The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-02-24
| In WOmdn'S Realm.
SHE CANNOT COOK.
And Therein Lies the Cause of Many
Matrimonial Disasters.

American girls the worst cooks l
know Of" said the Rev. DR.. Rainsford, of
New York, before the Consumers league in
Brooklyn, recently. Whose fault Is 1t?
don't know. The mothers? Not entirely, nor
the girls entirely. Partly the fault OF both
Every girl ought to be taught in school to
make her own clothes, to keep house. and
to cook. She ought to learn all these things
in school. Not one in a hundred girls is
able to do these things. If men insisted on
girls being able to cook and sew, marriages
would succeed more often.
These structures upon the American girl
have not been altogether ignored by prom
inent women.
The women could not 20 back to the old
order of things If they desired to-" said Mrs
Charles Henrotin, of the Illinois Consumers
league. "They cannot fight economic prin-
ciples. Woman does not understand her po-
stlon now and the men have given it no
thought. In the evolutions of the trades and
industries underlying the household, woman
has ceased to be a producer and has become
the consumer. Men do not understand it, and
to them the woman represents merely the
spender Of money. The woman herself looks
at the question in the same light, not realiz-
ing the changes which have been wrought.
For example, it would not pay a woman
to bake her own bread. She can buy it at
tHe DaheT 8 IOr less Inan II WOu.Q cost TO
bake 1t herself. What object is it to her
that she should know how to do what is no
longer necessary for her to do? 1t is be-
coming 80 in all things wanted for the house,
hold. 1t Is the time Of specialization. 1t is
cheaper and better to buy of the producers
who make a speciality Of particular articles
and commodities than for the housewife to
make them.
What Is necessary is for woman to I'M
derstand her new position. She Is the con-
sumner Of the household, the general who d.
reefs the expenditure of money for domestic
purposes. What she needs is the knowledge
of how to spend this money to the best pur-
pose, not the ability to do things no longer
necessary for her to do.
But this is not understood, and men who
see that their wives are spending the money
do not appreciate their position in the house,
hold economics. Formerly 1t wals the man
who was the consumer. In New England
towns you can even Tow hear good husband
characterized a good provlder.'
1T is misunderstanding Of the impor-
lance and dignity Of the woman's new role
in social economics that causes the reluc-
lance, in some measures, to enter early into
matrimony. The young girl Is probably a
wage-earner She has been making money
and she hesitates to assume position in
which she considers herself degraded to the
position of mere spender Of money. Women
should understand the tendency towards spe-
cializatiOn, and take advantage of It, There
should be, in Chicago. for instance, in each
section Of the city large establishments where
the housewife could purchase what she needs
for the household at less cost than that
at which she could produce 1t herself. With
correct understanding of the changes that
have affected domestic conditions there will
be earlier marriages"