4. Compare the advantages of the average country family with those of the average city family, with respect to satisfying the desires of life. Or, debate the question: Home life in the country has greater advantages than home life in the city.

5. Study the way in which the average family governs itself. Why is this government necessary?

6. Are there in your community many people without homes, as explained in the first paragraph of this chapter?

44

More than armies and navies, more than money and trade, our nation needs children who love their country enough to take some pains to improve themselves for its sake."

Preserve beyond all else as the priceless portion of a
child the integrity of the nervous system. Upon this
depends their success in life.

From Luther Burbank's "The Training of the
Human Plant."

CHAPTER VI

SOME SERVICES RENDERED TO THE COMMUNITY BY THE FAMILY

"No nation can be destroyed while it possesses a good home life."

THE family not only does much to provide for the welfare of the individual citizen, but it also performs certain valuable services for the community as a whole.

a training

school for citizens

In the first place, the family has been called “a school of all the virtues" that go to make good citizenship. It The family is a school in which not only the children, but also the parents, are trained for citizenship. It has been said that if a man is a good husband, a good father, a good son, or a good brother, the probability is that he will also be a good citizen in the community. And we must not forget the wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters. The quality of the citizenship of the women of a community is perhaps shown more in their family life than that of the men, because such a large part of their lives is spent in the family and the household, and also because their influence there is so great in molding the character of the men. In the family are developed thoughtfulness for others, the spirit of selfsacrifice, loyalty to the group of which the individual is a member, respect for the opinions of those of long ex-perience, obedience to the head of the family and to the rules which have been established for the welfare of all. If these and other qualities of good citizenship are not

cultivated there, the family is not in a healthy condition, and is not doing its full service to the community.

of a home

There is no other kind of property that gives such satisfaction to the owner as a home. Men usually look forward with eagerness to the time when they can own The owning their homes, and take great pride in that ownership when it is acquired. Many families live in homes which they do not themselves own; they rent from others. When that is

the case, there is lacking one of the strongest influences that make the home life complete. The ownership of a home adds another bond of

union among the

A MODEST HOME.

members of the family through the common interest which it affords. A man has a greater interest in improving and beautifying a home that he owns than one that he rents from another.

interest

A family that owns its home will usually take a greater interest in the community in which it lives than the family that owns no home. It feels a sense of proprie- Creates torship in a part of the community land. The in the value of a home will increase in proportion to community the prosperity of the community as a whole. Its owner will therefore be inclined to do all he can to promote the welfare of the community for the sake of his family. A community that is made up largely of homes owned by their occupants is likely to be prosperous on this account,

and its citizens will be loyal to it. In large cities, where people are crowded together in a comparatively small area, it is difficult for all to get possession of a piece of ground suitable for a home. The land, being in great demand, becomes very valuable, so that many families are unable to buy it, or even to pay the necessary price for the use of it. The result is that such families are driven to make their homes in the least desirable localities in the community. They may resort to the lowlands along a river flowing through the community, where the land is unhealthful and in danger of floods. In some river towns most wretched dwelling places may be found in such localities.

In

large cities many families are often crowded together in buildings owned by men who can get better returns by Dangers to charging small rents to many families than

home life in cities

they could by charging larger rents to a few. These crowded dwelling places, which often do not deserve the name of homes, are called tenements, and the section of the city where the crowding is the worst and the buildings are the poorest constitutes

what is known as the slums. These tenement dwellings involve all sorts of evils. Where so many families live in one building, and where many buildings are crowded together without space between, there cannot be the privacy that is essential to good home life. Such conditions are also detrimental to health. The