HOME PROBLEMS
_from_
A NEW STANDPOINT
_By_ CAROLINE L. HUNT
[Illustration: colophon]
WHITCOMB & BARROWS
BOSTON 1908
COPYRIGHT 1908
BY
CAROLINE L. HUNT
PRESS WORK BY ALFRED MUDGE & SON INC.
COMPOSITION AND ELECTROTYPING BY
THOMAS TODD
14 BEACON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
To H. C. H. and A. G. H.
INTRODUCTORY
“Given a number of human beings, with a certain development of physical
and mental faculties and of social resources, how can they best utilize
these powers for the attainment of the most complete satisfaction?” Thus
J. A. Hobson states what he calls _The Social Problem_, adding that if
“complete satisfaction” seems too indefinite, owing to the various
interpretations of which it is capable, we may adopt Ruskin’s words and
say that the end to be sought is “the largest number of healthy and
happy human beings.” It is as a factor in the Social Problem, thus
broadly stated in terms of human life, that this series of papers will
consider The Home.
There was a time when the home could hardly have been said to be a
factor in the Social Problem. It had a problem of its own, to be sure,
that of the proper management of its internal affairs, and upon the
wisdom of that management the welfare of society was largely dependent.
This problem, however, was not greatly affected by conditions in the
world at large. The home was independent industrially and in no way
involved in the general labor problem. Its women members were not
tempted to prepare themselves for and to enter upon occupations
unconnected with its administration and welfare; the question whether a
woman could have a career and a home had not then arisen. The home was
at that time independent also of public work, looking to city or village
boards for assistance neither in maintaining cleanliness nor in warding
off disease.
Now all has changed. The home, by consenting to use factory products and
by employing outside help, has involved itself in the great labor
problem; by educating its daughters to support themselves in occupations
unconnected with its management it has complicated its original problem
of household administration; by entrusting the education of its little
children to schools, the care of its sick to hospitals, the protection
of its water supply, and other important interests, to town councils or
to village boards, it has entered into public affairs. It has brought to
itself new problems and to women and to men new responsibilities, new
opportunities, and new privileges. These new responsibilities,
opportunities, and privileges will be considered in the pages that
follow.
CONTENTS
I MORE LIFE FOR WOMAN 3
II MORE LIFE FOR MAN 17
III MORE LIFE FOR THE HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYEE 33
IV MORE PHYSICAL VIGOR FOR ALL 51
V MORE JOY IN MERE LIVING 67
VI MORE BEAUTY FOR ALL 83
VII MORE PLEASURE FOR THE PRODUCER OF HOUSEHOLD STUFF 99
VIII MORE CONSCIENCE FOR THE CONSUMER 119
IX NEW WORK FOR THE HOME 135
HOME PROBLEMS FROM A NEW STANDPOINT
MORE LIFE FOR WOMAN
More life for woman--not only in length through increase of years, but
also in breadth through increase in joyful, satisfactory, well-directed
activity.
A person is prompted to activity by certain instincts or desires. It is
common to divide these desires into two classes--the self-regarding and
the other-regarding. Among those of the first class are the desires for
nutrition, for parenthood, for intellectual activity, and for creating
objects of utility and beauty. Among those of the second class are love
and sympathy. It is common, also, to divide the activities prompted by
the desires into selfish and unselfish on the ground that some are of
value to him alone who engages in them, and some are of value to others
only. The latter division, however, is not rational, for it is easy to
show of any act, that if it is of benefit to the doer it must be to
others also, and _vice versa_. Eating, for example, is prompted by a
desire that is entirely self-regarding, but if we did not eat we could
not work for others.
Although there is no reason for a classification of activities based
upon the recipient of the benefit, there is a reason for a division
based upon the way in which the advantage comes to the doer or to
others. The self-regarding instincts inspire one to acts which lead
directly to the enrichment of his own life and only indirectly, and by
way of his increased power through activity and consequent increased
capacity for service, to the welfare of others. By such acts he
preserves his life, promotes his health, acquires knowledge, and
cultivates talents in whose expression he finds pleasure. The
other-regarding instincts lead one to activities which tend directly to
the welfare of others, and only by a circuitous route and by way of the
benefit conferred upon others, to the enrichment of his own life. By
such activities he sacrifices or endangers his life that others may
live, he gives up health for the health of others, imparts knowledge at
the expense of limiting his own store of information, and leads others
to the satisfaction of expressing their talents by sacrificing the
cultivation and exercise of his peculiar gifts.
