New Homes for Old

by Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge

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.

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.