had shortcomings, nothing more, which made it wise to let him withdraw. as he wished to do then. But he helped to put us on our feet. In moving into the large house, we had a great problem to provide equipment, but the landlord advanced the money and permits us to pay him by turning over half the room rent. We found out long ago that the outside service of sending meals into the homes is too new a thing to support the institution. The demand is still too slight, and so we have continued the boarding house, with outside service as an adjunct. Just as soon as we can clear off our indebtedness, we shall begin to advertise this feature aggressively. The rise in cost of food is perplexing us now, but every month since last September we have been able to make a payment on our indebtedness. The first six months of this year we paid $520 off on our furniture account and if the present rate continues we will pay off about $1000 this year and a year hence be clear of our indebtedness and own probably $1500 worth of equipment. It is slow but sure and we are gaining a standing in the community and have sent out as high as 300 meals a month into the homes. We cannot do this yet at a reasonable figure. It amounts to 60 or 70 cents per person. We are hoping that as our constitution forbids all profits save the 6 per cent to our stockholders and we have only about $1000 of stock out and it specifically designates that all profits must be turned to the reduction of our prices, once our indebtedness is paid we shall find it possible to send out meals at a figure that will cause people of moderate circumstances, or at least others besides the wealthy, to make frequent use of it. We find that almost nobody depends on the Kitchen for continuous service, but it is used as an emergency resource, which is evidently to be the first step of the development of the central kitchen. Thursday afternoons when maids are out, the last meals before people leave town and the first when they return, and such times, are the occasions on which they turn to the Kitchen. We feel that the Kitchen has been unusually fortunate in being able to do what it has in the face of what seemed almost insuperable difficulties, and, though it has gone painfully slowly, every month has marked a step forward. If things continue another two years as they have the last year and a half in the kitchen, we shall probably have something very significant to report. The first steps of coöperation are pure plod, the incurring of grave and great responsibilities, the facing of scathing criticisms and general misunderstanding. When once we get out of the woods, I imagine half the community will think they are the people who really accomplished the results. Already both Store and Kitchen feel that sentiment is favorable. We are hoping that in time we can have a coöperative laundry, perhaps an employment agency, perhaps a coal company, perhaps a central delivery system, perhaps a coöperative credit union established here. One of these seems to be the next probable step. EDITORIAL Some Things for which the American Home Economics Association is Standing. The resolutions passed at the meeting of the American Home Economics Association at Ithaca, included one advocating the passage of the Child Labor Bill. This bill has, since that time, passed Congress. A second resolution was addressed to the Secretary of Agriculture. WHEREAS, the American Home Economics Association realizing that the rapid growth and development of Home Economics in this country is largely due to contributions to its subject matter and to the never failing support of its work by the United States Department of Agriculture, and WHEREAS, its immediate and further development demands that this service be largely increased, Be it resolved: That the American Home Economics Association assembled at its annual meeting urges the Honorable, the Secretary of Agriculture to further by every possible means the rapid development of the work of the office of Home Economics of the States Relations Service. At the meeting of the Home Economics Association in connection with the N. E. A., it was resolved: That the President of the American Home Economics Association be empowered to telegraph to the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture in the Senate urging an increased appropriation for the publication of farmers bulletins on Home Economics topics, and other Home Economics literature. The total supply is wholly inadequate for the teacher of Home Economics who needs to obtain bulletins in bulk for use as textbooks by the students. Resolutions also urged the passage of the Smith-Hughes and the Smoot Bills. One of the most important matters brought before the Association was expressed in the following resolution: WHEREAS, the wage-earning group engaged in household labor constitutes one-fourth of the total wage-earning group among women, and WHEREAS, there are no available data of the hours, wages and remuneration, and conditions of work of this group, and WHEREAS, such data are urgently needed for the intelligent discussion of the problems of labor and family life, Be it resolved: That the American Home Economics Association assembled at its annual meeting requests the Honorable, the Secretary of Labor of the United States to take the necessary measures for the collection at the earliest possible date of the desired data concerning wage-earning household workers. This resolution was sent to the Secretary of Labor and the following reply was received from Mr. Royal Meeker, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics: Your letter addressed to the Secretary of Labor and transmitting resolution passed at the recent session of the American Home Economics Association, has been referred to me for reply. Ever since I took charge of the Bureau of Labor Statistics I have wanted to make a thorough investigation into wages, hours, and conditions of work among household employees, including in this group hotel and restaurant employees. The smallness of the appropriations made by Congress to this Bureau and the demands of other lines of work already undertaken have thus far precluded the possibility of making the