24 
House 
& Garden 
WHAT IS A HOUSEHOLD POLICY? 
H as the world war and its uprooting of the social structure brought 
the women of America face to face with a responsibility whose 
form and feature are those of pioneer days? 
Must we begin to build upon fresh foundations as if in a new land, 
because the cost of living has made our present domestic system 
impossible? 
These are questions that are facing American home-makers today. 
If the answer is yes, then what must we do to get the proper start, 
to act quickly, and to save precious time? 
These questions are not put to frighten anyone. The women of 
America are not easily frightened. But the future is filled with appre¬ 
hension. The giant of high prices stalks the street, and to help rout 
him and his train of unrest devolves upon the women of America. 
They are the home-makers and the home-keepers, and the future of 
the home is in the balance. 
The American home life of 1914 was different from that of 1884. 
Then we were yet a young nation. Unsophisticated in our out¬ 
look, our cities had not yet become the centers of vast and crowded 
populations. Flats were a novelty, the delicatessen store was yet to 
come. The movie theatre was unborn and the horn of the motor car 
had not begun to sound. 
But by 1914 the American women had taken a long step, almost a 
leap, away from the simplicity of the 
80s. The apartment house and the 
movie theatre, the motor car and the 
tango tea had assumed a place upon the 
day’s program, and the women found 
themselves ready for them all. 
Why? Because of reasons which in¬ 
clude some deep economic changes; and 
because of a substitution of false social 
values for the true principles of family 
life. 
Regarding the economic changes, 
among the most influential was the 
growth of the factory system of pro¬ 
duction, particularly of articles of 
clothing and of food. These became 
plentiful, cheap and easily obtainable, 
and women began to find that some of 
their home occupations were disap¬ 
pearing. 
The next step was a rise in the scale 
of living. Simplicity gave place to 
luxury and pretentiousness. With this 
alteration in the scale of living came 
the multiplication of the means of en¬ 
joyment. Without their realizing it, 
women began to find time increasing 
on their hands and they naturally 
looked for ways in which to spend it— 
and they found them outside the home. 
The result was a gradual breaking 
down of the old home circle idea that 
was a fundament of American life. 
The women of the newer generation, 
not knowing how to accomplish the 
household duties that their grand¬ 
mothers took for granted and under¬ 
stood, in the light of their generation, 
could not in turn teach these things to 
their daughters. The business of home 
making and home keeping suffered. 
H ome making is a business, one 
of the most important in our list 
of national occupations. But economic 
research has brought to light a startling 
fact: of all the branches of industry on 
which existence depends, the most es¬ 
sential—^the home—is operated today 
under the most disorganized system 
and on the most unbusiness-like prin¬ 
ciples. Women are competing in every 
line of business except that which has 
been, since civilization began, their own 
peculiar birthright—the making and 
managing of the home. We have forgotten that the home was of im¬ 
portance. It has taken a world catastrophe to bring this to our atten¬ 
tion, and to turn our faces to the fact that the home is a business and, 
like a business, it must be run on principles. 
What kind of a business is the home? 
At first it was a place of safety. Then it became a factory. Today 
the home, as it has been described, is a social unit doing business with 
scores of outside sources which supply it with the means of existence 
and happiness. 
It must have for its chief operating purposes two very practical 
departments. One of these is the Purchasing, and the other the Em¬ 
ployment Department. Of the two the former is becoming more and 
more important. With the two are entangled some curious traditions 
handed down from the earlier stages of its evolution. One of them, 
as it has been pointed out more than once, is the belief that the running 
of a home business is a good deal a matter of instinct. Almost any 
woman, some people seem to think, can be depended upon to take hold 
of a home and manage it by instinct alone. She needs only a little 
■‘preliminary routine practice” and the thing is done. And side by 
side with this quaint notion goes the lack of a clear and definite ideal 
of what the home is meant to be and what it should seek to accomplish. 
In the language of business, what is the policy of the home to be? 
MES AMOURS 
You ask me, of the things I love—Why ask? 
There are so many things I love I 
It is — well, almost hard to tell, 
I love so many things! 
A paneled door—a bit of lacquer with a crimson scarf; 
A polished floor; a deep blue bowl with purple heather 
from the moor: 
The solemn clock, so stately and so tall,—the spindled- 
wind of staircase, in the hall. 
A print, all blues, and blacks, and misty grays — 
And here and there, a subtle touch of maize; 
A low-swung couch, long silken cushions on the floor — 
Soft-shaded lamps, and books — aye, by the score! 
All these and many more,-—I love. 
The silvered service, with its fragile cups — 
The reminiscent chatter of the one who sups. 
The spinnet, in the corner, which though mute, still sings 
Of by-gone days and by-gone things. 
Old things I love. 
I love the quiet crunch of pebbled walks — 
The shrill note of the peacock, as he proudly stalks. 
The sameness of today, and other days— 
The rose,—the blues,—the purples,—fading into grays; 
The twilight haze. 
These are my loves! 
Edna Goit Brintnall. 
T he policy of any successful busi¬ 
ness is based upon the highest 
ideals of which its directors are capa¬ 
ble. So it should be with the home. Its 
standards of excellence must underpin 
its whole structure. Summed up, at its 
minimum the home must produce prop¬ 
er care for the physical, mental and 
spiritual welfare of each member of the 
household, so that the best type of citi¬ 
zenship can be developed. Upon these 
considerations depends the expenditure 
of the home capital. 
The second step in the development 
of the home’s policy is the handling of 
the capital, the income, resources. Upon 
this depends the success of the two de¬ 
partments mentioned above; and the 
capital itself must be proportioned to 
the size of the family income. 
Here we come to the point of especial 
emphasis, for it is the rock on which the 
home-ship can strike and founder—or 
it can be made the rock upon which a 
lasting structure can be reared. That 
is the complete understanding between 
the home manager and the provider or 
providers of income. A man and wife 
should have definite, systematic con¬ 
ferences at stated intervals, based on 
the question of ideals, what the home 
must mean, what best standards of liv¬ 
ing can be afforded with the resources 
of money, time and energy that can be 
depended on, and how its affairs can 
be best conducted. A definite, concrete 
outline of procedure embracing every 
phase of operation of the home must be 
made. 
Then the question of the paid service 
required—the hiring and wages of em¬ 
ployees, their stated duties, should be 
outlined and presented to them like a 
commercial contract. 
In doing this work of framing a 
household policy the woman should de¬ 
mand the co-operation of her husband, 
should expect from him valuable ad¬ 
vice learned in his business experience. 
1 ET us take, for example, two intelli- 
-j gent young people going into part¬ 
nership in a home business. Their 
{Continued on page 74) 
