520 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



sion, on the other hand, the object is to retain 

 and even increase the opportunities for domestic 

 privacy, while gaining the economic advantages 

 of association. For this purpose it is essential 

 that the rooms or dwellings should be taken quite 

 independently of board. To bririg this and the 

 other distinguishing features of the proposed as- 

 sociated cooperative mansion into the strongest 

 light, I shall try and give a short sketch of a 

 family taking up its residence in such a mansion. 

 On finding a suite of rooms answering their re- 

 quirements in size and number, they ask the 

 terms, and are told that the rent, taxes, and ser- 

 vice of the suite, cost so much per annum. Thus 

 in paying this one item the head of the family 

 disposes at once of the rent of bis dwelling, his 

 share of the rent of the windows, stairs, and com- 

 mon portion of the dwelling-parts of the house, 

 his rates, water, gas, and perhaps general heating, 

 his own house service, and his share of the com- 

 mon service, such as porters, lift-attendants, and 

 so on. For board they are referred to the res- 

 taurant department. On consulting the tariff they 

 find that they can either order each meal as in 

 a club, or they can be boarded at so much per 

 head per day, the price varying according to the 

 number and class of meals which they take. In 

 the latter case they would be able at a glance to 

 calculate accurately their yearly average table- 

 expenses, which would be a great advantage to 

 numbers of people. They would further find that 

 if there was a coffee-room the tariff would be 

 rather lower there than if their meals were served 

 in their private apartments. 1 Here at once all 

 the trouble of engaging cooks and buying food 

 and utensils is disposed of. It is evident that if 

 the family, on taking up their abode in such a 

 mansion, preferred to pay the slight increase de- 

 manded for dining in their own rooms, and never 

 entered the coffee-room, they could live for years 

 without knowing even by sight, much less by so- 

 cial intercourse, any of the other members of the 

 mansion. This at once disposes of the common 

 misconception that almost forced social intercourse 

 T7ould be an essential feature of the associated 

 mansion. It is also clear that such a system of 

 living would at once free wives and mothers from 

 the drudgery of housekeeping which at present 

 weighs so heavily on their energies. If, in addi- 

 tion to the economic advantages which would be 

 presented by such a mansion, the opportunity for 

 social intercourse was desired by the members, 

 the addition of a general salon or drawing-room, 



1 Of course, on account of the extra cost of so serving 

 the meal. 



and as many more common advantages as the 

 different constituencies might desire and for which 

 they might be willing to pay, would present no 

 difficulties, and though, I believe, a desirable in- 

 cident of the scheme, is by no means essential to 

 its success. In reference to the social possibili- 

 ties of the associated mansion I may merely re- 

 mark that the common assumption that in the 

 introduction of a salon there would or might be 

 a great increase to scandal and quarrels is, I be- 

 lieve, totally opposed to the experience of large 

 clubs and hotels. It is perfectly true that in a 

 small coffee or drawing room, as in a small town 

 or village, people are both likely all to know 

 each other and to make their neighbors the sub- 

 ject of remarks of very often not the most friend- 

 ly kind; whereas in a large coffee or drawing 

 room, no less than in a large town, people need 

 not know each other, much less concern them- 

 selves about the doings and sayings of people to 

 whom they are indifferent. From this it is clear 

 that, no less on the social than on the economic 

 side of the question, largeness of scale is essen- 

 tial to success. 



So far I have confined my argument to the 

 endeavor to show clearly the advantages and the 

 essential conditions of associated housekeeping. 

 It is, however, no less important to show that, in 

 order to gain the full advantages of economy, the 

 system must be worked on more or less cooper- 

 ative and not on commercial principles. Asso- 

 ciated housekeeping on commercial principles, 

 carried out more or less in the manner I have 

 described in the great American and Continental 

 and in some English hotels and mansions, is a 

 common and very successful fact, but hitherto 

 has not succeeded in being at once economical 

 and efficient. Nor is this surprising when we 

 consider that the interests of the proprietors and 

 of the tenants — that is, of the sellers and buyers 

 — have been and are, as in all trades, antagonis- 

 tic ; therefore efficiency means dearness, cheap- 

 ness means inefficiency. To illustrate this in ref- 

 erence to my argument, let us take first the case 

 of the associated kitchen. If this is undertaken 

 purely as a commercial enterprise, the chances 

 are overwhelmingly great that when once the cus- 

 tomers had put down their private kitchen de- 

 partment, and had thus deeply committed them- 

 selves to the new system, the entrepreneur would 

 either gradually fall off in the quality, or would 

 raise the price of his supplies. For reasons which 

 I believe are clear, but rather long to introduce 

 here, the ordinary principles of competition would 

 fail to rectify this danger even in the associated 



