living which was discussed in connection
with the Industrial Department, it is the scale or measure of comfort
and satisfaction, which a person or community of persons, regards as
indispensable to happiness. Now the question is whether these cheap
lodging houses lower this standard; whether their existence results in a
tendency to live with less effort and less ambition, and thus renders
men and women less productive and less proficient. This question must be
separated into a question regarding the community as a whole, and a
question regarding the individual. As regards the standard of living of
any single community, the answer would be that the standard is not
appreciably lowered by this hotel system, since the occupants are mostly
single men wandering around, and the standard of living of the community
is more concerned with the maintenance of homes in its midst, than of
transients. This, however, brings in the further question as to whether
the cheap living made possible by the lodging houses leads to the
breaking up of homes, since if it does so, it would bear decidedly on
the standard of living. We would answer this second question in the
negative, because life in the cheap hotel is not such a desirable thing
as to lead to the breaking up of homes. A man has already left home and
is already reduced in circumstances, before the fact of such cheap
living as the hotels and cheap restaurants of the Bowery in New York, or
of Whitechapel in London, ever comes to him as an advantage. But, on the
other hand, when it comes to the individual concerned, we think that the
standard is lowered and that in many cases the objection holds good. For
instance, take a man with a regular trade, say bricklaying or
carpentering. He is thrown out of work and gradually drifts down to the
cheap hotel. For months, possibly, he strives in vain to get work at his
trade. He exists, however, by means of odd jobs picked up at random; he
becomes shiftless; the life which consists of so much "hanging around"
and loafing, decreases his efficiency, and, in this way, his standard is
lowered. At the same time his character is affected, and even if no
worse development takes place, he loses ambition, and that lowers his
standard. Hence, in conclusion, we would say that the objection that the
hotel movement of the Army leads to a lowering of a standard of living
has no place as regards the community, but is sustained as regards
individuals.

The third