The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-29
THE WAGE FARMERS HOME


By GEORGE III. MILL
There are a great many people who
think that improved home conditions are
only possible with extra expense and are
essentially a sign of an increased imam
cal investment and that consequently
those who have the prettier, the cleaner,
the more useful homes necessarily have
greater means. Now this is fallacy
The more attractive home does not neces-
sarily mean more money expended. 1t
certainly does mean more brains, more
care and pains in making it so, it exem-
plifies the will, the ambition, the determi-
nation of the householder, and invariably
the owner of the useful, the sanitary,
the Clearly attractive, well-kept home is
ever the person who is also able to exert
the same effort to produce the same re-
suits in his work and employment, who
is the Garner of a better wage, who is
better saver and consequently more we'll
TODD. The home reflects the man, the
man makes tile home.
Now it is also fact that many of us
truly want our homes to be clearly, use
don't know Just how to make them so
we find that 1t is a difficult problem and
that there is quite an expanse between
good intention and the production of
satisfactory results. Many of us would
do what we could to improve our homes
if we knew how. 1t is the trying to find
out how and the experiment In good IN
olrao hot
when we are least aware of it. We in
this grand new land do not measure.
worth by intent but by results produced.
want to say 10 the wage-earner Oh
Greater Birmingham that all the best IA
formation on the subject of acquiring
and maintaining model, modest homes
at least expense may easily be at MS
disposal free If he will demand 1t from
his real estate agent, and it will be up
to him merely to take advantage of IT,
The fact of the matter is that he gets
fl what he wants and when he wants ana
what he gets Is the measure OF the Kno
and character of home be Is satlsheo
with Real esate men will do anything
in their power, will spend any amount
of thought, energy and money IN secur-
in gthat which is demanded and in I'M
proved form. The character OF demand
ing or housing conditions In this city and
has an influence on its future. That
kind of real estate man who is alive to
the industrial future of Birmingham, who
wants to feel that the character of wage
Garner of this community Is of as high "a
standard as any in the world, who wants
to feel that the kind of homes his portion
of the responsibility produces is as good
as the best in the land that kind of real
estate man is at your mercy, and Is only
too anxious to meet your demands. 1t Is
his pride to feel that his customers de-
mand something better than In other COM
munities and he will spend any amount
of money in securing the high character
of product that will supply that demand.
He can hire the best talent In the world
to design that character of home which
Is considered best, but If the wage-earner
doesn't want it, if he doesn't appreciate
it, If he is not alive to its advantages.
the real estate man must, needs be, cast
1t aside. He will give the wage-earner
what he wants.
There Is nothing in this world that quite
so appeals to every home-loving citizen
as the ideal picture cottage, even the min
iature bunagow with its low spreading
caves, its weLl-kept lawn space, its vine
shaded porches, with shrubbery groups
softening the base line and corners, with
its brilliant little r-garden properly
placed where it can be seen from the eat
ing room, with its little vegetable garden
surrounded by fruit-bearing trees and
shrubs and its kitchen and laundry-yard
enclosed by an arbor bearing grape vines,
and a little open space where the small
children can play safely within a busy
mothers sight and call. What is the cost
of these things; what are the excuses OF
cost over the unarranged, unuseful, in
| IF al Gaa III
recent report of typical possibilities to
be exemplifed at Corey l was able to
prove absolutely that the value or the
vegetables raised in minimum-sned veg
etable garden on the average-sized lot
could pay for all the shrubs, vines, fruit
bearing shrubs, arbors and seeds in sin
gle season. Think of It. Think of the
Improvement In health and happiness by
spending the thought and time In making
ones home model of this sort, and think
of the influence on the children growing
UP under such environment.
Where we see community in which
this kind of home is the prevailing type
among the wage-earners we say mat tnat
community is of high standard. We
find that thoughtful, Industrious, saving
and law-abiding men choose that COM
munity as their home and we have nigh
standard citizenship. We find that taxes
are low, that the cost of police, of hos
pitfalls of insane aSylumS, or pauper lnstl-
utions and the like are at minimum.
We find that the savings banks are full,
and further, we find high class of indus
tries ready to take up sites near such
community industries that want that
class of workmen who exert the same
care and interest in their work as In the
building and maintenance of their homes.
The situation in Birmingham today is
this: With the advent of the great deyel-
opment by the United States Steel cor
poration there is to be an influx OF wage
earners from the surrounding country,
| from other parts of the United States,
many from Pittsburg especially and large
numbers from Europe. These people are
gonig to take up homes Many OF them
will demand good homes. The new town
| of Corey Is a sample undertaking of how
| to meet that demand 1t Is serious
| problem, however, to know how to pro-
| tect these homeseellers against possible
| depreciation in property values, to pro-
| tect the good home value of desirable in
yestors against the influences of that class
| of citizen and workman who has little or
| no respect for the type Of home he lives
| in or the harmful influence his low type
| of living exerts on the home value of his
neighbours property. Here is the most Sc
| rious problem before the thoughtful citi-
Gems of Birmingham today. If you are go
| ing to permit low element of citizenship
| to creep into this beautiful city and hud-
die together into houses by numbers, re-
eardlees even of moral apd sanitary de-
| cency for the sake of saving money to
send or take back to some foreign land,
you are going to permit the standard OF