great responsibility for the education of the children, both
within the home itself and through cooperation with the schools
(Chapter XIX). No matter how many social organizations and places
of amusement the community may afford, the social and recreational
life of the home is the most important of all and the most far-
reaching in its influence (Chapter XXI). No matter how excellent
the form of government in a community may be, its results will be
very imperfect unless the government in each home is good.
IMPORTANCE OF THE HOME IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
The home has especial importance in the rural community of to-day.
The rural home is no longer so isolated and self-dependent as the
pioneer home, but the life of the rural citizen is much more
dependent upon efforts within the home itself than the life of the
city resident. The business of farming by which the family living
is secured is carried on at home, and, as a rule, all the members
of the family have some part in it. It is a cooperative family
enterprise to a much greater extent than any other modern
business.
In cities, in the great majority of cases, the work by which the
family living is earned is done away from home, and very often no
member of the family except the father has any direct part in it.
There are numerous cases, however, where the mother and even the
children go out to work, and in such cases the home life may be
seriously interfered with.
It would be hard to find a rural home in the United States to-day
that is not near enough to a schoolhouse to enable the children to
attend it, at least for an elementary education. Unfortunately,
high schools are not yet easily accessible in all rural
communities (see Chapter XIX). But whether the education afforded
by the rural school is of the best or not, the boy or girl on the
farm gets in addition a kind of education through the varied
occupations of the farm life that the city boy or girl does not
get, and for which the city schools have tried in vain to find an
adequate substitute. It is remarkable how many of the successful
men and women of our country were raised on farms; and they almost
always bear witness to the value of the training received there.
So in matters of health, of social life and recreation, of
pleasant and beautiful surroundings, the rural home must depend
very largely upon itself. The strength and happiness of the
community, of our nation itself, depend largely upon the extent to
which the homes perform their proper work in providing for the
wants of their members.
Review what was said in Chapter II regarding the independence of
the pioneer family.
Review also what was said in Chapter I regarding the growing
dependence of the family upon the community.
Gather stories regarding pioneer home life (a) in your own
locality, (b) in the settlement of the West; (c) in colonial
times. Illustrate from these stories how the home provided for the
wants of its members.
Show in detail how the various members of a farmer's family take
part in the business of farming. Compare with a family in town
whose living is provided for by some other business.
Make a list of the different people who come to the home of a
family in town to provide for its wants (such as the grocer's boy,
the milkman, the postman, etc.). Compare with a farmer's home with
respect to this service from outside.
LABOR SAVING IN THE HOME
We have read in an earlier chapter that "our national purpose is
to transmute days of dreary work into happier lives--for ourselves
first and for all others in their time." This purpose cannot be
fully achieved if it is not first of all achieved in the home. One
of the objections often raised to life on the farm is that it is a
life of drudgery, of few conveniences and comforts, of long hours,
hard work, and little recreation. Happily this is not so true as
it once was. Labor-saving machinery, better methods of
transportation and communication, better schools, have done much
to improve conditions of rural home life. But occasionally there
still come statements like the following from some of the women in
farm homes:
In many homes life on the farm is a somewhat one-sided affair.
Many times the spare money above living expenses is expended on
costly machinery and farm implements to make the farmer's work
lighter; on more land where there is already a sufficiency; on
expensive horses and cattle and new out-buildings; while little or
nothing is done for home improvement and no provision made for the
comfort and convenience of the women of the family.
If a silo will help to reduce the man's labor, a vacuum cleaner
will do likewise for his wife. If the stock at the barn needs a
good water system to help it grow, the stock in the house needs it
too, and needs it warm for baths.
You see many a farm where there is a cement floor in the barn,
while the cellar in the house is awful. A sheep dip, but no
bathtub; a fine buggy and a poor baby carriage. On many farms a
hundred dollars in cash are not spent in the home in a year.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN THE HOME
These are not meant as complaints about the purchase of labor-
saving farm machinery. Such complaints would be short-sighted, for
it is only by improved methods of farming that the means and the
leisure can be found to enrich the home life in every way. But the
advantages gained by improvements that increase the farmer's
returns are largely lost if they do not at the same time bring
"happier lives" to the family as a whole. The farm home is not
only the place where the family living is EARNED; it is also the
place where the family life is LIVED. Democracy aims at EQUAL
opportunity to enjoy "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness"; "days of dreary work" must be transmuted into "happier
lives" for the women and children as well as for the men. Unless
this is done in the home there is little chance of its being done
at all.