Success in either form of activity is dependent upon activity of the
other kind. The man who teaches successfully finds that he at the same
time systematizes his own knowledge, makes it available for his own
purposes, and prepares himself for further learning. The woman who would
have strong children seeks to increase her own physical vigor, and thus
by work for others she secures the joys of health for herself.
On the other hand, activity of one kind, at the expense of the other,
tends not only to unbalance, but to narrow life. The mother who blindly
performs unnecessary services for her child, and thus curtails her time
for reading and study, runs the risk of becoming incapable of directing
wisely the education of the child in later life. She not only unbalances
her life by too much serving, but also narrows it by reducing her
chances for continued usefulness.
Breadth of life is dependent upon an equilibrium between the activities
prompted by the self-regarding and those prompted by the other-regarding
desires.
The wish to find expression for peculiar talents is self-regarding.
Occupations suited to talent, however, lead not only to pleasure in
work, but to development and to increased power for usefulness; and
while the interests of the well-balanced life may at any time demand the
sacrifice of talents for the sake of work for others, those same
interests demand just as imperiously that talents must not be
unnecessarily sacrificed for the sake of purposeless serving.
Upon woman’s opportunities for intensive cultivation of special talents,
Nature has set a limitation by specializing her for childbearing. This
limitation is probably not nearly so great as education and unhealthful
living make it appear, but it does exist. Considered alone, it seems an
unqualified disadvantage. Considered in connection with the fact that it
brings the joys of motherhood and of usefulness to society, it appears
to be a means for rounding out and broadening her life.
To this limitation set by Nature to woman’s chances for individualizing
herself, society has added another check by specializing her for
housekeeping. Does this tend to unbalance and narrow her life, or to
balance and broaden it? The answer to this question depends, first, upon
whether she has talents which do not find expression in housekeeping;
second, upon whether her specialization for housekeeping interferes with
their use; and third, if it does interfere, upon whether the
interference brings with it a compensating advantage.
First, have women talents which do not find expression in housekeeping?
That is easily answered. Women are successfully practicing medicine,
nursing, teaching, and working at the various crafts. Society is showing
its appreciation of their work by offering them employment in these
various occupations.
Second, does housekeeping impose a limitation upon the use of these
special talents, independent of the limitation imposed by childbearing?
In answering this it is convenient to suppose a woman’s life to be
divided into three equal periods. If she be granted threescore and ten
years of life, each period would be about twenty-three years long. The
first period in all women is, or should be, given chiefly to education
and preparation for life. The second, in the case of women who marry and
have children, is given chiefly to maternal cares. The third is
comparatively free.
During the first period there is no bent which can be given to education
for the sake of preparing a woman for motherhood that does not prepare
her for life itself. Study of food, hygiene, psychology, all are useful
in any form of life. Not so, however, with the bent that is given to
woman’s education because of her specialization for housekeeping. In
manual training, for example, except in the most progressive of schools,
her work is confined to cooking and sewing. This prevents her from
finding out whether she has talents for work in wood and metal or for
engineering, thus defeating one of the first purposes of education, the
exploration and discovery of talents. This means a waste of time in
early life and frequently a failure to find a life work suited to her
natural endowment. If she does not marry, it offers an unnecessary
handicap to her in business or professional life. If she does marry, it
brings her to the period when childbearing imposes its necessary
limitation, not so well prepared as she might be for carrying on her
special work in hours of leisure. The same thing could be said of the
bent given to the more theoretical parts of woman’s education, for the
purpose of preparing her for housekeeping.
During the second period, housekeeping adds its check to that imposed by
the care of children. Ask a woman why she does not work at her specialty
and she is quite as likely to say, “Because I cannot get good help in my
kitchen,” as “Because the care of my children interferes.” If it were
not for housekeeping, she might give the time now spent in this
employment to reading the literature of her chosen subject, and
oftentimes to active work in her trade or profession--to office
practice, if a doctor; to private classes, if a teacher. If she had
chosen a craft, her work would be practically uninterrupted, for it
could be carried on at home.
During the third period, housekeeping imposes two limitations, one
directly and the other in the form of an inefficiency projected from the
second period because of disuse of her talents. It is during this time
that the sacrifice of woman’s talents for the sake of housekeeping is
most apparent. She is free from the care of young children, and if she
were not handicapped by inexperience could enrich her own life and add
to her usefulness by systematic work in her own line.
Housekeeping, then, does provide a check upon the development of woman’s
individuality through the use of special powers, a check which extends
over all her life and is independent of that imposed by childbearing.
Finally, is this check necessary to the well-balanced life? This must be
determined for individual cases. In trying to answer the question, we
must keep in mind that whenever an activity is necessary to the
realization of the ideal of home, it is necessary to the complete life,
whether it involves the sacrifice of talents or not; when it is not so
necessary and does not provide an outlet for special talents, it is an
unjustifiable waste of woman’s life and of society’s resources.
