PRINCIPLES OF OMEStlC ENGINEERING Mary Pattison Class TX Book. ^3 Copyright}^". COPYRrCHT DEPOStr. PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING OR THE WHAT, WHY AND HOW OF A HOME AN ATTEMPT TO EVOLVE A SOLUTION OF THE DOMESTIC "LABOR AND capital" problem TO STANDARDIZE AND PROFESSION- ALIZE HOUSEWORK — TO RE-ORGANIZE THE HOME UPON "SCIENTIFIC management" PRINCIPLES — AND TO POINT OUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC AND PER- SONAL ELEMENT THEREIN, AS WELL AS THE PRACTICAL BY MARY PATTISON (Mrs. Frank A.) COLONIA, NEW JERSEY "Thou shalt make thy house The temple of a nation's vows. Spirits of a higher strain Who sought thee once, shall seek thee again. I detected many a god Forth already in the road; Ancestors of beauty come In thy breast to make a home." — Emerson. This edition consists of five hundred copies ^/t v^ of which twenty are reserved for compli- ""^'O mentary private distribution by the author COPYRIGHT, 1915, BT Me3. Frank A. Pattison THE TROW PRESS NEW YORK JUN 10 1915 'GIA401366 ^ / WBITTEN IN THE INTEREST OF THE CLUB WOMEN OF NEW JERSEY and DEDICATED TO THE VERY BEST HUSBAND IN THE WORLD, WHO HAS THROUGH HIS UNSELFISH ATTITUDE AND GENEROUS DISPOSITION MADE POSSIBLE THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF WHATEVER IS CONTAINED IN THESE PAGES PREFACE This book Is presented not for Its literary value, but as a record and result of the Housekeeping Experiments conducted at Colonia. It is a sort of report to the public for the public's interest, and also a contradiction to the sometimes justifiable criticism that the work of Club Women is apt to be dilettante, and their plans unmatured. This undertaking was carried on, as designed by, for, and with, the Club Women of New Jersey. The original intent being, to rouse the thought of the women of the State to possibilities of greater housekeeping — returns to purse — personality — and public progress, through the introduction into the home of modern machines, modern methods, and mod- em motives ; the elimination of human and material waste — through freedom from mere tradition and social custom — and the conservation of time, health, money, and beauty in closer domestic co-operation ; as well as the establishment of a Home Economic course in the State College, which course is now existent. The idea was to meet what has been generally termed the "Servant Problem." To do this the social and economic — as well as the personal — factors concerned in this phase of capital and labor have been pointed out, together with the unjust results to both sides in our present custom and form of con- tract, and the immense profit that will follow in the wake of professionalizing — on a business basis — such essential and po- tentially high class labor. Our hope is to bring the masculine and feminine mind more closely together in the industry of home-making, by raising housework on the one side to the plane of Scientific Engineer- ing; and by proving on the other, fuller individual returns for every complete and right domestic activity, to the end that the Home may develop progressively more and more as the efficient unit of the State. The present volume is larger and very different from the PREFACE booklet report intended in the beginning. It has developed of itself, unintentionally, taking this form through unexpected University interest. An unconventional feature included at the end of the book is a list of approved household articles and where to procure them. Because these are questions constantly asked, and be- cause the author feels that the educational and commercial interests should have closer co-operation, she has seen fit to include this partial list of Business Houses. In no case has any profit accrued to her in so doing, and in only two instances have the firms listed known their names would appear. In conclusion, if there is anything of value within these pages suggestive to the present home-maker, or helpful to future ones, it is the result of pleasant and profitable hours of research, study and test ; and the interested co-operation of other women, particularly those of the Club in Colonia, who have been untir- ing in their kindly service to the idea — the Conservation of the individual Home. M. P. Colonia, New Jersey. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I THE PRACTICAL HOME FIRST CHAPTER WHAT IS A HOME? One's purpose, object, or ideal in producing a home — What it is — What it should stand for — Its meaning to the family and to each member thereof — The difference between home and institution — Why the conservation of the private home is worth while — Why not live in hotels or blocks of living — The more important, the econom- ics of money, or of men and life — The difficulty of mass develop- ment — The small group the ideal order Page 29 SECOND CHAPTER general StTRVEY OF THE HOME The status of the modern home — A general outlook upon the home as it is — The different classes of homes — The points of rela- tion between them all — The evolution of the home, and the reason for a new conception — Why it is as it is — The practical working out of an ideal from present conditions — The results from the large number of questionnaires sent out by the Station and upon which the work was founded Page 35 THIRD CHAPTER THE BUDGET In the practical production of the home, the Budget, or the money available, is of prime importance — The value of the Budget in establishing standards and educating for the business of pur- chasing — Considered as a developer and as a controlling fac- tor Page 47 FOURTH CHAPTER THE ELIMINATION OF THE SERVANT CLASS Why the Servant Class should be eliminated — The evolution from the slave — The Mediaeval form of contract — The old-time "Mem- 3 CONTENTS ber of the family" sort extinct — Some appalling statistics of the present day — The very small percentage of people who keep ser- vants — The Specialist — The limitation they put upon the progress of the home and the actual scarcity of them in the field — The cost of servants — Their degenerating effect upon the family. . .Page 52 FIFTH CHAPTER AN AUTO-OPERATIVE HOUSE A simple system of indexing and cataloging that tells the place of everything in the house — A simplifying method of self-showing to the stranger who would take charge at a moment's notice — A great relief to the woman who feels she is indispensable in order that the house may be kept running — Periodical housecleaning unnecessary — Mutual dependence makes for an order of indepen- dence Page 59 SIXTH CHAPTER the business of purchasing How to spend — Training in the knowledge of values — The ma- terials one should buy and what each purchase means to other housekeepers — The shop, the dealer, the trade, and the standard of business in the town — Honest labels — Textiles — Proper weights and measures — Inspected foods, package goods, cold storage, etc., and the conditions in delivery Page 65 SEVENTH CHAPTER THE ROUTE OF MATERIAL The route the material takes from the receiving station, or place of entrance in the house, to the final use — The storage of each class of goods — Their classification and the ease of acces- sibility Page 73 EIGHTH CHAPTER THE INSTRUCTION BUREAU The housekeeping library — The classification of all household instruction, receipts, patterns, designs, plans, etc. — A reservoir of perpetual education in all home-making subjects — A convenient way of keeping one's self up to date in household matters — A refer- ence of the best-known ways — A source of instruction to which one adds and takes as occasion suggests Page 80 CONTENTS NINTH CHAPTER HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS AND DEVICES The result of the Experiment Station's tests in machinery and devices of all sorts — Those constructed upon the best principle and with standard material — A detailed description of their use, care, cost, and profit, and where and how they should be pur- chased — Their inter-dependence — The Machine and the Ser- vant Page 84 TENTH CHAPTER THE ELIMINATION OF DRUDGERY Analysis of the different departments of housework — What is Drudgery — Why it should be eliminated — Machine labor gener- ally cheaper than hand labor — The difference in the quality of work — What sort of work should be done by hand and what by machine — Ignorance the only excuse for drudgery Page 96 ELEVENTH CHAPTER TIME AND MOTION STUDY What is time and motion study — The three motives in all move- ment — Analysis of each piece of work, or operation, into its units — The use of a stop watch — The standard time for each task — The elimination of waste motions — Examples in the study of units — Scraping a plate, cutting bread, etc. — The organization of one's surroundings so that the greatest efficiency may result — Planning ahead and dispatching — The head and the hand in each task — How they should work together — Why they should not work to- gether — Records and results of special tasks studied at the Station — Preparing vegetables — Getting a breakfast — Washing dishes, dusting stairs, washing, ironing, etc Page 103 TWELFTH CHAPTER the regeneration of THE KITCHEN Kitchen atmosphere of beauty, health and well-being should permeate entire house — not a place to get away from, but to attract with charm of hospitality, activity, ease and contentment — A re- valuation needed — Fire and civilization — The kitchen stove the pivot — Comparative cost of coal, alcohol, gas and electricity — Cost of cooking vegetables, meat, etc. — Description of a studio kitchen — A Pullman car kitchen — The kitchen at the station — Ugly fixtures CONTENTS a common difficulty — Cleanliness and beauty — The real meaning of the kitchen — Home, fire and food Page 112 THIRTEENTH CHAPTER THE EFFICIENT LAUNDRY Laundry work in the home affected by machinery — The scientific way to wash — A description of the laundry at the Station, and why it was so arranged — Some records in special tasks — Modern pos- sibilities in ironing — Comparison with the old way — Co-operative laundries — Why a machine should be used by more than one family Page 122 FOURTEENTH CHAPTER FOOD, ITS PREPARATION AND VALUE What one should eat to be strong — Food adulterations — How to feed a family — A list of foods worthy one's time in preparation — Some simple ways of procuring the required nourishment — The danger in denatured foods — "Brown rice" and whole grains — Foods in season — Simplicity in preparation — The value of flavor — The futility of most "made dishes" — Some successful menus — The im- portance of knowing the right temperature for each article to be cooked — Easy methods of serving — The use of the fireless cooker — Some results in bread making — The three classes of foods — An efficiency breakfast — An efficiency luncheon — Fashion in foods — Scientific food values Page 1 29 FIFTEENTH CHAPTER SYSTEM IN HOUSEKEEPING Definition of System, Principles — from which each must develop an individual system — The object of a flexible system — What it means to run a house on the efficiency system — Why it is the only means of growth — The meaning of the days of the week — The psychology of system — The Taylor System — Emerson's twelve principles — The value of immediate records — Standards and schedules — Planning and dispatching Page 144 SIXTEENTH CHAPTER SKILLED LABOR How to supply the demand for skilled labor — The formation of a labor corporation in each city, with expert workers for all parts 6 CONTENTS of housework — Nature of such contracts — Time of service — Com- parative cost with old methods — Some results from the Station's records — The possibilities of an eight-hour day, etc Page 154« SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER STANDARDIZATION What Standardization means to the home and to one's habit of thought — ^A summing up of approved standards throughout the home, in conditions, equipment, material, operations and results — The education in scientific management — Home standards of Art, Philosophy, Science, Business and Religion Page 162 PART II THE PERSONAL HOME FIRST CHAPTER PERSONAL FREEDOM The family exists that the individual members may best develop — The value of establishing independence in the very young — All phases of personal dependence to be avoided — The dependent wife — The independent grandparents — What individual independence means in relation to personal freedom — The highest human effi- ciency centers in individual independence Page 171 SECOND CHAPTER THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FAMILY The family as the larger order of individual — Its organization aroimd an Ideal, or object of common understanding and sympathy — The purpose of the home a united ambition — Coming together at stated yet informal intervals as a club would meet — The family gathering for weekly discussion, and a program — When each should be heard, even the youngest — The constitution and by-laws simple, but to the point — Such meetings the modern evolution of the family prayer-meeting — All fault finding should be reserved for the proper time, or presented in writing — Criticism should be in- CONTENTS vited, even from the youngest — The whole efficiency system as it applies here — The wonderful results possible Page 175 THIRD CHAPTER CO-OPERATION IN HOME ACTIVITIES As the Efficiency System is better understood in the organ- ization of the family, it becomes a co-operative force in main- taining the family — The difference between functional and authori- tative management — Example in making a bed — Other records from the Station — How discipline enters here and makes for self-deter- mination and control — The morning housework — Co-operative en- tertaining without servants Page 1 80 FOURTH CHAPTER the home and the money problem Money not the real solution — Ability the answer in most cases — The danger of a money-making ideal, or habit — The virtue in ingenuity — Our whole thought of money needs to be reversed — The best people depend on their capability, not on their cash — The power of public opinion — The personal note — The servant problem and the highest bidder — What to do with leisure — Time our only concern — The value of labor versus money — The big per- sonal result the most important Page 185 FIFTH CHAPTER the cultural value of housework The relation of the home to all that is finest in life — The iso- lated, detached, and commonplace attitude toward housework the cause of drudgery — The thoughtful and efficient worker — The lit- erary side of the home — The art side — The historical, psychologi- cal, ethical, sociological, etc. — The meaning of culture, and the relation of every part of housework to a larger and deeper back- ground of understanding than is generally allowed — The appal- ling waste through not appreciating this cultural value — Every detail should be considered in the light of broad knowledge — The necessity for the widest possible perspective — Woman the source and sustainer of life, yet knows little generally of natural science Page 189 8 CONTENTS SIXTH CHAPTER TRAINING