The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-07-21
WOMANQUESTIONDUE
TO.MANPS INGENUITY
Mrs Ellen H. Richards Discusses the Economic Value OF
Efficiency in Interest of Real Home Life
Bv MARY AsHE MILLER

one than I can make. You don't have
time to learn how to make them prop
erly.
~And so it is in most things. We
can not learn to do a thousand things
as well as we and other people want
them done. We can not be so univer-
sally efficient"
asked Mrs. Richards about the re-
marks she was quoted as having made
last week in regard to uniform dress
: for women.
4oh. that" she said. with asIittIs
twinkle in her eye. Il didn't mean that
in exactly the way 1t was reported.
Everything takes such a lot OF time
today and so much money. so we are
gradually standardizing things in order
TO save ourselves time and In the
end save expense.
For instance. in the matter OF shoes.
we used to have to have them made
especially. II they were to ut US. but IN
the course OF time the manufacturer
learned that they must make them OF
sdifrerent sizes and widths and adapted
to different feet have had shoes
made which cost me s12, and 7 can
get them about as good now for $3.50.
We can buy our sheets ready made
now, and are not ashamed to do it,
either-they have learned TO make
good standard sheets.
Clothes are better made. I bought
readymade shirtwaists this year that
fit me, but 1t is the first time I have
ever been able to do so. Think what a
saving OF time. too, not to have your
shirtwaists made and htted-just to go
In and get them
Things made by the millions cost
less-and that is the saving OF money.
For what one paid formerly simply
10 have dress made, you can get ono
all ready made up now.
The trouble comes that the manu-
facturers want US 10 wear our dresses
three months or perhaps six. and then
they change the fashions. Things are
made too easy for US and the manu-
facturer gets the best or US in that
way. When the fashion changes we
cannot get any more cloth TO change
a sleeve or fix skirt, and we must
simply throw il away because it is
out of date. We thus lose all that We
saved in the first instance.
That was what 1 meant the other
day when / spoke OF the standardizing
of women's clothes.
"It is principally in regard to street
clothes for US women who are ia
business that spoke OF. You can
have as many pretty party dresses as
you like and as different, too. But
without realizing II women are com
ing to my ideas-there is more nearly
standard of coat and skirt established
than ever before"
Mrs. Richards says she is to lecture
next week on the cost OF food in rela-
ton to efficiency. and she thinks a
good many people are going to dis
agree with her.
People think that the more deli
eious food you eat. the better your
brain. but do not agree with them
she continued.
You should have the right kind OF
food. but not judged by a money
standard. Do. not have crude, coarse
food. but do not let IL be too compli-
Gated. Most Of the failures in life are
due to malnutrition, a great number
of them. 1 do not mean insufficient
food, but the wrong combinations"
Mrs. Richards. after telling NE all
of this and much more. said that il
was not her real life work at ALL it
Is simply a mental relaxation taken
up in her spare moments to exercise
the other side OF her mind
1 gasped little, I think, when she
told me that her real work is sanitary
chemistry in the Massachusetts tnsti-
tute Of technology. where she has
taught most OF the important sanitary
engineers OF the country.
She is 50 little and feminine, too, that
il simply nils you with joy TO hear it.
it seems such vindicatiOn OF cOndi-
tions as they are. She is member OF
the first class that ever went through
Vassar, and will go back next year 10
celebrate the fortieth anniversary %
her graduation.
After she finished there she was to
have gone to Argentine to teach, but
yellow fever broke out there.
She had made astronomy rather a
speciality. and Maria Mitchell with
whom she was a great favorite. tried TO
induce DIR. A. B. Gould to take the
young student out with him when he
went to establish the great Observatory
at Cordova. in Argentina
Mrs Richards says the world how
ever. was not quite ready for woman
Z TO do that, so she was refused
She then determined to study chem
1stry, but had great difficulty finding
any place where they would teach
women. One large manufacturing firm
in Philadelphia wrote that Il had never
heard OF a woman studying chemistry,
done.
Finally she was admitted to the Mas
sachusetts Institute. and after two
years study there was employed by the
recently organized Massachusetts state
board Of health when il began it's
investi gations of the water question
she made the first sanitary water an
alysis ever made in this country, and
since then has devoted herself to teach
ing sanitary chemistry, dealing princi-
pally with water and air
Her husband. Robert R. Richards. Oc-
eupies the chair Of mining engineering
IN the institute and last year cele-
DRAFTED his 40 years of work in that ca
pacity.. He was a member OF the first
class ever graduated from the insti-
tute and has been there ever since
Mrs. Richards is one of the women
whose departure we will regret and
IL IS hoped that she will fulhll the
ardent desire expressed by one young
student who said in the course Of an