Coming to the value of the Army hotels from the point of view of the social economist, care must be taken to discriminate between their commercial and their philanthropic aspects. The public has a mistaken idea of the work carried on by this branch of the Army. Many people have an idea that thousands of homeless, starving men and women are nightly taken care of in these Army hotels. Putting aside the question whether such would be good relief policy or not, the statement itself is not true. In a majority of cases the man or woman in order to gain admittance must have the price, and in many instances, that price will also admit them to the regular cheap lodging house outside of the Army. We are not finding fault with the system of charging, since from the point of view of true relief, provided that bona-fide, destitute cases are not left without help, the price should be required, as it would be a great evil to throw open the hotels to the crowds of regular beggars and social parasites who constantly throng any institution supposed to be charitable; but since the Army hotel movement claims to be a self-supporting business, it is not to be regarded as different from any other lodging business, except in those points in which it excels the other. With this caution we believe that we still can distinguish two lines along which credit is to be given the Army. The first is the environment which the Army has created for its guests. It is not necessary here to show what a great factor environment is in this case, but simply to emphasize its importance. From our description of the Army hotel, it is seen that, with certain exceptions, the Army maintains cleanliness, cheerfulness, and a homelike atmosphere around its lodging houses.[48] In this important respect then, the Army hotel is to be commended. Secondly, the Army has indirectly, by its competition with the ordinary cheap lodging houses, led them to adopt improvement for purely commercial reasons. If a man has only ten cents, he is going to invest that ten cents to the best advantage, and the old time lodging houses have found it necessary to improve their conditions in order to meet the competition of the Army. For this too, credit is to be given the latter. In addition the competition reacts on the Army and tends to make it keep up its own standard. In order more clearly to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of cheap lodging houses, whether Army hotels or not, it would be well here to consider objections to their existence. Three objections have been raised to all cheap lodging houses in general. 1. That they herd together a low class of vagrants and vicious characters. 2. That their cheapness lowers the standard of living. 3. That they encourage the youth of the country to come to the city and live in comparative idleness.[49]