Missouri Housekeepers' Conference Association. 455 



should be near the house, and each member of the family should 

 spend odd minutes giving cultivation to the plants and receiving 

 fresh air — more outdoor work for women would add immensely to 

 the comfort of the family. The garden should be planted as care- 

 fully as one would select a library. Many professional men would 

 save doctor's bills as well as grocer's bills by cultivating a garden. 

 Why wonder at the impossibility of getting the poor out of the 

 cities when all education is away from Mother Earth ? Mayor Pin- 

 gree, of my native city, saw the root of the matter and started the 

 potato gardens. 



The government holds schools for the farmer and the teacher. 

 Why not for the housewife? 



The present need of this country is that every child should be 

 taught the value of a dollar ; should learn how to get one hundred 

 cents in value for every dollar spent. Housekeepers do not need 

 so much the instruction how to earn as how to spend an income, 

 especially a small one. 



Until recently few women have had any opportunity to learn 

 how to use money wisely. A woman who has once earned her own 

 living, or has had some experience in business affairs, will conduct 

 her household in a very different manner from the one who has had 

 no such training. Thus it is plain that much education is required 

 to successfully conduct this business enterprise. 



Most of the friction in daily life of the home comes from the 

 lack of ability to see real conditions. 



The bargain sales of shoddy stuffs, rickety furniture, tawdry 

 tableware and cheap cooking utensils would not exist if women 

 were better educated in the laws of daily living. Our purchases 

 are regulated largely by the whim of the moment. The well-to-do- 

 women have a tremendous responsibility in adjusting household 

 economics, because their influence reaches both ways — on one hand 

 to the sister who must practice the most rigid economy, and on the 

 other to the home where lavish expenditure is possible. 



Lack of generalship is one of the causes of the present chaotic 

 condition of many households, and it is not possible to be different 

 until housekeepers are better educated. No one is fit to direct the 

 household machinery who is not familiar with its details in all di- 

 rections. A housekeeper must be able to adapt herself to conditions 

 which face her, and which will be different from any other home. 



To help the women of our land (nearly half of whom are toil- 

 ing in the homes on the farms) , is the thing to do — for whatever 

 is effective in raising the grade of home life on the farm, in secur- 



