January, 1914 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
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« OUR SMALL HOUSE ARCHITECTURAL CONTEST 
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la American Homes and Gardens makes the offer of $100 to 
!£' the architect submitting the best design and plans for a small 
!«, house, original with himself, not to exceed a construction 
cost of $5,000. Either photographs of houses already built 
and plans, or designs and plans of projected houses may be 
entered in this competition, which is open to all readers of 
American Homes and Gardens, whether subscribers or not. 
American Homes and Gardens will publish the winning de- 
sign and the honorable mention designs and plans of the 
competitors in its Small House Number. May issue. All 
designs and plans must be sent addressed to the Editor, Small 
House Competition, American Homes and Gardens, 361 
Broadway, New York, by March 20. 1913. A committee of 
three well-known architects will pass upon the merits of the 
designs. The publishers of American Homes and Gardens 
will not be responsible for any of the photographs, drawings, 
and plans submitted, but will endeavor to return all such to 
the contestants, if requested to do so. Postage for return 
should be prepaid, otherwise any photographs sent will be 
shipped by express, charged collect. See announcement else- 
where in this number. 
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THE FEBRUARY NUMBER 
T HE Happy New Year which, eximo corde, American 
Homes and Gardens wishes all its readers goes forth 
this year to thousands of more subscribers than ever before 
in the lifetime of this magazine, for it is gratifying to an- 
nounce a large increase in the circle of subscribers during 
1913. It is just as gratifying, however, to note that with 
the coming of new readers the old subscribers still renew 
their interest in the magazine, and this causes the Editor 
to feel that his is no futile mission, no ephemeral pro- 
duction for the fitful few, but is, instead, a work of sufficient 
constructive work to win for itself the confidence readers 
of American Homes and Gardens have sincerely be- 
stowed upon the magazine. The February issue will, as 
has been customary in years past, give especial attention 
to the subject of suburban houses, and the opening article 
will be devoted to a consideration of this subject, accom- 
panied by numerous half-tone reproductions of attractive 
houses of the type, together with reproductions of their 
plans. Where the world over is there anything more dis- 
tinctively American than maple sugar? February is the 
month the sap-gatherers and sugar-makers get their product 
ready for the market, and in February American Homes 
and Gardens will show, in a delightful illustrated descrip- 
tion of maple-sugar making in the country, how the country 
folk go about it in primitive fashion. Some old Salem 
fences of unusual beauty in design will also be described in 
an illustrated article in this same issue. Many of the old- 
time fences of Colonial days were designed by the best 
architects of the period, and deserve' more attention than 
has, as yet, been given them. Indeed, the fence has been 
too sweepingly abolished from American suburban homes, 
and there is every evidence that American home-builders 
who require fencing to be erected for any purpose will come 
to give the subject of the architectural detail of its design 
the attention it deserves. Another timely article for this 
issue will concern itself with the private game preserve. 
This, too, will be adequately illustrated by unusually fine 
photographic reproductions. In “The Collectors’ Depart- 
ment” one of the finest private collections of embroideries 
in the world will be described in an illustrated article, and 
“Collecting Old Valentines” will be the theme of another 
collectors’ article. I’he usual departments, “Within the 
House,” “Around the Garden,” “Helps to the Housewife,” 
“ f he Collectors’ Mart,” etc., will help to make this one 
of the most attractive numbers of American Homes and 
Gardens as yet issued. 
MACHINES AND HUMAN BEINGS 
W E have come to look upon our factories as great 
machines from foundation to room, including the 
workers therein. Just as truly have we become imbued with 
the idea that all labor is of the nature of the machine — in- 
fallible in its mechanical duties once set in motion. But this 
is all wrong. Factories are more truly human beings than we 
have permitted ourselves to realize and the time has come 
when we should be realizing this, realizing the same thing of 
great industries in general. As an instance, let the railroad 
industry be taken into consideration. As an article in one of our 
exchanges points out: “Investigation carried on for ten years 
by the Interstate Commerce Commission has shown that 
most train accidents are owing to human error. ‘Despatch- 
es give wrong orders, or fail to give orders where they are 
required; operators fail to copy orders that should be deliv- 
ered; conductors and enginemen misread, misinterpret, over- 
look, or forget orders.’ From this fact it can be argued, 
and has been argued, that a railway should trust little to the 
skill and conscience of employees, but should give its atten- 
tion and its money to perfecting its material defenses against 
accident — that it should make its cars unbreakable and un- 
burnable, its rails and bridges strain-proof, its safety-signal 
apparatus perfect to the point of automatically stopping any 
train that gets too near another. It is true that the railway 
should make these improvements; yet to the training and the 
discipline of its employees it must give even better thought. 
Imperfect as human beings are, both mentally and morally, 
they are capable of being taught, and of being inspired with 
the spirit of loyalty that the French call esprit de carps; 
despatches, operators, conductors and enginemen can be so 
taught and so inspired that failure, from whatever cause, to 
carry out orders can be reduced to an almost incredible 
minimum. Such a result will grow out of two things: hirst, 
every official must perfectly understand the work, the circum- 
stances, and the personality of every man immediately under 
him, for then the employees will feel that they are treated as 
human beings, and they will respond by giving their interest 
and conscience to their work; and, moreover, when any one 
of them has to drop out, there will always be someone else 
fit to take his place. Second, there must be an absolutely 
strict and impartial discipline that will recognize efficiency, 
but will as promptly bring home to anyone, whether work- 
man or official, the consequences of disobeying orders. The 
sense of responsibility and loyalty that can thus be awak- 
ened will, in the opinion of some of our greatest railway 
men, do more to insure safety than any number of steel cars 
anti automatic signals. 