A story is told of a housekeeper in a farm-home in the West who
saw in the sacred rite of old-school housekeepers something more
than scrubbing and polishing ... When her housecleaning was over
she knew just what linen she would need during the coming year,
just how much fruits and vegetables she would need to can or
preserve or dry, just what clothing must be replaced or repaired,
and what dishes would be needed to keep her set complete. She not
only made changes to improve the appearance of her house, but
planned and made the changes in her workshop which would save
steps and make her work as easy as possible. When her mind got to
work, housekeeping became a game, the object being to eliminate
all unnecessary labor. Her benches and tables and sinks were
raised to the proper height and she became ashamed of the back-
breaking energy she had wasted bending over them. A high stool,
made by removing the back and arms from the baby's outgrown high
chair, made dishwashing and ironing much easier. She has been
housekeeping intelligently a dozen years, yet each house-cleaning
or stock-taking period she installs some new labor saver.
She not only makes her head save her heels, but she takes another
kind of inventory which is as well worth while. It is the
inventory which we all need to take of ourselves to be sure that
we are making the best of our opportunities instead of drifting
along day by day in a rut. She searches out the hidden places in
her soul to see if she is just as patient, as thoughtful, as
cheerful as she might be ... [Footnote: RECLAMATION RECORD, Feb.,
1918, p.55, "Project Women and Their Materials," by Mrs. Louella
Littlepage.]
COMMUNITY COOPERATION AND THE HOME
In some rural communities the home has been relieved of much of
the household drudgery by the development of cooperative
creameries, cooperative laundries, and other community
institutions to do work that was formerly done entirely in the
home. In such cooperative enterprises, citizens of the community
buy shares of stock as in the case of the fruit growers'
association. In one community in Michigan "a vote was taken, the
women voting as well as the men, to determine the sentiment of the
community on the establishment of such a laundry, and the vote was
so overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition that the Farmers'
Club promptly called a meeting to promote the enterprise." An
addition was built to the cooperative creamery, which the
community already possessed, so that the same steam plant could be
used for both. The farmers brought their laundry when they brought
their cream, and carried it back on the next trip. "The laundry
has been successful in relieving the hard life of a farmer's wife,
and in addition has been not only self-sustaining but a profitable
institution." One of the women of the community says,
It has lightened the work in the home to such an extent that one
can manage the work without keeping help, which is very scarce and
high priced, when it would be impossible to do so if the washing
was included with our other duties.
And another writes,
This change gives me two days of recreation that I can call my own
every week and also gives me more time in which to accomplish the
household duties. [Footnote: "A Successful Rural Cooperative
Laundry," in the Year Book, Department of Agriculture, 1915, pp.
189-194.]
GOVERNMENT SERVES THE HOME
A great deal of help is now being given to the home by the
government, and this is especially true in the case of the rural
home. The public schools, both in city and country, now consider
home making and "home economics" as worthy of a place in the
course of study as geography and mathematics (see Chapter XIX).
State agricultural colleges are beginning to give as much
attention to these subjects as they do to soils and fertilizers
and stock-breeding. Moreover, the colleges conduct "extension
courses," sending teachers trained in the art of home making to
give instruction to women and girls in every part of the state.
They assist in organizing clubs of girls and women to study
various aspects of home making and housekeeping, and give
demonstrations of the most successful methods of cooking, of
canning, and of other activities connected with home life on the
farm, as well as of labor-saving devices in the household. The
state agricultural colleges have the cooperation of the Department
of Agriculture of the national government in all this work.
WHAT ONE GIRL ACCOMPLISHED
In the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture for 1916 there
is an account of results derived from home demonstration work in
the Southern States. The following story of what Ruth Anderson
accomplished is a good illustration of the possibilities of this
work.
Ruth Anderson, of Etowah County, Alabama, in her second year of
club work, had an excellent plot of one tenth of an acre of beans
and tomatoes. She is the second girl in a family of eleven, and
takes a great interest in her club work. The family home was
small, dark, and crowded, and somewhat unattractive. One day a
carpenter friend of her father saw her one tenth of an acre and
said he wished he had time to plant a garden. She told him she
would furnish vegetables in exchange for some of his time. ...
