in real estate circles, that, if the wage-earner would be willing to return to the home of his forefathers, where he enjoyed plenty of space, but had less elaborate plumbing, heating and electric equipment and appliances—what are popularly known as "modern conveniences"—he could once again be economically housed. Some critics cite the fact that even to-day most American farm houses lack mechanical improvements. In other words (it is claimed) what makes wage-earners' housing expensive is the cost of luxuries, not of necessities.
There is just enough truth in this claim to make it plausible, but it will not stand analysis. If one separates the cost of mechanical services and of equipment into that part which lies outside the house and that which lies inside, he will have a clearer idea of the situation. As regards the cost of the various municipal improvements and public services outside the house itself, and the effect on the cost of land, their importance has already been pointed out. But these site utilities cannot possibly be eliminated. The biggest item is plumbing, which is no luxury but a sanitary essential, required in order to maintain health in crowded centers. We can hardly expect to return to the timehonored well, cistern and cesspool, even if we made a saving thereby, which is doubtful. In respect to the cost of gas, gas is replacing coal as being more economical. Electricity is too slight a factor in the cost of housing to be troublesome.
Inside the house, the question of modern conveniences resolves itself into the difference between the "cold-water" home and a home with well-equipped bathroom and kitchen; between a home heated by a number of stoves and fireplaces as compared with a single heater. As regards the expense of the additional plumbing, any plumber knows that the additional cost of a few feet of hot water lines and of a bathtub and lavatory will be hardly more than one per cent of the construction cost of the house; and the housewife will tell you that they will be cheaper than the cost of the washstands and china which would replace them. And, as far as heating is concerned, there is little economy in a multiplication of stoves, fireplaces and chimneys. It may be said further that the concentration of plumbing and heating appliances in the modern home saves floor space and building volume.
But the main point, of course, in the whole question of mechanical conveniences inside the house is that they, with good planning, save the woman's labor. They release much of
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