I believe this to be the _chief factor_
in the decline of the American home--a hundred-fold more potent than the
college education of women.
The unthinking comment on this rise in the cost of shelter is usually
condemnation of greedy landlords and soulless capitalists; but is that the
whole story?
In the present order of things it seems to be inevitable that the gain of
one class in the community is loss to another. Probably the law has always
existed, and only the very rapid and sudden changes bring it into
prominence, because of the swift readjustment needed, an operation which
torpid human nature resents when consciously pressed.
For instance, the efforts of the philanthropist and working man together
have succeeded in shortening hours of labor and increasing wages--without,
alas! increasing the speed or quality of the work done, especially in the
trades which have to do with materials of construction, so that
house-building has about doubled in cost within twenty-five years, largely
due to cost of labor. This increased cost has fallen heavily on the very
group of people least able to bear it, the skilled artisan, the teacher,
and the young salaried man.
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