436 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



their usefulness by establishing delivery systems, thus meeting the 

 needs of all housekeepers as well as of a few dependent women. 

 There is no reason why garbage pails should not be sunk in cement 

 compartments near the kitchen door, and why, when full, they 

 should not be removed unopened and replaced by clean and steri- 

 lized cans. With no coal to be delivered, no ashes to be carried out, 

 no clothes to be dried, and no garbage pails in sight, back-yards 

 could be transformed into gardenspaces. The small areas at the 

 backs of all the many houses in one block could be united so far 

 as appearance is concerned and treated by a landscape gardener as 

 a whole. Houses could be so planned that living rooms would 

 face on this park. The beauty and the incentive to outdoor life 

 which would result, would immeasurably improve conditions of 

 living. Thus numberless schemes for removing the sources of dirt, 

 for facilitating cleaning processes, for reducing the amount of labor 

 necessary for the preparation of food, and for bringing beauty into 

 life, await merely the adjustment of interests among those who 

 would be most benefited by them. 



The first stage in any improvement comes because some man or 

 some woman has a genius for scientific research and investigation 

 and envolves a new idea; the second, because another one person 

 has inventive skill, but the third is due, not to chance accomplish- 

 ments in individuals, but to certain group characteristics which are 

 of slow development. We have seen that adjustment is quickened 

 by spectacular exhibitions of preventable evils each as plagues and 

 dust storms ; that it is retarded by short-sightedness and unenlight- 

 ened self-interest. We know further from our own experience 

 and observation that it is hastened by education and training which 

 reveal the conditions of the problems of living and disclose their pos- 

 sible solutions ; by wide vision which reveals the inter-dependence of 

 different social groups and their opportunities for mutual helpful- 

 ness. We know that it is hastened by far as well as wide sight; 

 by a vision which looks back into the past in the light of history 

 and forward into the future in the light of the past, for such vision 

 only shows whether a proposed change is likely to be in line with 

 progress or must be looked upon merely as a temporary measure for 

 relief. The period of adjustment is further hastened by freedom 

 of action, for this is necessary to that experimentation without 

 which advance is impossible ; and by unselfishness, for this is neces- 

 sary for the sacrifice of the temporary advantage of the few to the 

 permanent welfare of the many. Finally, the period of adjust- 

 ment is hastened if there is within the group a strong organization. 



