Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1921-02-18
GO NOT FROM HOUSE TO IOl'Sl
RN TIE REV. \. l.. MURRAY.

GO NOT FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE
hr TIE REV. \. L. MURRAY.
India has fifty million outcasts.
Are We cynical or sympathetic
about these brethren of ours? Pos
sibly- only Indifferent. for We have
in the countries of the allies fifty
| million of our own who are house
less and homeless. The house is
the body Of the home and the home
| is the heart of civilization. Over
TWO thousand times the Bible re-
ferS to the word house. The home
spirit is inherent in man. The home
instinct is highly cultivated. With
out housing and home life man is
restless and weakened in morale.
To-day America is in turmoil
largely because the eternal hunger
OF the heart for established home
life goes unsatisfied. If democracy
cannot house her people and cstab-
iiSh them in homes she loses all her
ventures. America must be housed
and gathered up into homes.
Travelling facilities. the telegraph
the telephone, the postal service.
the opening Of the resources Of the
world for adventure, have made il
easier Tor man to live apart from
established home life.
industrial and other conditions
with the social undoing Of the war
nave conspired TO augment signifi-
cant changes in population. The
magic lure OF the city and other
forces have changed our social life
to an alarming extent.
Our changing social life has all
sorDcd new elements and become
iiulu. Inc Keen contest occasioncd
by the high cost of living leaves us
without social solidarity and group
ed IN unsympathctic fragments.
All the while humanity like mcr
curry seeks unity, and social fellow
ship, and home life. Our ultra
civilization has supcrimposcd up-
on us an environment that has un-
! done us.
We must face the fact that We can
nave no settled healthy social order
WIN IN outcast peoplc--a house
! ie:S--homclcss majority.
The houSclcss man is down in his
morale and the unsettled family! IS
menace TO itself and to the entire
social order.
Nothing strikes deeper into hu-
man efficiency than Il shortage of
houses. Nothing is more dar,acinp
10 posterify than the dccadcncy Of
the nome. Our present HOUSING
situation fOrbids even nearer an,
proach 10 any satisfactory home life
ior the vast majority Of the people.
Inc housing problem is more
IMAM personal problem even i'm
a civilization based on private own
crshlp and individual initiative.
Whatever our political and re-
lIglouS crecdS the housing problem
is fundamentally social.
No people can flourish who 10
more fundamentals of their social
wcll-being.
The present situation challenges
democracy to manifest her power
TO pcrpctuatc herself. II democracy
cannot house herself in homes she
loses all her ventures.
Neither our educational system
nor our religious institutions can
40 even moderate service in an un-
settled and constantly changing
mrrci,Jl, ~. .rn ~ ,I,S any 'o',i
cncd by our pitiablc housing STU
alton. We are MAKING . Soc;al r,;i-
urc of a prime nrcrsSifv Thn no.
liiic,I h,i.iynn i. .I,,., ~!
uncertainty for 4 pcnnIc nrnnn tn
90 from house to housc and wbn
cherish no love far >ri,IcJ ,LnLn'
or who find II in,no>.iILn r. n>;nt,
Ii,h themselves Win ,n nIc,,,nr, ~
Dcrluaucuc>
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