to $1500 +Meals.............................. 1200 " 1400 +Clothing........................... 500 " 700 +Incidentals........................ 300 " 600 +Savings, _nil_. + ----- ----- +Total..............................$3000 to $4000 + +This goes far toward justifying the saying that a young man cannot afford +to marry on less than $3000 a year. + +With these figures in mind, what can our $2000 family with two children +do? The rent that they can pay will not cover service or heat. There must +be a maid to fill the lamps, see to the furnace, help with the cooking, +and the wife must stay by the house pretty closely and probably decline +most invitations. For the five persons, ten dollars a week for raw-food +materials and five for its preparation is the lowest limit likely to be +cheerfully submitted to. + +Rent, heat, light, etc..................... $400 +Food....................................... 800 +Clothing hardly less than.................. 400 +Children's education, even with free + schools, and their illnesses will use up. 100 +Car-fares, church, etc..................... 100 +Wages and sundries......................... 200 + ------ +Total..................................... $2000 + +In the bank nothing. + +But what shelter can this refined, intelligent family find to-day for +$400? Certainly nothing with modern conveniences. The lack of these is +_made up by women's work_--hard, rough work. And that is the crux of the +servant problem to-day. It is the reason why more families do not go into +the country to live. The work required in an old house to bring living up +to modern standards is too appalling to be undertaken lightly. + +In England the Sunlight Park and other plans, in America the Dayton and +Cincinnati schemes, are samples of what is being done for the $500 to $800 +family, but where are the examples (outside the Morris houses) for the +salaried class for whom we are pleading? The great army of would-be +home-makers are forced into a nomadic life by the exigencies resulting +from the great combines--a shifting of offices, a closing of factories, a +breaking up of hundreds of homes. I believe this to be the _chief factor_ +in the decline of the American home--a hundred-fold more potent than the +college education of women. + +The unthinking comment on this rise in the cost of shelter is usually +condemnation of greedy landlords and soulless capitalists; but is that the +whole story? + +In the present order of things it seems to be inevitable that the gain of +one class in the community is loss to another. Probably the law has always +existed, and only the very rapid and sudden changes bring it into +prominence, because of the swift readjustment needed, an operation which +torpid human nature resents when consciously pressed. + +For instance, the efforts of the philanthropist and working man together +have succeeded in shortening hours of labor and increasing wages--without, +alas! increasing the speed or quality of the work done, especially in the +trades which have to do with materials of construction, so that +house-building has about doubled in cost within twenty-five years, largely +due to cost of labor. This increased cost has fallen heavily on the very +group of people least able to bear it, the skilled artisan, the teacher, +and the young salaried man. Again I call attention to the need of a +philanthropist who shall raise his eyes to that group, the hope of our +democracy, those whom he has held to be able to help themselves--and given +time would do so; but time is the very thing denied them in this motor +age. Help to make quick adjustment must come to the rescue of those to +whom time more than equals money. + +One used to wait patiently for seed-sown lawns to become velvety turf. +Money can bring sod from afar and in a season give the results of years. +So the housing of the $2000 family can be accomplished just as soon as it +seems sufficiently desirable. It needs a research just as truly as the +cancer problem or desert botany, and affects thousands more. + +One other cause of increased cost in construction and operation which +does, if wisely carried out, increase health and efficiency is the +sanitary provision of our recent building laws. + +The instalment of these sanitary appliances becomes increasingly costly +because of the rise in wages of the workmen, plumbers, masons, etc. The +careful statistics of the Bureau of Labor show conclusively that all +building trades have decreased hours of labor and increased wages per +hour, so that cost of construction has doubled, and the sanitary +requirements have again doubled the cost, so that it is easy to see why +the family with a stationary income has quartered its dwelling-space. + +The end is not yet: the new devices mentioned in previous chapters will at +first increase cost of construction. + +From lack of business training the public is at fault in estimating +relative costs. A well-built "automatic house" costs too much, they say. +Yes, but what does it save? Cost looms large, saving seems small. +Moreover, the value of mental serenity, of that peace of mind consequent +on the smooth running of the domestic machine, is undervalued. The +American child such as he is is largely the product of the American house +and its ill adapted construction. I must reiterate my belief that the +modification of the house itself to the life the twentieth century is +calling for is the first step in social reform. