WATER, HOT WATER, WASTE WATER 77 



laid when they are made visible in the form of assess- 

 ments against the lots before which they have been 

 laid. 



What is true of water is true of many of the public 

 services which are enjoyed by those living in cities 

 today. Just as mains are laid to distribute water, sew- 

 ers are laid to assemble waste water. The two func- 

 tioned for us in the city without our being hardly 

 conscious of the fact. If we were to be equally com- 

 fortable in the country, we would have to solve the 

 waste-water problem as we had that of running 

 water. 



A decent sewage-disposal system is unquestionably 

 one of the essentials of a civilized existence. I can see 

 nothing charming in the way in which this problem 

 is handled by savages in a so-called state of nature, and 

 the way in which it is handled in most country homes 

 today, with uncomfortable and sometimes unsanitary 

 outhouses, seems to me but little better. When we 

 began to study this problem, we found, as we had 

 with so many others, that the benefits of a modern 

 sewage-disposal system could be enjoyed in the coun- 

 try without the expense of paying for maintaining the 

 sewers and sewage-disposal plants for the operation 

 of which city dwellers pay such an unconscionable 

 sum. Looked at from its broadest standpoint, the sys- 

 tem generally used today involves a shocking waste 

 of the nation's soil resources. It is no exaggeration of 

 the actual situation to say that we are now taking up 



