Home Problems from a New Standpoint

by Caroline Louisa Hunt

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.

But the opportunity to read and study instead of the necessity for climbing trees and chasing game means the loss of the condition that made for muscular activity, for good circulation, and good digestion. The decline in muscular activity makes his body produce heat less rapidly, and creates a demand for closely built walls and roof in addition to clothing. This means a loss of the condition that insured a plentiful supply of sunlight and fresh air. The permanent shelter makes it impossible for him to move away from the débris of his food and the excretions of his body, and thus destroys the condition that in itself favored and practically compelled cleanliness.