ed upon at
once, the location once so favorable had become undesirable, and the
values put into it could not be recovered because of social conditions
following industrial changes.

The keen observer hesitates in view of all these conditions to advise any
young man to invest in real estate for a home beyond a sum which he can
afford to lose if need arises to move. These changes carry a need for
mobilization of its army of workers. The encumbrance of family Lares and
Penates cannot be tolerated. Only a small per cent of young men are to-day
sure of remaining in the city in which they begin business. What folly to
encumber themselves with real estate which, sold at a sacrifice, brings
barely half its price! Moral exhorters have not carefully considered this
side of the question in their arguments for house-owning and
family-rearing as anchors to the young man.

The fact noted earlier is a case in point. After the wedding-cards were
out the bridegroom was transferred to the charge of the company's office
in another city.

The expenses necessitated by these frequent removals make an
unaccounted-for item in many incomes.

If the young couple have saved or inherited between them, say, $3000,
shall they build a home with it? Decidedly not. Because the house will
cost $5000 before they are done. Not only because of the unexpected in
strikes and change in prices of materials, but because, as the plans take
shape, the wife or the husband or both will see so many little points
which they will ask for, the paper plan not having conveyed a definite
idea to either. An excellent plan was carried out by a college woman. She
made a model to scale in pasteboard, of such a size that every essential
detail was shown in its relation to other portions of the structure.

Even if these young people do not yield at the moment of building, they
will probably wish they had yielded when they come to live in the house.
There will be nothing for it but to mortgage the place to make it
satisfactory. One cannot take up a newspaper without finding notice after
notice, reading, "Must be sold to pay the mortgage."

Exorbitant rent is of course social waste, and society must protect its
ablest young people from their own folly; but when they understand the
rules of the financial game better they will lend themselves more readily
to some cooperative plan of relief.

It is, as I well know, rank heresy, but I firmly believe that building and
owning o