italists' Opportunity_.
Instead of investing in an uncertain gold mine in some distant land,
let the millions, for no less sum will suffice, be invested in a plot
of land, whether an open field or a slum district depends on local
conditions, and thereon cause to be erected habitations decently
comfortable, wholly sanitary, and place over each group an inspector
as both agent and teacher who shall be a friend to the tenants, and to
whose office they may come freely with their needs. This plan has been
in part carried out in the Model Tenements in New York, but variations
and improvements are needed. There should be more light and air, more
grass and trees, even if the buildings are fifteen-story towers.

The old story has been so often reiterated, "But the tenants will not
use the devices," that the capitalist has become callous to this
appeal. The missing link in the chain has been the instruction to go
with the construction.

All department stores, all venders of new mechanical appliances, have
come to recognize the value of demonstration, or instruction, in the
use of articles as an aid to purchase. The advocate of better
dwellings must take a leaf from the commercial book and _show how_. It
is in this that philanthropy has been weak in the past. It has assumed
a power to see, where there was only a fear of handling the strange
objects.

There is a virgin field for the capitalist who wishes to use some
millions for the prosperity of the country to build a short trolley
line to a district of sanitary houses with gardens, playgrounds,
entertainment halls, etc.; such a village to contain, not long blocks,
but both separate houses and tenements from two rooms up, possibly
several stories high, where the elders may have light and air without
the confusion of the street. Dust and noise will be eliminated. There
should be a central bakery and laundry, and, most important of all, an
office where both men and women skilled in sanitary and economic
practical affairs may be found ready to go to any home and advise on
any subject. There has never yet been such an enterprise with all the
elements worked out. Several, however, have shown the way, the Morris
houses in Brooklyn, for example.

It is easier to take a city block and construct fireproof, high
buildings than to solve transportation problems. We are losing our
fear of the high buildings as we see the great value of light and air.
There is chance for work in this direc