ts should be reserved
if there is not enough for all. To the children and the aged the last
piece of meat, and to the strong man dry bread, if the community be
reduced to that extremity.

Say, in a word, that if this or that article of consumption runs short,
and has to be doled out, to those who have most need most should be
given. Say that and see if you do not meet with universal agreement.

The man who is full-fed does not understand this, but the people do
understand, and have always understood it; and even the child of luxury,
if he is thrown on the street and comes into contact with the masses,
even he will learn to understand.

The theorists--for whom the soldier's uniform and the barrack mess table
are civilization's last word--would like no doubt to start a regime of
National Kitchens and "Spartan Broth." They would point out the
advantages thereby gained, the economy in fuel and food, if such huge
kitchens were established, where every one could come for their rations
of soup and bread and vegetables.

We do not question these advantages. We are well aware that important
economies have already been achieved in this direction--as, for
instance, when the handmill, or quern, and the baker's oven attached to
each house were abandoned. We can see perfectly well that it would be
more economical to cook broth for a hundred families at once, instead of
lighting a hundred separate fires. We know, besides, that there are a
thousand ways of preparing potatoes, but that cooked in one huge pot for
a hundred families they would be just as good.

We know, in fact, that variety in cooking being a matter of the
seasoning introduced by each cook or housewife, the cooking together of
a hundredweight of potatoes would not prevent each cook or housewife
from dressing and serving them in any way she pleased. And we know that
stock made from meat can be converted into a hundred different soups to
suit a hundred different tastes.

But though we are quite aware of all these facts, we still maintain that
no one has a right to force a housewife to take her potatoes from the
communal kitchen ready cooked if she prefers to cook them herself in her
own pot on her own fire. And, above all, we should wish each one to be
free to take his meals with his family, or with his friends, or even in
a restaurant, if it seemed good to him.

Naturally large public kitchens will spring up to take the place of the
restaurants, where people are p