That which is necessary for good home-making can be determined only by
holding fast to the highest ideal of home and by having a clear
understanding of changing social conditions. The ideal never changes;
the best home-making must always be an intelligent, affectionate effort
to help others to attain as nearly as possible to completeness of life
by securing for them those essentials of good living which they cannot
obtain in other ways as well or better; but while the ideal remains
always the same, the means by which it must be realized undergo constant
change. Once it was necessary for a woman to make candles or to leave
her husband and children in darkness. That time passed, for husband and
children found a better light than that of homemade candles. And yet
the woman continued her candle-making for a long period. She has done
this with most of the varied activities of housekeeping, continuing them
long after they had become only an obstacle in the way of her own
independent development.
The reason for this useless clinging to outgrown activities is to be
found in our conception of the purposes of housekeeping. We have thought
of its multiple activities as the ends toward which the talents of all
women should be bent, no matter how difficult or how wasteful the
bending process. A frank recognition of the varied character of women’s
talents and of society’s need for the full and free exercise of these
talents, and an appreciation also of the value of good home-making, not
only to the world at large, but to women themselves as a means of
rounding out and balancing their lives, will lead to a different
conception. A special trade, craft, profession, business, or form of
public work will seem the end toward which the peculiar talent of a
given woman should be directed, while housekeeping will appear, not as
an end in itself, but as a means, the means which at a given stage of
industrial development all women may find it necessary to employ if they
would give expression to their love by making homes.
In this spirit of double appreciation we see that when the home-maker
continues one of the activities of housekeeping after it has become
unnecessary to good home-making, she unbalances her life by
over-serving; that when she sacrifices home for the sake of a “career,”
she destroys the equilibrium of her life by failing to find expression
for the other-regarding desires. In this spirit alone can we view the
changes which are going on in society, and separate those which tend to
narrow and impoverish woman’s life from those which tend to broaden and
enrich it.
Looking in this spirit, we see an advantage in boarding-house life
because it reduces the amount of work necessary for cooking and serving
food. We see another advantage in the reduction of the amount of
superintendence when compared with the amount of work done.
Housekeepers today are being nerve-racked by an amount of
superintendence out of all proportion to the labor necessary for
housekeeping. On the other hand, we see disadvantages in this kind of
life because it is incompatible with the retirement that is necessary
for mutual helpfulness, for successful child training, and for good
fellowship. The adoption of a scientific and up-to-date modification of
the “lodgings” system in vogue in England, or some other plan of
professional catering for private families, might be the means of
preserving the good in boarding-house life without perpetuating the
evil.
We see in the increase of prepared foods upon the market a saving of
labor but a menace to health. Women’s clubs, made possible partly
because of the saving of time through the use of these foods, are
largely responsible for the pure food laws that have been passed, and we
are looking to them for an educational campaign which will result in
further legislation and a better enforcement of present laws.
In the movement toward economic independence for woman, we see
advantages and disadvantages. When it leads her to sacrifice home and
motherhood and the opportunity to do work in which her soul delights
rather than to be economically dependent, it enslaves her and her
talents, for economic independence is worthless unless it brings
expressional freedom; when it brings her the opportunity to do the work
she loves and can do best, it frees her and her powers.
We see in the revival of handicraft tremendous significance to woman,
because it opens up to her a great field of industries which offer
activities for both hand and brain, and which can be carried on at home
without interfering with the care of children. We see why it was
necessary for the handicrafts to fall into disuse while we were working
out the system of division of labor, which now, upon their revival,
makes it possible for women to become more than mere amateurs in them.
These and many other interesting movements we see in society, if we have
our eyes open, both to the value of woman as a home-maker and to her
value as an individual.
More life for woman--not through sacrifice of the joys of motherhood and
home-making, but by the addition of the pleasures in satisfactory
cultivation of special talents to the privileges of service.
MORE LIFE FOR MAN
The changes which are enlarging woman’s educational privileges and are
giving to her an opportunity to prepare herself for work not directly
connected with the home, and which by simplifying housekeeping methods
are making it possible for her to carry on such work in connection with
home-making, may be said to be bringing _more life to man_, providing we
understand the word _life_ in its broad and not in its narrow sense, and
providing we mean by _man_ no particular individual nor class of
individuals, but composite man.
The individual man may be inclined to dispute this statement. If so, it
is probably because of one of two facts. Either he does not see life
whole, and thinks only of what he has lost by woman’s progress and not
of what he has gained, or he forgets that he is only a small part of
composite man, and, as such, may fall below the average with respect to
his joy in living.