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + THE RELATION BETWEEN COST OF HOUSING AND TOTAL INCOME. + + "It must be made possible to live within one's income." + +The thrifty French rule is one fifth for rent. In towns where land is +cheap and wood abundant, or in college communities exempt from taxes, +comfortable housing is found in this country for as little as fifteen or +eighteen per cent of the total income. In some mining towns where all +prospects are uncertain and the house has no particular social +significance the rent may be even lower, although it is often very high. +It depends on the demand, on competition rather than quality. In our older +and more settled communities it is most common for rent to use up one +fourth the salary of all town dwellers with incomes within our limits. +This was true in Boston fifty years ago, and it is true to-day in dozens +of cities and towns personally investigated. It is not unknown that a +teacher or business man should exceed this in the hope of a rise in +salary by the second year. Adding the expenses of operating the house, of +repairs and additions and improvements if the house is owned, nearly half +the money available must go for the mere housing of the family. + +If it is true, as I believe it is, that for each fraction over one fifth +spent for rent a saving must be made in some other direction--in the daily +expense, less service, less costly food, or less expensive clothing, or, +last to be cut down, less of the real pleasure of life,--it will be seen +what a far-reaching question this is, how it touches the vital point, to +have or not to have other good things in life. + +A large part of the increase is due, as we have said, to increased demand +for sanitary conveniences, but far more potent is the pressure resulting +from the price of land. + +This pressure has led to the building of smaller and smaller apartments, +so that four and six rooms are made out of floor-space sufficient for two. +It sounds better to say we have a six-room flat, even though there is no +more privacy than in two rooms, for the rooms are mere cells unless the +doors are always open. It is not uncommon in such suites renting for $50 +to $60 per month for six rooms, to find three of them with only one window +on one side, with no chance for cross-ventilation unless the doors of the +whole suite are open. + +This style of building prevails even in the suburbs where air and +sunshine should be free. The would-be renter looking at such suites with +all the doors open and the rooms innocent of fried fish and bacon does not +think of the place as it _will be_ under living conditions when privacy +can be had only by smothering. + +The model tenements in New York rent for one dollar per week per room; the +better houses for double, or two dollars for 450 cubic feet. Many of those +I have examined renting for forty to sixty dollars per month give no more +space for the money, only a little better finish--marble and tile in the +bath-room, for instance. + +The three-room tenement does, however, shelter as many persons as the +six-room flat, hence there is more real overcrowding. In all these grades +of shelter it is fresh air that is wanting. What wonder the white plague +is always with us? What remedy so long as millions sleep in closets with +no air-currents passing through? + +Accepting the French rule, the artisan who rents the model tenement at +$3.50 per week should earn $3 a day wage for six days. If he earn only $2, +then more than one quarter must go for housing. There are hundreds of +Italian families in New York who pay only $2 _per month_ for such shelter +as they have, but it is only providing for the primitive idea of mere +shelter, not for the comforts of a true home life. After the fashion of +early man, these people spend their lives in the open air, eat wherever +they may be, and use this makeshift shelter as protection from the weather +and as a place of deposit for such articles as they do not carry about +with them and for such weaklings as cannot travel. + +As man rises in the scale of wants he pays more, in attention and in +money, for housing, because he leaves wife and children to its comforts +while he goes forth to his daily tasks. As ideals rise, the proportion +rises until even one third of his earnings goes for mere shelter. But this +limits his desires in other directions, so that it becomes a pertinent +question, when is it right to give as much as one third of the moderate +income for housing? As every heart knows its own bitterness, so every man +knows his own business and what proportion of his income he is _willing_ +to spend for a house, for the comforts of life pertain largely to bed and +board. It must be acknowledged, however, that comfort and discomfort are +so largely matters of habit and personal point of view that education as +to ideals is an important duty of society in its own defence. + +If two people without children prefer to spend more on shelter than on any +other one thing, then with $3000 a year, $1000 may be given for rent if +that covers heat, light, and general outside care. But the _family_ with +children to consider must not think of allowing one third for rent under +our very highest limit of $5000 a year, and it is unwise even then. In +fact the ratio must be governed by circumstances. It is true, however, +that the conditions must be interpreted by a fixed principle in living and +not by any mere fashion or prejudice of the moment. + +The one question every person asks when these suggested improvements are +discussed is, but how much will it cost? Thus confessing that cost, not +effectiveness, is the measure; that old ideals as to money value still +rule the world. It costs too much to have a furnace large enough to warm a +sufficient