"A Plague on Both Your Houses" 55 



never so full, these bitter dregs lie at the bottom of it. 



The average urban family is entirely defenseless 

 against rising living costs in the matter of rent and 

 food. Rent is based on land values; land values rise 

 with increasing population. The price of food is closely 

 related to the growing disproportion between con- 

 sumers and producers, resulting from urban congestion. 



Completely detached from the soil, with a long line 

 of transportation agencies and trafficking middlemen 

 between the farm and their own tables, the swarming 

 city populations stand as helpless before the cost of 

 living as an unarmed mob before an army of profes- 

 sional soldiers, trained and equipped to the minute. 

 They can only pay the price or go without. Every 

 element of the problem lies far beyond their reach. 



These are not the only drawbacks of city life. It 

 tends to wither, if not to destroy, personal initiative, 

 just as it hampers and limits the spirit of individual 

 independence. While it is doubtless true that the city 

 offers many interesting tasks, and opens the door to 

 many channels of promotion, it is equally true that the 

 vast majority of workers in factories, department 

 stores and offices, feel the deadening effect of a merely 

 mechanical routine. They are cogs in a big machine, 

 often dealing with only a very small portion of the 

 process that goes on in the establishment as a whole. 



To shake them out of this lethargy, born of the 

 steady tramp of factory, store and office drill; to re- 

 store their initiative, and with it their creative facul- 

 ties; to stir the passion for new adventure; to give 

 them a measure, at least, of individual independence, 

 a measure of control over their cost of living; to make 



