The Portland daily press., 1884-01-22
Our Boston Letter.
Cooperative Housekeeping How Not to
DeIt and Kew TO no 1t The Daily Xiv
ing Problem in Bostoa.

over in Boston are likely to be brought to the
surface again by the little book called "Co-
operative Housekeeping; How to Do It, and
How Not to Do It." by Mrs. Pierce. Mrs,
Pierce, number of years ago, read a paper
upon coop iative housekeeping before the
woman's CLUB. 1t made very decidedly peas-
ant aud practical impression, aud sometime
after cooperative association was started in
Cambridge and came to grief. This put a
damper upon the enthusiasm of the Cam
bridge ladies for cooperation, and for Mrs.
Peiree's views and beliefs. In the book which
Mrs. PIERCE has written upon the the subject,
she trings forward again all her old argument,
reinforced by new arguments and state
meuts, and the showing OF what can
be done By what has been done, and tells us
the reason why the Cambridge ladies came to
grief in short, sharp, pithy chapter headed
HOW NOT TO DoIr.
The Cambridge Cooperative Honsekeen;no
Association oil lS70-7l, which numbers about
forty Shareholders, failed principallv becanse
the honsekeepers who organized it did not
strongly and clearly perceive the fundamental
fact which attempted to make plain in the
beginning of the second chapter. namely that
primarily all modern housekeepers are Burners.
From the moment they enter the four bare
walls OF house TO make and keen there
home, until they close their eyes in their last
long sleep, they must buy and buy as the basis
OF whatever they try to do Co.operotipe b,I,,-
ing, therefore, must logically be the beginning
the basis-the indispensable fouudation-of
cooperative housekeeping, and the Cambridge
ASSOCIATION should first have opened STORE
ana learned how to BUY, and then when the
store was on o thoroughly sound financial bs.
SIS, the Association could have gone on to de-
velop from the buying department of house.
keeplng, one manufacturing department of
housekeeping after another. until il hecansa
able to supply any family within its member
snip circle with any ordinary article OF domes-
tic consumption it might need
But instead OF this, these experienced nay.
ieators en- unknown business seas thought they
Wouid DO Just as women do when thew 60 to
Observation-Disclosures all their three tradesn al
cncel they took house and fitted M in it a
BAKERY, kitchen, laundry and store. and
tnougn, with instructive common sense, they
panneo 10 put these various departments
into the bands of separate committees-by the
over-ruiing advice of their husbands who met
ano amended the constitution they had drawn
Wy. Vuoy Maoe tneIr second grand mistake
snu gave tne Whoie In charge of a board OF
seven directors, of which one. the treaanrar
Was to be paid officer and the manager of thes
whole concern! "a 'no
Inc directors meant to have opened the de-
partments almost simultaneously, but for con-
yenience, and because the shareholdera caraa
more for it than for any other. thew hogan viii
sne laundry. 1t was supposed that it would be
the easiest to manage-in fact that it would
almost run itself. Scarcely one of the share
noiqers thought much about the store, which,
IS nave Juss shown, should have been.the
foundation of the whole undertaking. They
did not believe in, or very much care for. the
ten 10 nfteen per cent of profit or saving that
she system, II faithfully carried out, offered
snem' lney were all people of means and po-
sition, and they only looked upon cooperative
housekeeping. even if successful, as a conve,,-
!ence. Its economical side did not attract them
In the least. Still less did they look upon it as
DUTY 10 DO all they could 10 make the at
tempt succeed. Most of them subscrned the
money as to charity, and there, for them. the
matter ended. ---0'
No sooner, however, had the Association got
TO WORK than the directors found that they had
in dire earnest three separate businesses On
their hands at once. They were ali house-
mistresses themselves, and had theit three
trades at home to carry on for their families
at the same time. one of which, as we all know
oemanas tnat most of its processes be freshly
repeated three times day. Thus these I'M
fortunate ladies could not spend enough time
al tne cooperative rooms-or thought they
could not-to smooth out the housekeeping
tangle they had got themselves into.