investigation. I have, however, drawn up a schedule for an investigation into hotel and restaurant labor. It was my intention to put agents of this Bureau upon this investigation during this present summer, but again extraordinary demands upon this Bureau will prevent the making of this investigation at this time. You probably know that the Massachusetts State Board of Labor and Industries has been authorized by the legislature of that State to investigate hotel and restaurant labor. I am doing what I can to assist the Massachusetts Board in this study. You will gather from what I have said that I realize the importance of an investigation into domestic labor—the field of labor giving employment to by far the largest proportion of women workers engaged in gainful occupations. I am of the opinion that the surest way of bringing about this much needed study is to present the need directly to Congress and to ask for a sufficient appropriation to enable the Bureau of Labor Statistics to carry through the investigation. If it is left to be taken care of out of the regular appropriation for this Bureau, I am afraid what has already happened every year since I assumed charge of this Bureau will happen again, namely, other undertakings will crowd this investigation off the map. Is not the American Home Economics Association the organization that should take the lead in carrying out the suggestion made in this letter? Here is some definite work directly connected with our own aims. Many other organizations would coöperate to bring about such an investigation. Shall we work for it? The last resolution passed by the Association was one in which every member present at Cornell will heartily acquiesce. Resolved: That the American Home Economics Association offer to Cornell University, and especially to the College of Agriculture, through the President of the University, its thanks for the delightful hospitality extended to the Association during its Ninth Annual Meeting, a hospitality which all have appreciated and greatly enjoyed. Richards Day. In the November JOURNAL the Home Economics Day Committee will present plans for the observance of Richards Day, or Home Economics Day, on December 3, the anniversary of the birth of Mrs. Richards. Meanwhile we would recommend that those who are to observe the day refer to the suggestions printed in the JOURNAL, November, 1915. A copy of these suggestions will be sent upon request. ANNOUNCEMENT After October first the JOURNAL office will be located in the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty Building, 1211 Cathedral Street, where we have secured more pleasant and adequate quarters than we now occupy. It is hoped that our readers, especially those living in or near Baltimore, will make it possible to visit us at an early date. Please address all communications to 1211 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, Md. BOOKS AND LITERATURE Any book or periodical mentioned in this department may be obtained through the JOURNAL OF HOME ECONOMICS if the Journal price is listed. Principles of Correct Dress. By FLORENCE HULL WINTERBURN. New York: Harper Bros., 1914, pp. 245. $1.00. By mail of the Journal, $1.06. The title of this book might well be changed to that of Principles of Design for Correct Dress. With the emphasis generally placed upon perfect technique and the production of historic costumes for pageants and plays, it is inspiring to find a treatment of dress from the design standpoint. The first three chapters by Jean Worth and the last chapter by Paul Poiret state very definitely the various problems which dress presents to the designer. The intermediate chapters by Florence Winterburn interpret these design problems to the amateur dress designer. The book, because it has no illustrations, is of greatest value only to those readers who have had design experience. For instance, such a statement as, "Such great painters as Nattier, Madame Lebrun, Romney, Lawrence, and Gainsborough serve again and again as aids to the costumier in color, design and trimming" means nothing to one who is not familiar with the work of these artists or to one who has no art gallery near at hand. The people who need just the stimulus which this book is planned to give, are the very people who will not be reached by it. In the chapter entitled Colors for the Blondes and Brunettes, the value of studying the colors used by the masters in the finest paintings is logically presented but fails entirely in its application because the reader cannot study Paxton's Sylvia, Sir Thomas Lawrence's Miss Baring, Millet's Portia, Nattier's Diana and Reynold's Lady Walgrave. The book is well worth studying as it relates the subject of costume design to its proper art domain. As a result one rises above mere patterns and stitches and feels the universality of design principles, the mode of interpreting these principles employed by the different nations, the influence of public events upon fashions of the hour and the effect of well designed costumes upon the individual. ETHELWYN MILLER. Household Arts and School Lunches. By ALICE C. BOUGHTON. New York City: Russell Sage Foundation, 1916, pp. 170. $0.25. This book, "the first separate report on household arts made by any school survey," has something in it for every teacher of every branch of that many-sided subject, Home Economics, for every school officer, and every member of a school board. It is about Cleveland, to be sure, for it is part of the report of the Educational Survey of that city conducted by the Russell Sage Foundation, and its specific recommendations and criticisms have local application. So far, however, as it calls Household Arts, as now presented in the schools, to defend themselves and prove their usefulness to the twentieth century woman, and to twentieth century society, it is of interest to every thinking person. It may not speak the final word in the engaging discussion with reference to the difference between housekeeping and homemaking or on the subject of the "relation of household arts to education" whether elementary or secondary. It is, however, written from a new point of view and new points of view are to be |