After a while a bargain was made by which the carpenter agreed to
begin work on the remodeling of the house if Ruth would furnish
him with fresh and canned vegetables for the season.
The other members of the family were soon interested in this
undertaking and worked willingly to contribute their share to its
success. When the house was partly finished Ruth won a canning-
club prize given by a hardware merchant in Gadsden, the county
seat. Silverware was offered her, but, intent upon completing the
new house she asked the merchant how much a front door of glass
would cost, and learned that she could get the door, side lights,
and windows for the price of the silverware. In this way Ruth
brought light and joy to her family with her windows and door. To-
day they live in a pretty bungalow that she helped to build with
her gardening and canning work. At the age of 14, in the second
year of her work, Ruth put up 700 cans of tomatoes and 750 cans of
beans. [Footnote: "Effect of Home Demonstration Work in the
South," in 1916 Year Book of the Department of Agriculture, p.
254.]
Ruth's home before and after she began her work is shown in the
accompanying illustrations.
NATIONAL AID TO THE HOME
The national government helps in home making in other ways than
those suggested above, and through other departments than that of
agriculture. In the Department of the Interior the General Land
Office, the Bureau of Education, the Reclamation Service, the
Office of Indian Affairs are all doing work to improve the homes
of the land. So, also, is the Public Health Service of the
Treasury Department; the Bureau of Standards in the Department of
Commerce; the Children's Bureau in the Department of Labor. We
shall encounter some of this work as we proceed with our study.
In what ways has household work been relieved of its drudgery
since your mothers were girls?
What labor-saving devices have been introduced in your home?
Make a report on labor-saving inventions for the household (see
references at end of chapter).
What are some labor-saving household devices that could be made by
boys and girls (such as fireless cookers, iceless refrigerators,
etc.)? (See references below). Can your school help in such
projects? To what extent could (or do) boys' and girls' clubs
undertake such projects? Is there any leader in your community who
could direct or advise in such projects?
Is the kitchen in your home properly arranged to save steps,
labor, and time in doing kitchen work? Consider plans for
improvement. Consult parents.
Does experience in your community confirm the feeling of the women
quoted on page 104?
Are there any cooperative enterprises in your community that
relieve the housekeeper of household labor, such as cooperative
laundries, creameries, etc.? Are they a business success? Have
they improved conditions of home life?
What is the difference between a "cooperative" laundry and an
ordinary laundry such as may be found in most towns? Does one
relieve the home more than the other?
What other business enterprises are carried on in towns that
relieve the home of work? Why are such business enterprises not
conducted in the same way in rural communities?
Is there any special interest in home improvement in your
community? Who or what has brought it about? What can you do to
encourage such interest?
READINGS
"Lessons in Community and National Life": Series C, Lesson 20,
"The Family and Social Control."
For an extensive list of titles of publications relating to the
home, send to the United States Bureau of Education for its
Bulletin, 1919, No. 46, "Bibliography of Home Economics,"
especially section VIII on "The Family," and section X on "The
House and Household Activities." Among the many titles given in
this are:
Earle, Alice Morse, "Home Life in Colonial Days" (Macmillan).
Gillette, J. M., "The Family and Society" (A. C. McClurg).
Thwing and Butler, "The Family" (Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co.).
Gilman, Charlotte P., The Home (Doubleday, Page and Co.).
Talbot and Breckenridge, "The Modern Household" (Whitcomb and
Barrows, Boston).
Addams, Jane, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets
(Macmillan).
Ellwood, Charles A., "Sociology and Modern Social Problems,"
chapters on the family (American Book Co.).
Scott, Rhea, "Home Labor-Saving Devices" (Lippincott).
Foght, H. W., "The Rural Teacher and his Work," Part I, chap. iii.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary, Reports
103, 104, 105, 106:
"Social and Labor Needs of Farm Women."
"Domestic Needs of Farm Women."
"Educational Needs of Farm Women."
"Economic Needs of Farm Women."
These reports can be obtained only from the Superintendent of
Documents, Government Printing Office, 15 cents each.
"The American Farm Woman as She Sees Herself," U. S. Department of
Agriculture Year Book, 1914, pp. 311-318.
"Selection of Household Equipment," Department of Agriculture Year