volume of air, it costs too much to put in safe plumbing, it +costs too much to keep the house clean, and so on through the list. We +have been too busy getting and spending money to study the cost of neglect +of cardinal principles of right living. The farmer knows the cost of his +young animals, but the father cares little and knows less of what it ought +to cost to bring up his children--of the economy of spending wisely on a +safe shelter for them. + +A new estimate of what necessary things must cost has to be made before +the present generation will live comfortably in presence of the +account-book. + +Here again a readjustment is coming; some expenses in house construction +common now will be lessened or done away with; for example, fancy shapes, +grooved and carved wood, projecting windows and door-frames. + +It is usual, when the various new methods are brought up, to estimate the +cost as additional to all that has gone before, rather than to see in it a +substitute for much that may go. + +Our family with $1500 income may safely pay $300 for rent, if that covers +enough comfort and does not mean too much car-fare. + +The house may cost $3000 if built on the old lines, and if the land it is +placed on is not too expensive. + +A fire-proof house such as is described in the July number of the +_Brickbuilder and Architect_, 85 Water St., Boston, and probably also a +house of reinforced concrete, will cost at present some $10,000 besides +the land. Because of freedom from repairs it should be possible to rent +such houses for $500, which will bring them within the reach of our $3000 +a year family, but not within the means of the $2000. What is to be done? + +It will be remarked by some that little attention has been given in these +pages to the various so-called cooperative plans, like Mrs. Stuckert's +oval of fifty houses connected by a tramway at each level, with a central +kitchen from which all meals come and to which all used dishes return, +with a central office from which service is sent, etc. + +Frankly, to my mind this is not enough better than the apartment hotel, as +we now know it, to pay for the effort to establish it. As now evolved by +demand, the establishments renting from one to fifteen thousand a year are +on progressive lines. According to Mr. Wells, this shareholding class is +on the way to extinction in any case, fortunately he also thinks, and the +student of social economics need not concern himself with its future, only +so far as its example influences the real bone and sinew of the republic, +the working men and women who make the world the place it is. + +Within the ten-mile radius it has been usual to include a front yard, if +not a garden, in the house-lot. The cost of keeping this in the trim +fashion decreed as essential, of planting and pruning of shrubs, of +maintaining in immaculate condition the sidewalks and front steps, like +most of the items in cost of living, is due to changed standards, just as +the cost of table-board has advanced from $3 to $6 without a corresponding +betterment in quality. + +Engle's law, "The lodging, warming, and lighting have an invariable +proportion whatever the income," does not hold under modern conditions for +the group we are considering, for our wise ones need the best, and not a +few of them are unwilling to buy their family sanctity at the price of a +closet in the basement for the faithful maid. + +Plans may look well on paper, the completed house may seem attractive, but +when the family _live_ in the house its deficiencies become apparent. +Cheap materials, flimsy construction, damp location, any one of a dozen +possibilities may make the family uncomfortable, may cost in heating and +doctor's bills, may compel a moving before the year is out. Cheap houses +in this decade are suspicious; the more need for a knowledge on the part +of young people of what may be expected. + +For this reason it is a part of sound education to give a certain amount +of attention to living conditions in the high-school curriculum. It is as +important as book-keeping; for of what avail are money and business, if +the home life is perilled? Besides, some of the pupils may have attention +called to deficiencies which they may show talent in overcoming. + +Courses in Home Economics and Household Administration in colleges and +universities should be directed to careful study of this branch of +sociology. + +There is a great opportunity before women's clubs and civic-improvement +associations to arouse an interest in the provision of suitable shelter +for the young families in their several neighborhoods. Concerted movement +by the Federation could revolutionize public opinion within a decade. + +The student of social science may well say that the first effort should be +directed to a rise in the pay of these educated young men; that no family +should be expected to live on the sums here considered; that it is not +right even to consider a way out on the present basis. Possibly so. Much +agitation is abroad in relation to the pay of teachers, clerks, and +skilled workmen, but that is another question which cannot be considered +here. + +The salaried class has so enormously increased of late years because of +the great consolidation of business interests that the final adjustment +has not been made. The one fact of uncertain tenure of position and +uncertain promotion has profoundly affected living conditions, ownership +of the family abode, and, incidentally, marriage. + +There are prizes enough, however, to keep the young people on the alert +for advancement, and they feel it more likely to come if they