Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1904-12-09
SEPARATE HOMES
FOR The CHILDREN
Charlotte Perkins GilmanWoutd
Have Them Brought Up
Scientifically.
WORK FOR THE MOTHERS
They Ought to Be Free to Contribute
to Worlds Wealth-No Cooking
Would Be Allowed in a Really
Civilized Household.

~AAANS0S
not be cared for in the home. A pri-
vate house for adults does not offer a
good place for them. They can be cared
for better outside of the home. Sepa-
rate houses should be built for them
where, under the care of high salaried
experts, they can be fed scientifically
and scientifically kept quiet"
This is what Mrs. Charlotte Perkins
Gilman of New York told the members
of the Chicago Woman's Aid yesterday.
Then the speaker, quick TO see the
looks of wonder that came into the
faces OF her hearers and as quick to
hear 500 mothers whispered protests,
denied that she would tear the babe
from its mothers arms"
mot that" she said, for I would not
object to the mother holding her in
FAINT in her arms for six hours of the
day, but for the other six of daylight
/ would insist that the baby be kept
under a separate roof. And In this sep
arate house the infant should be fed.
And this was not all that Mrs. Gill
man told the Chicago club women She
declared that the woman who spends
/ precious hours preparing her husbands
meals has not risen above the savage
state. She urged that the home kitch-
EN-, the home laundry, and the home
nursery are out Of harmony with civil
lization.
You think home is the right place
for the child" she said, because we
have always thought so. That's what
every animal does-cares for its young
and feeds its young in the home. Can
we do nothing better? Because each
animal mother gives her life to her
offspring is it right that we should? p
We are doing just what the lower ami
mails are doing, just what the lions
mate does. The savag mother is the
same as YOU. What has made the
difference in the children? Civilization
and education have made the change,
not mothers care. The school has
lifted the children up, and who built
the school? Man. Man has made our
civilization while woman has Jagged
centuries behind. Every step in hui
man progress is made outside Of the
home
The club women who thronged the
vestry rooms of Sinai temple to listen
to the New Yorker who last summer
stunned Berlin were prepared to hear
present day customs raked over hot
Goals. But the raking was more Wig
orous and the Goals were hotter han
they expected.
For two hours, while Mrs. Gilman
was speaking, they gasped in surprise;
for half an hour they tried to wither
the speaker by a fire of questions; for
two hours more they sat round in
group and wondered, over their tea
cups. If they really were as uncivilized
as they had been pictured.
"A great fuss is made about the
servant girl problem said Mrs. Gill
man, but are you aware that only one
woman In sixteen in this country EN-
ploys a servant? The others do their
own cooking: they care for their own
children, just as animals do. They
spend six hours a day on food. Strive
as they will to get away from the
name the man OF today has to admit
that his mother was a cook"
Mrs. Gilman then described the home
which would be in harmony with pres
ent day civilization.
There would be a separate house for
every separate family" she said, land
each house would have it's own grass.
There would be windows all around
the house. There would be enough
room in it for each member of the fam
lily to have a separate room. There
would be a big room in which the fam
lily could meet. But rooms such as
kitchens nav no place in the home.
The making of food has no more place
in the home than the manufacture of
boots.
.In your home you have a bakery
shop, a restaurant, a meat shop, a
dressmaker's establishment, a carpet
stretching and cleaning shop, a metal
polishing shop, and you expect a civil
lized person tn live in the middle of 1t.
Ne feed should b. cooked inside lie |
four walls of the home. II you must
eat your meals inside the house, then
buy cooked food and do not nave that
sloppy, greasy, dirty, smelling business
going on In your home"
Declaring that 1t would be cheaper to
live in such an establishment thu to
live IN any other way, and retail prices
would not nave to be paid, Mrs. Gill
man declared that the food brought
into the home should be cooked sci
entiically by college prepared profess
sors OF cookery, n not by Ignorant,
unclean servants"
This would get the women away
from the home and would double the
wealth of the world" she said. Every
adult woman, unless she is an invalid
or al idiot, should spend six hours q
day at work in the world outside her
home. The children can be taken care
of better outside of it. The two small
boys who tried to cut off their sisters
head with an ak said they did 1T be-
cause they had seen their mother cut
or the head of a chicken. This was a
result OF having a meat shop In the
home This was the result OF keeping
the children In the home.
The domestic hearth that we hear
so much about has been a painful
hearth for thousands of children, who
have fallen into the fire and got burned.
Children get he wrong food in the
family larder. There should be no food
kept In the house, and children should
be cared for outside OF the home.o
What would you do with the chill
dren?' demanded a voice.
For the first time ON EARTH an
swered Mrs. Gilman. Il would build a
separate house for children. Most wom-
en- owe only their own children. That
is not human; it is only animal. I
would make a place for all children.
Even the baby should not be cared for
at home. They need the most beauti-
full. healthful, n scientifically kept
place tn4live in.
Even In a community so small that
II numbers only twenty families, I
would have a separate house for the
babies. In a. village large enough to
boast Of d blacksmith shop and q post
office there should be a laundry, a
cooking shop, and a place for babies.
During the time that / would have
every adult woman working. / would
have these babies cared for in this
house Of theirs. Children should have
some human creature to take care or
them, and not merely some one whom
they call mother"