If he likes homemade bread and is compelled to eat baker’s bread because
his wife likes to study Dante better than to cook, he may think that he
is not so well off as he would have been if he had lived a half century
ago, when Dante classes for women and baker’s bread were practically
unknown. But if he considers the advantages of eating his supper under
the eaves, as it were, of the Dante class, and of having his baker’s
bread flavored with drippings of information concerning the great poet
and his times, he may conclude that baker’s bread with Dante sauce is
more to him than homemade bread without it.
Or it may be that his doubt of the statement is due to the fact that his
quota of life is below the average. Perhaps his wife goes off to her
class and does not bring back to him the information and inspiration
which she has received. If so, the trouble is not with the times, but
with human nature. Selfishness always has existed and always will exist.
If a man has a selfish wife, the only thing he can do to assure himself
that men are really better off than they used to be is to look abroad
and to see if, for every one like himself, there are not two others who
are profiting by woman’s broadened life and who bring up the average of
life for modern man above that of his middle-of-the-nineteenth-century
brother.
To live, what is it? To be healthy, to enjoy the pleasures of the
senses, to taste good tastes, to hear sweet sounds, to see beautiful
sights, to learn, to do (if we object to the word “work” because it is
sometimes applied to drudgery), and to love. The last is most important
of all. It modifies all the rest, and they at times must be sacrificed
to it. It is interpreted by all the rest, for only by knowing what we
consider real life for ourselves can we know what our love should seek
for others.
Taking the desire to love first, woman’s expanding life is making
possible for man the expression of an ever better and higher form of
affection. To see how this comes about, we must read the present in the
light of the past.
There was a time when man’s work as well as woman’s was almost all
directly connected with the home. He raised wheat, kept cows, pigs, and
chickens, hewed timber, built his own house and barn, and gathered his
own fuel, while she spun, dyed, wove, sewed, cooked, and cared for the
house. Neither was then a specialist. Then came division of labor,
which, however, affected man’s work more than woman’s. This made it
possible for him to become a farmer, a carpenter, or a coal merchant,
and to provide for the needs of his home by the fruits of his
specialized labor instead of by direct labor, as he had done in earlier
times. To woman there has never come any such privilege. Although her
duties are much lightened, she must still be a housekeeper if she would
be a home-maker.
One explanation that has been given for the differences in the courses
that man’s and woman’s activities have taken is that woman is less
progressive than man and more opposed to change. Another is that her
work is so closely connected with personal needs and has associated with
it so much of sentiment that it cannot be delegated to outsiders.
Whatever the cause may be, the average married man’s work today has
certain distinct advantages over the average married woman’s. It is more
varied and more likely to call special talents into play, and it takes
him out among people and gives him a broad outlook.
If we view the situation in a bargaining spirit, it may seem fair that
when man earns the money woman should care for the house. If, however,
we consider the amount of life that each is securing from work, the
inequalities of the situation become apparent. There is always, to be
sure, an occasional man who, recognizing the disabilities under which
his wife labors, seeks to equalize matters by accepting a share in home
responsibilities and work. The discovery of the necessity for such
action, to which neither tradition nor custom points, is a mark of
intelligence. The acceptance of the responsibility after it is
recognized is the result of an unselfishness of the highest form, to
which society does not direct him as it does to activities for the
purpose of supporting the family, nor instinct prompt him as it does
woman to her self-sacrifices in caring for the family. His recognition
of the unequal distribution of life and his efforts at equalization are
triumphs of wisdom and love over nature, tradition, and custom.
Unselfish man has in the past been woefully handicapped. Fifty years ago
he could not have said to his wife, as he can now, “Do no cooking today,
but buy some baked beans or boiled ham for supper and you go to the art
exhibition.” Fifty years ago there was little object in trying to
relieve his wife of her household cares, for then there was little else
upon which she could profitably spend her time. Now, when he wishes to
be unselfish, his opportunities for accomplishing something worth while
thereby are great. Of course he is always encountering his wife’s desire
to be unselfish also, and to stay at home and cook the food he likes and
otherwise to provide for his comfort, but the two must settle that
between themselves, with due regard on the part of each for preserving
the proper balance in the life of the other. In this struggle the
greater possibilities in the way of development and increase of life
lie with man. To woman it is given to accept a self-sacrifice which
nature has mapped out for her by specializing her for childbearing and
which society has mapped out for her by specializing her for
housekeeping. To man it is given to map out for himself a new path into
unselfishness and to secure the expansion of powers that comes from
pioneering.