establish +themselves as if it had arrived. + +There is no denying that in the estimation of a large number of the groups +we are considering, the question of neat and orderly service, the capped +and aproned maid, the liveried bell-boy and butler, express--like the +smoothly shaven lawn--a certain social convention; and because it means +expense, the house in working order means more than shelter: it sets forth +pecuniary standing in the community. So long as this means social standing +also, so long will the professional and business family on $2000 a year be +shut out, because these adjuncts to a luxurious living are impossible. Can +society afford to shut out the intellectual and mentally progressive +element, or must it accept as normal these salaries and make it +respectable to begin on them? It is the strain which unessential social +conventions give to the young families that leads the business father to +speculate in order to get into the $10,000-a-year class, and that leads +the young scientific and literary man to take extra work outside of his +normal duties. This sort of thing cannot go on without serious danger to +the Republic. Cleanliness and good manners should be insisted upon, but +they may be secured on $3000 a year if too much else is not required. How +to secure them on $1500 is a problem to be solved, for cleanliness costs +more each decade. + +After all is said, if the young people have an earnest _purpose_ in life +it is easy to plan a method of living and to carry it out. The sacrifices +one must make in the house superficially, in the consideration of a +certain class, are cheerfully borne and soon forgotten. + +Little discomforts which affect only one's feelings and not one's health +make rather good stories after they are over. What is worth while? Are we +become too sensitive to little things? Do we imagine we show our higher +civilization by discerning with the little princess the pea under +twenty-four feather beds? + +Let our shelter be first of all healthful, physically and morally. If to +gain these qualities we must take a house in an unfashionable +neighborhood, it should not cause distress. Why is this particular region +unfashionable? Is it not merely because certain would-be leaders choose +to live beyond their means in company with those who are able to spend +more? + +Why not be honest and happy? Live within your income and make it cover the +truest kind of living. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + TO OWN OR TO RENT: A DIFFICULT QUESTION. + + "Half the sting of poverty is gone when one keeps house for + one's own comfort and not for the comment of one's neighbors." + --Miss MULOCK. + +When the ideals of an older generation are forced upon a younger, already +struggling under new and strange environment, the effect is often opposite +to that intended. The elders in their pride of knowledge, and the +real-estate promoters in their greed for gain, have been urging the young +man to own his house on penalty of shirking his plain duty. They say he +must have a home to offer his bride, as the bird has a nest. Building-loan +associations, homes on the instalment plan, appeal to the sentiments they +think the young man ought to heed. + +The young man is often modest, almost always sensitive, and he prefers to +bear dispraise rather than to tell the real reason he hesitates. His ear +is closer to the ground, he feels even if he cannot express the doubt of +the disinterestedness of the land-scheme promoter, of the wisdom of his +father. He knows better than his elders the uncertainties of salaried men, +young men with a way to make in the unstable conditions of to-day. + +The effect of this well-meant advice is not to hasten his marriage, but to +put it off because he is not allowed to take the course he feels safest. +Or if he is willing, the parents of his prospective bride are not, and so +young people do not marry on $1000 a year, for fear of the elder +generation and their supposed wisdom. + +The young people are not justified by present-day conditions in owning a +house on an income of $2000 a year _unless_ + +(1) They have money to put into it which it will not cripple them for life +to lose; + +(2) They care so much for the idea of ownership that they are willing to +take the risk of losing one half the investment should they be compelled +to move; + +(3) They possess the fortitude to give it up at the call of duty after all +they have lavished on it; + +(4) They care enough for the real education and the real fun they will get +out of it to save in other ways what the running and repairs will cost +_over and above the amount estimated_. This saving will be largely by +doing many things with their own hands. + +To be bound hand and foot either by unsalable real estate or by sentiment +is an uncomfortable condition for the young family who may find itself in +uncongenial surroundings, in an unhealthful situation, or who may need to +retrench temporarily. + +Another serious objection to building and owning a house in the first +years of married life is the chance that the house will be too large or +too small, or the railroad station will be moved, or the trolley line will +be run under the garden window, or a smoking chimney will fill the library +with soot (although the latter will not be permitted in the real +twentieth-century town). + +A new element has come into the question of ownership by the family of +limited means which did not meet the elder generation of house-owners. In +the past the repairs were confined to a coat of paint now and then, new +shingles, an added hen-house, or a bay window. The