The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-03-18
Editorial Section,
The Housing Of the People.


w usual increase of interest in all matters 1
relative to BODYBUILDING and the housing Of the
people and again there is the complaint regarding
the attitude Of the owners of flats and apartments
toward applicants who have fulfilled the biblical in
junction to increase and multiply.
SIS This is matter Of general application In some
of the southern cities where fats are as yet very
scarce, where everything that affects labor is con-
Quoted with less tension than in the north the prob
lem is not SO hard, but in the northern industrial
centers Minneapolis included, it is live question
Were it not for the saving element of rapid transit,
the problem, for of family and moderate
means, whose daily employment necessitates his
presence in the center of the city, would indeed
be hard one. This is the purely practical view
OF it. The question is a larger one, however, and
opens up consideration Of the probable effect Of
such restrictions upon nation that, If we may
believe some Of our good thinkers and close OBJ
servers, has already leaned over too far towards
race suicide.
The same problem is found in Europe. The cur
rent number Of the Review Of Reviews has article
dealing with the housing Of large families, Of the
respectable working Glass; in Paris, The work is
yet in its infancy, but already there have been con-
structed number of large apartment houses espe-
cially designed for the accommodation of families OF
seven persons or more, and arranged with many
little conveniences for the health and safety of the
children. A number of wealthy Frenchmen, &C
tuated not solely by philanthropy but also by
patriotic desire to check the decline in the French
birthrate which is one of the most serious economic
questions that country is facing are behind the
movement The matter Of a return upon the money
invested is secondary. They have constructed sew
eral apartment buildings, in which man with seven
children, earning the equivalent Of $50 month IN
our money, can live decently and respectfully, with
freedom from fear Of communicating influences and
many safeguards about his children and it is prob
able that such establishments will be made to pay
a fair income in time.
In our country this shutting out Of the man Of
family from the apartment houses has its good side
Nothing else could stimulate, IN a practical way,
the desire for home ownership. When man who,
under less restrictive measures might be contented
to settle down and remain rentpayer all his life,
finds upon making necessary change, that the
doors Of desirable places are barred against him
because of his children, or, having gained admit
lance to a fat, finds many restrictions imposed,
there grows up within him at first fierce desire to
slay the janitor and pommel the landlord. Later
this first burst of anger shades off into something
more defnite-the determination to be independent.
Thus one can find men with only few hundred
dollars making the start, and going into debt Tor
homes. If they in good health, have steady
work and are Of the right sort, this is the making
of them. With interest charges and all, they pay
more for their home than if they able to buy
for cash, but after period Of years they at least
have something while the rent-paying basis they
never acquire anything. s @@~~@ 1908
The benefits resulting from the rules Of the hard
hearted landlords may not indeed be full offset to
the injury their restrictions work, but there can be
no doubb that there is reflex action that, as II
finally works out, is splendid thing for the poor
man and for the city as we'll. .~~s.@<