366 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Off. Doc 



has been no money value in our time. It has been simply a question 

 of just crowding into each day all the duties we could get there. It 

 has not been the thought of doing this and this to-day and to-mor- 

 row we turned around and had certain duties that might be done 

 that day, but we just crowded each day as full as we possibly could; 

 we had no thought of how tired we would be, the fatigue that would 

 come by that crowding and crowding and crowding and fatigue never 

 spelled eflSciency, I care not whether it is in the home or on the 

 farm, if you are fatigued you are not going to be fit for the duties 

 to-morrow, if you have crowded to-day so full that your muscles 

 are worn threadbare, as it were. 



Just last week when we were getting ready to come away and 

 things setmed to be crowded so full, I happened to go into Oxford, 

 the village nearest to us, and in meeting a friend there, she said, 

 "Now, you are in a hurry?" And I said, "Yes, rather hurried." And 

 then she stopped and said, "But Mrs. P., my friend, says it is not right 

 to be hurried so. If you hurry so and get very tired, you are not fit 

 for work to-morrow and you cannot do your best work." I said, "No, 

 I know that is true, but what are you going to do to get through when 

 this and this and this has got to be done within 24 hours?" She says, 

 "It is not right;" and so it is time we women learned that we had a 

 money value, as it were, put on our time, and when a money value is 

 put on our time — and, friends, it is worth money — but when a money 

 value is put on our time, then will we women consider the things that 

 we do and the things we don't do. For example, we will not spend 

 time darning a pair of hose that you can buy two pairs for a quarter 

 and will not last half or a quarter the length of time that a guaranteed 

 pair will last and perhaps only cost half as much more. For example, 

 when we think of our time being worth money, we will not spend trvvo 

 and three hours a week kneading the bread as it were, but for |2.50 

 we will have a bread kneader that will knead the bread just as well 

 and with one half the energy spent in it. Again, we will not spend 

 hours, as our mothers did, with the chopping bowl and knife, chopping, 

 chopping, chopping, you know to get that cabbage or pickle or what- 

 ever we are making just in the right condition, but we will use the 

 little food chopper that perhaps you can buy for half a dollar, or a 

 very good one for $2.00 or less money even, and you will do the same 

 work in much less than half the time, because we housewives have 

 learned that the little chopper is one of the most economical things we 

 can have, especially in the saving of time, and so T say we will con- 

 sider the things that we do and the things we won't do when we learn 

 that our time is really worth money. 



Again, we will take care of the small things as we go through life, 

 so as to watch the time that is being spent in doing things. For ex- 

 ample I watched in a home not so very long ago when dinner was being 

 served and I happened to be wandering around and not a cooking 

 utensil was filled with water when the meal was over and the dish- 

 washing was not an easy task. T think sometimes when T talk these 

 things to the gentlemen they think it is pretty tiresome, but after all, 

 men, if you washed the dishes you would know just what it meant if 

 the dishes were put to soak immediately when the dinner was being 

 served rather than left standino; to be taken care of after the dinner is 

 over. It is the little things after all. that make the great sum of the 

 dav, that make the big things when the day is over. It is the little 