FOR DOMESTIC ENGINEERING What is meant by Domestic Engineering — How does it resemble and how differ from other forms of engineering — The keynote and the kind of training required — Self-knowledge the foundation — Business training — Mechanics — Manual skill, etc. — The principal fault in Woman's education — Cultivated intuition the highest fem- inine achievement — A list of subjects that could be made practically useful Page 193 SEVENTH CHAPTER THE MEANING OF ROOMS Their expression through furnishings, coloring, texture and com- position — Their relation to each other, and to the family life — The rooms as the mind and feeling of the house — The family the soul, and the house itself the outer form, or body — Fashion in furnish- ing — The logical way to furnish a house and the right use of a room Page 198 EIGHTH CHAPTER DOMESTIC INDEPENDENCE AND HOSPITALITY Real hospitality — The Home and the Guest — What is meant by Domestic Independence — How it becomes the keynote in home- making — No one thing will make for greater progress in the home than this feeling of being equal to the situation — The Efficiency System in relation to visitors, guests, and entertaining — How to help people to look after themselves — The joy in producing one's own keep — The value of a Bulletin Board in the home — The in- dependent going and coming — The model guest Page 204 NINTH CHAPTER AN "efficiency" DINNER Description of one of the efficiency dinners given at the Station — from the preparation of each article of food to the final bidding of the guests "good night." (This is an example that anyone can follow and improve upon.) Page 210 TENTH CHAPTER CHILDREN AND THE EFFICIENCY SYSTEM The welfare of children under this system — How they take to the idea without question, and become the best kind of students — 9 CONTENTS The nurse an abomination except in sickness and bodily helpless- ness — From the age of three, children should have instructors to make them self-reliant, not nurses to make for helplessness — The Efficiency Method and the Professional Playmate — The Day Nurs- ery as an efficiency institution Page 215 ELEVENTH CHAPTER THE BODY IN MOTION The quality of bodily motion — A three-fold motive in every mo- tion: (1) Accomplishment. (2) Exhilaration. (3) Beauty — How each can be best developed — The possibilities for bodily culture in the ordinary household movements — An efficient body, a strong body, a beautiful body, the result of housework Page 219 TWELFTH CHAPTER THE BODY AND ITS GARMENTS How the present standards in dress have been the result of the evolution and consciousness of the body — True standards in fash- ion — How one may dress "A la mode" and yet with another mo- tive in mind — The influence of dress standards upon children — The economics of dress — Individuality — Beauty paramount, etc Page 224 THIRTEENTH CHAPTER THE TRAINING AND BEAUTY OF THE HAND Individuality and the hand — Its personal expression — The misuse of the hand — The proper use — Its quality, texture, and shape a matter of cultivation — The importance of proper movements — The best manner of using the hand in housework — Its care, color, and smoothness — The way to treat it — The cultivated hand a great asset — Housework as a hand beautifier Page 229 FOURTEENTH CHAPTER THE FIVE SENSES The co-ordination and co-operation of the senses in housework — The environment important as it affects the senses — The senses the real basis of spirituality — The higher cultivation of taste and smell — The value of touch — The sense of sight as an educator — Why noises should be avoided Page 2S5 10 CONTENTS FIFTEENTH CHAPTER THE NEED OF BEAUTY IN EVERYDAY LIFE Love of beauty a fundamental instinct — Should be given every chance for expression — Every intelligent effort should be made to push this instinct into its best use — Nothing can reach its maxi- mum usefulness until it includes the element of beauty — The stand- ards of beauty suggested in the Experiment Station — Color, tone, form, proportion, composition and expression — The home the cen- ter of the nation's aesthetic progress — The spirit and love of beauty as practical essentials in home life Page 240 PART III THE PROGRESSIVE HOME FIRST CHAPTER THE HOME AND POLITICS Nothing in the home that is not affected by politics and the gov- ernment, from the building, its inspection, and the standard of the material used, to the last article of furniture purchased — From the gas, electricity, and water, to the box of matches and the bottle of milk — Home-making no longer a private undertaking, but a pub- lic function, affected by municipal and state conditions — The school, the library, the market, and the roads — The larger housekeeping means efficient government, and the best possible talent for public office — Food, clothing, and shelter are now political interests ; man's duty to provide these — woman's to guarantee their quality — The tools and weapons for their protection the obligation of man — The preparation for, and education in