100 FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



spite of periods of no income or little income after I 

 quit my job to write my first book, the homestead 

 grew steadily and came more and more to represent 

 that large investment which so chilled my skeptical 

 critic. Eventually income began to go up as I cut down 

 the time I devoted to earning money, or perhaps it 

 would be more accurate to say I was able to secure 

 more for my time as I became less and less dependent 

 upon those to whom I sold my services. That made the 

 development of the place just that much easier, and 

 made it possible for us to start building the "Dog- 

 woods" and to equip it as experience had taught us 

 such a homestead should be equipped. This possibility 

 of earning more, by needing to work less, is cumula- 

 tive and is open to an immense number of professional 

 workers. It is remarkable how much more apprecia- 

 tive of one's work employers and patrons become 

 when they know that one is independent enough to 

 decline unattractive commissions. And of course, if 

 the wage-earning classes were generally to develop 

 this sort of independence, employers would have to 

 compete and bid up wages to secure workers instead 

 of workers competing by cutting wages in order to 

 get jobs. 



That it is possible to start homesteading with even 

 less than the Borsodi family started was demonstrated 

 to my satisfaction by the studies I was retained to 

 make by the Unit Committee of the Dayton, Ohio, 

 Council of Social Agencies in connection with the es- 

 tablishment of homesteads for the unemployed of 