Nor is this higher affection merely its own reward. To the increase of
life brought by love is added increase in all other directions,
presupposing always ideas and ideals in woman as well as in man. With
leisure created by man’s unselfishness, woman can study and secure
mental development which makes her a wiser conserver of man’s health, a
better comrade in his leisure, and a more intelligent helper in his
labors. To use the phraseology of our definition of life, she can better
assist him to secure health, to enjoy the pleasures of the senses, to
learn, and to do.
He wishes health. There was a time when his work demanded life-giving,
muscular exercise in the fresh air, when his house was so loosely built
that it was inevitably well ventilated, when he lived so far from his
neighbors that there was no danger of catching their diseases either
through contamination of water supply or otherwise, when his food passed
directly from garden to table, fresh and unadulterated. Then health came
almost unbidden. His wife, though she could help him in many other ways,
could do little for his health except to cook his food properly.
Later, things changed. He moved into the town and his neighbor’s sewage
percolated into his well. His house was tightly built and admitted
little air through the cracks. His work became sedentary and kept him
indoors most of the time. His food was brought to him from the four
corners of the earth, passing through many hands on the way, and was
liable to deterioration and adulteration.
For a time he failed to see that with changed conditions his health
problem had changed. If, as a result, he did not die of consumption or
typhoid fever, he became anæmic and dyspeptic, his chest sank, his
circulation became impaired, and his liver sluggish. Then he awoke to
the fact that if he would have good air he must adopt a system of
ventilation for his closed buildings; that if he would have good lung
capacity, quick circulation, and an active liver, he must take regular
physical exercise; that if he would have safe water, he must stir up the
municipal authorities to do their duty or must himself adopt means to
sterilize his drinking supply; that if he would have wholesome food,
there was something necessary besides good cooking. Dairies and markets
must be inspected and laws against adulteration must be made and
enforced.
Scientists came to his rescue and put at his disposal an abundance of
literature on hygiene, sanitation, and physical culture, but he had
little time in which to read it. So it has come about that with his
altered health problem there has been opened to woman the opportunity to
do something more for man’s health than to cook his food. If she is
intelligent and has leisure, she can study sanitation and hygiene and
make practical application of their principles in her home. She can take
lessons in physical culture, pass them on to her husband and exercise
with him a few minutes every day, thus helping him to overcome the
effects of his sedentary occupation. She can, through her clubs, stir up
the town authorities to provide good water, to clean the streets and
prevent disease-laden dust from blowing about, to care properly for
garbage and sewage, and to inspect places where food is kept for sale.
In many ways she can help in the struggle against disease which man made
necessary when he became a town dweller.
Man wishes to enjoy the pleasures of the senses, among which not the
least in importance is the sense of taste. This sense God gave for man’s
enjoyment, and then provided for its satisfaction many delicious natural
flavors. It is not, however, the man in whose house there is most
cooking done who gets the greatest pleasure from taste, and it is
frequently just he who gets the least enjoyment from the other senses.
If a man insists upon taking his wife to see the woods when the violets
are in blossom, instead of letting her stay at home to make shortcake
for his supper, he loses his shortcake, but plain strawberries and cream
and bread and butter often taste better after a brisk walk than
shortcake does without the walk, and in this case the man gets not only
the taste of the food, but also the smell of the woods, the sight of the
flowers, and the sound of the birds. Nor is it the man in whose house
there is most cleaning done who gets most pleasure from the sense of
sight. If a man insists on or acquiesces in the reduction of the number
of carpets, curtains, and draperies, because they make too much care for
his wife, he loses the beauty of these furnishings, but the absence of
curtains may make it possible for him to feast his eyes on the waving
trees and the ever changing sky, while the reduction of care may make it
possible for his wife to go with him to art gallery or concert, or to
make such a study of art and music as to increase his own enjoyment and
appreciation of them.
He wishes to learn. Most men do, even after their college days are over.
He wishes to have a background of information in order that he may
understand current events better, to know of the world and its progress,
and of the relation of his special occupation to the world’s work. But
alas! He has little time for general reading. Often he has not even time
to go to the library. An intelligent and educated wife can often,
providing she has leisure, do for him much which he would do in his own
spare moments if he had them.
He wishes to do. Who is there who does not occasionally say, “If I had
money, if I had time, I would do so and so?” This suggests the kind of
doing that is pleasurable, that is better than leisure, and which an
assured income cannot stop. It often happens that a man’s work borders
on this kind of activity. He is a teacher and loves his profession, but
in order to do his work satisfactorily he ought to have time for
independent study and research. If there were fewer papers to correct, a
little less routine, he might have time for original work which would
leaven all the rest. Or perhaps he is a draftsman working all day at
monotonous tasks, but amid surroundings that inspire him to do some work
on his own account, and to grow in his profession. The wide-awake,
educated woman has it in her power frequently to become conversant with
her husband’s work, to lessen his drudgery, and, having saved him a
little time for original work, to make it go further than it otherwise
would because of her intelligent coöperation and assistance.