their use, the function of woman — Better homes will produce better citizens and better government — Better politics will make for better homes Page 247 SECOND CHAPTER THE HOME AND SOCIETY The relation between homes — How the standard of each affects the other — All have same fundamental character and same prob- lems — The growing home the social unit — The real use of society — Fashion: its use and abuse — Society in the small and large circle, and the place the home should always hold — The social obliga- 11 CONTENTS tion in every act — The highest social standards — An efficient soci- ety — Our relation to each other the most important thing in life Page 251 THIRD CHAPTER EDUCATION AND THE HOME The school and the home — The heart or home sense in public institutions — The social cell organization a tool — The home — the only orderly educational foundation and means of growth for any nation — The intimate understanding of each other in work and play — Man and woman in the home — To serve the State a duty as well as a progressive necessity — Men only half the organism — The State needs the completed whole^ as does the home — America must be a progressive ideal example for the world — No more virtuous than Germany, France, or England except as we make ourselves so — Freedom the goal only as freedom is given to others — Intensive human cultivation should be the effort — Civilization should be made the great concern of every individual citizen — Beginning in the home Page 257 FOURTH CHAPTER MUNICIPAL HOUSEKEEPING City housekeeping the result of the standard of the imit house- keeper — The individual home insufficient unless active in municipal housekeeping — The larger businesslike methods are needed for the operation of the modern progressive home — City standards the result of what the people want — Hospitals, reform schools, jails, and charities reduced to a minimum in the efficient city — All these a form of waste — The meaning of streets, sewers, bad housing and sanitation — The public market, recreation and education — Home and city co-operation — The object in a City Beautiful Page 265 FIFTH CHAPTER THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CONSUMER The increasing importance of the home-maker as Consumer — She spends 90% of all that is spent for food, shelter, and clothing — The necessity of acting together as consumers — Organization of a Board of Buyers to co-operate with the local Board of Trade — The Housewives' League — The consumer, distributor and producer must come together in reducing the cost of living — The psychology of buying — The women to blame — Too slow in organization — 12 CONTENTS Ignorance in food standards — Waste in the manufacture of textiles — Comparative strength and wearing quality — The rented home — The standards of shops Page 269 SIXTH CHAPTER HEAT, LIGHT, AIR, WATER Sunlight and the efficient life — Artificial light in relation to cost and eye-sight — The eye and its use — Beauty in illumination — Public Stations for heat supply — The Thermostat — The most efficient house systems of heating — Required moisture — The over-heated house — Unpolluted air — The smoke and dust nuisance — Their cost and dan- ger to health — Air and the perfect man — Public water supply — Its effect upon the home operations — The value of baths, public and private Page 274! SEVENTH CHAPTER EXTERMINATION OF THE FLY AND MOSQUITO (Used as a basis of Sanitation) Extermination of the fly and mosquito a hygienic necessity — Lessons from Panama — The habits of mosquitoes — Their local breed- ing places — The Board of Health and the public demand — No neces- sity for mosquitoes anywhere — Their effect upon children and animals, and upon outdoor life generally — These things a home menace with no excuse for being except ignorance — Cost of elimina- tion slight — Co-operation and education essential Page 279 EIGHTH CHAPTER A HOME MUNICIPAL LABORATORY There should be a testing place for foods, and household equip- ment, that the honest efficient business man may be encouraged to higher standards, and the dishonest fake not allowed to be a public menace — Education should not stop at the High School — There should be a consultation place for grown-ups in how to spend, and how to live, for health and bank protection — Something like the Experiment Station on a larger scale should be a part of every municipality, with as little red tape as possible and as much reliable information — Women should control such a laboratory. . .Page 283 13 CONTENTS NINTH CHAPTER MORAL STANDARDS Public and private moral standards — An accepted policy at the Station — The efficiency method the result of practical working morality — Housework and its moral — The morality of hospitality and sociability — Children and the new moral policy — Moral educa- tion and moral practice — The Square Deal of Efficiency. .Page 287 TENTH CHAPTER LOVE AND HOME Love and Common Sense — Love and Personality — The power to love found in everyone — Systematic training of love nature — The development of personal interest — Love the greatest motive power in the world — Universal passion for expression of self — The State and Efficiency in vocation — The discipline of the unpleasant — In- sight and understanding — Love and the home — Housework and per- sonal temperament — Love for a great Cause — Love Moods — The Maternal, or feminine emotion in public life Page 293 ELEVENTH CHAPTER HOUSEWORK AND DEMOCRACY The home the miniature world — The new democracy — The value of work — The lower task — The higher tasks — The middle tasks — The Scientific task — The relation of home-makers — Of house- keepers — Of house workers — Productivity — The efficient and pro- gressive democracy — Housework and the new progressive ideal- ism Page 298 14 FOREWORDS Philadelphia. About one hundred years ago began the movement which transferred machinery from the home to the factory. Up to that time practically all spinning, weaving, garment making and a large part of all the world's manufacturing was done in the workman's home ; and the wife and daughters (when they were not engaged in the drudgery of housework) spent the greater part of their time at the spinning wheel, the loom, or in needlework. The transfer of machinery from the home to the factory marked an epoch in the progress of women. It shortened the hours of labor and gave them at least a small opportunity for reading, study and social enjoyment. Little did they dream, however, that a similar blessing was to be conferred upon their great-granddaughters through the return of machinery to the household. The work of Mrs. Pattison marks the beginning of this era in women's progress. The hours of labor are again to be shortened; and, strangely enough, her advancement this time will be due to the newer and higher application of the primi- tive tool. Now, however, it comes as her servant, while in the old days it was her master. Already the efficiency movement has begun to lighten the burden of a considerable portion of our activities. Mrs. Pattison's work, however, extends this movement to by far the largest field which has yet been touched. In her book she has shown us that through the introduction of labor-saving machinery into the home it is possible to dimin- ish household work by one-half, and conserve one's self in the effort. And when we realize that in 90 per cent, of the families of this country the mother and daughters are doing all of their work without the aid of a servant, we begin to appreciate what a blessing Mrs. Pattison is conferring upon women through 15 FOREWORDS presenting the results of her investigations and her experi- ments. Bringing these experiments to a successful issue has called for unusual qualities. Patience, perseverance and mechanical judgment of a high order are required to install and try out all sorts of apparatus in a house ; and to finally select the best appliance for each purpose. Only by using and discarding machine after machine is it possible to find the one best suited to perform each function; and this selection involves a large expenditure of money. Plenty of people could be found who would be willing to spend their money freelj' in this cause. Few women, however, with ample means to employ servants would, for the sake of their poorer sisters and society, choose to do all of their own housework through a term of years and spend in experiments money which might have been used in increasing their personal comfort. We are accustomed to associate the use of machinery with the matter-of-fact side of life. As eminent an authority as Ruskin has taught us that its presence acts as a blight to all of our artistic instincts. It may, therefore, be a question in the minds of many whether its daily use might not tend to diminish the interest of the wife in the aesthetic side of her surroundings ; cause her to neglect her personal appearance and to care less for the deli- cate and dainty things of life — the distinctly feminine things that give a home its greatest attraction. If this were true then the introduction of machinery in the household might indeed prove to be a doubtful blessing. Mrs. Pattison is a living proof that this fact would seem to be ungrounded. She is a woman with artistic instincts and fine discrimination, and in spite of doing all of her own house- work, — experimenting with the whole field of domestic machinery and writing her book, she has found time to select the very choicest from among the various homely styles that have been imposed upon us during the past few years ; and through her good taste and originality has brought about her the 16 FOREWORDS best of refinement, and has always been well and artistically dressed. Mrs. Pattison is publishing, so far as I know, the first work in the field of household or domestic engineering; and if this be true, in a smaller way perhaps she is doing a pioneer work similar to that of Leonardo da Vinci in his "II Codice Atlan- tico," Newton in his "Principia," and Darwin in his "Origin of Species." This association of Mrs. Pattison's name with the greatest of the past may cause some of the readers of this book to smile; but I am not sure that this new branch of engineering is not destined to do almost as much for mankind as the work of either of these great men has accomplished. It is no small achievement to be a pioneer in a movement to lighten the burdens of many millions of people. 