her energy for the more responsible work of managing the home and of training and educating her family. In fact, this efficiency of the housewife's labor is the foundation of modern teaching in household economics; and housekeeping experts, in leading the revolt against the operating and mechanical side of the homes of our forefathers, have termed them "woman-killers."
Legal and structural requirements
Finally, as regards the first cost of the high standards of construction set by architects, this cannot be avoided in these days of mounting costs of maintenance, repairs and insurance. These charges can be met only by durable and by more fire-safe construction. Authorities place the "life" of the little frame speculators' houses which have been built by the mile since the war at hardly more than ten years. Surely, there is little economy in such temporary construction.
Another cause of heavy expense, however, comes in the unnecessary restrictions which are placed by building and sanitary laws on house construction. The fact is, that in many districts of the United States, these laws are unscientifically drawn—"Procrustean," the Committee on Community Planning of the American Institute of Architects terms them. They are deplorably lax in some respects, particularly in failing to enforce reasonable standards of planning, construction and firesafety; and they are needlessly severe in others, penalizing sound construction both technically and financially.
The Bayonne housing suffered from these legal abuses, and the construction of this first group was delayed several months until the Tenement House Law of New Jersey and the Bayonne Building Code could be amended in the spring of 1924. These changes in the laws effected a saving of at least five per cent on the cost of construction of the buildings. Incidentally, the Tenement House Act of New Jersey was strengthened in its provisions enforcing fire-safe stairways, the lack of which is the chief cause of the terrible loss of life in the frequent tenement house fires.
Cost of operating a home
All these factors relate chiefly to the cost of producing a home. Unfortunately, when the wage-earner assumes the cost
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