PITFALLS OF ACCOUNTANCY 1Q 



rented in Chestnut Hill. He had an acre of ground, 

 with carriage-house and stabling for four horses 



(I forget we have a three-car garage, thrown in 

 at no extra cost). In addition to this he had four- 

 teen rooms and two baths in a house that ate coal 

 faster than it could be mined and still was never 

 warm in winter. The rent was one hundred dol- 

 lars a month. In my own brief apartmental expe- 

 rience I paid one hundred and twenty dollars a 

 month for six rooms and two baths; but that was 

 right after the war. You can rent a two-story house, 

 six rooms and bath, in a fairly good suburban 

 neighborhood today for fifty or sixty dollars and 

 find your own heat. Of course, in the country we 

 must find not only heat but also water supply, hot 

 water, and sewage, garbage, and trash disposal, and 

 all such basic services. It is an easily demonstrated 

 fact that all these cost much more when supplied 

 by a city government and paid for in taxation than 

 when you furnish them yourself. 



Part of the water pumped at our own expense 



(included in rent) from our own wells is con- 

 sumed by the livestock, or otherwise used on the 

 farm. Conversely, the labor of painting the ex- 

 terior of the house is not included in the above- 

 mentioned maintenance bill because it has already 

 been put down in the cost of farm operations for 



1937. In a word, it is neither practical nor neces- 

 sary to separate all costs to a nicety. NQ more is it 



