Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-06-16

ing dishes, the trade of waehing and
 ironing clothes, of killing and dressing
 meat of churning butter, of baking
 bread. of grinding meal, of raising
 chickens, of cutting, wood, of preserv-
 Ing fruit, of heating house, of deco
 rating rooms, of training children and
 of writing books--and all these crowd
 ed Into one establishment, in close
 proximity and all jarring and clashing with each other and all carried on in
 the most primitive and barbarous fash
 ion upon smal! scale and by unskill-
 ed hand labor. It takes hundred
 cooks to prepare a hundred meals bad
 ly, while twenty cooks could prepare
 one meal for hundred families and do
 1t perfectly. It costs $10O.0OO to build
 and equip hundred kitchens: 1t would
 cost only $5,000 to build one kitchen.
 It takes hundred churns and hun dred aching backs to make thousand 1 pounds of butter; 1t would take only one machine and man to tend 1t to make the same thousand pounds, and the cost of making 1t would be cut 95 per cent. But, of course, you cannot have large buttermaking except 1t is done for profit. and that means adul- iteration and poisoning. It takes hun dred ignorant nursemaids to take care of the children of hundred families and develop every kind of ugliness and badness in them. It would take only twenty or thirty trained nurses and kindergarten teachers to take care of them comparatively and bring them up according to the teachings of sci ence
 One could show this same thing in thousand different forms If 1t were necessary, but it has all been reasoned out in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's book, "The Home," and any one to whom the idea is new may read it there. The purpose of this paper is not to persuade any one, but to move to action those already persuaded. To such offer my cooperation.
 Near to New York.
 The following embodies my own con ception of what such a ''home colony" should be. It would be located within an hour of New York and would have 100 families and 300 or 400 acres of land, healthfully located, near some body of water and as unspoiled by the hand of man as possible. It should have an abundant water supply and Altering plant, an electric light and power plant and large garden and farm, raising its own stock, meat, poul- try, fruit and vegetables and canning the last for winter use It should be administered by board of directors democratically elected. For the man. agement of its various departments salaried experts should be employed, machinery should be installed wher- ever 1t could be made to pay, and the best modern methods should be ap- piled in every industry. All its pur- chases should be in bulk and tested for quality, and so far as the preparation and serving of food is concerned the processes should be kept as aseptic as surgical operation.
 4AC Ouii0lh8S VI tulS nOuC COiOuy should be of frame at the outset, of simple and expressive design, each structure exactly adapted to its spe- cif1c purpose. The buildings should be conveniently grouped-those for the children in one place, those for cook ing and eating in another, those for reading, for music and social inter- course, for recreation and exercise in still other places. The greater part of the land would of course be given up to farm and woodland and to the in- dividual dwellings of the families. The ground available for this latter purpose should be divided into lots, priced ac- cording to size and location and leased to stockholders for long terms. Each would erect his own home, according to his own taste-a home of course of kind hitherto unknown, with no pro- vision for the cooking of food or the training of children or other trades and professions. It would be a place where the family met, to rest and play and sleep. It might be large or small, anything that the owner chose to make it. My own would be q four or five room cottage of rustic design, and 1t 1 would cost from S600 to $500. Besides these there should be apartment build l ings owned by the colony and dormi- tories with rooms for single men and women.
 As to the public buildings, there should be large and beautiful dining l hall and a modern, scientifically con kitchen. There should be sep arate tables for each family or for con genial groups of people. The service should be unexceptionable. the food | simple. but perfect in quality and There should be a vege- tartan service for those who prefer this | cheaper mode of life, and the charge for board should be based upon the | cost of the service. I will probably be laughed at. but I believe that, grant l ing the land, horses and machinery. buildings, equipment and capital. the of such a colony as describe could be provided with perfect service and an abundance of food of the best quality at total cost of s100 a year per person.
 A Childreu's Heaven.
 So much for the cooperative prepara- ton of food. And now for the caring for children. There should be two sep arate establishments. one for infants. who ike to sleep. and one for children. who like to run and shout. Both should