The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-05-25

mas Deen saying things about the de-
cadence of the home that are we'll
worth considering. Time was when
the ownership of home was one of
man S first ambitions. AS soon as
he was married he began to plan for
permanent nest in which to shelter
his brood; place safe from the in
trusion of agents or landlords, where
his and his children's lares and pen
ates might be set up in safety and
privacy. 1t was for this home that
the young bridal couple put by their
first spare dollars, often grudging
themselves pleasures and comforts to
add to the board.
Not SO long ago it was even con-
sidered a badge of gentility to own
ones home. 1t was the shiftless, the
unsuccessful, the poor managers
who were renters. The man with a
deed in the registers office was the
real aristocrat, the man of weight and
influence. In the rural districts their
homes were the geographical pointers,
so that the Smith place." the Brown
farm the Graham house" told the
traveller in what direction or neighbor-
hood he journeyed. Long after the
old families moved or died out some
of these names chung to the soil, re-
a m n n q orso Il, L.
In the cities the individual owner
ship was never quite so general as in
the smaller towns, but even there, in
the crowded conditions, the old home
instinct long held sway. But DR..
Parke finds it greatly on the wane.
He says: UNLESS some improvement
is started looking to its conservation,
in another quarter of a century, ac-
cording to the opinion of experts, not
more than 10 per cent. of the popula-
ton of this country, exclusive of rural
districts, will live in their own homes.
And that state once reached, the prac-
tical extinction of the American home
will not be far off,"
This is tragic note In our boosted
age of progress and prosperity. And
yet the explanation Is not far to seek.
The first rock in the would-be owners
path is taxes; then come insurance
and repairs, and treading on the heels
of this is the ever-vexed servant pro
blem. It is cheaper to rent than own,
man tells himself when he has
counted up all the cost. And so the
family drifts from clearinghouse to
fiat, and from fiat to cottage, and
back again, like migratory birds.
And this is to be deplored, for the
memories of a settled home are al
ways rare heritage for all children
They grow up in such environment
with feeling of steadfastness and
stability which helps in all walks of
life. And yet how are those obstacles
of high taxes and cost of house up
keep to be obliterated so that owner
snip may win back its charm and
popularity?
This is serious question-one of
the most serious and important that
faces the sociologist and political eco
nomist of the age.
1t is said that the railroads earn
their passenger profit chiefly from the
restless, disconnected homeseekers,
who vacillate from state to state to
state. And on the same principle it
is the restless tenantry in a city who
keep up the movers and repairers.
Every man ought to have a home,
and the more permanent it is the bet
ter it will be for him, for his family
and for his belongings.
The deep craving of the human
heart for nest of its own is exempli- |
fed by the fact that while every coun-
try has its national anthem, the
worlds international hymn is Home,
Sweet Home. memphis Commercial
Appeal.