The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-31
Social Worker and
Architect Discuss
Model Suites for
Young Women
Will Give Idea
Practical Test in
Renodelled Resi-
dence onEastS
ny ELEANOR BOOTH SIMMONS.

c INGLE persons are not, as rule,
y supposed to have many rights
The general feeling at the back OF
the mind OF the world. even In this
emancipated age, Is that they ought to
be married, or ought to be looking for
ward to marriage, and that II not yet
ycked up with n partner they are in
merely transitory state, and shouldn't
be too particular about conditions they
won't have to endure long.
Take the housing situation, which is
looming so large that 1t Is beginning
to crowd the League of Nations to one
side of the front page. In all the talk
about the acute need OF more apart
ments does one ever hear the bachelor
or the bachelor maid mentioned 4?
Never. 1t Is all about the desperate
phght of families. More flats for
ia miles is the cry There have even
been indignant letters in the papers
condemning bachelors, male and female,
who dare TO occupy apartments that
families might live in and stern propo-
,sitions 10 limit such occupation by
strict taxation. And yet bachelor males
and maids have their uses. Many things
would go undone II they we're taxed
off the face Of the earth. and more
over they arc the reservoir from which
future families to live In future fats
must be drawn. No, the unattached
must be allowed comfortable erannies
to live in, and 1t is really well for the
future Of the country that two good
friends have been raised up for this
unappreciated section of humanity.
These two friends are Mrs. Phillips
Brooks Robinson of IS East Eighty
fourth street and Richard Henry Dana
architect, OF 331 Madison avenue. So
far they are combining their thoughts
10 bachelor maids and their housing
needs, but the males may profit by the
plan later. The first thing is TO get the
plan working. and 80 simple. so reason
0Dle and sensible does II appear SO
practical in all it's details that 1T does
seem as II investors will need only
to hear Of 1t to be anxious to put
1t through.
Mrs. Robinson Is Author of Plan.
To Mrs. Robinson belongs the credit.
OF first thinking of the scheme. For
years she has had much to do with
young women who are working at varl-
Gus artistic or seni-artistic pursuits in
New York. employed at small salaries in
shops and studios. and through knowing
the difficulty they have in living as a
girl of refined tastes longs to live she
has become interested in the hosts Of
other small salaricd girls-teachers
stenoCraphers. secretaries and compan-
ions. department store employees who
have risen above the average and are
drawing a weekly stipend Of 500 or SIS
week. There was time when that
was fairly comfortable salary, but no
one can deny that with the shrinkage
or the dollar II has become a small one.
Hosts OF Sir.s are living. or existing, on
less.
They constitute another problem. Most
of them belong to the ranks who cannot
aspire to even the humblest apa rtment
for themselves. Some live with their
parents; thousands endure comfortless
temporary existence in lodging houses
eating in fourth rate restaurants and
trusting that il wont be long before they
are married TO some sweetheart-whom
they are meeting III the parks and at
the movies owing to the fact that few
lodging houses have a common parlor
sghere they can receive callers These
future wives and mothers are a problem
that should engage more Of humanity's
thoughts than it does. but they are not
the problem with which this plan of
Mrs. Robnson's is concerned.
Nobody knows how many nice girls
college bred girls many of them. girls
from pleasant homes in the smaller
towns and In the country-are in this
big city bearing the pangs of loneliness
and longing for the fireside which all
their traditions have taught them to
want. Well, Mrs. Robinson wants to
give them the steam radiator in rooms
with bath and kitchenette, which Is the