THE COST OF SHELTER. By ELLEN H. RICHARDS Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1905. THE HOUSEHOLD EXISTS FOR ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS: Two or more persons form an alliance (a) for protection against the outside world; (b) for protection against the outside world and for the rearing of children; (c) for the greater gain in convenience which the common life can give over that of single effort; (d) for companionship; (e) for the greater independence it gives to the group; (f) for the greater ease in satisfying one's prejudices or whims. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE. TYPIFIED IN PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTRES OF INDUSTRY AND HOSPITALITY CHAPTER II. THE HOUSE CONSIDERED AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL STANDING CHAPTER III. LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, ILL ADAPTED TO CHANGED CONDITIONS, CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION CHAPTER IV. THE PLACE OF THE HOUSE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CHAPTER V. POSSIBILITIES IN SIGHT PROVIDED THE HOUSEWIFE IS PROGRESSIVE CHAPTER VI. COST PER PERSON AND PER FAMILY FOR VARIOUS GRADES OF SHELTER CHAPTER VII. RELATION BETWEEN COST OF SHELTER AND TOTAL INCOME TO BE EXPENDED CHAPTER VIII. TO RENT OR TO OWN: A DIFFICULT QUESTION THE COST OF SHELTER. CHAPTER I. THE HOUSE AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES IN FAMILY LIFE; TYPIFIED IN PIONEER AND COLONIAL HOMES, THE CENTERS OF INDUSTRY AND HOSPITALITY. "There is no noble life without a noble aim."--CHARLES DOLE. The word Home to the Anglo-Saxon race calls to mind some definite house as the family abiding-place. Around it cluster the memories of childhood, the aspirations of youth, the sorrows of middle life. The most potent spell the nineteenth century cast on its youth was the yearning for a home of their own, not a piece of their father's. The spirit of the age working in the minds of men led them ever westward to conquer for themselves a homestead, forced them to go, leaving the aged behind, and the graves of the weak on the way. There must be a strong race principle behind a movement of such magnitude, with such momentous consequences. Elbow room, space, and isolation to give free play to individual preference, characterized pioneer days. The cord that bound the whole was love of home,--one's own home,--even if tinged with impatience of the restraints it imposed, for home and house do imply a certain restraint in individual wishes. And here, perhaps, is the greatest significance of the family house. It cannot perfectly suit _all_ members in its details, but in its great office, that of shelter and privacy--ownership--the house of the nineteenth century stands supreme. No other age ever provided so many houses for single families. It stands between the community houses of primitive times and the hives of the modern city tenements.