17 FOREWORDS Teachers College, Columbia University. The whole modern period in which we live may be summed up in the relations of the home and the machine. The industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries meant the transfer of industrial processes from the home to the factory so far as the production of goods for an outside market was concerned. Some production for immediate consumption within the family did not, however, yield itself to machine methods but remained within the home. Progress for the home to-day as far as housework is concerned is to be accomplished either by transferring housework outside the home to the machine, or by bringing the machine to the work left within the house. As a matter of fact progress will be ultimately secured along both lines. All that part of housework which can be transferred outside the house without destroying the home as a center of the per- sonal life of the family group — and that we are seeing con- cerns the adults as much as the children — is bound in time to be organized in large industrial units. The laundry, for example, may better be done in a sanitary factory, with specialized work- ers, to be employed for an eight-hour day soon, let us hope. There is an irreducible minimum, however, of work which must stay within the home — the care of the house itself and its fur- nishings, the immediate preparation of food and the family table, the care of the child, — these things in the nature of the case cannot go outside the home, and the last word in prog- ress is to bring the machine in. There is a wider field of work which as a practical matter will remain within the home, espe- cially within the detached house at least, — the laundering of tex- tiles in part probably, the care of clothing, the domestic food processes as we know them — all these seem likely to remain within the house for some time to come, partly for personal and historical reasons, but even more for economic reasons which make it imperative that the housewife add to family income by productive work at home just as the husband's labor produces 18 FOREWORDS money income outside. The wife is needed at home for its per- sonal control ; she must add to family income ; she can do it only by retaining certain household arts within the home, al- though gradually other methods of income-producing may open to the married woman. For the present, however, for many household activities progress must come through the adoption of machinery within the home. What the farther future has for the home, one may not know. But the growing emphasis upon its personal values may lead one to prophesy the ultimate transfer to factories of all house- work save that concerned with the care of persons and personal property, with the service of the family table furnished increas- ingly from outside kitchens, and with the care and direction of child life and the family group. Now the person who will experiment with the problem of adapting machinery to the economical performance of work within the house is solving one-half our puzzling domestic situ- ation. And the person who develops methods of handling the work of the house transferred to outside industry is solving the other half. In either case it is to domestic engineering, whether small or large, that we must look, and to the anticipated schools of household technology. A degree course leading toward the profession of "domestic engineer" was proposed, indeed, some years ago by one of our schools of technology. It is just that which our colleges must give us, not a course with some specialization in household science, but schools for the household technician, and engineer, a professional worker who will specialize in the field of household engineering with the same thoroughness, the same intensity, the same singleness of aim as mark the preparation of the marine engineer, the elec- trical engineer, the chemical engineer, or any of the other spe- cialized engineering professions which have developed for men in the last two generations. It is just at this point that one may find fault with the higher education of women, even in its present specialized form of home economics. It has given us 150 colleges with departments of domestic science, household arts and home economics — all of which are well and good. But no one institution has yet gone to the full limit of the possi- 19 FOREWORDS billties and given us a university school of household engineer- ing for women and for men too. It is this that the next ten years must furnish if the problems of the household are to be intelligently solved. It is because