If living consists in being healthy, in enjoying the pleasures of the
senses, in learning, in doing, and in loving, modern man stands a better
chance of living than his predecessor did. The reasons are many, and not
the least of them is the fact that his wife lives more.
Nor is the end in sight. If women’s opportunities to prepare themselves
for and to enter upon careers unconnected with the home multiply in the
future as they have in the past, men may be called upon to adjust
themselves to much more radical changes. But the indications are that
these changes will offer to them further opportunities for the
expression of disinterested affection and larger lives through the
expansion of the lives of those they love.
MORE LIFE FOR THE HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYEE
“I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the
same terms.” In these words of Walt Whitman’s can all of us who cherish
the democratic ideal of equality of privilege and opportunity express
our feelings with regard to domestic service, for when we are able to
rise above the trials and tribulations that the institution brings to
ourselves and to look upon it from an impersonal point of view, we find
that the chief source of our dissatisfaction with it is in the fact that
it gives benefits to one class by taking their counterpart from another.
The popular toleration of domestic service is due to a misapplication of
the theory that the family is the unit of society. This theory has, in
the past, played an important part in social evolution by calling
attention to and emphasizing the family relation. It has, however, led
to many undemocratic practices. This has been not so much because of
anything wrong with the theory, as because it has not been supported by
a clear conception of the value of the individual life. Thus
unsupported, it has, by allowing itself to become entangled with the
theory that man is the logical representative of the family in society,
taken from woman the incentive to, and the opportunity for, independent
action, and has also been responsible for the grossest infringements of
her property rights. Thus unsupported, too, it has, by emphasizing the
family as an institution, rather than the right of the individual to the
family relation, led to the condoning of the maintenance of certain
families at the expense of the freedom of individuals to enter into the
family relation. Thus in slave times the family connections of the
blacks were ruthlessly shattered in order to provide the service that
was thought necessary to preserve the family life of the whites.
A better working theory, and one that is less likely to lead to
undemocratic practices, is the one that sees in the individual the
unit, and in the family relation one of the most important means for
promoting his happiness and social usefulness. Such a view of the value
of the individual and of the importance of the family relation leads
logically to the conception of the obligation of the individual who
accepts the privileges of the family relation so to adjust his life to
the lives of the other members of his family group as to preserve their
individual freedom, and to coöperate with them in the effort so to
adjust the group to the social order as not to interfere with the
freedom of other individuals to enter into and to maintain the family
relation.
In the light of this view of society, domestic service looms up most
undemocratic. It is so ordered as to bring a combination of benefits to
a privileged class. This combination consists of the opportunity to live
in retirement with those to whom they are bound by kinship or affection
or by both, and thus to transform the places where they eat and sleep
into homes, and the privilege of getting rid of the multiple activities
which the maintenance of separate homes involves, the cooking,
cleaning, etc., and of being able to engage in activities of their
choice, and to secure leisure for social intercourse.
This combination of privileges is at present secured at the expense of a
corresponding combination of privileges in the serving class. The result
is three distinct disabilities for this class. The first, which arises
from the fact that the domestic servant has not free choice of
residence, and must accept the external form of home where her employer
has his real home, may be called ethical, because its most serious
result is that it takes from her the opportunity for moral development
that comes from home-making. The second is industrial, and arises from
the fact that she must offer in exchange for wages no particular
services, but her entire time, to be disposed of as her employer sees
fit. The third, which arises from her intimate personal relation to her
employer, is social, and results in the determination of her position in
society, not by her worth nor by her qualifications for social
intercourse, but by her position as a member of the serving class.
These three disabilities on the part of the servants react on the
employers, and bring them three forms of inconvenience. The first is a
feeling of responsibility for the sex relations of the employee, a
responsibility that is not felt with reference to those with whom the
relation is a purely business one, such as the butcher, the grocer, the
seamstress.
The second is the difficulty of making the servants “know and keep their
places.” This leads at times to such serious dilemmas as the one in
which the man found himself who appealed to Marion Harland, through her
queries column in one of the daily papers, to know whether he ought to
recognize his family servant on the street, and if so, whether he ought
to lift his hat or merely to nod his head. One can imagine this poor man
staying closely within his office on Thursday afternoons, if Marion
Harland was not prompt with her reply, for fear that if he ventured
forth upon the street he might on turning a corner come suddenly upon
his household helper, and, being still unsupplied with a code of
etiquette, not know how to conduct himself.
