The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-03-10
New York Has Already Become a
City of the Homeless.
IT IS NOT DUE TO NECESSITY

Only Two Families in Every One
Hundred Own Houses in Which
They Live. Society Leaves Man
sions for Hotels The Homeless
Spirit Has Invaded Every Class of
People and Is Growing.
NEW YORK.-New York will
soon be a city absolutely without
homes. Even at the present time
it may be called the greatest home
less city in the world and estimates
based on the latest census figures
show that by 1920 more than 6,000,-
900 persons, or practically the entire
population of the city, will be with
out homes of their own, and that the
private house will be entirely extinct
on Manhattan Island. The disap-
pearance of the institution known as
the Great American Home is pro-
ceeding rapidly in all the large cities
of the country but conditions are
such that it is advancing with far
greater speed in the metropolis than
anywhere else. A century ago near
iy, if not quite, majority of fami-
lies owned the houses in which they
lived. Today, in all the large cities
of the country not ten per cent. do
so, and in New York the proportion
is only about two per cent
At the present time the total mum
Der of residents in New York is only
a little short of 100000. OF these
less than 10000 families, or, on the
basis of five to a FAMILY, 100000
persons, own the homes in which
they live. All the remainder, 98 per
cent. of the citys total population,
occupy homes owned by someone
else. Sitting under ones own vine
and fig tree is purely an imaginary
occupation, so far as New Workers
are concerned. The twentieth cen
tury in fact may be said to mark
the beginning of new era. After
the Stone Age, the Iron Age, the Fire
Age, and all the other ages, the
Homeless Age seems now to be at
hand.
This change is partly the result Of
necessity and partly the result of
choice. At the tremendous prices
obtained for New York real estate
even a modest home represents an
investment of from $4,000 upward.
which of course puts homecoming
out of the reach of the ordinary man.
who is compelled to house his fam
lily in hotel, apartment, tenement
or boarding house-or else go to the
suburbs. More than 100000 Deo-
pie in New York live in flats, which.
on the one extreme, are called apart
ments and may cost $4,000 a year
rental, and, on the other extreme are
known as tenements, and rent for
$40 month. approximately 400
600 persons make hotels their resi-
dences and 100000 more, bachelors
chiefly, live in clubs. Perhaps mill
lion and half are housed in board
ing establishments which occupy the
buildings once used as private homes.
The remainder is made up of those
who rent houses.
Even among those who can afford
to own homes, however, a rapidly in
creasing number are turning to no.
tells and apartments. Those who
elect to dwell outside the city in
many cases prefer the convenience
of hotel life to the responsibilities
of house of their own with the in
eVitable servant problem. Many of
those who are classed as suburban.
ties are hotel dwellers, and to ac-
commodate these elaborate and luxu-
rious hotels are springing up in su-
burban points about the city
For Consolidation.
The truth of the whole matter is
that domestic life has been brought
to realization of exactly the same
factor that has marked the CONNER
cial development of the country, that
is, that consolidation means a saving
of eXpenSe-tO some one. In the
field of the great industries it is still
a question as to whether the con-
sumner profits, but in the field of do
nestle activities there is no doubt
that the user, that is the consumer,
of a home can get more for his mon
ey il comforts and Injuries through
a corporation than as an individual
a statement which is borne out by
the fact that the man of moderate
means on the one side, and fashiona-