Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-04-02
WITHOUT A HOME.
The Importance and Desirability of Ex-
elusive Homes.

1t has been said o the American peo-
pie that they were getting to be ma
ton without homes. There is some
justification for the statement. The
average American business man wants
to live near his place of work. Ik dis
likes, above all things, to lose the time
occupied in transit The effect of this
disposition is to cause the building of
houses for residence near the city S
quarter devoted to offices and stores.
As the space for these buildings is linn
tied, houses are erected for the accom-
mediation of many families under one
roof. Hence we have tiers of flats.
The erection oftlat-houscs, particularly
in New York and Chicago, has very
largely increased the past few years,
and the people who own houses and
lots, which they build for their exclu-
sive use as homes, and the people who
rent entire houses, are not, apparently,
as numerically as large as they were.
Now what is the result OF the in
crease in the number of these tlat-edi-
fees? This is question for those iu-
terested in the best development of
our great cities to consider. 1t is evil
dent that that city would have the best
government and would have the great
est substantially if every head of a
family or voter in it owned a lot within
the corporate limits, and if every head
of family owned the house he lived
in. Under such condition each Cit
zen would acquire keen interest in
municipal affairs, and sharp sense of
responsibility. Good government
would certainly be the rule, and the
city itself would acquire the solidest
character.
The next best thing to owning a
house exclusively for ones own home,
is to rent one; but to rent fiat should
be the last resource. This can be said
without reference at all to the comfort
or discomfort of fat-life. That con-
sideratiOn does not enter into the dis
cussion. Tie question is simply:
What is the best condition for the fur
therance of the city's welfare? In the
very fact that a flat may be an agree
able abode, because its owner and not
its inmate must bother himself about
the taxes, lies the evil to the communi-
| ty. The man who willingly relegates
| the taX-paying business and all the at
tendant concern to the landlord, and
who, therefore, has no care what the
city authorities may do or neglect to
do, is not the most valuable citizen.
| His interest in the rise or fall of prop
erty is at the minimum. The import
ant question of the police does not dis
turb him. He does not have to worry
about attending meetings of property
owners. He becomes for the most
part inconsequential, so far as his re-
lease from such obligations go.
The philosophers of the school of
Henry George recognize the import
ance of the exclusive home, even while
| advocating the naturalization of the
ship in land, it should be the aim of
society to promote, so far as possible,
individual possession of an exclusive
home, in order that the rich few may
not control the home life of the poor
many, and in order that the latter may
| be free from a sense of domination.
But as long as it is not likely that so
desirable condition can be realized,
the men who build houses for single
families, rather than blocks of flats,
are the men who are doing the best
work toward the substantial growth OF
the city. And it follows that those
who occupy these houses are doing
better for themselves and for the city
than those who consent to live in
shelves. Such progress is now making
in city transportation facilities that OBJ
! iections to locations on account of their
remoteness are proving less and less
serious, and this is one of the hopeful
indications. 1t accordingly becomes
the duty of those who have in
fuence in directing the minds of men
to the true duties of good citizenship,
to urge upon.them the desirability of a
multiplicity of separate homes as
against the grouping of families in ON
nibus edifices.-G. c. Matthews, ipa The
Current.