this book points in that direc- tion and emphasizes what seems to me one great need in edu- cation for the home that I welcome it so heartily. It is note- worthy too as a significant piece of evidence arising from the women's clubs, an organization whose wise efforts for social betterment have not yet been fully appreciated by the public and whose possibilities have not yet been one-half realized by its own members. r^sa.A/w|< 20 FOREWORDS New York. The home is the place where the parents rear the young. The place of solitary residence may be a lair, or a roost. A man's club may often be a splendid roost, his office may be a splendid lair, but neither are homes ; hotels are roosts for man and wife, but they are not homes. It is woman's instinct to create a home. On the western prairies we could tell as far as we could see whether we were approaching the solitary and degenerate roost of the bachelor, or the incipient home, however elementary and humble, created by the maid, widow, or married woman. A destructive hostile struggle, whether on playground, on the battle-field, in love or in business, the tearing down of the old that the new might grow, only in turn to be uprooted, has always been man's instinct and delight, so the constructive up- building of the chaotic into order and organization has always been woman's instinct. But above both man and woman there is one law that applies equally to all man's activities and all woman's activities, whether individual or collective, and that therefore applies particulai'ly to the upbuilding of the home. There are four supreme and universal rules : (1) Obtain from each unit, whether worker, material, equipment, or money, a reasonable maximum of re- sult. (2) Standardize the cost of maintenance and operation and then attain the standards. (3) Use only those units best fitted for the purpose. (4) Beware of increasing capital charges by discarding unfit units before they are worn out. And when it comes to collective work woman should be far more ready than man to recognize that even as the apple- blossom is still in all its delicacy and beauty, visible in the thin cross section of the ripe apple, so also all sound human organiza- 21 FOREWORDS tion is but the fruiting of the bud that we find in the organ- ization of the human body. Every great principle is plainly revealed. Omit one and any human organization is weakened, add any principle, not in the body, and we are overloading the runner in the race. The body reveals the principles: (1) Of permanent and oneness of will, divided into the conscious and the subconscious. (2) Of staff and line, the staff of maintenance and repair, the heart, the lungs, the digestive organs, the staff of counsel and warning, the five senses ; the mus- cular line, the hands and feet, the mouth, that execute. (3) The staff of maintenance works continuously long hours at low pressure, at least half the time rest- ing and needs assistance from the will, but few directions. The workers in this staff should de- velop great strength, not strenuousness. We should breathe deeply, the heart beat should be strong, the digestion powerful. (4) The staff of counsel never pays attention to the com- mon place, it reports instantly to the conscious will whatever is exceptional, the glaring light or the great darkness, the sudden noise or the oppressive stillness, the pleasant or the horrid taste or smell. (5) The line workers must be strenuous. Not continuous workers like the workers in the maintenance staff, not alert sentinels like the workers in the counsel- ing staff, but intensive workers when work is to be done. (6) Finally in the human organization as in the human body, every worker is peculiarly and exclusively fitted for its own duties. The hands with their own brain matter in the finger tips may be com- petent in a hundred directions, but they never con- FOREWORDS sider themselves qualified to take the place of feet and of mouth, of heart and of lungs, of eyes and of ears. Using the fundamental of organization, applying under a few easily grasped headings all the experiences of the past and present — ■ Inherited and progressive morality, Inherited and progressive knowledge. Inherited and progressive accumulation of wealth. Using the four business rules as to the control of each unit, each reader will be prepared to apply the wealth of knowl- edge, suggestions, and instructions contained in this modern sci- entific work in the home. The one great gift each has is the number of hours between birth and death. What shall fill into those hours? One-third are obliterated in sleep, another third in work, is the remaining third frittered away? Or by the counsel which this book gives shall twice the effective results be obtained from the eight hours of work, shall incalculably more be obtained from the eight hours now wasted by the ten thousand, only utilized by the ten who lead the world; eight hours even if taken in fractions of a minute as the lungs take their rest? \j^{rZZ^^i^^t^^n,^ L