Secondly, there is the problem of building up in the family asking and
receiving aid, domestic standards appropriate to the life in the
community. This raises, first, the question of the responsibility of
the case-work agency for the adjustment of the family life to such
standards in household management and in child care as might be
formulated on the basis of expert knowledge of community needs;
secondly, the question as to ways in which such adjustment may be
accomplished if the agency feels under an obligation to undertake it.
A number of the thirty-three case-work agencies which discussed this
subject indicated that they thought this task one that should not be
assumed by the case-work agency. Four agencies said they were doing
nothing in this direction, though one of these was looking forward to
the employment of a visiting housekeeper. One agency said that there
was no difference in this respect between the care of native born and
foreign born, and that all families were given such instruction as
occasion demanded.
Seven agencies met the problem by co-operating with some of the
public-health nursing organizations, especially the baby clinics, and
one of the agencies said that the nurses were doing all the
educational work possible. Four other agencies supplied milk and
co-operated with the public-health organizations of the community and
also with visiting housekeepers in the service of settlements.
Two supplied milk where it seemed necessary, and three co-operated
with agencies teaching food conservation. One of these supplied
interpreters, organized classes, and helped the agent of the County
Council of Defense to make contact with women in their homes. Another
co-operated with a class of college students who were making a dietary
study. The third had its own organization, which taught the use of
substitutes and their preparation, in war time. Its work differed from
that of others in that it was not organized for war-emergency purposes
and was under the control of the case-work agency.
Several agencies mentioned the fact that their visitors gave advice as
the case required, and it is probable that this is done in other
cities also. Such advice, of course, would not necessarily conform to
the standards formulated by home economics experts, but rather to the
common-sense standards of the community at large, or rather that
circle of the community from which the majority of charity visitors
come. The difficulties inherent in such a situation were recognized
by the secretary of one society, who wrote, "Our staff has made an
effort to become somewhat familiar with dietetics, but is having
difficulty with foreign families because of failures thoroughly to
understand their customs and the values of the food to which they are
accustomed."
Other agencies are not so definite in their view of the problem. Thus
one reports that they are not successful in their work on the diet
problem because "the Italians, Polish, and Lithuanians prefer their
own food and methods of preparing it." Another says, "They seem to
know their own tastes and _will_ do their own way mostly."
In Chicago some of the superintendents explain their difficulties in
raising housekeeping standards by characterizing the women as
"stubborn," "indifferent," "inert," "obstinate," "lazy," "difficult
but responsible," "easy but shiftless, and not performing what they
undertake." It is only fair to state that these were usually given as
contributing causes of difficulties. Most of the superintendents saw
clearly that the main difficulties were in the circumstances under
which the people had to live, and the defects in their own
organization, which was handicapped by lack of funds and workers.
[Illustration: A CASE-WORK AGENCY FOUND FOUR GIRLS AND EIGHTEEN MEN
BOARDING WITH THIS POLISH FAMILY IN FOUR ROOMS]
There is little that need be said about the work of these agencies as
to other phases of the problem of housekeeping. Only one does anything
to help the women buy more intelligently, except in the way of such
spasmodic efforts as are made by visitors who have only their own
practical experience to guide them. Similarly, little is done to teach
buying or making of clothing except that in some instances women are
urged to join classes in sewing. One agency speaks of teaching the
planning of expenditure by the use of a budget.
Most of the agencies that leave the problem of diet to the
public-health nurse leave to her also the problem of cleanliness,
personal hygiene, and sanitation. The majority of the agencies report,
however, that their visitors are continually trying to inculcate
higher standards. One agency says it is the stock subject of
conversation at every visit. No agency reports any attempt to reach
the women in a more systematic way than by "preaching." One agency
only, that in Topeka, Kansas, reports anything that shows a
realization of the peculiar problems of the foreign-born woman in this
subject. In Topeka, American methods of laundry are taught to Mexican
women in the office of the Associated Charities.