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.