Only one thing constitutes a satisfactory answer to these questions, and for it, there is no adequate substitute. It is high grade life lived by high grade human beings. Where that is present, it will reveal itself in every movement and institution. If it is absent, no boulevard mileage, or volume of business, or number of railroads can make up for the lack of it. =Failure in Homes Breeds Necessity for Substitutes= Cities often point with pride to the number and costliness of their substitutes for home life, but a far more prideworthy thing would be the prevalence of a home life so beautiful and adequate as to require no substitutes. The substitutes are all very well for those who are homeless or who are too crude and dull to appreciate the blessing of home, but they should not be needed by the mass of normal and average persons. Practically all the institutions for social amelioration and correction are parts of a widespread and inadequate attempt to make up for the failure of the home. The family is unloading more and more of its responsibilities on the school, church, and community. Moreover, its unwillingness or inability to discharge its duty creates the necessity for and the expense of juvenile courts, reform schools, and crime waves. Therefore, whenever one truly refers to a city as one of homes, he is making a statement of commanding importance. A real city of homes is one with a minimum of social problems because, as a rule, the highest grade of character and life is developed in the home atmosphere. A city of homes is one whose people have some concern about the place occupied and the work done in the community both by themselves and their children. They are responsible citizens, and for such citizenship, there is no substitute. Such people constitute a railing at the top of the cliff. All this may seem to be merely talk about ideals, and it is. Ideals are the most necessary and important things in the world, even for a city. Moreover, they have the highest cash value of anything with which we have to do. =Lack of Idealism Is Expensive= The lack of idealism is the most expensive thing the people of any city can have on their hands. The lower the level of idealism, the more bad bills are made at the stores, the greater number of thefts is committed with thievery’s double cost to the community, the greater is the amount of fraud, and the higher is the degree and, therefore, the cost of crime.