THE FAMILY BUDGET 179 



he sleeps. The value of the land underlying a city 

 is increased by every baby that is born. At a hear- 

 ing before a committee of the Assembly of the State 

 of New York during the winter of 1917, a represen- 

 tative of the real-estate interests of New York City 

 protested against any tolerance being shown the 

 advocates of birth control among the poor, and gave 

 as his reasons for opposing a bill permitting the dis- 

 semination of information that every baby bom in 

 the metropolis added $1,000 to the value of the 

 land. The baby, rich or poor, was born into the 

 world with a permanent mortgage on its efforts of 

 $50 a year, or five times that sum when he became 

 the head of a normal family of five. 



Other costs have gone up. Coal reached famine 

 prices in almost every city in the country during 

 the winter of 1916-17. It shot up from $3 to 

 $6, and even $12 a ton. The increase probably 

 averaged from 50 to 100 per cent, all over the 

 country. In the city of New York coal prices were 

 almost prohibitive. Yet the anthracite coal-fields 

 are but a few hours away, and despite the shortage 

 of labor many coal companies reported that they 

 had mined more coal than in the preceding year. All 

 through the West the same was true. Prices were 

 doubled and trebled. Factories closed down for 

 lack of fuel. Cities were without coal. Yet the 

 Middle West is underlaid with coal, and the miners 

 who had received an increase in wages but a few 