well might have to be +deepened, but little expense was put into or onto the house for fifty +years. The married son or daughter might add a wing, but the main house +once built was never disturbed. In the modern plastic condition of both +ideals and materials this is all changed. In any city well known to my +readers how many streets bear the same aspect as five years ago? In any +suburban village made familiar by the trolley how many houses are the same +as five years ago? Even if their outward aspect is not changed, that worst +of all havocs, new plumbing, has been put in. The installation of neither +furnace nor plumbing is accomplished once for all; at the end of ten years +at most repairs or replacement must be made on penalty of loss of health. +As the community grows in wisdom and in knowledge it makes sanitary +regulations more stringent notwithstanding the fact that the increase in +expense bears most heavily on the small householder with a family whose +need is out of proportion to the income. Many a parent who grieves the +loss of his child would gladly have paid a reasonable sum for repairs, but +would have been in the poor debtors' court if he had allowed the plumbers +to enter his house. The new laws made since he bought his house require +diametrically opposite things, and the old fittings must all be torn out +as well as four times as costly put in. + +It is a sad fact that the advantages of all modern sanitation are so often +denied to those who need and who would appreciate them. The renter has +here an advantage over the owner. He can call for an examination by the +city or town inspector before he takes a lease; the capitalist owner must +then put matters right. But as yet a man has a right to live with leaky +sewer- or gas-pipes in his own house without being disturbed by an +inspector. How far into the century this will be allowed is uncertain; in +time there will be an inspection of the premises of the small owner. + +The only remedy in sight is for an investment of capital in up-to-date +houses of various grades in city, suburbs, and country; such investment to +bring 4 per cent, not 40, or even 15, unless by rise of land values. No +better use of idle money could be made at the present time. In +"Anticipations" Mr. Wells writes: "The erection of a series of +experimental labor-saving houses by some philanthropic person for +exhibition and discussion would certainly bring about an extraordinary +advance in domestic comfort; but it will probably be many years before the +cautious enterprise of advertising firms approximates to the economies +that are theoretically possible to-day." This is truer now than when Mr. +Wells was writing. + +The great difficulty in the way is the first outlay. So many things will +have to be designed, patterns made and machinery built to make them; for +this advance in construction will not be by hand-made things. There will +be more head-work put into the various articles, but the mass of +constructive material must be machine-made, at least for the family of +limited income. And these articles need not be ugly. There must be many of +the same kind in the world, to be sure; but if the design fits the +purpose, this may not be an evil. No one objects to a beautiful elm-tree +in his field because in hundreds of fields there are similar elm-trees. +Slight variations in finish, color, etc., can give individuality to the +simplest chair. + +Therefore the first outlay for the new order will be beyond the purse of +any single family of this group. If we had learned to cooperate sanely, a +group might undertake it, but the most probable method will be for some +far-sighted men to agree to sink a certain amount of money in experiment, +just as they now sink money in prospecting a mine with all the uncertainty +it brings. Ability to _risk_ in an experiment must go hand in hand with +capital to use. + +The objection commonly made is that all individuality will be taken away, +that each one must live like every one else in the neighborhood. This is +not an essential consequence, but will it be so impossible to have a +certain similarity in the dwellings of like-minded people? In +"Anticipations" it is declared that "Unless some great catastrophe in +Nature breaks down all that man has built, these great kindred groups of +capable men and educated adequate women must be under the forces we have +considered so far, the element finally emergent amid the vast confusions +of the coming time."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Anticipations, pp. 153-4.] + +The practical people, the engineering and medical and scientific people, +will become more and more _homogeneous_ in their fundamental culture. + +The decreasing of the space one can call one's own within urban limits has +so steadily increased, and the need for freer air has become so fully +recognized, that the case of the single householder in the suburbs and +even in the country is bound to press harder and harder. The group system +elsewhere referred to, with central heating plant and workers of all +grades at telephone-call, will make possible at a reasonable rent within +easy reach of the city the single household of one, two, or three, as the +case may be, and if without children of their own, to such shelter may +come some of those homeless little ones we have with us always, to share +in the sun and wind and garden. In the real country, with acres instead of +feet of land, much of the same kind of elaborate simplicity will be found. +Certainly the same kind of fire-proof house of only one story with more +light, "roofs of steel and glass on