of the future lies in the moulding
of man's surroundings to his needs. In physiological terms, "the
adaptation of structure to function."

The day is long past when shelter implied chiefly a tight roof and a dry
floor. The housing of the twentieth-century family means location, central
and fashionable. It means in cost far more than what the roof covers and
the floor supports. It means plumbing and interior finish; it also means
a finish on the outside, smoothly shaven lawns and immaculate sidewalks.

Sigh as we may for the colonial house, we confess that the standards of
the time did not include the comfort of hot baths, polished floors,
plate-glass windows, elevators, ice-closets, and lawn-mowers. These are
necessary adjuncts to what is held as merely decent living; _how_ can the
$2000 man have them, not why _will_ he not?

What then is the house and the life in it to become for the great majority
of families and individuals with an income of $3000 a year and necessarily
nomadic habits. I say necessarily, because these families are at the mercy
of business and social conditions quite beyond their control and
impossible to foretell.

So far as prophetic vision sees through the mists of time, the aim of the
twentieth century is to live the _effective life_.

The simple life has been preached, the strenuous life has been lauded,
but, as William Barclay Parsons recently stated it:[1] "We need force, we
need a vigorous force; we need that direction and avoidance of the
unnecessary which is simplicity, but with either one alone there is
something lacking. Instead of latent force and great energy without
control, instead of quiet gentleness, of power of control without vigor
to be controlled, what we need is force and energy applied where necessary
and always under control, always working to a definite purpose, and at the
same time avoiding complications and unnecessary friction.

[Footnote 1: William Barclay Parsons, N.E.A., Asbury Park, 1905. _Eng.
Record_, Aug. 12, 1905.]

"That is to have a life whose great underlying motive is effectiveness.
Instead of speaking of the strenuous life or the simple life, let us have
as a doctrine 'the effective life.'

"What we need is not merely a man who acts, but one who _does_; that is,
one who will do what he has to do regardless of intervening obstacles.
Efficiency and effectiveness are the key-notes of success in actual life.
They are also the lessons taught by every parab