280 THE BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



home training may be the outside evil influences 

 found on every hand in our cities tear down faster 

 than we can build up. Our cities are so congested 

 with workers that the conditions of labor are such 

 that we have vast hordes of the underpaid, and 

 underfed, and even where labor in plenty is to be 

 obtained it is done under conditions that too often 

 leads to overwork. 



The high cost of living lays its galling yoke upon 

 the city laboring man and even upon the middle 

 merchant or business and professional class, and 

 the constant chafing of the yoke makes existence 

 such a burden that even hope befriends and ceases 

 to be the chief and universal cure for the "ills that 

 men endure." 



We should not deceive ourselves in the belief 

 that all the misery occasioned by the "heavy 

 grind" of life or high cost of living in the city is 

 found among our laboring classes. You find it 

 largely among the business and professional 

 classes. Most of us never know the awful strug- 

 gle for bread and even existence, that is constantly 

 taking place among these classes. It is easily seen 

 among the laboring class, but with the business or 

 professional men and women it is concealed be- 

 neath the veneer of prosperity with which this 

 class seem to be able to cover themselves and ap- 

 pear to the world as prosperous. But we who 

 have been able to lift this veneer have seen the 

 conditions that would startle, and show that the 

 majority of city people are paying an awful pen- 

 alty for the privilege of city existence. 



When we see the gray hairs, the wrinkled fore- 