Ihe opening of the laundry had been fol.
lowed IN quick succession by that of 1.-THE bak-
cry and the store. But the former was proving
snch an unexpected problem that the treasurer.
who alone of the Association gave her time to
iss interests, was entirely absorbed in making
Doth ends meet every week in that single de-
partment. The bakery was closed alnos, a.
soon as 1t was opened for the lack of some one
to perform like Office for it also. and the stnre
was oonnded to paid lady clerk who was hon
Vst aud fatuhfufI DuJ also as iguortnt of hoq;
ness as the directors or shareholders tbau
selves vi the latter IL soon appeared that
only about twelve oat OF the whole forty. had
any Intention OF giving the Association any
custom whatever. The treasurer was by tho
constitution paid officer. but the patronage
was SO small that there never was any surpIas
toward her salary Her services were entirely
gratnltous, and tia only result of her heine
thecte.lcslly paid was that the other directors
assisted her much lees, and felt far less re-
sponsibility than they otherwise would hava
done After the first few weeks they became
Terribly discouraged and mortified, aud rarely
Hent near the Cooperative rooms business
meetings. being called by the treasurer ia vain,
mus there was no practical cooperation
Whatever on the part either of the subscribing
housekeepere to sustain their association nv
Their patronage, or of the executive ones to
carry u on py their labor. AS some one With
ly remarked IF the hougekeepers Of Cam
Dridge Will not cooperate, how can Cambridge
cooperative Housekeeping succeed?' The
treasurer spent her entire time in the laundry
Tor cali year, excepting the two afternoons
: "eek III wnlch she did the buying for the lit
ne store. AT the end of that time she vas
Obliged 10 leave Cambridge for some months
Before going, she told the directors that II
they would each spend one day In the week to
oversees the iaundry-womeD, the laundry would
commune an 70 pay expenses, but MOI otherwise,
IS fhe business was too small to support paid
superintendent As the work OF the laundr,
had been highly satisfactory to the swelya or
fourteen shareholders who had patronized il.
Dotn as 70 Price and quality, the directors were
unwilling to close the department But thev
could not believe their treasurer. They thonoht
tnat some working-class woman who had tn
support herself, instead of lady supported hy
her husband, as was the treasurer. would make
more GUY OF the laundry from mere self-inter-
est than t latter had done, and after her de-.
parture they tried one paid superintendent nj.
ter anotner, only to lose money BY all of them.
just as the first year of the experiment was
up, April, IBID, the treasurer returned She
had been in England, and had had some On.
portnnity TO investigate cooperation in iis ma
i've nome. She was full of hope and COURAGE
and urged the Association in the light of bar
new Information and of their own paet mis-
taxes, to re-organize and begin all over again
ON the true basis of the cooperative store Rnt
they were too thoroughly disheartsned and de-
Jecied TO wish to have anything more to do
with "Co-opera.ive Housekeeping.'' They
voted to disband, gave up the house, sold Of
ehe n4tures and remaining groceries, divided
Inc proceeds among themselves in proportion
to their subscriptions--and there the nyohIem,
remains until this day --
Later on Mrs. Peirce says with Justice: "Bnt
let us not too loftily despise the Cambridge
failure. Rarely indeed is 1t given to mortals
to do rightly any untried thing the first time"
She tells how cooperative stores were tried for
twenty years BY artisans in England, only to
fail, until in 1912 the Rochdale artisans proftel
by these failures and made success. "Inyen
TORS she says very truly, "almost never 20 to
work at first in the right way to achieve their
desired results, nor did our Cambridge house.
Keepers" She argues from this that their ex-
perience is invaluable, and that some one
"tbe brilliant Housekeeper Of the future" she
designates this some one-can from this fail
ure, and the guide-posts that mark the way of
"How not to do it," go on to a brilliant sue
cess.
HOW TO DO IT.
Ars. Peirce tells us how the thing is to be-
done as follows:
Let q preliminary committee of not fewer
tnan thirteen intelligent and resolute women |
or young ladies-it matters not which, but the |
latter for reasons to be hereafter stated, would |
De preferable-first pledge themselves to stand |
Dy each other and their cause through eyerv- |
thing, and then issue capital stock of not less
than two hundred and fifty shares at $1,000 |
share, in what had better be called simply a |
" housekeeping Assoc iation"-each member to |
n mn Lace fhAwn