j6 FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



vestment, and correspondingly raising the hidden 

 cost of securing water from the city mains. While 

 if there were eighteen acres of land around a home, as 

 there is around mine, the cost of water would be pro- 

 hibitive for any but the wealthiest of families." 



Here with regard to water we have another of the 

 many illustrations available of the mistaken idea that 

 mass production is of necessity economical. With 

 water, as with other conveniences and with most 

 products, what is saved by mass production tends to 

 be lost in the costs of distribution. It undoubtedly 

 costs the city of Suffern less to pump water than it 

 costs me in the country. My small and relatively in- 

 efficient pumping system cannot hope to compete in 

 cost per gallon of water raised with the large and 

 relatively efficient pumping system of a city of many 

 thousands of people. But when I pump my water 

 on the "Dogwoods," all costs in connection with 

 water end. When the city pumps its water, its real 

 costs of supplying water only begin. It is the cost of 

 distributing the water through an expensive system 

 of water-mains which absorbs the economies of the 

 "mass" pumping, and replaces them with an actual 

 higher cost than that of the individual homesteader. 

 The city's investment and operating costs for its 

 pumping system are negligible in comparison with 

 its investment and maintenance costs for its water- 

 mains. The pumping costs are taken care of by the 

 water tax, but the distribution costs are hidden in 

 higher land values, except right when the mains are 



