New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-10
4 SOCIAL "poLsoY soUAp.n

writer in The Boston Transcript" gives us
a picture of life as it shall be-nOt work Of
the creative fancy, but realistic test tube study
of life as il shall be- and on a small scale Is,
at Hellcon Hall Mr.. Upton Sinclair attirms
that all the world Will be forced before long
to live as the Helicon Hall colonists live now
We do not understand that anything more than
the force of example and the stress of social
changes will bring about this necessity, but we
might as we'll look life it shall be squarey
in the face.
Helicon Hall seems TO be a boarding house
with improvements. The paying guests 1--WE
believe that is the correct expression regarding
boarding houses at the Jungle they are called
coonists)-at any rate, the persons who "cOl-
Onize' this New Jersey boarding house-pay 50
a week for table board and rooms fetch SD
a month Life as it should be is thus quite
moderate. All this, of course is banal, and its
counterpart may be found attractively presented
in the advertising columns Of any newspaper
But there is a difference In the boarding
house, we understand 1t, gossip rules; in
the Jungle majority rules The two are some
what similar, but majority is more formal and
regular Does some young woman wish to
evoke music from the parlor piano, the ma
jority in solemn conclave legislates the proper
hours for its evOcatiOn Does Mrs. Roe wear
her morning curl papers about the halls it IS
a matter for the conclave. 1t is all very demo
cratic and ideal. The future is looked after
for the bigger children, instead of settling the
differences with their fists, legislate for them
selves like SOlons prematurey bowed by the
weight Of human destiny. Democracy and
equality are everywhere. The women Of the
colony are no oilers. They think. The manual
work of the boarding house colony is done by
paid women workers, but the utmost care is
taken by those who think to regard those who
work as equals. Division of labor requires that
some should think for. nothing, while others
work for pay. The dignity of thinking equals
the dignity Of scrubbing-this equation main
tains the equilibrium Of test tube society
There is another important respect in which
the colony differs from the ordinary boarding
house. In the boarding house children are re-
garded as nuisances, and there is strong ten
dency to exclude them. Not so at Helcon Hall
The assembly of 'colOnists" is a miniature state
and the children seem TO be more or less wards
of the assembly, as, of course they should be in
any improved society The ideal state must
compromise between humiliation and surren-
der. Helicon Hall represents happy compro-
mise. 1t does not go in for humiliation, like the
common boarding house, nor for vulgar unpro-
gressive surrender, like the benighted home
The dignity of thinking is uninterrupted paid
mothers" do all the duties toward the children
which interfere with the ideal life. When The
transcripts" correspondent was at this para
disc he was told that slip of three years was
fretful because she was just being weaned
away from her mother" It is strange how I'M
appreciative children are Of the sacrifices their
parents make for the future!
The dinner described by the correspondent
consisted of beans, potatoes, turnps. peanuts.
prunes, educators" and cocoa! There is q
meal, every Wand of which tastes of reform
and the betterment OF humanity though we
might have excluded prunes because the whole
project sufficiently resembles a boarding house
without the intersection of that reminiscent
fruit The colony" had just got a new cook
a fact which shows that even under ideal con
ditions mortal frailty cngs to humanity. The
dinner eaten In the strong white light that
Eliminates test tube was peculiarly exhiarat-
ing. The correspondent pays a tribute to the
table conversation-any one reading the menu
can readily appreciate that the real substance