the louver principle," will obviate so +frequent a change of air as a shut-in house requires, and give more +equable temperature. + +In the city? Since physicians will surely be more insistent on light, as +well as fresh air, roof-gardens and balconies and glazed walls, so to +speak, will be arranged by the architect so as not to offend the eye and +yet to accomplish the results. He will cease from trying to put the new +ideas of the twentieth century into the old houses of the eighteenth or +fifteenth even, and that beauty, which is fitness, will come forth from +the tangle of ugliness everywhere. If, as the economist tells us, "cost +measures lack of adjustment," then the perfectly adjusted house will not +be costly in reality, it will be adapted to the production and protection +of effective human beings. + +The cellar has for some years been changing to a storage for trunks +instead of vegetables. The old-fashioned housewife exclaims at the lack of +storage in the house of to-day, and we are eliminating it still more. A +twentieth-century axiom is, "Throw or give away everything you have not +immediate or prospective use for." It is as true of household furniture as +of books; only the very best is of any value second-hand. Our young people +may have heirlooms, but they will buy very little in the way of sideboards +or first editions. The moral of modern tendencies is, buy only what you +are sure you will need or what you care for so intensely that you will +keep it come what may. Housing of possible treasures is far too +costly. + +At the foundation of the ethical side of ownership is the primitive +impulse of possession, that ownership which led to wife-capture, to feudal +castles, to accumulation of things, and to-day is expressed by the man who +prefers to have his steak cooked in his own kitchen even if it is burned. + +It is notorious that most of us put up with discomfort if it is caused by +_our own_. A family of eight will use one bath-room without murmur if the +house is theirs, but will complain loudly if the landlord will not add two +without increasing the rent. + +At the foundation of what seem exorbitant rents is this demand for modern +improvements in old houses, and the atrocious carelessness of tenants of +property. It is not their own, and they do not obey the golden rule in the +use of it. + +Every five years or so plumbing laws are changed, and if an old house is +touched the fixtures and pipes must be all renewed. Tenants have learned +to fear the sanitation of old houses, and yet abuse the appliances they +should care for. + +Public ownership or corporate ownership or an increased lawlessness are +accountable for a disregard of others' rights and of property which is +unnecessarily increasing the cost of living. + +I have said elsewhere that it is not because the landlord does not want +children in the house but because he does not want such ill-bred children, +vandals, who have no respect for anything. He charges high rent because +his investment is good for only ten years. + +The shibboleth of duty to own a home has so strong a hold on the moral +sense of the people that it is made use of by the promoter who may in some +cases think himself the philanthropist he intends others to call him. I +mean that the duty of owning and the heinousness of paying rent are so +ingrained that buying on the instalment plan has seemed a righteous thing, +even with the examples of broken lives in plain sight. As an incentive to +save, if there were anything to save, it might have been justified in the +days of feudalism. But for an independent American to confess that he +cannot put money in the bank, and that he must bind himself and his family +to slavery, for the sake of owning a bit of property which they will +probably wish to sell before they have it paid for, is disgraceful. +Intelligent men should see that here is the profit in the transaction; +that enough go to the wall to pay for the trouble of the rest, just as in +life insurance enough die before the expected time to put money in the +pockets of the riskers. + +A drunken father may need to be held, but the young professor, the lawyer, +the engineer, should have sufficient self-respect and firmness to save +that which in his judgment is necessary, without being tied by "the +instalment plan." This method is a very viper in the finances of to-day. +The wise business man never ventures more than he can afford to lose in a +risk, but the man who takes bread and milk from his children to invest in +"a sure thing" takes a risk with what is not his to give. + +To buy land for investment is another supposed virtue, an inheritance from +the time when slow growth, once started in a given direction, kept on, so +that great acumen was not needed to buy; but that is all changed to-day. +Only those "in the ring" can tell where the "boom" will go next. + +In these days of unparalelled rapidity of change in industrial and social +conditions it is most undesirable for a man to be hampered by a shell +which is too large to carry about with him and too valuable to be left +behind. To each reader will occur instances of the refusal of an +advantageous offer because the family home could not be realized upon at +once, the location once so favorable had become undesirable, and the +values put into it could not be recovered because of social conditions +following industrial changes. + +The keen observer hesitates in view of all these conditions to advise any +young man to invest in real estate for a home beyond a sum which he can +afford to lose if need arises to move. These changes carry a need for +mobilization