what is needed imperatively is organized intelligence and direction.
For the problem is essentially one of ways and means.

And, finally, while we are about Better Homes for America and are
lending such indirect support to the movement as the Government,
States, counties, communities, and patriotic individuals and
organizations can rightfully give, let us have in mind not houses
merely, but homes! There is a large distinction. It may have been a
typesetter who confounded the two words. For, curiously, with all our
American ingenuity and resourcefulness, we have overlooked the laundry
and the kitchen, and thrown the bulk of our efforts in directions other
than those designed to make better homes by adding to the facilities of
our very habitations. If, in other words, the family is the unit of
modern civilization, the home, its shelter and gathering-point, should,
it would seem, warrant in its design and furnishing quite as large a
share of attention as the power plant or the factory.

We believe, therefore, that in every community in which it is possible
a "_Better Homes in America_" Demonstration should be planned and
carried through during the week of October 9th to 14th, 1922.

(Signed) Herbert Hoover




THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE

WASHINGTON