The third inconvenience to the employer is the lack in the servant of
personal responsibility for good work, the inevitable result of time
service.
To remove these three disabilities from the employee and the three
inconveniences from the employer, certain changes in household
administration must be made. First, the relation of mistress and servant
must be changed to the more democratic one of employer and employee.
Second, the work of the household must be so arranged as to allow a
person to perform one service, such as cleaning, for many families,
instead of many services for one family. Third, the work done in the
home must be reduced, and then compressed within the limits of a
reasonable working day, in order that it may not interfere with the home
life of the employee.
For these modifications in household administration the changes that are
going on outside of the home are paving the way. Public education is
removing the stigma from domestic service by refusing to recognize class
distinctions in the distribution of its benefits. Commerce, industry,
science, and art are coöperating to reduce the amount of work
necessarily done in the home.
Central plants for the distribution of hot water for heating, cleaning,
and bathing purposes are now in use in many places. One city, Colorado
Springs, is said to be considering the construction of a central
pneumatic cleaning plant. Central refrigerating plants are practicable.
Commercial changes are continually making it possible to buy commodities
which it was formerly necessary to prepare at home. This has been
referred to so often that it need only be mentioned here, although it is
one of the most important of the social changes that are affecting the
conditions of home life. Improved methods of transportation are bringing
us fresh fruit all the year around, and thus reducing the work of
preserving and of making desserts. Industrial changes are making it
possible to have performed outside of the home services like laundry
work, mending, and carpet cleaning, which it used to be necessary to
include in household labor.
Advances in medical science are putting nursing on the plane of the
professions, and making the hospital seem a better place than the
private house for the care of the sick. Hygienic considerations make it
seem wise that maternity cases also be cared for in hospitals.
Advances in sanitary science are making it not only desirable, but
possible, to transfer one whole class of duties from the housekeeper and
her assistants to the individual members of the family. These are
connected with the care of the bedroom and its furnishings. Now that it
seems best that each person should have a separate sleeping room, and
now that knowledge of hygiene is available for all, there is no reason
why every able-bodied adult should not assume full charge of his own
room, having it cleaned and changing bedclothes and towels as often as
he thinks necessary considering the state of his health, the amount of
sun that his room receives, and the amount of dust to which it is
exposed.
Kindergartens are continually taking children at a younger age.
Clubrooms are being made available for private entertainments.
Art is lightening household labor by teaching a better way in house
decoration and furnishing. By teaching form, color, and design it is
showing that a good color on the wall, which, being vertical, sheds the
dust by reason of the force of gravity, may give so much esthetic
satisfaction as to take away the necessity for many of our
dust-entrapping decorations; that one piece of pottery of good color and
form may please the eye more than a whole mantel shelf full of
nondescript articles of bric-a-brac; that plain furniture of good form
may be more beautiful than that which is covered with carving and brass
filigree. Plain, substantial furniture and simplicity in decoration are
not only lessening work, but are making it more practicable to turn
houses over to professional cleaners.
Another change should be mentioned which, though at first thought it
seems to have little connection with household management, may prove to
be of much significance. This change has come about through the fact
that the time of preparation necessary for the professions is
continually lengthening. The result of this is that there is in college
towns (and with the spread of university extension and of correspondence
study there is coming to be in other towns) a class of young people who
are still studying, but who must and should support themselves. The
young men of this class now take care of furnaces, beat rugs, and
perform other such services. The young women take care of children. If
it were not for the popular feeling with respect to housework, they
might be employed in many other ways. There is a whole class of tasks,
like the cleaning of silver, the making of beds, and the serving of
meals, which require less skill and experience than cooking and less
strength than the heavy cleaning. These, as Lucy Maynard Salmon says in
“Domestic Service,” are frequently not well performed, yet, on the other
hand, they involve no principles which an intelligent person cannot
master in a very short time. After the principles have been learned the
tasks become only light routine work, suitable for relaxation after
brain work. These tasks might be given to the students referred to above
with profit both to themselves and to housekeepers.
The changes of which mention has been made, particularly the commercial
and industrial ones, have been due chiefly to man’s enterprise. This is
because man’s life has given him a broad and general view of society and
its needs which woman’s life has not given to her, and because his
position as breadwinner has given him an incentive to anticipate human
demands and to meet them with business ventures, an incentive which
woman’s position as housekeeper has not given to her. Woman is now,
however, fast getting the far view, and has the advantage of having also
the intimate view of human needs which she has secured through her care
of the family. So it is happening that while man is going on ahead and
initiating great changes, woman is following close behind and directing
the changes into channels which lead to the satisfaction of real human
needs. Thus men, by establishing great bakeries, showed the economic
advantage of having bread made in large quantities. Women, like Mrs.
