Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-27

There are few conspicuous executions
notably at Pullman, ILL.,. where a vast deal
mas been done for the comfortable housing
OF the employees of the great car wor IS
OUT residence mere Is accompanied by n
sense of dependency and hopeIessness of
ownership that disclosed itself unpleasantly
In the time Of the strike, when ali that Mr..
Pullman had spent for well built houses
good roads, shade, Fairgrounds, churches
a theater. library, schools arcade and
Tor cleanliness and sanitation, were counted
as nothing and his life was threatened as a
representative of capital
But while the company house. Is but a
partial success in this country and while
effort to persuade the workmen into the
country Is even less rewardng, the English
are taking the lead in the erection of cot
tages that are really cheap, either to buy or
rent, yet are well enough put together to
make the investment desirable Indeed.
they have erected a Garden City. not far
from London, which promises to be truer
10 It's name than our own, and other ex-
periments in similar line have been I'M
dertaken In villages where access Is easy
TO the towns. The characteristic of these
places is modernness in respect of fitments
with respect for the architectural traditions
that make the old and isolated hamlets so
denghtfui to the eye and Imagination. But
the old cottages. with matched roofs earth
floors. rain barrels and timbers all askew
whiie picturesque, are hard to live In be-
ing dark, damp, primitive in appliances and
too often dirty. 1t is possible to make a
cottage picturesque yet comfortable and
the recent exhibition at Letchworth shows
that 1t is possible to make it cheap Labor
and some materials are less costly in Eng
land than here, so that Il Is possible TO
accomplish more with $500 at Saffron Wal
den than it would be for double that amount
In Hampstead or Yonkers; but the numer-
GUS plans submitted and the numerous
accomplishments put in evidence through
photography, show that what the English
can do in reformation of the poor mans
house We can at least approach in our
batter furnished land, allowing for dis
PARTIES in cost of labor and of living.
Some Of the English plans are ugly. some
are commonplace, some are objectionable In
should be modest; but most OF them com
mend themselves for their simplicity and
the builders desire to place them so that
they shall form part of the landscape and
age graciously instead of falling into early
ruins, like the ffimsy shell put up by the
American speculative builder The irnpor-
lance of the Letchworth show lies In the
evidence 1t gives that II costs no more to
build beautifully than to be ugly: that the
right sort of architect will make his house
not merely pleasant to live in. but pleasant
to look at and satisfying to the pride of Its
occupant. We need houses of that sort In
America, where we are used to seeing barns
of greater size and consequence than the
houses attached to them. and where there
is sad deal of jigsaw work masquerading
as construction and as ornament. When
we substitute houses for sheds, In the SUBJ
urbs and the country, the workmen who
now herd In the airless and wretched Sums
may consent more willingly to remove to
the 0pen.