24 
House & Garden 
THE BEGINNINGS of BEING RESPECTABLE 
A SENSE of responsibility is the beginning of being respectable. 
We speak of a man “settling down.” Invariably this comes when 
he assumes some responsibility—a wife, a family, regular work, a home, 
a future. Let that sense of responsibility awaken, and the man shows 
signs of developing into what is commonly known as an “estimable 
citizen.” But back of these estimable characteristics, what? Owner¬ 
ship. 
The very undertaking of ownership presupposes a willingness to as¬ 
sume responsibilities. Thus, a man buys a house. He is immediately re¬ 
sponsible to himself and to his family to keep it in good repair and 
furnished in good taste, he is responsible to his neighbors to keep the 
surroundings of that house in good and pleasant condition, he is re¬ 
sponsible to the community to maintain the road that runs before it by 
paying taxes. In short, a man begins to be respectable when his sense 
of responsibility extends from his own personal creature comforts and 
pleasure to others and to the locality in which he lives. From this it is 
only a step to the development of a national conscience, which we call 
patriotism, and from a national to a cosmopolitan conscience, a con¬ 
science which is sensitive to injustice in other lands and is quick to de¬ 
mand its extermination. 
During the past year the American people have had their horizons 
tremendously widened. They found themselves responsible to a vague 
something called the American ideal of democracy, they found them¬ 
selves responsible to other people in other lands, and they have been 
called to shoulder that responsibility and have done it willingly despite 
the sacrifices it entailed. But America could scarcely have hoped to 
sustain such a burden had not the mass of the American people been 
schooled in the fundamental responsibilities of a home, a garden and a 
debt to the community. 
T HERE is on foot a movement to induce Americans to own their 
own homes. In addition to the particular advantage this gives the 
owner himself, the movement is a very vital training in good citizenship. 
For the backbone of a nation is its everyday people who own their every¬ 
day homes and live their everyday lives and do their everyday work. 
The marvellous spirit of France which has been sustained during these 
four years of tribulation can be accounted for by the fact that the 
French peasant owns the soil he tills. The 
collapse of the Russian national ideal is di¬ 
rectly traceable to the fact that 75 per cent 
of the 180,000,000 population, the farmers, 
did not own their own land and homes; 
they had no national responsibility because 
they had no personal ownership. The prob¬ 
lem that England must solve sooner or later 
is this very same “own your home” question. 
It is, then, a far-sighted move to awaken 
Americans to the necessity for owning their 
own homes. It w T ill make a more respec¬ 
table nation. It will give us a solidarity 
and a quickly aroused sense of responsi¬ 
bility to the democratic ideal and its estab¬ 
lishment in other lands which, in a word, 
is what this great war is being fought for. 
National responsibility has taken very 
material forms this past year. It has called 
our sons to the battle line, it has asked 
us to lend our money to the nation and to 
contribute to the nation’s great work of 
mercy, the Red Cross; it has imposed upon 
us—for our good and the good of others— 
certain necessary dietary restrictions, it has 
made us dig up the garden and grow our 
own food. All these things are part and 
parcel of the development of responsibility and respectability, for the 
respectable man is one who contributes his share to the common good. 
It is necessary that we understand the philosophy of this great world 
movement before we can grasp its practical applications. 
Today it is the duty of every American to subscribe for at least one 
bond in each Liberty Loan issue, just as it is his duty each year to pay 
his taxes. It is his duty to curb excess and waste at his table by follow¬ 
ing the Government rules of meatless and wheatless days. It is his duty 
to give to the Red Cross, just as it is his duty to help support the 
churches and charities and other mediums for good in his community. 
By these means has the everyday American grown up from a small town 
man to a national citizen. According to the measure with which he 
assumes these fundamental responsibilities will depend his future de¬ 
velopment into a citizen of the world. 
T HE nations of the world are facing the problem of widespread 
socialistic propaganda. The socialists demand for each man his 
share of ownership. This is also the basis of American democratic ideals. 
In America a man has not alone the right but the opportunity for owner¬ 
ship. The legislation of the present is directly aimed against the peo¬ 
ple who own more than their share. The day will come when no man 
can afford to be immensely wealthy, because immense ownership and 
wealth require more responsibilities than it is humanly possible for one 
man to carry. This is the price of democracy—that the owner shall be 
responsible. But it also has its compensations. Ownership means 
power. The man who owns a Liberty Bond controls the power of that 
money, the man and woman w'ho own a home and pay taxes control the 
franchise for that home, the man who owns a backyard has the power 
for supplying his family with food if he will work to grow it. 
W E stand at the crossroads. In the past, when a nation went to 
war its landed barons alone assumed responsibility because they 
alone had it. In the travail of the present world conflict is being brought 
forth the concept of universal democracy. When nations of the future 
go to w’ar—-as God grant they never shall—it will be the sentiment of 
the whole people because then the whole people shall be owners. 
In this lies the strength of America—that its people are undertaking 
the ownership of their homes together with 
the responsibilities ownership entails. That 
is why, after a long and trying period of in¬ 
justices, they arose to help crush the male¬ 
factor of the world. That is why they are 
going to float the next Liberty Loan, why 
they will give another hundred million to 
the Red Cross, why they planted 3,000,000 
gardens last year and will plant 4,000,000 
this year. 
In starting this editorial I said that a 
sense of ownership was the beginning of 
being respectable. The word respectable 
has fallen into disuse and become a mockery. 
Nevertheless it is the state every man as¬ 
pires to. He wants a respectable home 
in a respectable neighborhood, respectable 
clothes, a good education for his children 
and a prospect for their future advance¬ 
ment. There is no other basis for that fu¬ 
ture or the present save the basis of owner¬ 
ship. 
The standard of respectability in America 
today is to own a home, own Liberty Bonds 
and have a war garden. A home, food and 
funds—in these three lies the power of the 
American citizen. 
SANCTUARY 
Bluebird, Martin, Phoebe, Wren, 
Hither wing your way again! 
Flicker, Junco, Chick-a-dee, 
Choose your shelter, bush or tree! 
Come, our little feathered guests! 
Boldly build your guarded nests, 
Safely rear your chirping broods 
Here, where never foe intrudes— 
Squirrel, Snake, nor Horned Owl, 
Hawk a-sweep, nor Cat a-prowl. 
Swallow, Robin, Cedar-bird, 
Here no sound of gun is heard; 
Tanager and Oriole, 
Make our grove your northern goal! 
Through our orchard take your flight, 
Fill our garden with delight! 
Free are you of field and croft, 
Earth below and air aloft. 
Bluebird, White-throat, Phoebe, Wren, 
Let our home be yours again! 
Arthur Guiterman 