of its army of workers. The encumbrance of family Lares and +Penates cannot be tolerated. Only a small per cent of young men are to-day +sure of remaining in the city in which they begin business. What folly to +encumber themselves with real estate which, sold at a sacrifice, brings +barely half its price! Moral exhorters have not carefully considered this +side of the question in their arguments for house-owning and +family-rearing as anchors to the young man. + +The fact noted earlier is a case in point. After the wedding-cards were +out the bridegroom was transferred to the charge of the company's office +in another city. + +The expenses necessitated by these frequent removals make an +unaccounted-for item in many incomes. + +If the young couple have saved or inherited between them, say, $3000, +shall they build a home with it? Decidedly not. Because the house will +cost $5000 before they are done. Not only because of the unexpected in +strikes and change in prices of materials, but because, as the plans take +shape, the wife or the husband or both will see so many little points +which they will ask for, the paper plan not having conveyed a definite +idea to either. An excellent plan was carried out by a college woman. She +made a model to scale in pasteboard, of such a size that every essential +detail was shown in its relation to other portions of the structure. + +Even if these young people do not yield at the moment of building, they +will probably wish they had yielded when they come to live in the house. +There will be nothing for it but to mortgage the place to make it +satisfactory. One cannot take up a newspaper without finding notice after +notice, reading, "Must be sold to pay the mortgage." + +Exorbitant rent is of course social waste, and society must protect its +ablest young people from their own folly; but when they understand the +rules of the financial game better they will lend themselves more readily +to some cooperative plan of relief. + +It is, as I well know, rank heresy, but I firmly believe that building and +owning of houses can be afforded only by those having the higher limit of +income, $3000 to $5000 a year, _unless_ the person has a permanent +position or a business of great security, and in these days who can be +_sure_ of anything? + +When the land-scheme promoter advertises homes on the instalment plan, +beware of the trap! + +Let no one buy in the suburbs from a sense of duty and then hate the life. + +Comfort in living is far more in the brains than in the back. + +It is so easy for a man or woman with one set of ideals to do that which +another would consider impossible drudgery. + +My final advice is that the sensible young couple both of whom agree about +essentials, and who are willing and glad to work together for a common +end, and who love nature and gardening and believe in family life so +strongly as not to miss the crowd and theatres, may safely start a home in +the country with a garden, and pets for the children, if they have a +reasonable prospect of ten years in one spot. Let them make the place +attractive for some family, even if they have to leave it. + +The women of this group will, I believe, have the qualities Mr. Wells +predicts: not only intelligence and education, but a reasonableness and +reliability not always found to-day. + +Unless a reasonable prospect of ten years' occupancy is assured, then +begin life in a rented house, not necessarily in a flat. Begin with a few +things of your own some which have been yours for years, some which you +have bought together and which have a meaning for one of you and are not +irritating to the other. + +Devote a part of your leisure to a critical study of the house you would +like, draw plans, make sketches in color, study color effects, learn about +fabrics, collect them for the future. You will find an amusing and +instructive occupation. + +The essential point is to begin this life on two thirds of what you have +reason to expect as the year's income; keep the rest invested or in the +bank. There are to-day many temptations to spend for things attractive in +themselves but not necessary to the effective life. If friends are so +silly as to rally you on living in an unfashionable quarter, ask them in +to see your sketches and plans, and talk them into enthusiasm over the +idea. Do missionary work with them rather than be ridiculed out of your +convictions. It sometimes seems as if young people had no convictions, as +if they drifted with the wind of newspaper suggestion. So do not allow +your friends to drive you to greater expense than you have determined +upon, lest the end of the first two years of life find you in debt with no +fair start for the baby, whose life should begin in an atmosphere of quiet +assurance that all is well. It is not impossible that the nervous +irritability and recklessness of many are due to the atmosphere of +childhood. Then remember that _the welfare and security of the child is +the watchword of the future_. + + + + +A FEW BOOKS. + +Anticipations. H.G. Wells. + +Mankind in the Making. H.G. Wells. Scribners. + +A Modern Utopia. H.G. Wells. Scribners. + +Twentieth-century Inventions: a Forecast. Geo. Sutherland. + Longmans, Green, & Co. + +The Level of Social Motion. Michael Lane. Macmillan. + +The Theory of the Leisure Class. Thorstein Veblen. Macmillan. + +The Woman who Spends. Whitcomb and Barrows. + +Physical Deterioration: Its Causes and their Cure. A. Watt Smyth. + E.P. Dutton. + +Shelter. Syllabus 94, Home Education Dept, Univ. of N.Y. + State Library, Albany. + +Report of the Tenement-house Commission. + + + + +INDEX. + +A + +Adaptation + lack of +"Anticipations" +Advisers, home +Age, spirit of the +Air +Altruria +Albert's, Prince, advice +Apartment houses +Architects +Architecture, domestic +Arts, constructive + +B + +Bachelor + apartment +Back, bending the + strength of +Badges of toil +Boarding houses + origin of +Breakfast +Building + laws + loan associations +Building trades +Bureau of Labor, U.S. + +C + +Capital +Care of rooms + human body +Carpentry in high school +Centrifugal force +Children + deterioration of manners of +Choice +City + houses +Civilization +Class to work for +Cleaning machine +Cleanliness +Clothing +Colonial houses + period, housebuilding of + Southern type of, houses +Commuter, trials of +Companionship +Compromise +Concrete +Consciousness, social +Construction +Consumption, destructive +Conveniences +Cooperation +Cost + increasing + of housing and total income + per person and per family +Country +Crowding + +D + +Dayton scheme +Debt +Demand + business +Democracy +Deterioration of houses +Dirt +Discomforts +Discontent +Dishonesty in standards +Dole, Charles +Domestic comfort + machine + progress, retarded + unrest +Drainage +Drudgery +Dust + +E + +Economics, home, exhibit + household + social +Economist +Economy +Effective life + workers +Effectiveness +Efficiency + loss of +Energy +Engineering, definition of +Engle's law +Environment +Euthenics +Evolution +Expense +Expenses + operating +Experience in doing + lack of +Experts, house +Extravagance + +F + +Family + table +Farm life +Flat +Flats +Floors, hard-wood + lignolith +Food +Force + for regeneration +Foreigner +Friction due to house + +G + +Garden +Gardening +Gas-stoves +Group system + +H + +Habit, perils of +Habits +Hands +Heating +Home + abandonment of + advisers + Anglo-Saxon meaning of + building of +Home economics + feeling + life + love of + makers + means privacy + ties loosened +Homeless +Homestead +Hospitality +Hot water +House + building + Colonial + evidence of social standing + -keepers + -keeping, twentieth-century + -maids, physical inefficiency of + planning in High School + plans + suburban +Houses + city + Colonial, of New England + four classes of + modern +Housing + +I + +Ideal +Ideas +Improvements +Income +Individual +Industries, disappearance of +Installment plan +Invasion of residential districts +Invention +Investment + +K + +Kitchen + accompaniments + remodelled, in Providence +Kitchenette + +L + +Labor, Bureau of + -saving devices +Lack of + adaptation + business training + experience + faithful service + harmony + study +Land +Landlord +Land-scheme promoter +Lane, Mr. Michael +Leaven of progress +Legacy +"Level of Social Motion" +Life + effective + frontier + fuller + home + open air + private, shabby + restrained +Light +Living, decent + sane + cost of +Location +Lodge, Sir Oliver + +M + +Machinery +Maid's rooms +Making of things +Man, early + primitive +Manners +Marriage, responsibility of +Meals +Mechanical + progress +Menial +Middle, leaven of progress in +Model Tenement Association, New York +Money + basis + measure of success + spender + value +Morison, Geo. S +Morris Building Co +Mulock, Miss + +N + +Nasmyth, James +Natural selection +Nature + love of + return to +Neill, Chas. P., extracts from address by +New Epoch, The + +O + +Opinion, public +Owen, Robert +Own or rent +Ownership + +P + +Parks +Parsons, Wm. Barclay +Patronage of the arts +Permanence in homestead, lack of +Pettingill, Miss [Transcriber's Note: Pettengill in text.] +Philanthropist +Philanthropy +Physical ill-being in + domestics + school children + wage-earners +Place of the house +Plans +Plumbing +Possibilities in sight +Preeminence, social +Primitive man +Principle, fixed + race +Privacy +Private life shabby +Productive work +Progress + leaven of + race +Protection + +Q + +Question, a difficult + +R + +Race principle +Readjustment +Real estate +Refuge +Regeneration, force for +Rent + or own + -payers +Residential districts, invasion of +Responsibility of marriage +Restaurant +Restrained life +Return to nature +Rights to property, etc. +Roosevelt, President + +S + +Sanitarian +Sanitary + English, Inspectors Association, President of +Sanitation +Saving +Schools, public +Science +Scrubbing +Selection, natural +Self-interest + -preservation +Service + faithful, lack of +Sewer connection, houses without +Shelter +Shelter, marrying for +Sheltering the children +Simplicity +Social advance + aspiration + betterment + conditions +Social conscience + consciousness + convention + economics + ostracism + pleasure + preeminence + science + significance + standing + welfare +Society +Sociologist +Sociology +Somerville +Space + diminishing +Spender +Spirit of the age +Standards +Stone, Mary Lowell, Home Economics Exhibit +Structure +Stuckert, Mrs +Study, lack of +Suburban + houses + living + square +Suburbs +Sun-parlors +Sunlight Park, England + +T + +Table, family +Tax +Temporary home +Tenant +Tenement + N.Y. Model, Association +Tennyson +Tenure, + permanence of + shortness of + uncertain +Transition period +Tuberculosis + +U + +U.S. Bureau of Labor +Unrest, domestic +Unsanitary +Utopian + +V + +Veblen +Ventilation +Village houses + influx from + +W + +Wage-earners +Waste, conspicuous +Watchword of the future +Water, hot +Wedding presents +Well-being of community threatened +Wells, H.G. +White plague +Wife +Window +Woman +Women, corporation of +Women's work +Work, + menial + productive + women's +Workers, effective +Working men + +Y + +Young people +Youth, American + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Cost of Shelter, by Ellen H. 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