l spirit and yet
maintain its great virtues, its extraordinary attraction for the human
heart? It's an old story that criticism, the pointing out of defect, is
easy, while good suggestions are few and difficult to convert into
programs for action. In medicine diagnosis is far ahead of
treatment,--so in society at large.

Any plans that have for their end a sort of social barracks, with men
and women and their children living in apartments, but eating and
drinking in large groups, will meet the fiercest resistance from the
sentiment of our times and cannot succeed, unless it is forced on us by
some breakdown of the social structure. Nevertheless a larger
cooperation, at least in the cities, will come. Buildings must be built
so that a deal of individual labor disappears. Just as cooperative
stores are springing up, so cooperative kitchens, community kitchens
organized for service would be a great benefit. Especially for the poor,
without servants, where the woman is frequently forced to neglect her
own rest and the children's welfare because she must cook, would such a
development be of great value. Unfortunately the few community kitchens
now operating have in mind only the middle-class housewife and not the
housewife in most need,--the poor housewife. Here is a plan for real
social service; cooking for the poor of the cities, scientific,
nutritious, tasty, at cost. Much of the work of medicine would be
eliminated with one stroke; much of racial degeneracy and misery would
disappear in a generation.

That the home needs labor-saving devices in order that much of the
disagreeable work may be eliminated is unquestioned. Inventive genius
has only given a fragmentary attention to the problems of the housewife.
Most of the devices in use are far beyond the means of the poor and even
the lower middle class. Furthermore, though they save labor many of
them do not save time. The tests by which the good household device
ought to be judged are these:

First--Is it efficient?

Second--Is it labor saving?

Third--Is it time saving?

We need to break away from traditional cooking apparatus and traditional
diet. The installation and use of fireless cookers, self-regulating
ovens, is a first step. The discarding of most of the puddings, roasts,
fancy dishes that take much time in the preparation and that keep the
housewife in the kitchen would not only save the housewife but would
also be of great benefit to her husband. The c