Missouri Housekeepers' Conference Association. . 437 



for this furnishes not only the opportunity for united action, but 

 also a satisfactory means of communication between the individual 

 members of the class. It makes it practicable for the group as a 

 whole to test those new devices which can be used only by large 

 numbers of people, and also for all the members to secure the ad- 

 vantages of successful experiments by individuals with new appli- 

 ances or novel plans of 'work. 



Adjustment to technical development in the affairs of every- 

 day life comes largely through adjustability in a somewhat limited 

 group of people, including housekeepers of the more privileged 

 classes in society. These jwomen are in most respects ready to 

 make the adjustments demanded by the times. They are at pres' 

 ent securing advantages of most of the forms of general education 

 that are offered to men. In addition to this, they have worked out 

 for their own use and for the use of those who must in time take 

 their places a satisfactory system of training for their own peculiar 

 work. What women have done for education in domestic science, 

 I need not say. I would, however, take this opportunity to express 

 my appreciation of the value of the work which Missouri women 

 have done in securing the establishment of a department of Home 

 Economics in the University of Missouri, and in persuading boards 

 of education to incorporate cooking and sewing in the curricula of 

 many of the graded schools throughout the State. This work is 

 an evidence of intelligence on the part of the women of Missouri. 

 It is fundamental and is necessary to further progress, for training 

 in household arts and education in domestic science serve to place 

 the conditions of household problems before all women. By means 

 of the formal education of the schools and the informal education 

 which they are securing in their clubs, women are securing also 

 another aid to adjustability, that wide view which shows them their 

 peculiar domestic difficulties in their relation to the larger prob- 

 lems of life. Women who are studying municipal activities, im- 

 migration, and the conditions of women and children in factories, 

 no longer see the household labor problem except as a part of the 

 whole industrial complication. 



The industrial problem, complicated as it is, may be stated in 

 a few words. In this world there are millions of people with es- 

 sentially the same needs if not the same felt and expressed wants. 

 They need good food, fresh air, healthful and beautiful clothes and 

 houses and the opportunity for growth in body, in mind, and in 

 aesthetic appreciation. For the satisfaction of these wants the 

 world possesses natural wealth (in wood, in coal, in iron, in seen- 



