The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-14
THE COST on LIVING

sometimes nave but one DESIRE and
Year after year I work away with all my
And when I get a raise of pay I'm soon
hard up again.
The cost of living grows and grows; my
heels are all run down:
Our daughter now is having beaux-I say
We have to see that she is dressed in
all the style requires:
I daily do my level best to cut down my
desires.
Our son has gone to college, too; he fills
our hearts with pride:
long have saved to get him through;
He promised when he went away that
he would often write:
The postman fills me with dismay when
he arrives in sight.
The boy reports that he has done most
splendidly down there;
He's in frat and has to run in debt for
things to wear:
The m eosf me of s1 things getting higher-1
know the reason why.
IS. E. Kiser. in the Chicago Record
Cui Bono?
A recent act of the Illinois legis-
lature providing punishment for the
heartless landlord who prohibits chill
dren in apartment houses, seems to
have aroused very general applause
throughout the country. How much
of the popular satisfaction is due to
the pleasure of seeing the villain hit
over the head. and how much of it
springs from our love of the human
lamb with lus uproarous and devour-
ing habits, we need not now discuss.
Suffice it to know that the stork has
scored a point. She feels herself a
bird once more. In Chicago and
kankakee and other centers of Illi-
nois civilization she now holds a card
Admission n R0HiafV
there is any hesitation on the part of
the host she is privileged to knock the
door down and come in anyhow.
But let US for the moment take the
part of the skeptic and ask in all
seriousness, Cui bono? To what end
shall the ponderous machinery of a
state legislature be set in motion in
order to enable an innocent babe to
cry sensible person knows that fiat
is not the right sort of a garden in
which to grow children. The modern
apartment house came into being only
for the accommodation of those pre-
gressive folks who have discovered
that time is too precious to be wasted
on infants. but must be devoted sole
ly to their own culture, save for the
occasional upbringing Of a poodle. But
while thus serving it's narrow purpose
in the economy of society, the apart
ment house-irl its opposition to baby
life-may haze q more exalted and
more comprehensive function in the
mechanism of human destiny. Cow
per put a great truth into verse when
he sang, "God moves in a mysterious
way His wonders to perform Who,
therefore, shall say thai the apartment
house, with is child hating landlord
and its fussy old maid tenants of
both sexes may not be a means de-
signed by Providence for turning the
faces of parents toward the country
the open air the sunlight, the flow
ers. the woods. the breath and the
magic of real life? The intolerant
fiat may be 70 the coming nation what
an intolerant church was to the max
ing of America. Had the Separat-
lists. the Puritans, the Quakers, been
granted unmnlested asylum in Eng
land, where would be our Plymouth
Rock, our Harvard Uniyersity,ao our In
dependence Han? There is potential
good in everything.
The apartment house has it's place. |
So has the i2il. Neither, however, is |
designed for the upbringing of chill
dren. We do not plant acorns in
a conservatory If it be that Provi-
dence has made admittance to the fat
difficult for a child, it has coincident-
ally made the suburban home easy of
access. Rapi1 transit, electric lights, !
gas, telepho hes, and all other COM
forts and conveniences, together with !
the lure of the garden and the song
of the wild bird, are all invitations !
for the child to come to its rightful |
place.
IL any other state legislature has
it in for the landlord, all we'll and !
good. 1t ticl<les the people and mine |
host will survive it. But the state had /
better think twice before it follows |
the example of Illinois and attempts |
to take down the bars that now pre- |
vents unthiuking and selfish parents |
from immuring their offspring within |
the confines of a flat and denying
them their birthright of mud pies and /
exuberant monkeyshines in an I'M
abashed companionship with worms
and heaven. When we shall learn more
how great an asset in our
nations welfare is a healthy, sun
kissed child. we may yet join hands
with the burly landlord of the fiat
and give him a law. to enforce his
against the admission of
children. At all events let US not be
hasty in condemning him at present
God.-Clifford Howard, in Lippin-