Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-10-30

mnless some movement looking to it's conservation is started in another quarter of a century, according to the opinion of experts, not more than ten per cent of the country's population. exclusive of rural districts, will live in their own homes. And that state once reached, the practical extinction of the American home will lie in no avery distant future.
 ! While this condition is one of the yemost startling and certainly one of 4iAm most imports6t facts from an
 smic standpoint revealed by the
 .k census: investigators are still loss to discover the cause, to
 -xnose the case as 1t were. They -e, however, face to face with the act that the condition exists, most parently of course in the most { .i wded centres of population, but to
 lesser extent in every part of the sauntry.
 'n New York today. for example. M about 15,OO0 families representing
 little more than two per cent of se city's population own their Own omes. Half century ago the fig
 ywas nearly 50 per cent. In small- sScities and towns the same condi-
 nss affairs Is arriving inst as sure-
 3r If not so rapidly What then
 cause of the disappearance of
 nee national institution?
 4rious analysts give various solu- $ns One of the causes most com-
 aly cited is the decreasing size of "a American family, which is now ss than four as compared to more In six fifty years ago. But whether E. A decreasing American family is
 result or the cause of the vanish
 American home is just about as
 Alt of solution as the famous
 Ion as to which came first the "a the egg. While the two may ~. $sAbe inter-related, 1t is now
 admitted that they are the - II sAassN of, some underlying .se.
 &The Increasing difficulty of obtain Szx servants is cited by some as the reason why hundreds of thousands Of parsons the country over are giving ID the Individual home idea and talk ax up life In apartment houses or ho- .eis. The tact that each of these is low rapidly attracting, even in the Imallest cities, families which de- sade ago had never dreamed of a communal life. would in view of the 1ndoubted scarcity of servants seem 10 bean out this view to certain ex- ient.
 Again 1t is held that the increased ,st of living is responsible for the nging condition, since 1t is now 9Gtble for the individual pur- food and lodging in small
 tS-at retail So to speak-to
  much for his money as he can . the patron of an establishment .shether apartment house or hotel, whose proprietor buys the necessit- ies wholesale and can sell them in at a price which the in- dividual cannot approach. Still other critics hold that lazi- ness and love of luxury are the causes of the new condition, arguing that l many Americans find it too much trouble to maintain an individual home where better accommod odations, food and service can be obtained in modern hotels without any of the worries of housekeeping.
 But basically, while all these req sons may contribute to the fact that we are. becoming a nation of hotel and apartment dwellers. the cause which has led to this new mode of life would seem to be pretty nearly that which has brought about the giant corporation. Living is after all a matter of business and the con- hinations in this field are the log.cal result of combinations in all other fields which coatr.bute to the main- tenance of life. And so the men or Interests who offer to the public lodging, food and service in large quantities, as in the case of hotels today. are probably as important fac tors inGthe disappearance of the in- div.dual home as are the giant manu- facturing combinations in the disap- pearance of the :ndividual producer. and both for the same economic req ron.
 For. aster all, the question Of where one shall live has become purely a n&fter of buying and selling. The nsumer in this field as in all others demanding tue biggess returns for
 And since he can secure pat-oniz ng the biggest homes.l fe he is giving up the indi-
 eaten in New York. an
 oaQeo 900 q praeF cally oae@
 ere saten in hotels. And
 scz this, aceord:-g to