Year: 1875

housekeepers over fifty it viii be aggravating,
arr the whole of it is all the same distinctly
false. The writer has forgotten or omitted one
great factor in his prOhlem,-namely, defni-
ton of his ideas Of ''necessaries" The ques-
ton is not whether pound of meat now costs
more or less than it did in 1900, but whethera
meal costs more or less; not whether "educa-
ton" can be obtained as cheaply, but whether
education of equivalent use does not cost more;
not whether Giving is as cheap as of old, but
whether living in the same friendships is not
very much more costly. The essayist is right
when he says there is no justice in placing
good drainage against bad, and saying good
drainage is the dearer; but he is only right
so long as the drainage is optional, and not a
matter of compulsion. The moment purchase
becomes inevitable, and inevitable for some
other reason than the mere development of a
new desire, the cost to the purchaser becomes
true addition to the cost of living: and there
have been many such additions This very one
of sanitation is such an addition. If it were
open to a man to live as his grandfather lived,
it would be unfair to quote the plumbers bill
against the good old times, but in a city no
such choice is left to the economical house
keeper. He must pay bis plumbers bill, or be
fined, or die of typhoid, and that bill is a di-
rect increase to his inevitable expenses. To
take an even better illustration, the cost of ed
ucation as q necessity has been extravagantly
increased. 1t is quite true that our sons can
get for E2O year just as good an education as
our fathers got for that amount, that is to say,
as much of positive knowledge or positive dis
cipline of the mind, but then of the direct OBJ
ject sought through that education they can
not get so much. The middle-class man of
$500 bought for his son with his go year q
chance of success in life which he now scarce
ly buys for six or seven times that sum. One
end, at least, of education is to obtain an ar
NOR for the battle of life; and if that armor is
essential, and not to be obtained without in
creased expense, there has been a direct addi-
tion to the cost of living. As matter of fact,
we all know this has been the case. The es-
sayist's examplar, a professional man in a
country town with $1,000 year, would in 1900
have been liberal if, with family of two sons
and two daughters, he had spent ElOO year
that is, 1.-THE of his income-on education.
He would now, unless very exceptionally for
tunate, have to spend e33O-that is, third of
his receipts-to secure identically the same ar
ticle, that is, an education for his children
which should fit them for their position as well
as the previous generation was fitted for third
of the money. 1t is nonsense to say that the
education is better. So is the meat But a
man wants within fraction as many ounces
day of good meat as of Indifferent, and educa-
tion has become as great necessary as food
that is to say, without it the man or woman of
the professional grade is weak for the ordinary
work of life. Education is a necessity, not
luxury, and its increased cost, which is excess
sive, and will be greater yet, is direct addi-
tion to the cost of living. Sois the cost not Of
hiring servants, but of feeding servants when
they are hired.