Brainard, of Chicago, who started the Home Delicacies Company, have
followed after and shown that man’s methods could be employed in making
bread that meets the demands of taste and health. Men, by establishing
public laundries, showed the economic advantage of having the laundry
work removed from the home. It was left for women, like the Misses
White, of Brookline, Massachusetts, who started the Sunshine Laundry, to
show that public laundries could make clothes really clean, and at the
same time preserve them for the future use of their owners (a point
which all who patronize laundries will appreciate).
This control of changes woman must continue to exercise. She must also
accept the task of adjusting household work to the social changes that
have already taken place. For this double work she is well prepared. As
an individual she can make the adjustments in her own home. As a club
member she can, in coöperation with other women, look after the social
work.
She can, through her clubs, establish residence clubs where household
employees can live in comparative freedom, public kitchens from which
food can be sent to be served in private houses, and in which the
workers will be on the same footing as the workers in any other trade,
bureaus from which special helpers can be sent to work by the day or
hour, and public nurseries which shall combine the bacteriological
cleanliness of hospitals with the educational advantages of
kindergartens. Women’s clubs are particularly well prepared to do these
things, first because failure would mean no serious loss to any
individual, and second, because the members are intelligent enough to
make their failures as well as their successes of benefit to those who
come after them, an important consideration in all progressive work.
Besides this public work, woman can arrange the work in her own home so
as to give her helper a limited day’s work--of ten hours, say--and thus
make her free to choose her own place of residence. This she may do by
preparing her own breakfast and employing her helper from ten in the
morning until eight at night, or by going out for her evening meal and
employing the helper from six in the morning until four in the
afternoon, or in some one of the numberless ways which special
conditions will suggest. Or she can make such adjustments as shall make
it possible for her to employ special helpers. In this her greatest
difficulty will probably arise from the fact that one helper cannot
perform the same service in several places at the same time, and the
housekeeper’s time schedule will have to be changed. It will require an
effort for her to realize in her conduct that difference between
disorder and dirt which she recognizes with her intellect, and to act
upon the belief that delay in dishwashing involves disorder, but not
necessarily uncleanliness, and that beds left open in the sun for many
hours are really cleaner than those which are closed up early in the
morning.
With cooking done in public kitchens, with washing done in public
laundries, with cleaning done by specialists, with the individual
members of the family taking charge of their own rooms, with hospitals
to care for the sick, and with public nurseries and kindergartens to
help with the care of babies and young children, there would still be
left certain connecting links of work even in families employing regular
helpers for a limited number of hours each day. It is these odds and
ends that the various members of the family will have to accept as their
tasks and perform in payment for the privilege of preserving family life
without shattering democratic ideals.
With these changes the household employee will emerge from the
restricted existence of “domestic service” to the broader life of
ethical, industrial, and social freedom.
MORE PHYSICAL VIGOR FOR ALL
“ ...the words health, whole, holy, are from the same stock.” “The
doctor does not give health, but the winds of heaven; ...”--_Edward
Carpenter._
There are conditions in life which favor physical vigor. There are also
conditions which stimulate mental activity, and tend to provide for it
the necessary time and energy. Unfortunately these two sets of
conditions, far from being identical, are often directly at war with
each other.
Suppose, as an example of the former conditions, a man living apart from
his fellows and obliged to secure his own food. The trees hang their
fruit at such a height that in order to reach it he must exert himself
moderately, not enough to exhaust himself, but enough to insure a good
digestion. In pursuit of game he must keep out of doors and be much
afoot. Unpolluted mountain streams invite him to drink and to bathe. To
keep within easy reach of his food supply summer and winter, he must
frequently change his abode. For this reason he depends upon clothing
rather than upon closely built walls for shelter, and moves away from
the _débris_ which collects around him before it has endangered his
bodily well-being. Thus the conditions of his life combine to give him
the exercise and fresh air and sunlight and good food and good water and
cleanliness that are necessary for his physical vigor.
Now, suppose a man living under the other conditions--those that
stimulate mental activity. A library tempts him to read, a university to
study. The sight of great works of art or of other material products of
human genius awakens any talents he may have. Association with thinking
men and women induces currents of thought within him. Finally, contact
with people who are willing and glad to climb his tree for him and
pursue his game makes it possible for him to find time for brain work.